Archived Post

Top 10 of 2011: Eyeshadow Palettes

Top 10 of 2011: Eyeshadow Palettes

The idea of picking a mere ten fantastic products for the entire eye category (which, as I’m sure you’re aware, I have a great love for) was borderline absurd. I could not resist breaking it out a bit more 🙂

  1. Bare Escentuals The Playlist Eyeshadow Palette (plus lots of love for the Ready formula in general!)
  2. Tarina Tarantino Jewel Eyeshadow Palettes
  3. theBalm Nude ‘tude Eyeshadow Palette
  4. theBalm Cast Your Shadow Palette
  5. Wet ‘n’ Wild Comfort Zone Eyeshadow Palette
  6. Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Eyeshadow Palette
  7. Chanel Topkapi Eyeshadow Quad
  8. Inglot Eyeshadow Palettes
  9. Le Metier de Beaute Penelope Kaleidoscope
  10. theBalm Shady Lady Vol. 3

What was your favorite eyeshadow palette this year?

42 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.
Teri Avatar

I dont have any premade palettes, although I really want to try sleek and urban decay, but its hard to get here. My favs are my own mac 15 palette and my inglot 10 palette! Happy new year Christine! I’m so excited for your marriage btw, Lucky girl!

Marina Avatar

As soon as I saw the title of this video I thought “Christine better include UD 15!”. And you did! YAY! That was my palette love of 2011 (well, since August).
I don’t own anything from TheBalm but they must be so good to get 3/10 in this list!

Mieze Avatar

Personally, I’ve found myself rather enamored with Kat Von D’s Beethoven palette. I own three different Kat Von D palettes, actually, and they’re all great, but I like the colors in Beethoven best.

stacey Avatar

I would say UD 15th anniversary palette…for its presentation package, variety of colors, and the quality of the shadows. The Muppets by theBalm looks cute and all but it was not massed produce so that is an unfair choice to select. I own #3 theBalm and it is a good traveling set. But if I had unlimited resources, I would say Tom Ford’s shadow quads…it may appear more costly, but there is more of an amount. That said, their shadows are beautiful and has quality ingredients also. Titanium Smoke is what I own. To me, Tom Ford’s makeup collection is the collection of the year…..because it is so luxorious.

Chiara Avatar

Beautiful selection, Christine! I’m such a sucker for palettes .. I might grab that Wet ‘n Wild palette if I can get it online. So far, my favourite palette has been UD’s Naked(1), since I’ve only had the opportunity to purchase it this year. It’s tough to be a complete beauty addict and to live in Belgium, we have almost no foreign (American) brands 🙁

Marta Avatar

Good selection! I love Inglot (good mattes, completely costumizable and good quality), Urban Decay’s (excellent shimmer and pearls and easy to work with) and the value is great in both. The rest are probably as good or better, but I have a hard time trying to find most of them in Spain. I just wish you hadn’t included Le Metier’s Penelope, everytime I see Black Emerald… >.< love it so much and can't find a dupe! Oh well. Great list anyways 🙂

Chris25 Avatar

I’m happy to say that I own the WnW Comfort Zone palette. 🙂 My fave palette this year was the Too Faced Natural Eye Palette. I even did a series of EOTDs featuring it (to demonstrate how versatile it is). Wet n Wild Vanity & Lust get honorary mentions.

Ashley Holloway Avatar

This year was a great palette year!

I have three of these: Urban Decay Anniversary palette, the repackaged Muppet palette (the soap opera version), and Wet n Wild Comfort Zone.

I use all of them a LOT. Although I wish I had the funds to make a huge Inglot palette, those eyeshadows look amazing! But I should probably lay off the eyeshadow buying a bit until I finally use some stuff up or actually see some pan showing, hehe!

Dini Avatar

I love to see top 10 and favorite lists! 🙂 Right now I am really enjoying my new additions to my Inglot palettes. I picked most colors according to swatches I saw online since there is no Inglot here, and my friend that picked up the palette for me in Vegas chose the rest in person. So cool to have a palette where you like each and every color because you got to pick them all!

malia Avatar

I was soooo disappointed in that shady lady palette, I really regret buying it. Out of these, I’d either go with the UD anniversary one or the Inglot palettes. Well, UD always comes up with something but 2011 was my first year for Inglot so I’d probably say them cause I use those every day, the UD one has been sitting there for at least a month now, unused.

malia Avatar

well maybe the balm one I got a bad one or something, but two on the bottom were so patchy, and the rest of them never lasted the whole day even with a primer. I liked MAC’s Odalisque better than their blue one. I guess I was expecting to be “Wow-ed” by them but wasn’t with that one. I also have the Balm and Beautiful but havent had time to try it yet. But the UD 15th I got back out today and loooove it, I ended up with 4 shades on my lid lol.

heidi Avatar

I don’t know if its fair to count this because I just got it and it just came out in the last few months but my lorac bejeweled day to night palette. It comes with 2 palettes and they are so convenient to fit in your bag. It has a perfect mixture of neutrals and colors and matte and shimmer. I haven’t used anything else for 3 weeks.

Julie Avatar

I have the Lorac Bejeweled set too but I’m not in love with it. I find that some of the shades apply unevenly and aren’t very pigmented…namely the purple and blue in both pallets. If it hadn’t been a gift I would have returned it.

Mariella Avatar

The Balm’s Balmbini palette (although it also contains face and lip products) – that’s where I discovered Insane Jane, which is one of the best shadows ever! I wish more of TheBalm’s palettes were available here, especially that spoof of soaps one – is it The Balm and the Beautiful?
Wet n Wild Walking on Eggshells and Silent Treatment
Tarina Tarantino Dreamy Palette (another one I have to thank you for, Christine)
Quo (Canadian brand) Sahara Sand eyeshadow duo (can a duo count in this category?)
Too Faced Romantic Eye Palette (and Enchanted Glamourland….can’t recall if I got it at the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011). I recently got the new Smokey Eye palette and it’s right up there with my favourites also.

le Avatar

My favourite palette is UD Naked 1 and I love the feel of the velvet package in my hand. I just got the balm and the beautiful but I have some trouble using it. First it is kinda powdery in the pan when you dip the brush in to get the product, then it is hard to stick on the brush bristles, when I tap the brush to avoid fall-out, most of the product is gone. The biggest problem is that it is easy to blend away the pigment, so even I use different colors, they all look almost the same. weird. But the stay power is amazing, without any primer they still stay put. I have every oily lids that with primer they only stay well for 5 hours then crease. So that is what I really love.
Anybody can give some suggestion of color combo when using this palette? thanks

Carrie Ann Avatar

I loved the MAC Lady Grey Eyeshadow Quad, the Urban Decay 15th Anniversary palette and I’m loving the Urban Decay Naked 2 palette as well as TheBalm Nude ‘tude palette.

Z Avatar

UD’s 15th anniversary was the one that excited me the most. It’s just beautiful and has the right amount of neutrals and colors.

Wet n’ Wild’s comfort zone is my surprise favorite. I used it for a week straight (that’s saying something when considering the size of my eyeshadow stash) when it was first purchased. I even gave several as gifts because it was so awesome.

thanks for the list! It’s easy to forget all the releases, and stand outs, from the year!

Alyx Avatar

Hi all just wanted to share the wonderful news with the LMdB lovers! I have the news and sneak peak on the Spring 2012 collection! Its called Northern Lights Collection… 3 polishes, a lip kaleidoscope, an eye kaleidoscope, and if that’s not enough there’s also a new blush kaleidoscope!!! If you want more info, want to see and/or preorder them please send me an email 🙂 11alyx11@gmail

Alyx
LMdB Vegas

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!