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From shadows that enhance your eye color to ones that take you from day to night with ease, these are the top palettes you’ll want to add to your beauty collection.
Finding the perfect eyeshadow palette can be overwhelming when you don’t know where to start. From the sheer amount of palettes already in market to the different shade selections each has to offer, no palette is created equal. If you’re on the hunt for new shadows, you’re in luck! We curated a list of top palettes that fulfill all your eyeshadow needs, based on finishes, color, price tag, and texture. Whether you’re a newbie looking for step-by-step application instruction or want some looks that compliment your eye color, we’ve got you covered.
Ahead, you’ll find our best list, which you can click through to learn why each were awarded the top spot.
- Best Matte Palette: Tarte Tartelette
- Best Glitter Palette: Huda Beauty Desert Dusk
- Best Nude Palette: Urban Decay Naked 2
- Best Smokey Palette: Huda Beauty Obsessions in Smokey
- Best Affordable Palette: Wet n Wild Color Icon 10-Pan
- Best Luxury Palette: Pat McGrath Labs Mothership V in Bronze Seduction
- Best Palette for Beginners: Kat Von D Shade + Light Eye Contour
- Best Palette for Brown Eyes: Too Faced The Chocolate Bar
- Best Palette for Green Eyes: Urban Decay Naked Heat
- Best Palette for Blue Eyes: LORAC Unzipped
- Best Bright Palette: Juvia’s Place The Zulu
- Best for Color Variety: Morphe Jaclyn Hill
Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.
1 of 12 Image Credits: Tarte Cosmetics
Best Matte Palette
Tarte Tartelette
You may know Tarte for its cult-favorite Shape Tape Concealer, but did you known the Tartelette Amazonian Clay Matte palette is also a top choice from the brand within the beauty community? This 12-pan palette has gained holy grail status thanks to the warm and cool matte shadows that contour and add depth to the eyes without looking chalky. Formulated with Amazonian clay, the shadows seamlessly glide on the lids without and splotches of color in one area and blend like a dream. More than 1,500 people have given this palette a 5-star rating, some even calling it their “desert island choice” and “matte heaven.” According to one user, the shadows not only look great on the lids, the versatile shades also work in replacement of other eye products. “For ladies who dislike shimmers and pinks and always gravitate toward browns, this is the best of the best in terms of color, durability, pigment, [and] versatility. Multi tasker is [the perfect shade] for brows; I use Bombshell or Fashionista for my eyeliner, and natural beauty for the base of my lids.”
2 of 12 Image Credits: Sephora
Best Glitter Palette
Huda Beauty Desert Dusk
Give your lids a sparkly upgrade with the Huda Beauty Desert Dusk palette. Unlike regular glitter shadows, which require a primer to adhere to the lids, these flecked shades are formulated to be worn on their own for that head-turning shine we all love. The sparkly shadows come in three different finishes — pure glitter, shimmering pearl, and duo-chrome toppers — so you can customize their intensity. The best part? You don’t need any brushes to apply these glittery shades; it is recommend that you apply the shadows with your fingers to maximize the specks’ reflection. The long-lasting and vibrant shine has earned this glitter palette an average 4.5-star rating and nearly 1,500 five star reviews. One Sephora shopper says, “The colors in this palette are next level I kid you not. Every single one is stunning. A nice balance between matte and metallic finishes. I usually have a problem with crease lines in my eyeshadow, however I realized I have no such issues when using the palette.”
3 of 12 Image Credits: Nordstrom
Best Nude Palette
Urban Decay Naked 2
Unless you’re looking to add some drama to your eye look everyday, a basic nude palette is essential in every beauty lover’s collection. With shades ranging from copper to greyish brown, the Urban Decay Naked 2 is versatile palette that undoubtedly has earned the top spot among the nude palettes. Each shadow is formulated with Urban Decay’s Pigment Infusion System, a unique blend of ingredients that give the hues a long-lasting, velvety texture. The palette comes with a mirror and a double-ended brush, so you won’t need any additional tools to create an eye look. Let the 6,000 reviews and 4.6-star rating tell you why this palette reigns over other neutral shadows. “This is my ultimate favorite palette. I’ve had it for a month now and have gotten to experiment enough with it to know that I’ll never go without it. I’ve never had a creasing problem and they last all day,” says one Sephora customer.
