Hey friends! Today I’m going to be ranking every palette I own. I got this idea from Kelly Gooch, she’s a beauty Youtuber and her videos are always so interesting and original. But I’ve wanted to highlight my eye shadow palette collection for a while now but wanted it to be more interesting than me just listing what I owned. So we’re going to rank them from worst to best!
This was actually extremely hard to do. The top and bottom palettes were pretty easy for me to choose, but everything in the middle was difficult. For the most part, I love all the palettes I have, so it was really tricky to rank. There are some palettes that have better quality but I reach for a color story in another palette more. So it was quite complicated ranking them, trying to determine if I wanted to rank color over quality, etc.
I’ve been working on this post for a few weeks, so I hope you guys enjoy it! This might be a long one, so grab a snack for the read.
intro (after the intro)
I currently have 14 palettes in my collection (UPDATE: I actually have 16, but I didn’t get one until after I drafted this post and one is in a declutter pile). I limited this rankings post to palettes with 5+ shadows. To make this juicy, we’re ranking the palettes from worst to best. But note that I like all of these palettes and think they’re all decent quality.
#14 | Jouer Essential Jet Set
My least favorite was easy to choose–the Essential Jet Set palette from Jouer, which is pretty new to my collection. Let me preface by saying this palette is fine. But it isn’t great. The color story is pretty uninspiring and bland. The shades lack pigmentation and have no depth–looks just seem muddy and boring on the eye. “Check-In” is a light pinky tone, and it just seems random to me, and “Runway” is really patchy.
The shadows themselves are decent; they’re soft and feel nice. But it’s almost what I’d expect a drugstore palette to perform like. And I can’t even say that, because drugstore brands have really upped their game in the shadow department. I’ll probably end up decluttering this soon, to be honest.
#13 | Juvia’s Place Nubian Mini
I’ve spoken about Juvia’s Place before, and I rave about the quality of these shadows. This palette is no different, but I’m honestly likely to declutter it soon. And I’ll tell you why.
I already own the regular Nubian palette from the brand, and this mini contains 6 of the shades already in that palette. And they aren’t even the shades I use most frequently.
I love how small and compact this mini palette is, and you can create a variety of looks. I’ll explain a little more about it when I get to that original palette.
#12 | Lorac Mega Pro 3
This palette had me obsessed when I first bought it. I loved the colors, and I felt inspired by it. However, I don’t grab it a lot now. Lorac’s shadows used to be my absolute favorite, and I still enjoy them. They’re very creamy and pigmented. They blend together well and tend to stand their own well. However, some of the shades in this palette are very similar and don’t show up that different on the eyes.
With that being said, I do grab for the Lorac Mega Pro 3 pretty regularly, but only for a handful of shades. If you were to separate this in half vertically, I only use the left side–the lighter neutrals–and that Pomegranate shade on the right. I find the darker shades are the ones that tend to look the same once applied to the lid. However, I still love those warm and creamy mattes–Tan, Pecan, Toffee, Cider, and Bellini are my most used.
Lorac shadows do contain a lot of kick back, or are powdery when you put your brush in. That’s not something I mind, but if you don’t like it, there’s a chance you won’t like Lorac shadows.
I have a review of this eye palette you can read here.
#11 | Juvia’s Place Masquerade
This is a palette I don’t wear a ton, but I love that I own it. It’s a palette that’s 1/2 colorful and 1/2 neutral. I love that you can get so. many. different. looks. from this one palette. This has endless possibilities. You can do a neutral look that’s light OR dark. Or you can do a variety of colorful looks, and as I said, Juvia’s Place quality is top notch.
One thing I don’t love about this is how large the pans are. But I believe the Masquerade palette they sell now has much smaller pans. A complaint I do have is that I wish there were more mattes. The only mattes are neutral, and I wish there was maybe a colorful matte or two. Also, some of the neutrals are pretty similar to one another.
#10 | Colourpop Golden State of Mind
I debated where I wanted to put this palette on the list. It’s a palette that’s nothing but shimmers, so I don’t tend to use this one it’s own unless I’m doing a lazy one shadow look. Because I generally use this is conjunction with something else, I placed it here at #10.
The shades are beautiful. I use the creamsicle orange a lot as well as that reddish pink. And I love having a variety of different browns and champagnes, but I will say some of the shades in this palette look pretty similar once on the eye. And there is a lot of fallout with these. They aren’t a creamy shimmer; they definitely contain glitter. And sometimes that glitter can fall of the eye. But I really do love this palette, and it actually stays in my everyday makeup drawer.
#9 | Juvia’s Place Nubian
So the reason the Nubian Mini palette was placed so low (high?) on this list is because I own the full size Nubian palette…and I really enjoy it. I love a good warm brown look, and this palette has some original and interesting neutral shades. The champagne on the top left looks like a creamy white gold champagne, but it actually has a pink shift that’s tremendously cool on the inner corner or all over the lid.
Again, the quality is amazing, and the price is almost too good to be true. The only complaints I tend to have with this is that there aren’t a ton of lighter browns. There’s a lot of deep and mid toned browns, but there’s not really anything that’s lighter in color.
