Urban Decay is my personal choice (as I like that formula best), but they do still have an extensive single range. I think brands like Tarte and Too Faced really lack individual ranges!
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
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!
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!
LORAC!! There are quite a few shades from the pro palettes that I’ve hit pan on & have yet to find good replacements for.
I forgot about that one! Love my Pro Palette, but get nervous using it as the pans are so small that I fear hitting pan on the several I love and use the most.
Well, almost every set seems to have a shade that I like that’s either LE or not sold individually, or for the cost of getting the single, you might as well buy the set LOL I would say sometimes UD or MUFE, but I can usually find a dupe or wait for the single to go on sale. I woud say the Limited Edition Colour Pop sets ones are the worst! There always seems to be 1 color (out of like 6) that I totally love but it’s LE, and I can’t justify buying the set for it, and Colour Pop’s formula is so unique, it’s hard to dupe.
Yep, Katherine, that’s why I wind up never buying the CP “palettes”! I missed out on 2 I liked because I was like; hmm, I really only love 2 or 3 of thesr shades, soooo???? No Mondays In Malibu ? No Not A Box Of Chocolates ?
I’m glad I’m not the only one that feels that way. I had to bypass several sets, but finally caved on the Forever Freshman set, because I wanted Baby T (a top quality blue), and it went on sale. They NEED to sell Baby T as a single! I ended up liking the other colors more than I thought, but I didn’t “need” them. But every time I see a CP kit, I just groan. The makeup gods are so cruel !!
Yep! The powers that be in the CP world are very cruel! I would sooo buy Prikckly Pear, Tinsel and a few others from those 2 sets, plus (I cannot recall the names offhand) 2 shades in Forever Freshman, the taupe with gold flecks is one of them!
was going to post the same thing. there is always 1-2 shadows that are really nice in the LE sets, that do not justify purchasing the rest. maybe try sites like poshmark?
Oh that’s an idea! Thanks for the tip, will keep that in mind !
The first 2 that popped into my head as I read the question on Facebook were Urban Decay and Too Faced! So many very cool shades that can only be had by buying the entire palette. Personally, I would love to see Dragon, Sonic and Alchemy from Vice 3 made as permanent eyeshadows in the permanent formula!
Oddly, though, Tarte just never occurred to me. Probably because I have never gone utterly gaga over them? Even though the Tartlette HAS been on my beauty scanning radar forever!
I agree, I adore UD’s eyeshadow formula but I avoid buying their singles because they current packaging is next to impossible to depot (and I don’t like having singles lying around not in a palette, because then I’ll never use them). Maybe if they offered an incentive to buy their make-your-own palettes I’d buy more (like maybe offer a free 4-spot palette with the purchase of 4 singles or something like that). The formula really is one of the best, which makes me sad that it’s so hard to depot.
I’ve depotted all of my UD singles, and actually found them to be the easiest to do! I just pop out the “base”, then use a flat iron or iron, set it on the hot surface, and use a pin/needle to dislodge the pan. UD doesn’t seem to use a very strong adhesive, so the come out very easily (I even did a few without heat, and the popped right out).
Same here, but I use a soldering iron. They come out easily once they’re out of the base.
Soldering iron! Fantastic idea!! (runs to check the garage for hubby’s old soldering iron…) I love depotting so I can mix and match my own palettes (regardless of brand)
MAC, hands down. I used to totally be a UD girl (obsessive palette girl actually), but after buying MAC warm neutral pallete, I am sold. Way better quality that UD, no fallout even with the loose shadows. Their color range on neutral shadows (singles, or pro palette refills) is amazing. As much as I love UD palettes, even with using pixie epoxy, the fallout is terrible. MAC MAC MAC!
I actually have had just the opposite experience! I used to be a MAC girl but their formula/quality has gotten so schizophrenic, I almost never buy MAC anymore. I find UD’s shadows (in their singles) to have much more consistency with the formula. Their palettes don’t have the same quality formulas as the singles though. At least that has been my experience
High end: Urban Decay for me, too. As you said, they have a large singles range, but there still always seem to be colors I want from palettes I don’t have or wish to buy. I’d also love it if the Electric Palette pigment shades were available as singles. It would be great to have Chaos and Thrash in singles for trips where I don’t want to take a the whole palette.
Too Faced, Tarte, Lorac and Smashbox could all really use singles.
Drug Store: I wish Wet n Wild would do singles of some of their palette shades. Their Wet n Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Singles are good, but the color selection is very limited.
Makeup Revolution could use an expansion of their singles as well, though it’s better than Wet n Wild.
