What’s your most used eyeshadow? Share!
Burberry Trench or MAC Espresso! Trench is my go-to for brow bone, while I use Espresso (now paired with Brun) for brows.
Thanks to CJ for today’s question! Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.
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!
Benefit Call My Bluff– it’s a light beige skintone color, so it sets my foundation, serves as a base shadow, and eye brightener — and it lasts a long time on my oily lids.
MAC Orb, MAC Soft Brown and L’Oreal Infallible Continuous Cocoa. All 3 get used nearly every day. Orb is my favorite browbone shadow, Soft Brown my favorite transition shade (Kid almost ties), Continuous Cocoa is my eyebrow powder (and also hides pesky grays that pop up between root touch-ups too!)
Bobbi Brown Espresso. That’s the shade I use for tightlining.
probably the darkest shade of the covergirl quad 260 (coffee shop) great for crease work! … or mac satin taupe haha xx
Right now MAC’s Patina for powder eyeshadow, and Laura Mercier’s Amethyst Caviar Eye Stick for cream eyeshadow.
I love Patina!!
UD Naked 1
My most used eyeshadow? Oh my. I don’t know if I have one I use more than all the others, I love them all so much I try to make sure they all get used!!!
I’m the same way. I rotate what I use every week. I don’t have a most used eyeshadow. I don’t even have anything I’ve hit pan on, at least not in the last few years.
MAC Brule, closely followed by Wedge. Brule is always my base colour and wedge is usually my transition colour. I’ve hit pan on both of these about 3 or 4 times
This is a hard one, I have so many and I rotate often. BareMinerals Eyecolor in Bare Skin, Bubbly, and Nude Beach (awesome 1 look shades); Almay Intense i-Color Eye Shadow Trio for Hazel Eyes (DC’d: brown, cream and pink; it was an everyday go-to for years when my kids where little and I had no money or time); Notoriously Morbid Autumn Flower;any of UD’s purples; ColourPop Cricket.
UD Sellout for all over my lid and MAC Blanc Type for my brow bone!
Half the time when I leave my house I’m wearing only Sellout!
Actually, I should rephrase that: Half the time when I leave my house the only eyeshadow I am wearing is Sellout. 😉
Electra from Mac! Haven’t used it in a long time but it’s the first and surprisingly only eye shadow I’ve hit pan on.
Tease from Urban Decay’s Naked 2 palette might be a close second- it’s my favorite crease color!
Catrice Starlight Espresso! Gorgeous taupe shade, but it happens to be a great brow powder as well! 🙂
Maybe Cargo Yukon…it’s really a shadow I can wear all on its own. It’s quick, easy, taupe and goes with everything.
Burberry Taupe Brown and Burberry Pale Barley!
Are Burberry eyeshadows as wonderful as I keep hearing? I’m trying to justify the cost.
Definitely Rustic from my Smashbox Cherry Smoke palette!
Makeupgeek Peach Smoothie and Creme Brulé. I use both as a transition shade most of the time.
Chains by Urban Decay. I just broke into my 3rd one. It looks fantastic against my brown eye color and can be worn alone and still look like I put in the effort. I really wish they would release this one again in their new formula.
I have an essential quad I use every single day that goes with me everywhere, all by MAC:
Concrete: brows, crease definition
Brule: skin tone shade to clean up brows, blend, and subtly highlight.
Orb: awesome for under eye circles, brightening the lid, under the brow highlight
Smut: to fade out black eyeliner or as a liner, outer v, fix patchy spots in eyebrows where it’s darkest.
I use Urban Decay Walk of Shame nearly every day as a brow bone highlight. After that, I would say MAC Woodwinked…best eyeshadow ever!
Mac Cork
MUFE #S602 Cinnamon or Makeup Geek Creme Brulee,these two are already hit a pan!
probably a duel to death by TF platinum and MAC patina.
UD Naked, Sin, Virgin, and the taupey-beige color in my Dior Rose Ballerina palette
Nyx’s Happy Hour. It’s such a natural, cool brown, it’s a pretty effortless crease color. I didn’t think I’d use a single so much but it’s really light and handy for travel.
