I usually look at in rows, columns, and then in quads (if that applies) to see if there’s any rhyme or reason to the way the colors are laid out. I usually look for lighter and more contrasting shades, something in similar tone.
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I like a light shimmery color in inner lid, bright shiny pop on middle lid, then a darker satin/matte on outer v, and I usually keep it within the same color family ie pinks with purples, golds with browns, golds with greens, teals with blues
I don’t always go in with a plan beyond determining which shades work for what purpose (transition, crease, lid, etc). For me, the best part of using palettes is playing around with the shades to see what works.
Sometimes I create a look around one or two favorite shades, sometimes I work in quads/trios (if the palette is organized that way), but I usually just improvise.
I go with my gut and whatever tickles my fancy that day 🙂
It pretty much depends on the palette. If it’s a smaller one, anything with 6 or less shades, I will likely only buy it if upon first glance, it looks cohesive and all the shades will work together well. Now with a larger palette, I’m usually envisioning something I want to do as an eye look for that day even before I decide which one (or 2? Or 3?) I’m going to pull out and construct a look out of.
I usually just go by guts. Does not work out all the time…
Hi, my comment is not an answer to this question, but it is related to palettes: I’ve been spending the last days going through your Mac archives and I’m currently on page 260/288 and I came upon this old review of “MAC Magic, Mirth, & Mischief: Sorceress Eye Shadows”. I wonder, if you’ve since then found a dupe to the specific color “Hold My Gaze” in that eyeshadow palette. Because it’s such an old palette and I bet it’s hard to find, expensive and probably not in good condition anymore.
Well, I might as well give an A to your Q now and say: I use the colors with best quality and color payoff. Also, I’ve begun to avoid palettes because I’m an organizing freak. I need to be able to keep similar colors close to each other and then switch around to sort after whatever style I’m going for at the moment. So, if possible, I depot everything and keep it in old pencil tins.
And also, this is my first comment and I just want to tell you how much I appreciate your blog. Have been using it without knowing for a couple of years (googling product swatches and seeing your lovely face everywhere) and recently I’ve bookmarked your page and I read it every day. You deserve to be a billionaire for what you’ve done for us! I always check with your blog before I buy anything and I respect your judgment and grades. Unfortunately I live in Sweden and I’m not able to buy from any of the American websites you link to. Nordstrom sells to Sweden – but not their Mac products. Baah! There is a Swedish Maccosmetics website but they’re really slow with the limited editions and regular lipstick prices are $24 and they NEVER EVER have any kinds of sales or bonus gifts and they charge a lot for shipping unless you buy for more than $63, and they ship from Germany – and it takes 1,5 weeks for the order to arrive. Rude! Well, whatever. Just wanted to praise you and tell you about how frustrating it is to be a fan of yours and Mac and live in Sweden 😉
Hi Alex,
I think these are the closest that are permanent: http://www.temptalia.com/swatches/?compare=159594,147968,94370 – I wouldn’t really call them dupes, though!
Is the Swedish MAC site the only place to get your MAC products from? 🙁 That sounds like such a painful experience – expensive and slow!
Thank you so much for reading and taking the time to comment 🙂 Happy first comment!
Hi, thank you for giving me a reply so soon. I can’t understand how you find the time to do all things! 🙂
There is a handful of stores in Stockholm that sell Mac products but only two of them sell their limited collections – and they only start selling them in stores when they’ve been up on the website for a couple of weeks. But I’m lucky to live in Stockholm, because if you live in another part of Sweden you’ll have to order online.
For example, I emailed Maccosmetics.se and asked them when they would get the Brant Brothers collection (I’m sooo going to buy the eye pencils) and their reply was “by the end of July”. Aaah!
Yay! Not nice that you are having a hard time up there in Sweden with the MAC products (they are expensive here in the Netherlands as well), but I love what you write about Temptalia! It’s a feeling a lot of us share I think. 🙂
I don’t have a set way of deciding; it’s a bit of an organic process for me. I look at the palette as a whole, but I don’t tend to think in terms of quads or anything like that. Part of what I love about palettes is that they may have unexpected combinations within them, so I try not to constrain myself by categorizing the selections like that.
I take occasion (business, wedding, memorial, etc.) into account, if applicable. Usually I’ll get color inspiration from my clothing or an accessory, or maybe a holiday. Sometimes, I’ll have a new lipstick or a particular shade from the palette I really love, and I coordinate the other colors I use with that.
I don’t buy palettes with over 15-16 shades as they get overwhelming and might have too similar shades to make a difference. This way each palette I have has it’s own range of tones and looks.