Hmmm.. not sure. Probably Viseart? I love their formula best, even preferring it to MUFE, just because it feels smoother and thinner (not in a bad way) and looks more melded with the skin. But with my Paris Nudes palette, there’s nothing I will really leave out, as I love all the colors in it, so I’m not sure that I will prefer the singles to the palettes. But it would be a nice way to try their formula if you can’t bite the $80 price of the palette.
Urban Decay or MAC, although both have great single ranges too.
Too Faced! I’ve many favorite palettes from this brand (Chocolate Bars,StarDust,Neutral palette)and some eyeshadows in chocolate palettes I’ve hit the pan but it’s feel silly to just buy a new palette for one or two eyeshadows while I can buy a similar ones in another brands that have a single eyeshadows
I would have to say Lorac. I love the Pro Palettes but the eyeshadows in those palettes are so tiny that I think I will go through my favorite colors at some point and then the only way to get them again would be to repurchase the palette which wouldn’t be very cost effective.
I love Kate Von D eyeshadow and I feel they lack of individual pan
Probably Tarte, as they have virtually nothing available as single shadows. I recall, after purchasing the Tarte for Aqualilies palette, looking for one of my faves from that and being really surprised that at least at Sephora there were NO single shadows at all. At least UD has a wide range of permanent single shades and even if something in a palette isn’t available as a single, there’s probably something very close to it in their own line. AND – they will often release shadows that were popular in palettes (Mushroom is the example that comes to mind for me) as singles, which is great.
Smashbox. I wish they’d sell their shades as singles as well.
It would have to be either Urban Decay, Smashbox or Suqqu. I only have the one eyeshadow palette from Smashbox but it has loads of great colours and from Urban Decay I have a few but I mostly use the Naked and Naked3 palettes. For Suqqu I only have a few quints but the quality is excellent and there’s one particular peach colour that I’m almost out of because I love it so much (shimmery peach eyeshadow is my go-to lid colour when I can’t think of what else to use, followed by taupe and then pale gold). ?
Mac. They have an extensive collection of singles now, but they’re in the habit of repromoting past shades or putting new ones in palettes, so if you want them, you have to buy shades that you may already own, and more often or not the quality is substandard.
UD mostly releases new shades in palette form as well, but they do release some of them as singles eventually. I also prefer UD shadows and I own a few singles and a lot of palettes. I do have repeats but I don’t find them to be quite as repetitive as Mac *cough carbon cough* ?
There are a few colors in the UD Electric palette that I’ve swatched and I need in my life. I’m just working myself up to buying a $50 palette in which I only like two thirds of the shades.
Tom Ford comes to my mind first! While I really like his quads, there are still some duds or repeated shades I want to avoid, especially at this price point!
Definitely Urban Decay. There’s the purple one, Smolder, in their Smokey palette that I’d like. So pretty! But I feel like I have dupes of the other colors.
Marc Jacobs! I think the brand could make amazing singles as well.
Urban Decay. Hands down. I’m not even gonna give examples because I’d have no idea where to start!
None, honestly… I really prefer pre-made palettes. I find them more cost-efficient, and even if the singles were available for shades I may run out of (although that has yet to happen, LOL!), it would be cheaper just to replace the entire palette. That said, I do wish UD would rotate some of the “palette exclusives” into the singles range. For example, Protest from the Spectrum palette; I couldn’t justify getting the palette for just that shade & one other that is available, especially with Vice 4 & Gwen Stefani being released around the same time (as well as Naked Smoky not too long before!).
I wouldn’t mind seeing Kat von D releasing some singles (or even duos), but maybe in shades that are real “workhorses”, like some of the neutral shades from Ladybird, or some other light to midtone matte, neutral, transition shades.
Ah, yes, if ONLY Protest, Junkie, West were all sold as singles, I shut off the OCD/ Aspie obsession with that dang palette! Danger and Punk from GS too!
Definitely Tarte for me. They have a lot of good quality darker matte shadows that I’d like to have, but they’re always in a palette with a bunch of neutral/nude/pink shades. It’s just not worth it to me to buy a whole palette for 2-3 shadows. (also I wish they’d do more stuff like the Tarte for True Blood line, and that the Energy Noir palette had been better)
Also Tarina Tarantino. Her singles are terrible but the palettes are great.
I’m definitely going to have to say ABH. I am OBSESSED with her palettes (especially the Self Made Palette) they are pigmented and she has a wonderful range of colors.
I am not really a great fan of individual pans – I find that they are annoying to find in my stash. I only have a few. I am into quads, quints and palettes (but not the mega ones).