UD Naked 3 palette. I can’t chose a specific colour as they all get used fairly equally.
yaby Bark (brows) and Wet n Wild Brule (blending, base, under browbone). I would imagine for many people those shadows (for those areas) are their workhorses!
Hands down MAC Swiss Chocolate which is the perfect crease/transition color for brown skin. Also, MAC Arena, which is the perfect brow bone highlight. I have repurchased both more than once and I have yet to find exact dupes…though I’m not really trying to. They are perfect 🙂
MAC Satin Taupe, Woodwinked and Texture! No matter what I buy during the year, I always come back to those for a month or so….classics!
I’d probably have to say Mac bisque for brow bone, Mac naked lunch for inner corner or whatever highlight and then Mac sketch I’ve repurchased a few times for the crease or outer V. I have a lot of chanel, Guerlain and lancome quads (i get good deals at murale and shoppers drug mart) so I use these three Mac colors to finish off my looks with the quads. I apparently do a lot of putple looks too.
I tend to just burn through my bisque eyeshadow and I know there’s gotta be something better out there. I’ve been debating getting something from mufe as they are larger and reviews are really good. Maybe next vib event I’ll acctually make one of those trios and get myself a good universal brow bone inner corner and crease.
It’s a tie between Urban Decay Sin, Buck, and W.O.S.
Estee Lauder Double Wear ShadowCream in Pink Pearl!
Probably MAC’s Pressed Pigment in Day Gleam. It’s my favorite lid color ever! After that probably MAC Soft Brown for the crease or LORAC Nectar from the PRO2 Palette. I also have worn my pan of Naked Lunch almost to the bone! haha
Mac all that glitters and Maybelline color tattoo in bad to the bronze 😉
Revlon Pure Pearl; it’s my HG highlight, and it’s the only time I’ll use a different brand in an eye look. Unfortunately, it has been DC’d for quite some time, but I have yet to hit pan on one, and I happened to grab 4-5 backups, which haven’t been touched, so I’m set for a while! It’s such a pigmented shadow, and I barely have to touch my brush to the shadow to pick up enough product to provide a subtle, pearly glow.
I’ve been favoring cream shadows lately, and Maybelline Tough As Taupe has been my go-to crease shade, with Black Orchid for the lid-fortunately I managed to stumble onto a backup while at Ulta-and on sale!
MAC’s Woodwinked, Shroom and Wedge
Naked 2 “suspect” + “tease” = go to everyday look. Tease is my favorite crease color so that one is probably actually used more…
I use an old eyeshadow called Seashell from Paula Dorf as my base and brow bone shade. It matches my skin tone perfectly! As far as other shades go, the only palette eyeshadow I’ve reached major pan on is the glitter-bomb shade Sidecar in Urban Decay’s original Naked palette. I’ve even bought the single eyeshadow of Sidecar as a replacement, which has surprisingly less fallout!
I looked this morning when I was getting ready, and it’s MAC Fashion Fix. I’ve hit pan because I use it to softly blend out and bring a little coolness to warmer eyelid colors. I looked it up, and you gave this an F, and I find that I like it for all the reasons you didn’t! I like that it’s not too buildable, and I don’t use enough to kick up powder. It just does some kind of magic for me. 😉
I have several MAC shadows that I’m on my second or third pan Bring for eyebrows, Naked Lunch, Shroom, All that Glitters and Woodwinked!
I default to Stila Kitten. A lot.
Bobbi Brown’s Cement . I have both the powder and the cream version.
MAC Shroom or Femme Fi, my go to highlighters for either cool or warm looks. Beyond highlighters, probably MAC Satin Taupe.
NARS Bali and MAC Tailor Grey – they are more or less a powder and cream version of the same color. On me, they are the perfect ‘no make-up, just more definition’ kind of neutrals. Bali also doubles as my go-to brow color.
Urban Decay Mildew.
