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Mariella Avatar

Once upon a time, I’d have said Urban Decay but these days, everything’s up for grabs. I’ve had great and not so great palettes from Natasha Denona and Pat McGrath as well as just about every other Sephora/Department Store brand. I do have a soft spot for Dior and Chanel quads/5 pans but I’ve got so many that I really need to stop buying them.

mouse Avatar

For me its been Blend Bunny and Glamlite. I know some say Glamlite is inconsistant but I don’t know, I must be getting extremely lucky because I have no duds from them. Just received two palettes from Cosmic Brushes, these are also looking promising!

Nancy T Avatar

Definitely Natasha Denona and Pat McGrath for high end, also, the previous just dc’d Dior quints and my one ‘n only Chanel Quad in Empriente du Desert.

Menagerie Cosmetics (if you really love high quality purples, then you need Flight Club!), Fantasy Cosmetica and Nomad make for some wonderful quality less expensive, but not DS level inexpensive, high quality palettes with unique, interesting color stories.

And for the ones I purchased before discovering the owner’s questionable behavior, I do still love my ABH palettes. Especially: Modern Renaissance, Jackie Aina and Rose Metals.

Mariella Avatar

Any time someone mentions Chanel’s E du D quad, my heart skips a beat. I wish they would bring that beauty back and make it permanent!

Which 5 pans did Dior discontinue? I got two really excellent ones from a release a few years ago – Jungle and New Look. I sure hope those two are still around because they are so good and so wearable and elegant without being stodgy.

Nancy T Avatar

I wish Chanel would, too, Mariella!
As for Dior, they went and reformulated almost their entire line to be a non-talc, “clean beauty” company, and the quints and all the Backstage line seem to have suffered as a direct result. Also, some of the quints were totally dc’d, others still exist, but have quality issues. There are some new color/shade configurations, as well.

Genevieve Avatar

At the moment a lot of brands are having quality issues or just not putting out anything different from the pink hued colour range, lots and lots of matte shade – all of which fails to interest me.
On balance I would say ND as well as PMG.
The really last set of palettes that were outstanding was actually yours Christine – the SG x Temptalia set.

Jane Avatar

On the higher end, I like Natasha Denona too, except her colors are never the same in the palette on my eyes (they are darker), so I know that going in. Pat McGrath does too, color schemes and quality (even if the Rose theme needs to end in my opinion). However, since I can’t afford either at the moment (and truth be told, don’t need anymore palettes), here are a few that I’d recommend that cost less. Glamlite does fun palettes, nice color schemes and they work. And ones that do palettes well (not best), but that I usually can trust (after reading about the formula) are Revolution London Beauty and Huda (thought the latter one is more expensive).

juliax Avatar

I agree, SG makes great eyeshadow palettes and their color stories are way better made and thought out then Natasha Denona’s or Pat’s.

Helene Avatar

Does, that makes this question hard. I’ve not bought any new palettes for some time, the last was Ninetease from Vieve, I like it a lot.
I also like my little Victoria Beckham quad, Tuxedo.
As I only have one from each of the two mentioned I can’t really say that they do palettes best.
I have some old MAC palettes that I like and keep going back to and then there’s Viseart Neutral Mattes, my most used palette of all.
I guess I would have to say Sydney Grace, my three Temptalia palettes are so good!

BrendaK Avatar

I can’t help it!! I adore my Sydney Grace shadows. I did a beautiful bronzy with some smoke look today using On The Horizon. So so gorgeous! I have about 350 SG shadows (palettes included) and have so much fun creating looks. I just have no interest in other palettes anymore. I don’t ever use the others. Oops! Tee!

juliax Avatar

I agree with that Natasha Denona makes great eyeshadow palettes quality wise but her color stories is where she does not shine. Theyre very repetative, many similar shades, many warm shades, theyre just not well rounded and thought out color stories which could have all been much better.

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