My Eyeshadow Palette Collection

... where I show you my slightly outrageous eyeshadow palette collection, as well as share my deepest thoughts on buying make-up palettes and sets in general, especially in perspective of the freshly launched Holiday Limited Edition collections and upcoming beauty sales. So, are you ready for some palette p0rn?

Just to clear some particulars: this is my entire larger eyeshadow palette stash, meaning trios, quads and quints are not included. I've decided to go ahead and share both my freeform/custom eyeshadow palettes as well as premade ones, with the latter reviewed previously on the blog for the most part, so I'll link separate posts with swatches where possible. Also... I like neutral eyeshadows. I make no excuses.

Let's start with the freeform/ personalized palettes. First off, the old school classic in every make-up fanatic's eyeshadow stash: MAC Pro Palette Eye Shadow X15. As you can see, I own the old version of the palette (I had gotten the new but disliked how bulky it was and sold it in a blog sale), and mine features a mix of MAC shadows as well as discontinued INGLOT round pans and an odd Annabelle shade. I do tend to switch things around here and there as I have more round pans in my collection that fit in this palette, but for the most part it looks like in the photo. I do still like my MAC palette and reach for it fairly often; it's my second go-to after the large Z Palette shown below.

I currently have two Large Z Palettes in my collection: an older (and fuller) one that houses my most used eyeshadows, and a second back-up palette which has other, less used eyeshadow pans, as well as some La Femme blushes. I do occasionally rotate shadows between the two palettes or even the MAC palette for added variety. My main Z Palette features a mix of pressed Fyrinnae eyeshadows, Rouge Bunny Rouge refills, some Inglot square pans, depotted Burberry shadows, as well as random Stila, Too Faced (depotted Natural Eyes palette), Shu Uemura, Yaby and Annabelle. I absolutely love my Z Palettes and also have an empty smaller one on hand for travel.

Now, the two lower-end freeform palettes in my collection: a anothersoul Book of Shadows from Etsy, filled with depotted Wet n'Wild trios, and an eBay 12 round pan, filled with pressed NYX and Barry M pigments, extra round Inglot pans, and a stray Elf shadow. Out of all the palettes I'm showing you today, I use the random round pan palette the least: it's mostly storage for eyeshadows that have fallen out of favor. I do however enjoy using the DIY Wet n'Wild palette, even though I haven't reached for it in a while. I should get back to it!

As for the ready-made portion of my eyeshadow palette collection, let's start with the two most hyped-up neutral palettes I own: the Urban Decay Naked 1 (old tutorial using the original Naked here) and theBalm Nude'Tude. From these two, I generally prefer UD Naked, although it has some shades I never reach for (Sidecar, Half-Baked, Gunmetal). However, the undertones of Nude'Tude don't suit me very well, and the palette lacks good matte medium depth blending/transition shades - maybe with the exception of Sultry, which is a touch too warm and dark for my skintone. But all in all, both of these are fantastic buys, especially for make-up beginners.

Here are my two Stila eyeshadow palettes. I don't own any other products by Stila apart from the eyeshadows, and while some shades in these palettes are slightly dry and not as pigmented as I would have liked, overall I do like them and I do still reach for them on occasion. The Stila 'In The Moment' palette occupies an interesting niche in my collection: it has both cool-toned purples as well as warm peach and bronze shades. The E! Live from the Red Carpet neutral palette is another great neutral staple; I'm pretty sure this one has been discontinued, but if you can find it, I think the quality is on point - I just wish they omitted the Convertible Color cream pan from the powder line-up.

Sleek MakeUp i-Divine Mineral Based Eyeshadow Palettes are some of the best powder eyeshadows you can find in a drugstore; unfortunately, not an American one, but I hear that Sleek online ships worldwide and the shipping charges are not too extortionate. I own two: the classic Storm 578 (top of the photo) and Oh So Special 658 (bottom, a spring look featuring Oh So Special here). I've definitely used Storm more but I've also owned it longer, and have fond memories of using it on my honeymoon. I haven't pulled these out in ages, but I like them too much to purge: in fact, I have gotten rid of one in the past - the warm yellow tones in Au Naturel didn't suit me very well at all, even though the quality was stellar.

Last but not least, the newest member of my palette stash, the bareMinerals READY Eyeshadow 8.0 palette in The Finer Things from the 2012 Holiday Collection. Here's a full review, but in short, I absolutely love the texture of bareMinerals READY shadows and the cooler undertones of The Finer Things suit me very well. I used to own The Power Neutrals palette too (swatched and reviewed here) but didn't like the shade selection even half as much, so I've passed it on to my warmer-complected best friend, who continues to use it daily.

And that's it! I like to think that I'm keeping my eyeshadow palette addiction under control by weeding out palettes I don't use very often: like I mentioned above, I purged the Sleek Au Naturel palette, bareMinerals Power Neutrals, and an empty new MAC large custom palette a while back, as well as a whole host of various eyeshadow pans I wasn't using. I'd also wanted to sell my old Too Faced Natural Eye palette, but due to lack of interest, I depotted it in the end and stuck the pans in my Z-Palettes. I'm still in two minds about doing the same to my Stila palettes in hopes of remembering to use them more often.

As for my reflections on expanding my palette collection/ buying make-up sets in general, I'm quite proud to say that I haven't bought a larger eyeshadow palette or a set in over a year. Here's my gripe with ready-made palettes: while I usually really like SOME of the shades, I never like ALL of the shades enough to warrant having the whole palette - same for various value sets and such. So before pulling a trigger on a new one, I think long and hard whether I like and need ALL of it, and 95% of the time, the final answer is NO. Which is precisely the reason I haven't bought Urban Decay Naked 2 &3 in the past, or the Laura Mercier Artist palettes, or the Lorac Pro 1 & 2, and of course the new Mega Pro (also - too big to fit comfortably in my drawer). Not that I wasn't tempted - I really was - but ultimately I'm glad I haven't sprung for either. I'm still tempted by all the value sets Sephora has now been putting out for the Holidays, but probably won't get anything in the end. And coming back to eyeshadow palettes in particular, I now have my eyes on smaller ones, five or six pans maximum, that fill a specific gap in my collection - this way it's a lot more likely I'll use and enjoy all the shades in a palette.

I hope you enjoyed this stash inventory post; of course, let me know if you have any additional questions or maybe would like to see my custom MAC or Z-Palettes in more detail. Do you also collect eyeshadow palettes? What are your criteria for getting a new one? What are your thoughts on make-up value sets?