A Case Of The Very Necessary Neutral eyeshadow.

Ever since Urban Decay released their first ever Naked palette, its popularity rippled across the entire beauty industry and the effects can still be felt years later. Now, almost every brand has their own rendition of the perfect neutral eyeshadow palette, ranging from cool to warm tones.

The reason why the Naked palette is so successful can be attributed to the versatility and wearability of neutral eyeshadows. They give you that oomph you need to go from naturally beautiful to gorgeous, and is suitable for both work and play. What's not to love about it?

Here, I featured 5 eyeshadow palettes that are leaning on the warm and pink side that won't break your bank. You're welcome! I've already featured a tonne of Makeup Revolution eyeshadow palettes that're also very affordable in my previous post (part 1 and part 2), so I've left them out of this entry.

All of these brands are from USA, but Maybelline and Loreal are available in Singapore hence the prices are in SGD. I'm pretty sure if you are bent on getting the other 3 palettes, you can find them somewhere online.

5 affordable neutral eyeshadow palettes

e.l.f. | NEED IT NUDE EYESHADOW PALETTE | USD10

10 silky smooth warm neutral shades for your everyday look. Complete with matte and shimmery shades for definition and a little bit of glam.

Swatches via e.l.f. cosmetics pinterest

Swatches via e.l.f. cosmetics pinterest

BH COSMETICS | NUDE ROSE 12 COLOUR EYESHADOW PALETTE | USD14

A mixture of satin, matte and shimmery shades, formulated to be soft and blendable. Brownie points for the beautiful tin packaging!

Swatched via bh cosmetics instagram.

NYX | ULTIMATE SHADOW PALETTE (WARM NEUTRALS) | USD18

16 reddish brown shades in matte and shimmery finishes! They also have another palette aptly named "cool neutrals" featuring more purplish shades.

You can see swatches at kiddykatdoesmakeup.com and simplyswatches.com.


MAYBELLINE | THE NUDE EYESHADOW PALETTE | SGD26.90

12 matte and shimmery neutral eyeshadows. By neutral I mean it leans more on the yellowish brown side. It's said to be rather powdery and not very pigmented, but I believe a primer would solve that problem.



Swatches via beautzy.com.

LOREAL | LA PALETTE NUDE (BEIGE) | SGD29.90

10 golden beige eyeshadows (matte and shimmery) with a supposedly better formulation than the Maybelline nudge eyeshadow palette. This also comes in a rose gold variation named ROSE. Both looks beautiful to me!

See swatches at reallyree.com.

Ending note:
I know I probably missed out a lot of other affordable brands, but these are just the ones that I happen to know of. There are simple TOO MANY BRANDS out there! If you know of any other awesome and wallet friendly products, do let me know! I would love to learn about them!

Keep the new products coming!

Korean beauty has always been innovative, just as I thought Korean beauty brands have exhausted all possible ideas, Etude House came up with something really interesting. Now, two toned lip sticks aren't new, but this is the first time I've seen it being delivered in such a way. This asks for a deserving clap (which comes in the form of a dedicated blog entry)!

TWIN SHOT LIPS TINT | 14.4USD (9.36USD NOW!)

This product confused me when i first looked at it. how do you get two shades with just one wand?

Turns out, you get 5g of the mousse tint that is housed in a traditional lip gloss kinda packaging, complete with a doe foot applicator. You also apply it the same way you would apply a lip gloss. The special part is the 2.5g of shot tint, which is delivered through the doe foot applicator (yes, the same one!) by clever product design. Clicking the button on the end of the packaging will release the shot tint through a small hole in the center of the doe foot applicator! genius or what?

Confusing much? Probably not so once you see the actual product. Any how, it's quite a brilliant idea since it is more convenient to carry one product for 2 shades :) From the official swatch, the product seem to have a satin finish, which seems drying to me.

Comes in 9 colour variations.

click to enlarge!

I really think it's a brilliant idea to package two colours into one product!

Personal favourite is the RD301 lady x red shot, and possible OR201 pure x love shot. Those two combination looks healthy and lovely! The only one I do not understand is PK002 inner x peace shot. I believe the blue tint changes colour to that universal hot pink shade that every colour changing lip product achieves, which looks almost similar to the pink "shot colour". What's the point!? If you're into colour changing products, I'd recommend Canmake's your lips only lip gloss. :)

More dupes that won't break your bank!

After introducing the Urban Decay Naked dupes in the previous entry, which I suppose is probably the most useful dupe ever because who doesn't like the Naked series? That is, if you don't already own a tonne of neutral eye shadows.

