What do you like about gold eyeshadow? What don't you like?

Tell us what you love and hate about...

Gold Eyeshadow

Huge fan of it, though I think that there could be more variety than we actually see… like there are a lot of light-medium to medium golds, plenty of gold with a blue-green shift, but I’d love to see deeper golds, deeper antique golds, etc.

— Christine

26 Comments

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Nancy T Avatar

What’s not to love about gold eyeshadows?!?
I do love gold eyeshadows of almost every hue. They make the greenish gold flecks in my irises pop, while also amplifying the blue teal outer rims of them. Personal faves are cooler yellow golds like UD Honey and Golden from Naked Honey, platinum hued golds like PMG Metallurgy, green-gold duochromes like in ND Gold Palette (I almost bought that one yesterday, but then saw PMG Star Wars, and that was that!) , more bronzy golds like MAC Woodwinked, I could go on and on!

My only “dislike” is if they have a cheapened look to them. Too much chunky glitter or a poor finish.

Vivian Avatar

Gold eyeshadow looks nice on my eyes, but I don’t often reach for it or buy it because it’s not a color I find aesthetically pleasing. With super warm yellow-gold shadows, the base tones often clash with my muted neutral-olive coloring, and make me look like I have a very localized case of jaundice! So for lid shades, I much prefer dirty bronzey or pewter-y golds, and I like cool white-golds for highlight shades. I do love a pop of gold glitter, so I’m much more likely to reach for a shadow with a different base color that has a gold reflection to it than a pure, one-tone gold shadow. (And now I’ve written the word “gold” so much that it doesn’t feel like a real word! :P)

janine Avatar

Can’t stand it. Mainly as it doesn’t look good on me unless I have a little summer color and that is a small window.

I can pull off a white gold and rose gold def works. A golden bronze sux too. And gold and bronze are in every palette.

Needless to say I can’t do gold highlighters unless quite peachy.

Janice Avatar

I heart Gold eyeshadows. The ND Gold palette is my absolute holy grail! I also love Gold highlighters, lip glosses, etc. could be because of my medium/warm, golden skin tone.
Plus, gold eyeshadows, be it in any form, copper gold, yellow gold, dirty gold, bright gold, greenish gold make my eyes pop. I even like to put it under my lash line, under a dark brown smudged eyeshadow.

MandaMarie Avatar

Same! I also love gold—it’s my favorite shade to wear. But when ND’s Gold Palette was initially announced, I thought all the shades looked too similar and it would be boring. IMO, the palette turned out to be anything but boring though—lots of gold, but in so many BEAUTIFUL variations and textured finishes! The palette is a DREAM for gold lovers like myself! Even though I have more palettes than any one person could ever reasonably need, I still wear the Gold Palette at least once or twice a week—in fact I just wore it yesterday!

Mariella Avatar

I was very surprised, years ago, to find that UD’s Strike (from one of the Vice palettes) was a fantastic colour on me. It opened my mind to the possibilities of gold eyeshadows…. I do avoid and don’t look great in any that are too yellow-y or orange toned, though. And if there’s anything I dislike, it would be the potential for fallout though I’ve been lucky with most of the ones I have as they’re pretty much “fallout free” (with the exception of UD’s Maui Wowie which is such a heart-breaker because it’s a beautiful colour but the fallout, as you observed a loooong time ago, Christine, is just the worst!)

Sarah Avatar

ColourPop Snakebite is my favorite eyeshadow of ALL time. It’s one of the few shadows I’ve gone through multiples of, and that I have backups! I LOVE it. It’s very close to Bare Minerals Cognac, which is my second fave shadow. Hard to find it now, but it’s stunning too. So funny to see someone else mention Snakebite!! I always beg ColourPop on social media to make it permanent.

Aniko Avatar

I love all kinds of golds and actually think that certain shades are missing from the selection of even MAC and similar companies.
I have kind of weird colored eyes, not really brown, not really hazel, but greenish brown, dark dirty gold circled with dark green edges. The best ever eye shadow I found was in a duty-free shop in London while in transit. It was a two pan YSL with two colors close to those of my eyes and 20 years later I am still upset that 1. I did not buy at least two sets, and that 2. I never found anything close to it.
It enhanced my eye color so well I got compliments on it and I did not do anything fancy just simply lined my eyes with it with a bit of shading on the upper lid. It was kind of a weird dirty dark gold leaning green that looked a bit scary in the pan but very good when applied.
Sure, I can get by with other antique golds, purples, some blue colors, taupes, olives, etc. but oh those YSLs…

Wednesday Avatar

I’m so with you on your comment, Christine. I cannot wear bright golds, yellow golds, orangey golds.. I tend to so really well with dirtied, muted, rustic golds leaning pewter/bronze/etc..

Enraptured, from the MTHRSHP Platinum Bronze and NARS Stud are my two best ‘golds’ which are muted, much less intense. I loved MAC Patina for many years for same reason.

Rachel R. Avatar

I love gold eyeshadow. I think it’s very flattering with my coloring, and it goes with most other colors. I very much agree with you that we could see more variety, instead of just the same medium gold and bronze-gold metallics. I would love to see more that leaned pewter, green (not a shift, but actual green-tinged golds), really yellow, and antique, as well as golds with colored sparks.

My biggest rant would be directed at Pat McGrath. PML needs to stop putting dupes of the same gold in nearly every palette. As much as I love gold e/s, I don’t need that many of the same shade. Surely, Mother can get more creative.

dee collins Avatar

Gold! Gold! Gold!! The sparklier the better~! It’s just so pretty + looks good on so many! Makes my eyes pop – can’t live without it!

Emilie Avatar

I love how many different ways there are to do gold. Cooler, warmer, paler, deeper, more bronzed… There’s a gold for every look (which is why I actually appreciate the variety in ABH Soft Glam). Not many downsides to me, but I do feel there’s a finer line between gaudy and classy when working with gold. I also particularly hate the look of gold fallout as opposed to lighter shimmers.

On a side note, that Pat McGrath gold in the pic is one of the prettiest I’ve used. It’s honestly one of the major reasons I was drawn to the Mothership VI.

Jane Avatar

It works well, but I’m not a great fan. Can’t say why. Perhaps because it ends up being just a eye look highlighter for me (on my brow bone). I am sure I could do wonders with it, but I’m just not a “gold” person.

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