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I actually went back several years (like 2015 and before), and I still think those palettes that I listed as “best” for the year were really lovely. So, instead, I think maybe Urban Decay’s Naked palette, which I really enjoyed at the time would be less impressive to me – more with respect to the color story than the formula per se.
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Probably Too Faced Sweet Peach. I keep it for the shade luscious. But overall, Too Face’s quality isn’t there and I don’t consider them now!
Someone dissin’ Naked??? Them’s is fighting words to me! 😉 For me, it would be the Kat von D Shade+Light palette. It’s a decent enough palette, but an all matte palette isn’t really much fun for me and while it’s a great “backbone” palette to have, I could never travel (if we ever can again) with just that one palette.
I agree, times change and more vivid or complex colour stories are being told. I would also suggest the original Lorac Pro palette. I surrendered my UD nakeds and pro palette a couple of years back because I was not reaching for them. It is also a function of preferring other formulas.
I actually wish MORE palettes had the color story of NAKED – Every neutrals palette that seems to come out, the browns are more like deep oranges. Wayyy too warm for someone with my skin tone. I still use my older palettes (original Laura Mercier Artist Palette and Naked 1, 2, and 3) for my every day work looks!
There sure have been a few! But mostly KVD MetalMatte palette. The quality and shades are still great, but that shape in that size has been a PITA to store or use. It’s just downright unwieldy and bulky.
I would agree with that UD Naked palette, Christine. Additionally the New Nudes Sephora Pro palette, which luckily I got super cheap because I never reach for it and really am not overly impressed by.
Those are two off the top of my head, but I’m sure there are plenty more.
Huda Beauty Desert Dusk. Now before you said the palette is beautiful and the formula was wonderful….it is really just okay for me. It was my first big palette and really didn’t work for my eyes. I can never get a good look out of it. I finally gave it away…
I’ve stopped purchasing from HUDA. I never tried Desert Dusk but what I tried I don’t think is worth the hype and is greatly over priced!
I agree about Urban Decay Naked palette! I really wish they kept it as part of their line as some of the colors inside are ones I still reach for quite often.
I think the Urban Decay Naked Basics palettes which I enjoyed when they launched would feel so bland to me now. So many of the colors looked very similar and I would wish for more diversity in the shade range for a 6 pan palette.
MAC Gravitas (Brooke Shields collab) – I’d probably still buy it today but everybody is doing palettes over singles these days so I would get it just to add to my collection rather than be really thrilled about it like I was when I first bought it.
TF Semi Sweet, feels kinda boring now. Though Peanut Butter is still my favorite one and done eyeshadow, brings out the blue-green in my eyes. Or with a blue or aqua or teal eyeliner 😉
Any Too Faced palette looks like mud whenever I try to blend it out but felt really luxe when I first bought them.
Natural eyes, chocolate bar, and white peach specifically.
They were SO MUCH BETTER than what
I had from the drugstore but not even close to the quality of the things I love now.
Related: I still have my Naked 1 palette and will never ever declutter it.
I’m curious what you would buy now for the same use case – neutral colour palette / classic colour story with a good formula? For those of us who never got Naked! Thanks!
I would have to agree with you Christine about Naked 1. Personally I would rearrange the shades and add a couple of new ones in – like Gunmetal would go to Naked 2 and I would replace that shade with Ambush from Vice 2. It was also a shame that Mushroom, that fabulous taupe shade, didn’t get a look in with Naked 2.
Another one is Vice 2 – loved it when I first got it, but now I hardly use it. The best shades are Damaged, that perfect green and Ambush and Derailed. It contains 4 black shades and 4 pink shades that are totally useless to me and redundant in the palette.
Oh my goodness, it was only a few years ago that I bought a Wet N Wild “Nude Awakening” palette to try to do some actual eye makeup beyond my normal curling my lashes and putting on mascara. It was $5 for two of them on Amazon, and at that time, I thought that was all I really wanted to spend on eyeshadow. (Side note: My teen daughter loves makeup and does cosplay type stuff on TikTok, and at the time she had a few BH Cosmetics palettes and what seemed to be a lot of makeup). I started trying out the looks I saw on YouTube, and I was blown away by how easy it was to make myself look a whole lot better! I’m still figuring out how to do my eyes well, because I lack patience and I know I need to blend and stuff. Blah, blah.
Anyway, I love the colors in that little Wet N Wild palette, but now I have learned so much about quality and performance and longevity in makeup, I understand that is not an impressive palette. But for $2.50 I still think it was not bad at all!
My daughter and I have so many nice palettes now!
She and I were actually swatching shadows to find out which ones were dupes for each other, and I was submitting so many we found onto this database, it stopped letting me add anymore dupes!
Urban Decay Cherry Palette. I remember I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I HAD to have it. Now I hardly, if ever use it nn
The Desert Dusk palette by Huda Beauty.
All of my Lorac Pro palettes were my babies when I first got them 5-7 years ago. Over time I’ve hit pan on many shades, I’ve depotted and rearranged them (and seen how similar the palettes all actually were), and I’ve grown tired of the formula, moving on to the likes of Viseart and Natasha Denona.
In contrast, this month I decided to take advantage of a bonus point offer at Ulta and purchase the UD Naked2 Basics palette out of a sense of curiosity since I’d never tried it and was looking for a curated set of cool-toned mattes. I absolutely LOVE it! The shadows are so blendable and create the classic look I’m going for with ease. They also last all day on me. And they work well with my NC15 skin tone. It makes me sad that I missed out on the original Naked & Naked Basics!
I am on a mission to try out all my eye shadow palettes this year to see if I still like them, love them or just don’t care for them at all. I’m still on the second brand in my new bookshelf that is housing the palettes and that is UD. I’m not sure about my old love Naked 3, I need to try a few other looks with it. I am sure I still love Naked 1 and 2 though.
I still have quite a few UD to try out and then comes all the rest 🙂
So, so far maybe Naked 3 and probably Smoked Naked, or whatever it’s called, I’ve not reached for it in years, or at least months.
The testing of all the palettes is fun, actually. I was sure I’d hate some palettes that I actually still like and was absolutely sure I’d still love Naked 3 as it contains colours I do love.
Late to this party…..I would say I love the color story of the original Naked palette, but I don’t like using it, due to quality. I won’t declutter it, because of sentiment. But I would like to dupe my favorite shades from the 1 2 and 3 with Sydney Grace shadows. One day.
The other is the ABH Riviera palette….I love the color story so much, but the quality has not held up. So sad. It’s in the project pan drawer, and my favorite shades will be duped with SG shadows.