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Best Design-Your-Own-Palette System

What's the Best Design-Your-Own-Palette System that you've tried?

I like ones where you actually get a discount for purchasing the products and/or discount plus the palette to put them in, so ones like Anastasia, Inglot, theBalm, etc. work well.

Thanks to Audrey for today’s topic!

— Christine

35 Comments

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Carrie Avatar

I’m still a fan of MUFE’s. I like the discounts and the $1 mini-palettes are great for travel. Their metal palettes are quiet durable and reasonably priced too plus they don’t need inserts or diy magnets to work!

CatG Avatar

I don’t really like any of them to be honest, unless buying Makeup Geek pans counts. I do like when there is a discount, but it never seems like enough of a discount. I will say I don’t like the UD create your own palettes, they are so bulky!

Veronica Avatar

I have only tried MAC’s. I have a custom 15-pan and a 4-pan palettes. I do love that every color in them are colors that I like and actually use, unlike pre-made palettes, where some colors go untouched.

Veronica Avatar

Oh, and I did have Stila palettes back in the day… I think I still have them somewhere. I do love that Stila’s palettes had mirrors in them, making them easy to use on travels or on the go.

NeoNails Avatar

I was (& still am) pleasantly surprised by Buxom’s new customizable palettes! I know there are some duds amongst the shades, but I thought the range was pretty fantastic to suit my needs & wallet.

Not to mention No Faux & Room Service are two of my favorite green eyeshadows.

Terita Avatar

I was going to say MUFE because the pans are quite large and there’s over 200 shades and finishes. However, my choice is Buxom because it’s better value and the quality is just as good (except for the matte shades).

KJH Avatar

Only tried Zs, good enough. Love the MUFE trios, due to the discount on shadows, primarily, but they are easy to rearrange, and fit into the bottom of the studio case. Don’t travel, so for me it’s an issue of getting the most product into the least space, and depotting. Zs are fine for that.

Nancy T Avatar

As of right now, all I’ve ever done is buy MAC Pro Pan eyeshadow singles and put them into the empty e.l.f. quads. However, I have quite the wishlist of MUFE Artist Shadows to make a few trios for myself, too. Definitely look forward to that, but I always get sidetracked and the plan winds up back on the proverbial backburner. Buxom also has at least 6 I like enough to do one of those!

Anne Avatar

MUFE — without doubt. The mattes are intense, blendable and are available in so many colors. The other formulas are also nice, but I live in the mattes for the most part. I wish they’d even expand their color range to include a true charcoal, off black and other cool-toned colors besides brown. But, for quality, I love my MUFE shadows. I’m done with palettes, most especially those that don’t include matte crease, transition and highlight shades. With all the glowing products for foundation, blush, cheek highlighters, finishing powders, etc., matte eyeshadows are a necessity for me.

Claire L Avatar

I haven’t tried any of them! I only really got into beauty last summer so I’ve only got palettes and single eyeshadows/blushers in their own cases.

Annija Avatar

I only have two custom palettes from Nabla – you should try this brand, they have a really unique color selection!

I love that I can use every shade and none of them are ignored. But I find that buying the shadows individually is more expensive than getting a premade palette.

Joy Avatar

For eyeshadow I’m very impressed with ABH. Larger ones would be nice! I do not use them unless filling MAC palettes with singles. Don’t like things touching mixing. If I want Surratt together, Surratt system etc. Do like MUFE system! Keep them in studio box easy! Not a NARS blush fan But that one looks nice for NARS. I grew up buying product getting package/ palettes free with handful samples. This design your own is fine if free or with deal. Any brand.

zVintageFashionizta Avatar

I like Inglot, their products are reasonably priced & the palettes are sturdy plus each item is spaced (I have 3 of the empty old round pan palettes and I love that I can use them for MAC, ABH & makeup geek shadows). Inglot now has a palette similar to the Z Palette except that it is not made out of cardboard, I dislike cardboard palettes.

Cat Avatar

I think z-palettes are great for people who aren’t OCD. Sadly, I got tired of constantly removing all of the pans in order to clean the palettes. Now, I buy empty magnetized palettes that hold twelve eyeshadows from a variety of brands — UD, ABH, MAC, MUG. I still use the z-palettes for items I use less frequently.

I love what Buxom has come up with but their shadows don’t work for me.

Fran Avatar

If Make Up For Ever made a six-pan palette like their three-pan palettes, then I’d say that one! I really like the strong magnets and the ease of re-arranging. The larger palettes that they do have are just a bit clunky, IMHO, and it seems like you’d really need the foam insert if you were going to travel with it, which you then have to pry out when you want to use it.

Valerie Avatar

I’m going to “cheat” and say Z Palettes. (does that count as cheating?) I love the versatility. I love that I’m not restricted to a particular size or shape of pan, allowing me to mix brands and products as needed.

As far as products go, I am always a fan of brands that offer products without the packaging. It saves me the time of depotting. If they offer a discount for purchasing that way.. even better.

L Avatar

Even though they are comparatively expensive, I think my custom MAC palette is my favorite among the ones I have tried (z palettes and MUFE as well). I like that they have the insert to keep mess minimized as opposed to the z palette, and although I love the few MUFE shadows I have and would like to splurge on more eventually, they are so big – which makes sense if they are intended for pros but for home use, I would rather pay less for the smaller pan.

Erica Avatar

So far the Mac customized palettes with the inserts for eyeshadow or blush is my favorite customized palette. I don’t use my Mac shadows as much as I used to, but the palettes keeps everything nice and neat. First runner up is the MUFE trio palette. I like the “see through” bubble packaging on the MUFE duo/trio palettes. I did buy the extra large palette to store all my MUFE shadows, but its too clunky for my taste. It would be really awesome if MUFE came out with a six shadow palette.

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