Eyeshadow palettes/ brushes

[kindersurprises]

Please could I have some recommendations for an eye shadow palette and some brushes?

I am a bit of a novice at using eyeshadow/ eyeliner. I have never owned any brushes and only have one shade of eyeshadow since my last palette broke when it was dropped some months ago.

I usually choose grey shades so anything with these sort of shades probably best (bronze tones do not suit me).

Budget- willing to spend a fair amount on a long lasting palette (maybe mid-higher range price) if this gives better quality, brushes would tend to go with the cheaper end of the spectrum unless the advice is that paying more makes a lot of difference.

Urban Decay Naked 2 pallet is very good. Lovely shades, wearable and easily blended.

As for brushes, I like Real Techniques and Mac

I love my Naked 2 palette, but as the name suggests it does have a good few pinky/bronzey tones in there. Charlotte Tilbury might be a good bet- depending on how much you want to strike out from your usual grey, uptown girl, rock chick and sophisticate could all be good bets. You might also want to consider this MAC set, although it has more pink in it.

For eye-shadow brushes you could do a lot worse than this Real Techniques set; really good quality and pretty much everything you need.

Zoeva brushes are very good. Nice quality, and they don't break the bank.

Mac Pearlux. It's amazing. I've bought it in green and the grey. It lasts ages and yet some colours are great for day and others dramatic enough for evening.

I like Eco Tools and Body Shop Brushes. My friend wasted £43 on MAC brushes recently and returned them (on my advice!).

Also UD pallettes are nice but if you go to a MAC store and get them or pick out yourself some colours you can make a lovely pallette. Sometimes some pallettes I buy I don't wear the colours everyday.

Many thanks. The real techniques look like a good set. Is the whole kit for eye make up ?

I had already looked at the Urban Decay sets but there are so many colours in them that it would seem a waste. I think a choice of four would be enough for me at the moment. The revlon set and Mac sound good. I know that Mac do some really great colours and if they can put them in a palette that would make it easier to use.

Thanks again!

I would recommend going somewhere like MAC and buying one of their empty palettes to fill with colours of your own choosing. That way you won't get lumbered with shades that you never wear/only wear occasionally.

What you are looking for is something with good pigment and a texture that suits your needs, be it satin, matte or pearlised. I prefer matte for the daytime but change it up to something with more sparkle for the evening. You could get a mixture of textures within the same palette, especially if you don't want to load yourself down with too much make-up.

An alternative to MAC are the KIKO eyeshadows which also come in singles to slot into their custom made palette systems. In my experience they are soft with good colour pay-off, and hard to beat price-wise. Also, they are currently offering a 20% discount for Mother's Day site wide.

Brushes are worth investing in, imo, but there are lots of brands now that do high quality ones without the price tag. Real Techniques are good, as again are MAC (although overpriced). I have a variety of brushes from different brands such as SIGMA, Bobbi Brown, Mac and Crown. Zoeva and Sonia Kashuk are also fabulous but as I say, these are all relatively pricey. I have also used brushes from art supply stores which do just as well, especially for eyes and fine detail work, such as eyeliner.

I highly recommend http://www.spectrumcollections.com/ Spectrum brushes - cheap but such good quality, wash really well, are vegan and really pretty

Gah, try again

Spectrum brushes

V helpful advice, thanks again.

Urban Decay do Naked Basics pallettes too - they have five colours in them. I have Basics 2 and it's super-wearable everyday eyeshadow.

agree urban decay naked 2 is wonderful.

or as others have suggested go to mac. their eyeshadows are awesome. i have one (can't for the life of me remember the name of it) but its beige, peachy, with a bit of shimmer. and stays on like a dream.