Temptalia Asks You – What 5-10 eyeshadows should every beauty addict own?

Weekly Features
Christine |

What 5-10 eyeshadows should every beauty addict own? What 5-10 eyeshadows (any brand) does everyone need to have in their collection?

Some of the shadows I’m always using are: Carbon (matte black), Espresso (deep matte brown), Goldmine (true gold), Bronze (warm chocolately brown), Ricepaper (shimmery neutral highlight), Stars ‘n Rockets (shimemry purple-magenta), Sumptuous Olive (olive green), Shimmermoss (shimmery teal), Juxt (light frosty green), and Gorgeous Gold (gold with green undertones).

We hope you'll consider supporting Temptalia by shopping through our links below. Thanks!
Sephora Beautylish Ulta Nordstrom More

Related Posts

What do you like about pigmented eyeshadows? What don’t you like?

Are there any areas of your collection you’re trying to expand? Which ones?

What was the last brand that disappointed you?

What finish do you prefer in your bronzer?

Survey Says… May 27th, 2020

Do product samples encourage you to purchase the full-sized product?

Compare Any Two Swatches

Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!

We hope you'll consider supporting Temptalia by shopping through our links below. Thanks!
Sephora Beautylish Ulta Nordstrom More

35 Comments

Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!

Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).

We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!

Comments on this post are closed.
We hope you'll consider supporting Temptalia by shopping through our links below. Thanks!
Sephora Beautylish Ulta Nordstrom More
Kris

I love ur choices and agree with them!:)
1. Definitely a matte black like carbon
2. A gold – goldmine is my choice also
3. Also a more champagney white gold/ shimmery vanilla too
4. And a warmer light gold for highlight (eyes or top of cheeks)
5. Gunmetal grey
6. Something that makes your eyecolor really pop!
7. A good matte brown that can also double as liner or brow filler
8. Silver/whitish highlighting color (no glitter just a frost/ mild shimmer)
9. Shimmery black for a nice smoky night time pop
10. nude matte for those days when u dont want to wear as much or want a cleaner more understated look.

tanya

My choices are obviously all MAC –
Shroom – perfect highlight color and its a satin finish.
If not Shroom then maybe Hush.
Hush – highlight color with a peachy’ish (or maybe peachy/pink) undertone, frost finish.
Soba – satin finish semi matte medium brown, I double it as eyebrow fill as well. Very versitile color.
All That Glitters – natural highlight color but darker than a highlight, with a lot of punch as far as the shimmer goes.

I think those are some good very basic choices to start out with, any colors beyond that should be played with and the perfect shades to compliment the buyer should be fine tuned with the help of a friend/make-up artist/sales person.

Kate

My go-to shadows are:
1. Greensmoke (used wet)
2. Soba
3. Plumage
4. Aria (from Sultress quad – Raquel Welch)
5. Waternymph – so fun and bright!
6. Thunder
7. Mulch
8. Ricepaper
9. Shroom
10. Vanilla

Stella

Sumptuous olive – Must for Brown eyes!!!!!!
Steamy
Soba
Humid
Swimming
Carbon
White Avalanche
Ricepaper
Bright Sunshine (pro)
Silver Ring

pssst-OMG I plan on buying Goldmine for sure now, I was thinking about it but now 2 of you added it to your musthave list-so that seals the deal for me. Thanks Chicas!

k8ie-lou

1. teal pigment
2.kitchmas pigment
3. good highlighter like shroom/phloof
4. satin taupe
5. knight divine
6. go bananas
7. paradisco
8. golden olive pigment
9. big t
10. old gold pigment…

i KNOW this is a eye shadow thread but my all time fave lip gloss has to be me macs tinted lip glass in underage – i just adore it!!!!!!!!

Kim

Wow…this one is hard. All Mac (of course). I’m going through a bit of a plum phase right now, so my list is skewed toward that!
1. Shale
2. Vex
3. Naked pigment
4. Jest
5. Signed/Sealed
6. Thunder
7. Satin Taupe
8. Soba
9. French Grey
10. Shadowy Lady

Allison

My choices are all M.A.C…of course LOL…

1. Sunday best/phloof for great highlighting
2. Carbon/Black Tied for the classic smoky eye…also doubles as a liner.
3. Contrast an intense purplish blue whith flecks of blue shimmer
4. Trax- burgundy plum flecked with bronze shimmer.
5. Beauty Marked – A deep blackend red with a sparkle/twilight effect.
6.