To answer your question – it would be Urban Decay as well because some of their colours really suit me, but I don’t use the purples, pinks, blacks and the dark chocolate browns. These are the shadows that usually take up half a large palette.
Too Faced. I am in love with Nougat from the Chocolate bar palette as a transition shade. I even hit pan and now I’m on panic mode because that shade is not offered single. Can you suggest any dupes?!?
Urban Decay (since with MUFE, I can purchase all the shades individually)! Often, there are a small handful of shades in a large U.D. palette that I really, really, like, and that maybe don’t have a ton of dupes (are fairly unique shades), but I don’t want to buy the whole big palette to get them, since trying to use up the shades I don’t really care for kind of interferes with my fun. The same thing happens with MAC palettes once in a while. In the beginning, I’d buy the palette anyway, but, now that I have a nice collection of eyeshadows that I love, I usually resist.
Urban Decay and Tarte!
Viseart, hands down. Nothing I have used thus far compares to that formula, but there is always a shade or two that I’m not very fond of in all of the palettes. I wish they sold them separately and/or had a make-your-own-palette type of system.
I wish Urban Decay sold their single shadows as refill pans, as I don’t currently buy them in the bulky packaging. Same with the Too Faced ones (though I’ve never really been impressed with the Tarte ones so don’t care about those).
i actually prefer palettes because of the value! but if asked this question a month ago i’d say Saucebox BUT they recently came out with singles! 🙂 yea!
Hands down…Urban Decay.
Definitely Urban Decay. I just checked their web site and they have 86 colors of singles (not counting the Moondust shadows). It seems like 86 would be enough, but it’s not. I want Grifter (from the Ammo palette) as a single.
Grifter used to be a single and permanent. I have one pan. Then UD discontinued it, along with Cobra?
Too Faced, definitely. They have a lot of very popular palettes, yet almost no shadow singles! I have a single from them from a loooong time ago, and it’s beautiful, but being able to replace staple shades with ease would be very nice!
Thanks for posting my question! =) I had a feeling UD would be a popular answer. I wish Buzz, Sonic, and the newly created Harajuku and Punk were available individually as they are my favorites. Especially Punk! It’s the shade I was hoping ABH’s Red Earth would be when I bought it online. Harajuku is one of the few pink shades I’ve used that actually shows up on my pink-toned skin (most tend to blend in with my pink skin regardless of what base I’ve used). Oh! And the gold color from the Glinda palette! That’s an amazing shade, too!
From Too Faced, I’d love to own a single of Coquet as it’s a shade I dip into 90% of the time when I use the A Few of My Favorite Things palette.
From KVD, I’d love singles of Night Crawler, Astrological, Ludwin, and Succubus.
ABH would have been on my list but, thankfully, new singles were just released which include Morocco and Intense Gaze, my two favorites from the SCWT palette. (Sadly, they were released two or three weeks AFTER I decided to purchase eight of pre-existing singles…)
Hmmm!!! I’d have to agree Christine, either UD or MUFE. I just can’t seem to stay away from any palette either brand puts out!
I agree with you choices of Too Faced and Urban Decay (mattes specifically–although they have some of the naked matte shades available individually, not all are available as singles) mainly because I don’t really like pre-made palettes because I’m not personally buying the product for the fancy/pretty/cute packaging and they take up a lot of space. I only have one Tarte palette and I can’t say I’m wishing for anything other than that one.
Marc Jacobs. I fell in love with the taupe shade in last year’s Christmas palette and would love to buy it again.
Idk, buying singles is way more expensive. I also use them less, and I refuse to depot them for whatever reason. That being said, I’d love to have a bag of money to spend on Anastasia singles and a cute magnetic palette from Etsy.
All good points made about UD and Too Faced.
I agree Colourpop and KVD also need to consider releasing more singles (in CP’s case, making LE colors permanent).
Sometimes I feel Clinique needs to put out more singles too. They tend to favor palettes composed of a bunch of tiny pans.
Yes! CP should make Koosh from the Forever Freshman set permanent! Best highlight color ever!
I am a very loyal UD eye makeup fan.
I know it was not so well received by the beauty community but I love the sparkly shadows in the Smashbox Full Expisure palette and will be sad when they are gone.
Urban Decay. . . love their palettes but always end up using some colors more than others . . .I’m sure they make certain palette colors unavailable as singles for this reason.
For me it’s definitely Lorac and Tarte. The original Unzipped palette… That matte mauve shade is one I NEED a backup of.
I am dying to get Crowbar from the Vice 4 palette!!! It is so unique, and I am having a hard time finding a close enough dupe.
No thought required on this question… HANDS DOWN – Make Up For Ever’s Artist ? Shadow’s.