My Top 3 Drug Store and High End Eye Shadow Palettes.

Hello all,

Today, my post as you will have guessed from the title is all about my favourite eye shadow palettes. Many of you will be surprised I'm sure that Urban Decay's "Naked" palette will not be featured as I'm a "Naked Virgin", I'm yet to purchase it, but it is on the agenda.

High End

1) Clinique's Teddy Bear Quad      £25 

This is a picture of my new palette as I have hit pan quite badly on my current one, especially with color "1". This is one of my favourite palettes ever, most days I go for a brown smokey eye and with this item I just do not need anything else to create it. This picture includes the packaging too, I haven't taken off any of it at all, as I love that they have given a little make-up lesson on it. I think it's really nice when companies do that, as it can give you so many ideas despite the fact you may have some of your own. Color "1" or "4" are matte shades and "2" and "3" are ever so slightly and I mean ever so slightly, shimmery. If you're a big fan of bright, glittery shadows then I obviously couldn't recommend it, however if like me, you do like your browns and neutrals, I cannot rave enough to you to try it.

(Available from your nearest Clinique counter, in both America and the UK)

2) Benefit's Big Beautiful Eyes      £24.50

This palette again is very neutral, as in fact is my next high end palette too. This product features the "Boi-ing Concealer in shade 02" and 3 shadows, 2 (the pink and mauve) the are shimmers and the other (brown) being a matte shade. Now the first thing I will rave about is the high pigmentation of all these shadows, the brown in particular. I think this product is a must have for anyone as it is so versatile and gives a twist to the classic neutral eye. It's also small enough to pop in your bag on the go and complete with 2 brushes, one being a double ended fluffy/liner brush and the other for concealer and mini fold out make up lesson, you have no excuse to look anything other than fabulous be it day or night. My only criticism of this item is the concealer side of it, I don't think the brush is amazing and although to me the thickness of the concealer is fabulous, the color is awful for anyone pale like me. I've tried to work with it a few times and on myself and friends as you can see, but it's just too dark. I wish they put each of the shades in separate palettes so that you could pick the one that will work with your skin tone. Although, I can see what they're trying to do, use the middle color hoping  to be sort of fair.

3) Dior's 5 Coulers Lift      £41.50

This is obviously the most expensive out of them all, in fact almost double. However, let me explain to you why I love it. It was brought out in 2011 and I think it is seriously so cool and clever. This palette includes a primer/base, 2 eye shadows, a highlighter and a brow/eyeliner cream. In addition a good quality "zoomy" mirror and good applicators. On of them even has an angle brush which I don't really like to line my eyes but is nice for the brows. Now, all that is pretty good if you think about it, for what you're actually getting and for such high quality. My only reservation about it, other than the price, is the highlighter, I think it's fab for inner corners but in my opinion it is way to sparkly for brown bone.

Drug Store


1) MUA's Immaculate Collection      £8.00

This palette as you can see includes a wide variety of 24 colours, that are an absolute steal for £8.00. However, I must explain that I didn't pay £8.00 for it, in fact I paid nothing at all for it, I got it free. If you have facebook and are not already 'liking' the MUA page, click this right now: http://www.facebook.com/MUAmakeupacademy
They do so many amazing offers and update you on what's going on, what's next to come out etc. I used this to my advantage, MUA did an offer in that if you bought anything from their site, yes even a little £1 eye shadow you would get this free of charge, so of course I did so. I use this so much and although it is quite large so you can't just pop it in your handbag, you can literally just take this with you on a weekend/week/night away. There are a combination of matte and shimmer shades in all sorts of colours as you can see, you can create any look you want! A particular favourite of mine is a matte purple, I have green eyes which purple highlights, so this for a day time is excellent as shimmers sometimes aren't as wearable.

2) Sleek's Storm Palette      £6.49

The Storm palette I'm fairly sure is in most girl's make up collections as they are such good value for money, with 12 high pigmentation shades in both matte and shimmer, it's hard not to like it. I adore the colours in this palette, as you can see I have hit pan in a few of the shadows and although some have been worn more than others certainly does not mean that I do love the others equally, the pine green and beautiful burgundy, the classy champagnes and the midnight blue, I just can't say enough about it. If you haven't already, I would highly recommend anyone to buy this, especially if you're on a bit of a budget. This one palette has lasted me one year and I think it's still got a lot of use left! 

3) Front Cover's "To Go" Interchangeable Palette          Ranges in £'s

My final drug store favourite is this interchangeable palette in which you can choose any of shadows, be them baked or pressed from Front Cover and pop them in and out. This is really handy I think if you're getting ready at a friends are creating a particular look, as you can see from the picture above I was creating a bluey smokey eye. I basically got a front cover gift set with loads of colours in and this palette for around the £25 mark, I featured it in an early post shown here:
http://luces-rants.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=16
However pay attention guys, at the moment at boots.com they are doing a sale, the palette itself is £2 down from £5 and all the shadows are £1 which are usually £4, granted there isn't a great lot of shades to chose from but there ones that are on are beautiful. I'm also not 100% on whether it's happening in the larger stores too, you'll have to keep me posted if you say anything, but if I were you, I'd grab a bargain.

Sorry for the long post guys, I know it's a big read. If you do like this sort of thing please let me know and I'll do more!

Lots of love

:)