#8 | Colourpop It’s My Pleasure
If you read my review on this palette recently, you’ll know I love it. I’ve slowly and stubbornly getting more and more into colorful eye shadows, and I’ve been eyeing purples.
I think you can create such a variety of looks in this little palette–from all matte to subtle to bold and vibrant. The shades are pigmented and pretty easy to work with. And those shimmers! Holy moly they are beautiful. Oh, and the mirror is big and crisp and fabulous. I didn’t rank this higher, because I’m ultimately a neturals girl at heart. This punchy color story speaks to me but I don’t reach for it often. And it’s only $12!
I have a review of this eye palette you can read here.
#7 | Milani Earthy Elements
Ah, this little palette has my heart. In my opinion, this performs like a high end eye shadow palette, but is like $8. The formula is creamy and long lasting, and for such a low price tag, how could you not jump over it? Milani has quite a few small palettes like this, and I like most of them. This is the only one I have left, because the color story spoke to me the most.
I heavily use this in the summer time. It’s the perfect golden goddess eye palette. I was back and forth trying to decide whether or not this would make the top 5, and I’m really shocked it didn’t. It’s so good.
#6 | Morphe The Jaclyn Hill Palette
Morphe is a brand that’s pretty hit or miss for me. A lot of beauty influencers rave over Morphe, and I just think the brand is ok. Their products and brushes aren’t bad, but they aren’t my favorite by any means. But I really love The Jaclyn Hill Palette. It’s pretty neutral with a few pops of color, which is honestly how I do my makeup. I get tons of use out of this.
However, I dislike that it’s so large, and I know that’s the nature of the palette. But that’s one of the reasons I don’t reach for this all of the time. While there are a lot of shades in this palette, and they aren’t necessarily the same as one another, I do find I’m missing something out of this palette. I think I want the ability to grab some purples and greens from this palette–it’s really heavy with browns and reds and oranges and only has 3 real pops of color.
#5 | Lorac Pro
We have finally arrived at the top 5! Kicking it off is the original Lorac Pro. This is my baby. Long, long ago it replaced the original Naked palette for me, which is huge. As I said previously, the shadows are buttery smooth, soft, and pigmented. They’re easy to blend on the eye and each shade stands alone.
I really think this is one of the best neutral palettes out there. One thing I absolutely love about it is that you have some warmer tones, cooler tones, pink tones. You have your dark brown and black as well as soft cream shades for highlighting and bases. I love that Lorac palettes have one row matte and one row shimmer. There’s a little of everything. It’s not all warm browns, you know?
Like I said previously, because the shadows are so soft, there’s a lot of kick up when you dig in with a brush, but that doesn’t bother me. This is one of those palettes I can grab and go and know I’m going to get a look I enjoy.
#4 | Anastasia Bevery Hills Modern Renaissance
When the Modern Renaissance palette first came out, I would have said it was my favorite palette of all time. So I’m a little surprised it’s at #4. I think warm tones complement my hair, skin, and eyes, so I enjoy the color story of this palette. As for quality, ABH has some of my favorite shadows. Like Lorac, though, there’s a good deal of kick up.
If I was ranking this by quality, this would be in the top 3 probably, but there’s another ABH palette I’m loving just a little bit more recently.
#3 | Natasha Denona Safari
In my review of this palette I said I didn’t think it was worth the $129 price tag; however, I really have been enjoying it. I’m glad I have it. Firstly, I love that it’s all matte. While I like to mix matte and shimmery shadows, I like that this has a matte version of every shade I might want to use. I’ve gotten so many different looks from this color range. The color story just really spoke to me from the get go.
The mirror in this palette is also huge, which is nice when you’re on the go.
I have a review of this palette you can read here.
#2 | ABH Norvina
At #2, I have the Norvina palette from ABH. Like I said, they’re some of my favorite shadows. Recently I’ve been gravitating toward soft blues, purples, and periwinkles. And what I love about this palette is there are warm tones as well as warm tones. I’ve gotten entirely neutral looks and some ethereal, purple/pink looks from this. I like a versatile palette.
I have a review of this palette you can read here.
#1 | Marc Jacobs Glamition
And my number one palette is this little Glambition palette from Marc Jacobs Beauty. Ya’ll, this is my perfect palette. I use it almost every single day.
It’s small and compact but has every shade I need to create a very natural, everyday look. I can deepen it up for nighttime, and it plays well with other palettes.
I had a Marc Jacobs palette like this years ago, and I didn’t like it at all. However, they reformulated not too long ago, and everything has changed…for the best. The shadows themselves aren’t incredibly soft and creamy, but they aren’t dry and stiff. They’re somewhere in the middle. What this means is that they’re very easy to work with–they’re easy to blend and layer on top of each other without looking muddy. It also comes with a mirror that’s good quality, so it’s perfect for travel. This is what I take with me almost always when I travel.
If you prefer neural, every day kind of makeup–this palette is really for you.
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WOW! That was every eye shadow palette I own ranked! Do you guys like this style post? Do you want to see other product categories ranked? Let me know in the comments!
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