It’s that time of year again- beauty companies are repackaging their shades into giftable palettes, big and gigantic, so they can charge you $65 for eight shades of makeup you would never use all at once anyway.
In theory, makeup palettes are a great idea. They keep all your makeup in one place, and they make your dressing table look really cute.
But, practically speaking, they’re incredibly difficult.
We like to keep most of what we’re wearing with us through the day, in case we want to touch up. But since palettes are always bigger than necessary, we end up carrying around dead weight just to use that one eye shadow out of the selection of sixteen. It’s so much smarter to buy individual shades to keep in a reusable organizer instead.
We’ve interned at a couple magazines that actually have a ban on showcasing palettes, unless they have all new (and usable) colors, which they never do. We think makeup companies would do a lot better with customers and press to just get rid of palettes entirely, or to at least make the little pans removable so you can fit them with what you actually want (although that still wouldn’t fix the problem of the case itself taking up precious real estate in our handbags.)
Beauty companies, we ask you- please, stop the palettes.
Tags: Bobbi Brown
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I’m actually a huge fan of palettes. I use them to sample colors that I haven’t purchased individually yet, and they are great for traveling since I’ll have 4-8 shades of eyeshadow (as well as a few lipglosses and blushes) with me in one little compartment. Please makeup companies, don’t ban all the palettes! Just… just the ridiculously large ones. :)
not that i wear a makeup..ok, maybe a little concealer or bronzer on ugly days, i won’t lie…but it seems to me that pulling out something the size of a small laptop is a hell of a lot less discreet than a compact if you just need to do a little touch-up while you’re on the subway or something…so yeah, i concur…
Personally, I love palettes. Not the massive ones, but the smaller ones that hold about six shades of eyeshadow are really great to carry around because you can transition from day to night easily, and do quick touch-ups. The ones I buy don’t take up too much space, either. They’re no bigger than a digital camera or cellphone.
I think that Aveda had a reusable color palette. It was great because the case was portable, classic black and you could pop your color choices in and out very easily. Hope they still make it.
Random, but I love the one big palette I have because its equally big mirror allows me to do the “use-one-mirror-to-see-the-back-of-my-hair-in-the-other-mirror” trick. I’ve used maybe two of the lipcolors in it.
Also, when you’re at a friend’s place, I think it’s funny if they have palettes and you see which colors they use the hell out of, and which they don’t touch.
I agree! I was a sales associate at a cosmetics counter for 2 years and palettes were by far the hardest sell. I’ve never owned one myself for all of the reasons mentioned in this post.
who cares if palettes don’t work for you — they make GREAT gifts!
how else can you give all that makeup for just $50! either that or 1 eyeshadow and a lipgloss which is NOT impressive-looking when unwrapped.
i bought my sister the huge Tarte case with 3 layers of many USABLE colors. and now it’s sold out of every sephora!
WHAT?!?! I love palettes. I keep the hard candy take out box palette in my gym bag. It’s teeny and I have options for work or for evening. I chose it because the blush color was really flattering for me. Also there are tons of bright colors that I might wear a few times, but I don’t want to commit to buying them individually.
Actually a lot of makeup companies sell empty palettes that you can put your own pans into. MAC and Stila have them I think.
I disagree; I think palettes are a great idea. They make great gifts and all your make up is in one easy place. I travel a lot so that makes it appealing. However, I do agree that you should be able to take an eyeshadow or lip gloss pot out when you need it – when you’re just going to class, you don’t want to lug around a big palette! Overall I think they’re a cool idea though.
as gifts they are good, as far as make-up bag real estate, agreed, not impossible to take on the go, but much harder to arrange in your tiny makeup bag!
MAC has design your own palettes!! There are small ones that accomodate 4 colors they are only about the size of a few credit cards stacked= excellent!! I do it every year or so… i design different colors id actually WEAR for different occasions.. only around 10-15$ per color- so excellent!
Urban Decay has good colors for both their eye shadow and lip palettes. They use their most popular colors. Plus the packaging is really cute. I have the silver one with the skull, and I use lots of the colors. They are not that small, but they are very flat.
I’ve only ever bought one pre-made palette, and that was a small Stila one a couple years ago. I really liked it. Otherwise they are just so hard to get right — there’s always at least one colour I know I wouldn’t use which renders the whole thing useless. Not to mention, I always buy makeup on a whim and I’m much more likely to accumulate 10 $15 eyeshadows over a period of time than I am to buy them all in one go. But maybe that’s just me.
I don’t know if you remember, but the Bobbi Brown chocolate palette was totally usable and worth its hefty price
I can’t stand palettes! Not only are they large, I hate that sometimes powder will migrate into a gloss, and things don’t always stay as neatly separated as I would like. If one powder cracks it can ruin the whole lot. I also find that moist items often dry up quickly.
In general, I get where you’re coming from…but can I just say, I’ve made ONE exception to this rule and its the Fresh palette that you have in the picture. Out of the 8 colors, I regularly use 7 (um, not all at once.) And since they pretty much cover my needs, its the only thing in my bag except mascara and lip gloss.
My personal pet peeve though is that if you drop it, one shadw breaks and everything else is ruined. I havent done that yet with this one.
I remember years ago, Stila had a palette box with six openings that you could fill with whichever colors you chose. I don’t know if it’s still around, but it was a great idea then and is a solution for now!
I made my own eye shadow pallette. I took 2 8 color pallettes of one brand and mixed and matched my favorites (carefully wiggling those things out with a tiny eyeglasses tool and back in with a little craft glue). Plus, I took a stackable lip gloss set, scooped out the crap that came in it and filled it with my 5 favorite lip colors. That with a 2-color blush set, 2 best eyeliners, mascara and my mineral powder, I’ve got everything I could want in a package smaller than any full pallette, sans extra plastic and products I won’t use.