Brown, blue, green, hazel, or grey—every eye color has a special pop when you’re wearing certain shadow shades. Take a peek to find out the best eyeshadow palettes to make your peepers pop.
When it comes to enhancing your irises, it all comes down to choosing the best eyeshadow. With just a swipe of the right shadow, you can make your peepers pop—it’s as easy as that. Whether you’re a blue-eyed beauty or a brown-eyed babe, these are the best eyeshadow shades to play up your eyes.
The Best Eyeshadow For Brown Eyes
Ladies with brown eyes, consider yourselves lucky. Because brown is a neutral color, almost any shadow goes once it’s swiped on your lids. However, shades like salmon and gold really accentuate beautiful brown eyes with earthy hues. Brown and purple eyeshadows also help highlight the clarity of this eye color, as well as warm-toned shades, which are especially flattering against brown. If you want to make your brown beauties twinkle after a late night out, consider shades of mossy green and cool blue that are opposite orange (brown’s closest cousin) on the color wheel.
Our Palette Pick 1: Ciaté London Chloe Morello Pretty, Fun & Fearless Eyeshadow Palette
Why This Palette: The mix of rich plum, warm pink, and gold-toned shadows create the perfect palette to complement those big brown beauties.
Your New Favorite Shade: Jetsetter (second row, fourth from left)
To buy: Sephora, $42
Our Palette Pick 2: NYX Perfect Filter Shadow Palette in Olive You
Why This Palette: The cool greens and blues really make brown eyes pop, while the shimmery gold highlights tiny amber flecks, making those saucers appear to sparkle.
Your New Favorite Shade: Dark Olive (top right)
To buy: NYX Cosmetics, $20
The Best Eyeshadow For Blue Eyes
On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have cool baby blues. If you look at the color wheel, blue and orange are directly across from each other, meaning they’re natural complementary colors and will make your irises stand out. Because orange isn’t the most practical color for everyone to wear, try choosing shades with an orangey undertone, like terra cotta, copper, and bronze, which will still make your eyes shine without overdoing it. Warm red-tinted shadows can also have the same effect, like a shimmery coral or dusty rose. As a general rule, light, neutral tones are are the best eyeshadow shades to complement cool blue eyes, so steer clear of harsh colors like a dark smokey look.
Our Palette Pick 1: NARS NARSissist Loaded Eyeshadow Palette
Why This Palette: This palette has all your go-to browns and bronzes with an earthy orange/red undertone.
Your New Favorite Shade: Dover (top row, third from left)
To buy: Sephora, $59
Our Palette Pick 2: e.l.f. Need It Nude Eyeshadow Palette
Why This Palette: This set of copper and gold neutrals will complement baby blues like none other with a subtle, everyday look.
Your New Favorite Shade: Shimmery Bronze (sixth from left)
To buy: e.l.f. Cosmetics, $10
The Best Eyeshadow For Green Eyes
Green eyes are naturally vibrant, so you don’t have to swipe on super bright shadows to attract attention. Muted purples, reds, and browns fall under green’s complementary color family and are the secret to making your glowing globes even more vibrant. Warm, rusty shades are another alternative that make green eyes look gorgeous, because it can be hard to find red shadows on the regular. A pop of dark plum is the best eyeshadow for a night out and a warm brown base is just enough color for an everyday affair.
Our Palette Pick 1: Huda Beauty Obsessions Eyeshadow Palette in Mauve
Why This Palette: Dark plum and cranberry shadows in shimmer and matte are the perfect setup to create a smoky, sultry effect.
Your New Favorite Shade: Cranberry Mauve (top left)
To buy: Sephora, $27
Our Palette Pick 2: NYX Warm Neutrals Ultimate Shadow Palette
Why This Palette: The warm, rusty shades in this neutrals palette really work in green eyes’ favor to bring out dimension in your irises.
Your New Favorite Shade: Shimmery Copper (third row, third from left)
To buy: Ulta, $18
The Best Eyeshadow For Hazel Eyes
Hazel is where brown melds with green, sprinkled with gilded golden flecks, creating a truly mesmerizing gaze. Hazel eyes are more complex than other eye colors because they seem to change color in every lighting—meaning you can play with different shadows to enhance your favorite shade. Metallics and pastels, like dusty pinks and violets, intensify the yellow flecks that make hazel eyes so entrancing. To accentuate the green, use rust-toned earthy tones, and to bring out the brown, go for peachy undertones and shades of blue. Swiping a similar green on your eyelids can also flatter your natural eye color.
Our Palette Pick 1: Pixi Mesmerizing Mineral Palette in Plum Quartz
Why This Palette: This plum palette deepens and emphasizes golden hazel eyes with shades of eggplant and dark brown, while light pinks mellow out the bolder colors and highlight the yellow flecks, making it extremely wearable, even to work.
Your New Favorite Shade: Dusty Rose (second from top)
To buy: Target, $12
Our Palette Pick 2: Charlotte Tilbury Luxury Colour-Coded Luxury Eyeshadow Palette in Rebel
Why This Palette: These green and rose-gold shades are the best eyeshadows for a brave, bold makeup look that plays up the bright green in your eyes with subtle red and gold undertones.
Your New Favorite Shade: Metallic Olive Green (bottom left)
To buy: Nordstrom, $53
The Best Eyeshadow For Gray Eyes
We know that gray doesn’t mean boring. This rare color steals looks like all the others when surrounded with the right shadows. Play up this unique eye color with similar steely hues, like cool shades of blue and shimmery charcoals and pewter greys. Metallics will especially add depth to eyes that tend to appear flat, while silvery blues enhance the underlying cool tone in gray eyes. Eyeshadow with orange undertones are also super flattering due to the slight blue hue most gray eyes have.
Our Palette Pick 1: Sephora Collection Colorful 5 Eyeshadow Palette in Uptown to Downtown Smoky
Why This Palette: This selection of metallic silvers and charcoals adds intensity to icy gray eyes when each shimmer catches the light.
Your New Favorite Shade: Sterling Silver (second from left)
To buy: Sephora, $25
Our Palette Pick 2: Ilia Essential Shadow Palette in Luna
Why This Palette: This compact palette has all the best eyeshadow shades for gray eyes: a neutral orange, a steely slate, and a dark, smokey grey, giving you everything you need for afternoon or evening.
Your New Favorite Shade: Copper (bottom left)
To buy: Sephora, $44
