Anything over 15 is what I’d consider to be larger, and they’re okay, but when you start to get to 30+ shades, I find they are overwhelming and get redundant.
— Christine
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I think they make great gifts for teenagers or people just starting out with makeup as it allows for them to experiment with a bunch of colors and figure out what they like best. As someone who has been collecting makeup for years I rarely find them useful, as I can usually dupe a lot of colors with what I have already.
15 colors in a palette is probably the max for me and that’s only if the palette is curated so it’s easy to put together looks. For example, all of Charlotte Tilbury’s bigger palettes come in sets of three shadow groups so it’s easy for me to use. On the other hand, I look at the Natasha Denona and the PMG Mothership palettes are really struggle to make them work.
I like the variety and versatility of large palettes, but some aren’t well curated and self+dupe or are incohesive. Huge mega-palettes can be overwhelming, unwieldy, and hard to store.
Anything over 20 shades just overwhelms me. In fact, lately I prefer 15 and under unless it’s a REALLY special palette and very beautifully curated!
If they’re well put together with colours I like they can be wonderful. Urban Decay Vice 2 is a good example because using just one well-coordinated larger palette means I don’t have to reach for other shadows, go digging for singles, etc. But large palettes can also be overwhelming mentally and also unwieldy (I put my makeup on in a small area with not a lot of surface space). And packaging is important too for that reason – something like UD’s Game of Thrones palette has such impractical packaging and I have to sort of “reorganize” my bathroom counter just to get the shadows out from the stupid “case” (same goes for some earlier BOS palettes from UD and some from TooFaced).
I never liked bigger palettes, they are inconvenient to store, inconvenient to use and I personally find overwhelming to have too many options. 15 eyeshadows is more than enough from my point of view.
If I get one, I usually depot it and rearrange it with others in the same shade family. Some can be very hard to read. Side eying you, Norvina.
I agree with you Christine – 14 -16 is the max size that I will have, those big mega palettes just simply don’t interest me at all.
I think the only mega kind of palette that I was once interested in was the BH Foil Eyes 2 that you once reviewed and it was pretty well near perfect. But I didn’t get it because it was just too big.
Often brands create these mega palettes and the shades are often repeated with slightly different finishes or tones, many of them can be reduced by half.
These palettes are much harder to store too.
The only plus part is that because of the many shades, you can experiement with different colours.
Larger eyeshadow palettes can give you a chance to try some colors that you might not usually purchase but you need to find storage for them. I’ve never purchased a huge palette I prefer 10 and under myself, I would be too overwhelmed with anything larger.
It’s really interesting to read the replies of others because most of us here are died in the wool eyeshadow lovers and yet all of us seem to find really large palettes both physically and “mentally” unwieldy. I find that really interesting since you’d think just the opposite would be the case, but it ain’t!
Sorry – make that “dyed in the wool”. UGH!
Larger eyeshadow palettes offer a lot of variety for those that don’t have an extensive collection and one can get a lot of looks out of them.
But, they can be hard to store, and if not organized in a pleasing way or in a way that makes sense to me, I can find them overwhelming. My sweet spot is 12-15 eyeshadows.
I’m not one for mega palettes due to storage issues and the fact they seem to stymie me creatively. I tend to pick my favourites and ignore the rest which defeats the value aspect.
I love big palettes as long as the shades are all unique and the palette is well curated with an eye to different color combinations. Someone mentioned Urban Decay’s Vice 2 – that’s one of my all time favorite palettes. Wish it would be rereleased but I don’t think UD can make shadows of that quality anymore!
There is nothing I like about large palettes. I have a small range of colors that look good on me, and in a large palette I depot the ones I like and throw out the rest, because I KNOW from experience I won’t use an eyeshadow if it doesn’t look good. Duh. That means I keep about 4 or 5 if I’m lucky and discard the rest. Very wasteful.
What do you like? Nothing.
What don’t you like? Bulk. Shades I’ll never use. Bulk (so annoying you’ve gottta say it twice).
I like the “rainbow” effect they tend to give off, with lovely clog schemes and also choice to make various looks. I like that they are usually more difficult to hold to do your eyes. I definitely do not like if they have very small pans.