4 of 12 Image Credits: Sephora
Best Smokey Palette
Huda Beauty Obsessions in Smokey
Another win for Huda Beauty. Thanks to the brand’s Obsessions Eyeshadow Palette in Smokey, creating a smokey eye has never been so easy. With nine different shades, ranging from an intense black to a matte taupe, this palette has all the key hues needed to create that hazy, sultry effect we love from smokey eye looks. Use the neutral shades for an office appropriate eye makeup and then spice things up with the deeper shades into the evening for a fun night out. Trust us, you’ll master the art of a smokey eye in no time. Just ask one of the 2,650 people who gave this palette a 5-star rating. “I am a novice at multi-color shadow looks, but this palette makes it SO easy to pull off an expertly blended smokey eye. The colors are extremely blendable and creamy, and range from more neutral (the bottom row) to warm,” say a satisfied customer on Sephora.
5 of 12 Image Credits: Ulta
Best Affordable Palette
Wet n Wild Color Icon 10-Pan
The truth is you no longer have to spend the big bucks to get high quality shadows. Take the Wet n Wild Color Icon palette. With 10 different shade, this drugstore product has amazing pigmentation and blendability that rivals many cult-favorite brands. In fact, Rosé in the Air is one of the closest dupes to Anastasia Beverly Hills’ Modern Renaissance. One reviewer put both palettes to the test and surprisingly found that the drugstore palette outperformed the cult-favorite “I wore [the Wet n Wild] yesterday and today decided to do the same look, but with the ABH MR Palette, and this Wet n Wild palette has out performed the ABH palette by far. The WNW shadows lasted longer and were more vibrant in color, didn’t crease as much or fade,” she wrote. It’s this unmatchable quality that has earned this palette a 4.4-star rating on Ulta and a 4.5 on Influenster.
6 of 12 Image Credits: Sephora
Best Luxury Palette
Pat McGrath Labs Mothership V in Bronze Seduction
When it comes to luxury shadows, no one does it quite like celebrity makeup artist, Pat McGrath. Raved about by beauty junkies, the Pat McGrath Labs Mothership V in Bronze Seduction is a top choice thanks to its 10 rich pigments that melt right into the skin. At $125, this product is pricier than your traditional palettes, but its unique creamy formulation sets this bad boy apart from others in the market. Despite the hefty price tag, shoppers assure the quality makes it splurge-worthy. “The shadows are incredible; they blend themselves. They are extremely rich in color and feel amazing. They are crazy expensive but worth every penny. Nothing compares so her shadows! If you are hesitant to buy them thinking they might not be worth the price, just buy them, you will not regret it,” says one reviewer. It’s no wonder this palette has over 4.5 stars on Sephora and a cult following.
7 of 12 Image Credits: Kat Von D Beauty
Best Palette for Beginners
Kat Von D Shade + Light Eye Contour
If you’re a newbie with makeup, chances are you’re having trouble figuring out where to apply eyeshadow and how to properly blend. Luckily, Kat Von D has a palette that will teach you how to create any eye look like a pro. The Kat Von D Shade + Light Eye Contour is a 12-pan palette that is divided into three sections: neutral, cool, and warm. Each section has a base color for all over the lid, a highlighting shade for underneath the brow bone, and a contouring and defining shade to add depth and dimension to the eyes. To master the basics of applying shadow, the palette comes with an illustrated insert and step-by-step instructions you can refer to when creating the three different eye looks. If you consider yourself more of a visual learner, you might also want to follow Kat Von D’s video tutorial. One beauty novice revealed that the easy-to-follow tips helped her to confidently learn how to apply eyeshadows. “Before getting this palette, I was purely an eyeliner type of girl. Shadows intimidated me. When I tried putting on shadow, it looked like a wretched mess and I’d end up rubbing it all off and turning my face red,” one shopper says. “The Kat Von D palette and a couple Youtube tutorials changed all that.”
