Price: $42 * Buy At: Ulta * Size: 0.28 oz The Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette is made up of a mixture of warm neutrals and berry tones. The Modern Renaissance Palette consists of 14 shadows--most of the shades are matte, but a couple colors have a gorgeous metallic finish. The palette is a muted pink and has a velvety texture. The lid does have a mirror on it, but the lid does not hold itself up. A small, dual ended brush is included in the palette, but the size makes it a bit impractical. I was not originally interested in the palette when I saw it online, but once I swatched it in person, I was so impressed! The formula of every shadow is so smooth, pigmented and easy to blend. The color selection is beautiful, and most of the shades are very wearable, with the exception of the more red-pink shades: Venetian Red & Love Letter. As you can assume from the texture of the shadows, the Modern Renaissance Palette is very easy to work with and blends out effortlessly on the eyes. I have liked Anastasia palettes in the past, but this one is by far the best from the brand! XOX ♥
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Price: $5 * Buy At: Five Below * Size: 6 x 1.8 g The City Color Contour To Go Palette comes with four contour shades and two highlight shades. Each contour shade has a very smooth texture and is highly pigmented. On lighter skin tones, applying the contour colors with a light hand would most likely be necessary, but if you have darker skin, this palette would be a great choice. The two highlight shades also have a smooth texture, but are a bit chalky and chunky--especially when swatched with your finger. Once the excess powder is removed, the highlights do look nice and are pigmented, but the formula is not quite as nice as the contour powders. They do apply nicely to the skin, however, despite a slightly chalky swatch on my arm. I prefer the cooler toned bottom row, since the top row can look orange on my cool-toned skin. Overall, this contour palette is great, especially when considered that it is only $5 for six shades--you really cannot beat the price! I have loved every City Color product I have purchased, and would definitely recommend the brand! XOX ♥
Price: $26 * Buy At: Sephora * Size: 1 x 0.092 oz & 3 x 0.04 oz The Kat Von D Shade + Light Eye Contour Quad in Smoke consists of four cool toned matte shadows. The Shade + Light Eye Contour Quads come in a very cool black compact, with her signature tattoo-esque design. Smoke, as the name suggests, comes with shades perfect for creating a classic smokey eye: a medium taupe, a black, a cool grey, and a white. This typically is not the color combination I reach for within a palette collection, but the formulation of the grey and black shadows just really blew me away. Greys and blacks can be difficult to work with, and blend especially, so I was very impressed with how easy this quad is to apply and blend. XOX ♥
Price: $40 * Buy At: Ulta * Size: 4 x 7.4 g The Anastasia Beverly Hills That Glow Kit comes with 3 shimmery highlights and 1 shimmery bronzer. The Glow Kit packaging is pretty simple: thin pink cardboard. Like Anastasia’s contour kit, this quad does not contain a mirror. This is fine for me, since it’s not a product I would travel with, but it could pose problems for others. All four shades in the That Glow Kit are on the warm side. What really drew me into this product is each shade’s consistent amazing formula. They are buttery without being powdery and have a very smooth and silky texture. All four powders are easy to apply onto the face and are easy to sheer out to achieve a more natural appearance. The only thing that I am not crazy about with this quad is that the shades Bubbly and Dripping in Gold are super similar in color, so I just wish there was more contrast between the two. $40 does seem to be pricy for a four pan palette, but each shade has quite a bit of product in it. For comparison, each shade in the That Glow Kit is 0.26 oz (at $10 a piece), whereas the popular Laura Geller Gilded Honey Baked Highlight is only 0.16 oz at $26. XOX ♥
Price: $5.49 * Buy At: Target * Size: 0.33 oz The Essence All About Greys Eyeshadow Palette consists of four cool toned grey shades and four warm toned grey shades, with a variety of finishes. I have really loved Essence’s little palettes in the past, and now that certain Targets now carry the line, they have released some larger palettes just for Target. The packaging is pretty cheap, which is to be expected from such an affordable item. Five of the shades are shimmery, one has glitter, and two are matte, which is a decent variety in a drugstore palette. The shadows’ formula is super soft, so it does have a bit of powder kick up, but that doesn’t deter me at all. All of the shadows are very pigmented; none of them are duds whatsoever. Essence makes my favorite shadows from the drugstore, and they continue to impress. I would recommend trying out these palettes to anyone! XOX ♥