I usually choose a palette depending on what clothes I am wearing (cool/ warm/ neutral/ purple/ khaki tones eyeshadows), my mood (natural/ dark/ pop of color) and do I feel like wearing any bold lipstick that day. At that point the decision is mostly made and gets down to coordinating the crease, definer and highlight shade which are usually 1-2 per palette so the options are limited.
I assume the question means how do we decide which shades to wear together? The first decision I make is which matte shade I want to use for my crease and whether I will need to/want to create a cut crease (I have hooded lids and anything other than matte doesn’t work that great for me). If the palette has no mattes, I pick a shade from my collection that goes with the tone of the palette. Next I pick a lid shade that’s either a coordinating color or contrasting one, depending on whether I’m going for a strong or subtle eye look. The last shades I pick are the base, highlight, and liner shades. The exception to this is if I want a less complicated look in which case I pick a shimmer shade to apply from my lid to just slightly above my natural crease and then either use the same shade as the bottom lash liner or pick a coordinating shade.
Has to go with what I’m wearing and if I want to wear those colors.
I usually don’t take out my makeup palettes until I have chosen what look I am going for, so what the main eye colors will be. I tend to do a classic eye look, with lightest / most shimmery colors on the crease, and darkest color in the outer v area, or I do a halo eye. Either way, lately I’ve been leaning toward colors that are from the same color family (golds, browns, pinks). If I stray from that, then I usually am following trendy tutorial or just randomly following my gut 😛 I don’t tend to care about the placement of where eyeshadows are in a palette, though I do get some palettes are designed so that you make looks based on where they are in the palette.
I look for 3 shades that would coordinate well: a light, a medium and a darker color. The light for in the inner lid and brow bone, the medium for the lid and the dark for the outer V/crease/ lower lash line.
I usually have one color in mind that I want to wear, then I get creative until I run out of time. I usually depot my palettes, so I don’t necessarily think of colors according to the palette they originally came from. I put all the colors that I don’t love for texture, color, or performance reasons in a second palette. When I’m sure I won’t want them, I throw them away.
I mostly just choose the shades randomly based on what I feel that day. Of course, I pick a lid colour, crease colour, etc. I pay attention to the layout but often use colours from different columns/rows because that’s the joy of having so much choice.
When I was younger I was blessed with very long almond shaped eyes and I could do pretty much anything I wanted with my eye shadows and it would look stunning. I was working full time on night shift at the hospital and pretty much wore the same easy neutral eye looks all the time except for the couple of nights off when I would go out. I didn’t experiment much. Now I am 62 years old and have all of the wonderfull, (she says with a laugh because you have to laugh or you will cry) , changes that happen to your eyelids. They are hooded, they get crepey, they bag, edges that were defined are not, rolls fold on themselves where no shadow deposits, your eyelashes shorten and your eyebrow hair thins. Now I have money, time and desire to play with shadows and should be limited to neutral colors and mattes only, they tell me!! Well, not for me. Christine told me when she was reviewing the bold Viseart palette and I commented how much I loved the palette but didn’t know if my 62 year old lids could handle it and she nicely said she bet they could. Well, they are doing just fine. The answer to this question is simple. I put together whatever shadows I want and if I am happy with them that is all that matters. Now I do have some common sense so I don’t wear bright chartreuse against 60’s orange with dark black kohl around the whole eye but if I wanted to I would try it once maybe and just stay home!!
So nice to read a review from someone in a different age group. I was beginning to feel rather unconnected to the majority of reviewers here, not that it should matter so much. I disagree with the “neutrals only” advice given to older women. In fact I find anything brown makes me look tired and older. The closest I get is a cool taupe or greyish violet. I would love to see a PASTEL PALETTE but so far it’s in the Unicorn category . The last Naked offering is a bit better but only just.
Deborah! Here today gone tomorrow for any age group. Experiment and rock it out. No need to stay in, now is the time to enjoy yourself!
Don’t let “them” or anyone tell you to limit yourself. You are the one who can best decide how to present yourself to the world. Beauty has no limits.
It’s a crap shoot! I just start and hope for the best….I know the colors I like but try to use something a bit different than I might normally use.
In a palette I try to visualize the swatches of all color and they must make sense, they must go well togeter. After that I see the diferent finishes and the uses I can make with those
I’m always so lost when it comes to palettes! I have to steal ideas from Instagram and Pinterest. LOL. But I’m getting a little better with my creativity, thanks to Instagram.