I've done my little research and put together another list of dupes. If you're not a fan of Urban Decay, Makeup Revolution does dupes for other popular palettes too! Just a little bummer if you live in the States: some of these products are not available on their US web store! I say it's a little bummer because I live in a place where Makeup Revolution isn't even available here. :P So yea, count yourself lucky!

LORAC PRO PALETTE VS MAKEUP REVOLUTION ICONIC PRO 1 (12USD)

LORAC PRO PALETTE 2 VS MAKEUP REVOLUTION ICONIC PRO 2 (12USD)

TOO FACED CHOCOLATE BAR VS MAKEUP REVOLUTION I ♡ MAKEUP I HEART CHOCOLATE

TOO FACED SEMI-SWEET CHOCOLATE BAR VS MAKEUP REVOLUTION I ♡ MAKEUP I HEART CHOCOLATE SALTED CARAMEL

TOO FACED SWEET HEARTS BLUSH (CANDY GLOW) VS MAKEUP REVOLUTION I ♡ MAKEUP BLUSHING HEARTS (CANDY QUEEN OF HEARTS)

Makeup Revolution has a wide variety of products (that aren't dupes) worth checking out. They straight out take inspiration (or should I say, copy!?) from other brands and make them in even more shades than the original brand. You can call them sly, but they are clearly targeting a different market segment from the high end brands and bringing good products to people who aren't willing to fork out that much money.

Economics at its best!

Sweet peachy goodness, and everyone else seem to agree with me on that!

Too Faced recently launched a limited edition eye shadow palette. Usually they just slip past my radar, but this is peach themed and for some strange reason, I'm into peachy shades lately. Well, it probably isn't a strange coincidence, because I no longer under estimate the influence advertisement and marketing can have on me.

I also read that it sold out within 5 minutes? Or was that just an exaggeration? Whatever the case, IT'S SOLD OUT. If you planned on getting your hands on them, don't be heart broken yet! I happened to come across several other palettes that are also peach themed, so MAYBE they could soothe that little heart ache of yours?

TOO FACED SWEET PEACH EYE SHADOW COLLECTION | USD49

MAKEUP REVOLUTION ULTRA 32 EYESHADOW PALETTE FLAWLESS 2 | USD 15

MAKEUP REVOLUTION I ♡ MAKEUP I HEART CHOCOLATE VICE | 7.99 POUNDS

ETUDE HOUSE PLAY COLOUR EYES JUICE BAR | USD26.4
musingsofamuse swatched these on her blog!

while these dupes aren't exactly the same, but they do have some shades that are similar to the Too Faced palette. I would warn against the Etude House palette though, it probably won't be as buttery smooth or pigmented (especially the matte shades) as Too Faced's.

On a side note, how do you like the new style of graphics in this entry? I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm very happy with my creation! I love how pleasing it looks :) And I hope you like it as much as I do!

You don't always need to sacrifice money for quality.

Makeup Revolution was introduced to me by a dear friend of mine a while ago. She's all about how awesome their eyeshadow palettes are (she owns probably 8 or 9, if I remember correctly). When I finally got a chance to try them out when I was back in Hong Kong last November, I snapped up a palette for myself even though I don't need anymore eyeshadow.

I just couldn't resist it - the quality at that price point is just too good to ignore! Not buying it would result in more regret than if I were to buy it. So after rationalizing my purchase, I paid for the ICONIC 3 palette, which is a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked3 palette.

In fact, the entire Redemption Iconic series is a dupe for the Naked series! I've put them together for better comparison, prices included! You're welcome!

URBAN DECAY NAKED VS MAKEUP REVOLUTION REDEMPTION ICONIC 1

URBAN DECAY NAKED2 VS MAKEUP REVOLUTION REDEMPTION ICONIC 2

URBAN DECAY NAKED3 VS MAKEUP REVOLUTION REDEMPTION ICONIC 3

URBAN DECAY NAKED SMOKY VS MAKEUP REVOLUTION ICONIC SMOKEY (12USD)
Note: This palette is not available on the US site, so I've referenced the price in British Pounds. But I just found out it's available on ulta!!! So I've linked it there ;)

Will they offer the exact experience as the higher end counterpart? I can't guarantee that, and I don't think so in my honest opinion. 

I've only tried the Naked testers in the Sephora stores, and may I say their formula is a lot more buttery, and gets picked up by my finger a lot easier. My Makeup Revolution palette works fine for most of the shades, expect for a few that might harden over time and requires some effort to pick up a decent amount of pigments.

But if you were to standardize their quality to their price, I dare say they are on par with each other. Probably, the Makeup Revolution Palette might even come in on top! 

Bottom line: if you're a makeup junkie who is into experimenting with many colours, then the wallet friend dupes are a good bargain for you. C'mon, you can get 7.7 Makeup Revolution palettes for the price of 1 Urban Decay palette.