MAC Let’s Skate! Good on its own and convenient)))
Lately, Urban Decay Secret Service. I use it in my “crease” to combat the unfortunate extreme hooded eyes I was blessed with. :-/ It’s a good shade to give the illusion of depth for my skintone.
Urban Decay Smog in Naked 1. I’m medium-dark, and this is a medium-dark bronze that is perfect for me! When in doubt, I do a wash of this. It pairs beautifully with my go-to pinks, purples, reds, and nudes. Win!
UD Sin.
UD Flash. So good with green eyes!
MAC Omega (eyebrows) and UD Sellout
i switch up my stuff daily but recently been going back to the KVD Shade & light eye palette – so in love! but the one eyeshadow that im almost at pan is Lancome’s ‘meet me in paris’ at the time i didn’t realize it was an LE item 🙁 so i try to sparingly use it haha
Hands down, it’s Urban Decay Laced! I reach for it more than any other. It’s almost a shame, with so many palettes, that I go for this one almost every single time. I use it to mattify and even out skintone, as well as when i overdo a smokey eye and need to tone it down. It’s the perfect color!!
It’s MAC Brulé. I use it almost every day.
Bedhead Cosmetics Taupe shadow.
It’d have to be MAC Paint in Bare Canvas. I use it as an eye primer, really, but if I’m in a serious rush I’ll whack on the Paint and then dust a tiny bit of my blush shade over top. I’ve been using it like that for more than 10 years now! A more recent favourite for the same kind of thing is Bare Minerals 5-in-1 BB Eyes in Candlelit Peach. It doesn’t give quite as good a base as the Paint, but it’s got SPF 15 in it, and the peachiness really helps tone down the blue circles on my eyelids (I smudge some along the lower lid as well). It’s a good option for the upcoming summer, with both the sun and my hayfever.
It occurs to me that I ought to try layering – or even mixing – the two!
For most used ever (as in, not necessarily recently), I’d say Urban Decay YDK. I used to wear that almost every time I wore eyeshadow and it’s the closest shade to hitting pan in my collection.
Recently, though, I haven’t been wearing eyeshadow regularly because my eye dryness has been getting worse and worse and having to use drops often messes up my eye makeup so I just forgo it altogether.
Makeup geek cocoa bear & mac satin taupe
MAC Naked Lunch
I was using an It Cosmetics palette, but I’m back to my trusty Bare Minerals Drama. It’s the best color for my green eyes.
Urban Decay Buck and Naked! They’re my go-to for a lazy eye look.
Shiseido Shimmershell
It varies. Right now I reach for Colourpop’s Truth most often; it’s my go to inner eye color. The color I’m most likely to hit pan on first, though, is UD’s Primal from the Naked Basics 2–it’s a great cool brown for my eyebrows.
That’s a hard question because it depends on what colours I am wearing:
Blues – definitely my Guerlain Les Gris eye shadow palette – the blue goes with all my blues
Greens – either my YSL solo in Slate green, or the Charlotte Tilbury palette greens
Neutrals – colours from UD Naked 1 with lots of use of half baked
Greys – my good old favourite Film Noir from EL
MAC Embark and Lorac Espresso from the Pro Palette. I have huge dips in both
MAC All That Glitters for the lid and Urban Decay Naked, which is perfect in the crease. 🙂
I don’t have one brand that I gravitate towards, but I have to say that my mix of palettes that I created with my Z Palettes are the ones I use the most. It’s a mix of MAC, Sugarpill, MUG, MUFE, Lorac….there’s so many. For the spring time however, I’ve been using less smoky looks, even for the evening, and using vibrant shades, such as the new Artists Palette from Anastasia Beverly Hills. I love those bright pastel and almost “neon” shades, but applied in a way that doesn’t look like a flashback to the 80’s.
Mine are MAC Gleam (got my second one not long ago!), Naked Lunch, Patina and Quarry. Naked Lunch is almost nonexistent already, I got MUFE I-526 to replace it but, weirdly enough I am not that blown away by it. NL is more my cup of tea, so I will definitely be getting back to it when I’m done with the MUFE one.