First, I’ll decide on a general color theme i’m going for that day, say, bronzy eyes or mauve colors and so. Once that is decided, then I normally look for two colors: one shimmery shade as a lid color (normally) and a matte shade in the same color family on the crease. Highlight colors are usually always either of the two colors for me: for a matte highlight, i use White Chocolate from the Too Faced Chocolate Bar palette and for a shimmery highlight, Ricepaper from MAC. A few palettes that work well for this technique are Lorac pro palettes and of course the Too Faced Chocolate palettes.
I kind of do 3 different things, each about a third of the time. I have a few tried and tested combos that I go back to often. Then for new looks I do a similar approach to you, Christine. The other third or so of the time, I kind of just let my emotions do the deciding, which sometimes works really well, and sometimes is a terrible idea. I usually save that approach for when I have time to start over, or if I’m not going out that day XD.
I go for the first one that calls to me and then try to work a look around that one. Time of day, season, what I am wearing and occasion will guide me for the rest.
I only buy palettes that contain:
1. colours that compliment my eye colour and overall complexion.
2. a sufficient number of matte finish shades. I have hooded lids and am over 50 so that finish works best for me.
Then I can play with other colours within the palette knowing that there is a solid foundation of shadows that I’ll actually use.
I agree with Katherine T. That is what I do. I do love pinks gold and teals. Best to go with colors that suit each other. Also if wearing eye shadow I use a blush with a light touch and a color that looks good with the eye shadow and lipstick I choose to wear.
Same as you, Christine. I didn’t realize they were organized that way until I asked an MUA about it a few months ago. Now I’m a little better about picking out my colors but before, palettes were overwhelming to me because of all the choices and potential combinations (or potential fails).
I usually break it down by my moods if I’m feeling fun, playful and vivid then I break out my Urban Decays. I use the boldest brightest colors in the palette. If I’m feeling classic and beautiful I pull more towards my Tarte or Becca palettes. I’ll go with more nudes, browns and rose tones. So basically I never look at a palette and only see one certain way I’ll wear that color. One day it could be a crease color or my main lid color the next time
I look for earth tones. I’ll pick out three, sometimes four colors.
I actually decide what clothing I’m wearing that day then figure out what colors will best complement it (light/bright/dark). Much like Katherine, I choose colors in the same family so there is cohesion. Then I break out the lippies! 😉
As a makeup artist I look at my clients eye colour first and skin tone. Mostly, the more muted tone, the better result, eyes pop.
First of all, I look for colours in a palette or quad that compliment those that I am wearing. Then I think about how I will layer them. I usually use between 2-3 colours. Sometimes I choose contrasting colours for a more bolder look.
I feel frecuently that I have a terrible lack of imagination… When I have time, I search my favorite YouTube MUA’s channels for inspiration. I search also under the name of my most loved palettes to see tutorials of different looks and if I love the results, I tried them the next time I use it!!
Very hard to define my choices. I do go with lighted in the inner corners and under the brow bone, medium on the lid, and deepest in the crease. Beyond that, the actual colors are pretty random. I also add additional colors as my mood and time allow. I almost always use a matte in the crease and try to highlight the center of my lid.
This is one of the toughest things for me! I nowdays just ide:ntify whatever I feel like wearing that day (bold, nude, smokey), then I will identify which colours will emphasize, which will recede, and go from there. I’m quite conservative with my eye makeup and it’s taken me forever to realise THAT IS OK!!! I don’t love bright colours! I don’t love bold eye looks! I like nudes, I like smokey, I like playing up my bone structure and wearing a bold lip. Why is eyeshadow so complicated?! :’D
I have such a large collection, so I just rotate everything. Once I’ve used all colors in a palette, I move on to the next one. As for choosing which shadows, whatever goes best with what I’m wearing on that day. If there’s nothing in that palette, I’ll use the next one.
If I’m in a hurry I’ll stick with a brown/taupe/ black look because I feel that’s the quickest and easiest look for me. If I’m a little bored w that, and have more time, I’ll try a new mix of shades
I love spring colors. Blues, purples, greens. I am not one for neutral colors or browns, beiges, rust colors, yellows. I just feel that they do absolutely nothing for me. I have green eyes and I love make my eyes pop! I love eyeshadow palettes that have a mirror and the color eyeshadows are in somewhat in order. Like all the different greens lined up from lightest to darkest. ?
I try them all, usually in pairs, whatever is next to each other. Then I note what I really liked (usually the same things I get complements on). Yes, I have my shades I tend to get more excited to wear, but I try them all at least once and try to make it work. I use one shade on the lid, the other in the crease. After I have tried everything at least once, I may go back and re-pair shades I particularly liked in new ways.
That’s assuming it’s an eye shadow palette. A lip or cheek palette, I will probably try one shade at a time. Lip color is the only thing I can see me hating enough to actually wipe off before going out. Any other product, I’ll give a chance.