8 of 12 Image Credits: Mecca
Best Palettes for Brown Eyes
Too Faced The Chocolate Bar
Calling all our brown-eyed ladies! If you’re looking for a eyeshadow palette that will make your peepers pop, look no further than Too Faced The Chocolate Bar. While women with dark brown or honey-hued eyes are fortunate to be able to pull off any shadow, rich, earthy tones like the ones on this 16-pan palette are known to accentuate the eye color. Aside from the long-lasting color and incredible pigmentation that highlight your eyes, this product is formulated with cocoa to give it an irresistible chocolate scent that is almost as good as the real thing. The palette’s longevity and color payoff have earned this palette more than 15,000 reviews on Influenster, including one from a satisfied brown-eyed customer who said she would recommend the palette to others. “The chocolate scent won me right away but the pigmentation made me fall in love. I have light brown eyes and the warm tones really complement them. I have hit pan on almost all shades in the palette,” says one Influenster reviewer.
9 of 12 Image Credits: JCPenney
Best Palette for Green Eyes
Urban Decay Heat
Did you know only an estimated two percent of the world’s population is born with green eyes? Because the hue is so rare, some people have trouble figuring out what shadow colors work best to make this eye shade stand out. That is until the Urban Decay Naked Heat came into the picture. The red tones from the palette help green eyes appear richer, while the peachy shades bring out the golden specks that adds some sparkle to your peepers. In fact, one Sephora reviewer recommends pairing the palette with a red liner to make the eye color appear even more vibrant. “You gotta get this if you have green eyes … Wear this with a red eyeliner in your waterline and your eyes will seriously pop,” say the reviewer on Sephora. If you want to see how these shadows complement your eye color but don’t want to drop $50 dollars to do so, there’s a miniature version for only $29.
10 of 12 Image Credits: Ulta
Best Palette for Blue Eyes
LORAC Unzipped
As the 1982 Elton John song goes, “baby’s got blue eyes like a deep blue sea.” To help make these underwater hues pop, neutral shades, such as bronze and taupe, work great to flatter the eye color. That’s why the LORAC Unzipped is a top choice among blue-eyed beauty lovers. With more than 600 reviews and a 4.7-star rating, this 10-pan palettes has all the shades you need to bring your baby blues to life. “I love this palette, I am actually in my second one. I love the tans and pink shades provided, it works well with my blue eyes,” say one reviewer on Influenster, adding, “This palette helps me achieve a simple day look to make my eyes pop or a more smoky evening look.” Did we mention that palette comes with a primer for a smudge-free, long-lasting wear?!
11 of 12 Image Credits: BeautyBay
Best Bright Palette
Juvia’s Place The Zulu
We truly can’t talk about vibrancy and pigmentation without mentioning Juvia’s Place palettes. Touted as the world’s most pigmented eyeshadow palettes by beauty gurus like NikkieTutorials and MunicaStyle Muse, the shadows have quickly gained popularity in the beauty community. Their extreme color payoff looks great even on the deepest of complexions. While the black-owned beauty brand has several palettes, including the cult-favorite (and my personal fave) Saharan Eyeshadow Palette, the Zulu is perfect for anyone looking for brighter hues. With six different shades, ranging from a matte turquoise shade to a shimmer light green, this palette is packed with fun colors that bring out your boldest self. Beauty junkies love this $20 product so much they gave it a 4.6-star rating on Ulta. One reviewer couldn’t stop raving about how well the shadows perform on the lids given the affordable price tag. “I love playing with color, and this palette has so much payout and huge pan sizes for the price. The color is super pigmented, the shades blend amazingly well, the shimmers, applied with a finger, stay sparkly and bright all day,” she says.
12 of 12 Image Credits: Sephora
Best for Color Variety
Morphe Jaclyn Hill
Whether you’re looking to keep things neutral or want to add some drama to the lid, the Morphe Jaclyn Hill palette has all the shades you need to create any eye look you crave. Covering the full color spectrum, this palette has five different finishes — mattes, shimmers, satins, foils, and glitters. While the palette was two years in the making, beauty lovers were not disappointed by buildable and blendable formula. “Waited forever to get this and I’m so glad I did. The pigment is great and it’s blendability is awesome. Worth every penny,” says one reviewer on Ulta. And with a price tag of $38, any beauty lover would be excited to add this baby to their beauty arsenal.