Allison

OOps I hit add comment before I could finish..I think these fires out here are messing with my brain 😉
6. Club – a muted reddish brown duochrome with green opalescent shimmer
7. Gesso- Vivid white(matte)
8. RicePaper- soft peachy gold with shimmer
9. Amber Lights- Golden Peachy-brown with shimmer
10. Humid- Intense vivid green with shimmer

Courtney

if i MUST choose……..

1. Honesty (nice gold shimmer)
2. Magic Dust (for highlighting)
3. Satellite Dreams (my favorite purple!)
4. Black Tied (essential for smokey looks)
5. Antiqued (great bronzey-brown)
6. Swimming (greeeeeeeen!)
7. Satin Taupe (perfect neutral)
8. Bare Study paint pot (the. perfect. base.)
9. Thunder (purpely-blue prettiness!!)
10. Beauty Marked (see what Allison said above)

i didn’t even bother trying to think about pigments…..they are a whole other story!

Janis

These are the colors that I always reach out for in my palettes..I find that these colors go well with any color you mix then with:

1. Black Tied/Carbon
2. Bronze
3. Amber Lights
4. Ricepaper/Shroom — for highlight
5. Humid
6. Steamy/Shimmermoss
7. Deep Truth
8. Parfait Amour
9. Goldmine
10. Silver Ring

Christine
Light-Medium, Neutral, slight yellow undertones. Normal-to-Dry skin. »

I reach for a lot of these regularly, too! I always want to use Silver Ring, but I end up using Silver pigment, lol. I bought Silver Ring so I wouldn’t use up all of the pigment I have left!

Cyn

If you like doing basic makeup for others:

1. Naked Lunch (highlight for pinky skin)
2. Ricepaper (highlight for golden skin)
3. Brun (liner/brow filler)
4. Copperplate (crease/brow filler for lighter brows)
5. Cosmic (blue eyes)
6. plumage (brown eyes)
7. signed, sealed (green)
8. typographic (dark crease)

My faves

1. Nylon
2. Brun
3. Prussian
4. Signed sealed
5. Romping
6. Jeweltone

Megan

My favorite MAC eyeshadows:

1. Honesty
2. Mulch
3. Greensmoke
4. Shroom
5. Goldmine
6. Patina
7. Carbon/Black Tied
8. Club
9. Ricepaper
10. Woodwinked

There are so many lovely shades to choose from but I guess these are the ones that I always go back to!

Chyla

It’s so hard to choose any grouping when there are SO many & I may have repeats from others’ posts but here go mine:

1. Carbon (Matte)
2. Gorgeous Gold (Veluxe Pearl)
3. Dazzlelight (Veluxe Pearl)
4. Antiqued (Veluxe Pearl)
5. Shroom (Satin)
6. Deep Truth (Frost)
7. Satin Taupe (Frost)
8. Freshwater (Veluxe Pearl)
9. Swish (Frost)
10. Texture (Velvet)

Christine
Light-Medium, Neutral, slight yellow undertones. Normal-to-Dry skin. »

I know, it IS hard, but you know there are some faves you always go back to.

I can see you like your blues! I love the variety in your list 🙂 I’m also a VP fan.

Chyla

Yeah, I read somewhere that if you’ve got brown eyes, the best eye shadow color to play up your brown eyes is blue so that’s kinda’ my go-to color 😉

Hahahaa… Yeah, I really love those VP’s!!! I love how smooth they go on & the color pay-off!

Zsofi

i think the most basic eyeshadow hues are:

1.:a real black,like Carbon
2.:a real whtite,like Crystal Avalanche
3.:a light pink,like Pink Source
4.:a darker pink,like Star Violet
5.:a fuchsia, like Passionate
6.:a purple,like Floral Fantasy
7.:a light blue,like Moon’s Reflection
8.:a vibrant blue,like Freshwater
9.:a jewel tone,like Shimmermoss
10.:a real green,like Wondergrass
11.:a lemon ,like Chrome Yellow.

if i can say some more….

12.:a military green,like Humid
13.:a beige,like Goldmine
14.:a brown,like Tempting
15.:an orange like—->Orange

this would be the very basic collection for me 😀

emilyw

hmmm wat a difficult question (all by mac lol)

i choose ..
a matte black like carbon is so essential
a grey like print
bronze
ricepaper
espresso
shroom
vex
silver ring
goldmine
amberlights

i wud also like to extend that list to include bamboo and soft brown … oh and woodwinked too. all the above shades can create almost any neutral look. bamboo and soft brown are great for effortless days …

We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!