Have you ever finished a pre-made makeup palette? What palette?

I don’t think I’ve even come close. I’m not sure that I’ve come close to seeing a visible dip in even one shade!

— Christine

40 Comments

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Mariella Avatar

Never, but that doesn’t mean I don’t worry about finishing up some of the shadows in my original Naked palette. But reading and thinking about this question drives home to me how little I really need to worry about finishing something that is LE (with the exception of lipsticks).

Sandra Avatar

When I was working in a professional setting, I wore the same makeup everyday, despite even then having a large collection. I”m not a morning person so I had a tried and true, fast makeup routine. I panned about five Chanel Kaska Beiges quads, Nars Gaiety blush, Illamasqua Katie blush and so many other things like lipsticks, Benefit eyebrow powders, multiple Mac sculpting powders. In grad school I panned two Dior Incognito quints and two Wet n’ Wild e/s trios that I can’t seem to remember the name of. I know panning is a popular thing nowadays and it’s good to show your makeup love but seeing pan doesn’t excite me as much as it does to some others.

ShariP Avatar

That’s me too. I worked at a very conservative job so I wore neutrals every day. My daytime look was reserved to one palette of shadows, one blush, and just a couple lipsticks…I panned quite a few of each. Now I work from home and I’m much more colorful, lol.

krb Avatar

No, between having too many palettes and limited lid space, it would take me 15 years to use up just one palette entirely. Without a good amount of space to work in, I’m limited as to how many colors I can use at once. ?

Lucie Avatar

A pre-made palette? No. There is inevitably one or more colors in a pre-made that I just will never use. I also tend to get bored with palettes after a couple of uses or get sick of needing a few colors out of one and then needing to dip into another palette or my singles and having multiple palettes open that I just stop using them.

I do have a 9-pan z-palette of singles I curated that are my go-to and I’ve hit pan on all 9 pans at least twice and restocked.

Swoozy Avatar

I just finished Tarte’s original Rainforest of the Sea eye palette. I hit pan to the point that six shadows had become a pain to use. Two had minor use (I don’t highlight my brow; the palest shade in the set was lost on me). While I technically could have gotten a few more months out of it, I had used it almost every work day for 3.5 years. It was time to move on. I’m using the mini- PML neutral palette and hope to take 3.5 years to finish it!

HeavyMetalJess Avatar

I think the little pans are key to finishing a shade. I wonder if we’ll ever go back to those days. I mean, I like not having to worry about running out, but would also love to be less wasteful of all those shades I’ll never use. I just give them away these days once I de-pot.

Vikki Avatar

I did when I was a teenager but ever since I started earning my money and buying my own make-up, I’ve never hit pan before. Oh, how I wish I could!

xamyx Avatar

I’m just about done with the L’Oreal True Match Lumi highlighter quad, but even as powdery & weakly pigmented it is, it’s still taken over a year and a half of fairly active use… I’ve also got significant pan in most of the shades in my Stila In The Light palette, and hope to finish it by the end of the year. It’s been a year and a half since I actually started really using it, but I think I can finish up 5/6 shades I actually use (the 6th is a black), so at that point I’ll consider it done.

While I’ve never finished a palette even in High School, I’ve hit significant pan; unfortunately, most were DS, and the packaging snapped/cracked before the product was finished, so I’d just move on to something new.

MELANIE Avatar

Anastasia Sultry! I’ve hit pan on several shades. It’s the perfect going to work eyeshadow palette. I love the subtle shimmer of the metallic shades and it applies easily in the morning for a pulled together look.

Genevieve Avatar

The closest I have been to finishing a palette is the Lorac Pro Metals, where I have pretty much used up most of the shades, with the exception of the black (I never use black) and the Cobalt blue shade.
Half Baked in Naked 1 has hit pan and I am terrified that I will hit pan on YDK in Naked 2 as I just adore this shade.

SaffyTaffy Avatar

I finally bought a replacement of Too Faced’s Chocolate Chip Matte because I’d hit pan on 5 pans. And I’m really almost done with their Life’s a Festival palette. That Rainbow Life, the reddish shade, is so pretty and I know I’ll never duplicate it.

Rachel R. Avatar

Not in decades, and no big palettes. I wore a lot of CoverGirl in the late 80s/early 90s, as I was a poor high school and college student. I went through a now long gone brown quad over and over: It had a shimmery medium chocolate brown, a satin cream, a matte warm milk chocolate, and a shimmery beige. It was so good and flattering, I’d still buy it today if they had it. I even used it for my wedding. I went through their brown and pink quad, and the all purple quad at least once, too.

In the late 90s/early 2000s, I went through the brown and pink Almay Intense iColor trio For Browns, and the purple and gray trio For Greens, several times and through three different packaging incarnations.

Also, I regularly went through a few of their Cheekers blush trios (I’m not sure if they were called “Instant Cheekbones” at that time or not. They had a darker contour blush, a medium blush, and a light blush for highlighting (I used up a few pink trio a lot, and the lavender 23-3 times, and a peachy one once or twice).

Alice Avatar

I really was not an eyeshadow girl until later in my life. I did hit pan on one color in a 4 quad back in highschool (that light baby blue was so popular!!) I think I have hit pan with with one of the Maybelline 4 quad (not the regular 4 quad, but one of those which the pans were shaded like arrows that everyone hated. I actually like them cause they are softer pressed and more similar to Japanese eyeshadow formula)

I used a Pat McGarth palette today and was actually wondering if I would ever make a dent out of that thing… I had to use soooo little to do a look… and the pans are huge… Back in the days, I used to buy much less but would only buy high end, like Dior, chanel and such. But with makeup prices coming down (huge sales everywhere now), combining the fact that there are so many cheap alternatives, I have definitely been going a little crazy on shopping. I am quite unhappy looking at my stash knowing there are 3 palettes that I have not even tried yet in my stash… And I don’t want to touch them because I know I already have dupes for them… And I mainly blame Colourpop for that. I really need to focus on using what I have already… I was telling myself if I do good till the end of the year on no buy, I can treat myself some Pat McGarth at the end of the year, since it is the one brand which I think I absolutely love and enjoy, even if it end up being dupes.