I know this is selfish of me, but, Christine, if you do have a minute to spare, would you confirm that Naked Lunch is quite similar to I-526? I did not see them mentioned as similar in your review, so I’d guess you do not think they are, but do you know if there is a MUFE one that is similar to NL? Thank you so much in advance 🙂
http://www.temptalia.com/submit-dupe?sbs=1&pid=105602&dupe=171103
Hands down, it’s got to be Urban Decay’s Snakebite in the Naked 2 palette. Either that or it’s YDK, but they’re good year round.
powder:
ud naked, buck, blackout, darkside, factory
mac espresso (brows)
nars coconut grove (brows)
burberry storm grey
recently also loving gucci sasso
cream:
chanel illusion d’ombres mirage
giorgio armani eyes to kill
maybelline bad to the bronze
mac painterly
recently into giorgio armani eye tint gold copper and senso
pigment:
i only use makeup store eyedusts
My goodness, that’s a tough one! I tend to change my eye look weekly sometimes daily! Whatever’s my mood. I have used a lot of the naked palettes and chocolate bar palette. I have a lot of high end palettes but the one I’m really loving at the moment is budget brand Wet n Wild Comfort Zone palette. What a fab little palette that is. Don’t cha just love it when you find some real gems in the budget market.
I have a bazillion palettes mostly all mid to high end, but the WnW Silent Treatment Trio is such a well-loved work-horse. The top shade is a wonderful brightening shade for the lid or browbone, the middle shade is probably my favorite taupe, and the quality and texture is a 10, and the darker brown shade is a fantastic eyeliner that doesn’t budge, and I can use it on my dark brows too. Even though it has glitter in the pan, it never shows glitter on my eye or brow. I have no idea where it goes 😉 but I’m glad because it makes it infinitely more useable! I generally use the first two colors separately in different looks though, so it’s not a one and done palette for me. And I agree, it is a thrill when you find a gem in the budget market.
Ooo! Will have to look out for that one. I’m from the UK so Wet n Wild isn’t available in any stores over here. Amazon is my only supply.
Burberry Pale Barley
Urban Decay’s Tease has the biggest dent in it, but lately I’ve been loving Force of Nature from the Tartelette palette!
Stila Kitten and NARS Lhasa
I wear Urban Decay Smog almost every day.
MAC texture. Love a warm brown!
I change my e/s pretty much daily, but I’d have to say Bobbi Brown Heather because it’s a perfect shade to blend out the crease in any look that has pinks/mauves/purples/plums and I tend to wear those colors the most.
My coloring is fair to light cool/pink NW15-20.
My most used eye shadow would be Nars cream eye shadow in Paper Toffee, a great toffee brown neutral for dark skin tones. It’s been discontinued. I have a serious hole in the middle of the pan now where my finger and brush swished their spot at. I use it while doing my smoky eye to contrast the cream shadow with the matte eye shadow. Another is Make Up For Ever Matte eye shadow in M100 Black. It has a little chip in the corner of the pan where some of the color came off. It also has a little dent where my brush swished it. No major dent as of yet.
I always use either UD Sin or Virgin as my browbone/corner highlight, but for lids I usually use UD Toasted & Hustle. MAC Banshee gets a lot of use, too, as does the entire Naked Basics palette.
MAC Outre. It makes my eyes the bluest they’ve ever looked. It’s LE, so when I run out, I’m going to get … I don’t know. There’s really nothing else like it.
Mac expensive pink, and Mac Blanc type
Mac expensive pink and or Mac Blanc type
I love Shale from MAC.
It’s a wonderful color for all eyes 🙂
Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze on the lid and Milani Bella Taupe in the crease.
Taupe from the LORAC Pro Palette. I use it to blend and as a transition shade between my crease and my brow bone.
Bobby brown In Bone
my naked basics 2 and indie company called monennui cosmetics shade smut a sparkly dirty rose 🙂