Price: $18 * Buy At: Ulta * Size: 16 x 0.02 oz The Nyx Ultimate Shadow Palette in Brights consists solely of sixteen bright and colorful shadows with a variety of finishes. The Nyx Ultimate Palettes are fairly small and come with a clear lid, which I like. I have never been much of a fan of Nyx’s shadow palettes, but this one really impressed me, so I had to pick it up. I actually got to visit the Nyx store in the Mall of America, which was really cool. Some of the shadows need a bit more building up than others, but for the most part, these shadows have some pretty intense pigmentation (especially the bottom 2 rows)! On the eyes, these shadows blend out amazingly well, especially when you consider how colorful they are. Of course this kind of palette is not for everyone, but if you are really into makeup, a color selection like this can come in handy for particular looks, or if you just want to have some fun with a bright eye look. I love incorporating a shade or two with a fairly neutral look, and have actually found myself reaching for this palette more than I thought that I would. XOX ♥
Price: $5.49 * Buy At: Target * Size: 0.33 oz The Essence All About Vintage Eyeshadow Palette consists of half green-toned and half rosy-toned shadows. I have really loved Essence’s little palettes in the past, and now that certain Targets now carry the line, they have released some larger palettes just for Target. The packaging is pretty cheap, which is to be expected from such an affordable item. The texture of the shadows is very soft, so it can kick up some excess powder. The pigmentation across the board is great. My only gripe with this palette is that only one of the shades is really matte, so it really needs to be combined with other palettes or shadows. However, I love to use these Essence palettes on top of other shadows to add intensity and shimmer to the finished look, especially with the lighter colors. Even though I wouldn't typically use any of these shades in my crease, the shadows are very easy to blend out. Essence remains to be my favorite drugstore shadows, and I would definitely recommend checking these palettes out. XOX ♥
Price: $18 * Buy At: Nyx * Size: 16 x 0.02 oz The Nyx Ultimate Shadow Palette in Cool Neutrals consists of sixteen shadows with a variety of finishes. Nyx’s Ultimate Palettes come in a small, square package with a clear lid. I have never been much of a fan of Nyx’s shadow palettes, but this one really impressed me, so I had to pick it up. I actually got to visit the Nyx store in the Mall of America, which was really cool and had testers that you cannot get in Ulta. The palette consists of mostly neutral shades, but has some fun pops of color, like the electric purple shade. The top half is mainly lighter shadows, and the bottom half contains the dark shades. The shadows have very nice pigmentation and they have a smooth formula that doesn’t have too much powder kick up. These shadows blend out very easily, which is great to see in a drugstore eyeshadow palette. I am super impressed with this palette, and although it is pricy for a drugstore product, it is comparable to many super expensive palettes! It outdoes many more pricy items as well, since the shadows in the palette are smooth and soft. XOX ♥
Price: $5 * Buy At: Five Below * Size: 3 x 4.5 g The City Color Contour Effects Palette is a contouring trio, including a bronzer, contour powder and highlight. The packaging of the trio is cheap cardboard, but for such an inexpensive price, what else can you expect? The package is super thin, so I figured it would be perfect for travel, although it does not have a mirror. The pans of product are quite large, definitely larger than the pans in the Anastasia Contour Kit. As I expected from a City Color product (after loving their blushes), the three shades are very pigmented! The contour shade, being so pigmented, can end up looking a bit intense on my light skintone, so I just have to use a light hand. I really could see this contour shade working on darker skintones, which is great. The white highlight shade may look stark, but it has a more sheer pigmentation, to avoid a bright, chalky look on the skin. It definitely does not have shimmer, but it does add a bit of a sheen to the skin that gives a glowy appearance. The Bronzer shade is warm, but it doesn't look too warm or muddy on my skin, which is a common problem for me since I have a light, cool skin tone. Overall I really like this palette, and like the simplicity of a trio in the midst of all the large contour kits that everyone is releasing. I have been reaching for it a ton and will continue to do so. XOX ♥
Price: $40 * Buy At: Ulta * Size: 6 x 1.4 g The Buxom Suede Seduction Eye Shadow Palette consists of six matte shadows, three with a warm tone and three with a cool tone. The Suede Seduction Eye Shadow Palette has the same packaging as the customizable palettes, but it has a cool patterned lid and also has the shades written on the back. This is one of the premade palettes, and it includes exclusive shades and is limited edition. The shades in this palette are Social Scene, Trendsetter, Hot or Yacht, Beachfront, Invite Only & Cashmere Craving. Social Scene, Trendsetter and Beachfront are exclusive only to this palette, while the other three can be purchased separately. I just love the formula of Buxom shadows. They are smooth, creamy, super pigmented and so easy to blend. All the shadows in the palette are consistent in texture and pigmentation, which is great. I really like the color selection, as half of the palette is warm and half is cool; this makes it a great staple for combining with any shadow look. Since the palette does not contain any shimmery or super dark shadows, I would combine the palette with other shades. Overall, I love the palette and will continue to purchase shadows and palettes from Buxom, as the formula is just amazing and super consistent. XOX ♥
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