Tigerlaf Avatar

In the 5 years that I’ve been wearing makeup I panned (but not finished) a Lancome Taupe Craze palette, completely finished 3 WnW singles in white- cream color, 5 lipsticks, several lip glosses and completely finished at least 10 powder foundations. No blush pans, although I have visible dips in my Tastiest blush quad. My eyeshadow collection is massive, therefore I won’t be able to finish an entire eyeshadow palette.

Jill Avatar

I full-panned several colors in my old IT Cosmetics Naturally Pretty Volume 1 palette, but that’s about it. To be fair, at the time that was the only palette I owned, and these days I pretty much only wear cream shadows. If powders still worked for me I’d probably be trying to pan the new Chanel Elemental palette.

Helena Avatar

The closest I’ve come to finishing any palette was ≥10 years ago, when I used a NYX eyeshadow trio (pre-L’Oréal acquisition) and later a Wet n Wild sextet (pre-reformulation)—for the matte, neutral shades of beige, medium taupe-brown, and dark brown that grounded most of my eyeshadow looks. I hit pan on the nude shades first, then the transition/crease shades. I remember totally using up the nude in the NYX trio for sure.

ShariP Avatar

Yes, I have. I can’t remember the exact name of the palette though. It was a Lancome 8 shadow palette, all neutrals. My favorite color was Optic which is a grayish white that works with any other color. I bought it at Christmas, loved it. It was about the time that Mario Dedoviac (sp) came on the scene. When I found it at one of the makeup discount stores, I bought all they had. I’ve went through 3 or 4. Still love it.

TropicalCowgirl Avatar

I panned two OG Naked palettes until I spread my wings. I think the darkest had the most left on the sides. I’ve almost wiped out PMG Bronze Temptation and am grateful I had a backup. I did completely use up Too Faced Naked at night and I’m sad it’s DC’d. I’m almost used up CT Dolce Vita.

But realizing over the years I may not use up the others have seriously made me take pause in impulse purchases. I also realized too the higher quality shadows last longer and you need less. I know when I was younger and drugstore brands were better formulated, I used up a few L’Oréal, Almaty and even CoverGirl palettes.

I’m definitely buying less because of this. I’m getting my fix these days from skincare.

Nadiia Avatar

Yesterday I hit the pan in Wild Child(Abh Norvina palette). Before I hit the oan in Modern Renaissance. I like abh palettes for the amount of products you get. You don’t feel itbis a waste of money if you hit the pan in her eyeshadows. I also hit the pan in Brighten up Essence powder and three blushes in my life.

Lauren Avatar

Naked 2… I’m on my third one. When something works it just works. I do bring in colors from other palettes to enhance, but I can always count on that palette to give me a look I can wear and will love and it works well with everything. It goes travelling and is always on my desk… and no matter how many other palettes I play with (which is a ton) I like to have my UD out for transition shades in case another palette has none available.

I’ve gotten pan on a bunch of others, but usually just on a few colors while most of the others remain barely to completely untouched in a palette.

Mags Avatar

While I’ve never finished a pre-made palette, I’ve panned a few of the KVD Shade + Light palettes and Tartelette in Bloom. I found myself using about half of each palette heavily while hardly making a dent in the other half! I’m hoping my recent switch to singles will be less wasteful!

Janelle Avatar

I’ve never fully finished an entire palette, but my first big purchases over ten years ago were the MAC Royal Assets warm eyeshadow palette and a couple holidays later, the Devil May Dare palette. Since they were basically all I had save for a few random mono eyeshadows, it was easy to use up every single shade except for the dark ones in them. I even went out and bought Star Violet and Retrospeck after finishing them in the palette because I got so comfortable with using them day after day, then burned through those, as well.

The most progress I made with my Stila In the Light palette was hitting pan on 2-3 of the neutral shades, then I wound up throwing it out last year since I have so much and it was so old.

Too Faced Cocoa Contour – used everything up except Pop of Light since that was useless.

Too Faced Leopard Love – used everything up except half of Peach Leopard because it looked odd on me. It’s crazy to think how I’ve gone through three full sized Pink Leopard bronzers. That was a game changer for me back in the day. Now I can hardly hit pan on anything!

Kevyn Aucoin Contour Book Volume 2 – I have a backup waiting but I told myself not to throw the first one out until I completely finish the Candlelight Glow powder. I’ve completely finished both contour formulas in there, Starlight, and some of the cream Candlelight Glow. I love the eyeshadow contouring colours in there but I have to remember to incorporate them into looks.

HeavyMetalJess Avatar

Almost. I had the old Gypsy Den face case from Urban Decay. I used up both lipsticks, the gloss, two of the shadows, and hit deep pan on the blush. I also ended up buying the two eyeshadows I used up in full size, and used up both of those, and got a second of the glittery dark blue.

I also used up two shades in a palette, but only because it was a bright red and a bright yellow and the year was 1998 and you could not find those anywhere. Now, they don’t even get dents. Palettes are so common now with such huge pans and I have so much eyeshadow. I feel like it’s not even possible.

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