The lowdown of the best eyeshadow palettes on the market

Eyeshadow palettes are some of the most hyped products on the beauty market. With each brand shouting louder than the next, it’s quite hard to know what’s worth handing over your hard-earned cash for. Writing about beauty means that I’ve had the uber-difficult task of trying as many palettes as humanly possible over the past few years.

Here, I’m breaking it down into some of my recent picks, as well as all-time favourites…

The Classic
Urban Decay Naked Basics, €30 from Debenhams

Skip the hype over Naked 1, 2 and 3 and keep it simple with the Naked Basics palette. It’s small, it’s portable and, if you like your makeup to be simple and streamlined, you will love this. The paler shades are great for opening up the eyes and the darker crease colours also double up as brilliant shades for filling in brows. Oh, and that deep, matte black? Brilliant as a smokey liner!

The Newbie
Smashbox Double Exposure, €39.60 from Arnotts and larger Boots stores

This is the brand’s second neutral palette. The first, Full Exposure, didn’t quite do it for me as the shimmery shades were a little too heavy on the glitter. This one is a lot easier to work with and has some beautiful warm and jewel-toned shades. It’s good value for the price as the double-ended brush you get with it is actually fantastic, and there’s also a handy little booklet of ideas and guides for using the palette.

The Dark Horse
TheBalm Nude ‘Tude Palette, €35 from Cloud10Beauty.com

Ever heard of TheBalm? I’ve yet to try a bad product from them, and happily, the brand is quickly becoming more accessible in pharmacies nationwide, as well as from my favourite Irish beauty e-tailer, Cloud10Beauty. TheBalm Nude ‘Tude palette is an absolutely gorgeous warm-toned array of shadows; ranging from glittery coppers to matte, bone-white shades. The colours are well thought out and I’m a sucker for the cute packaging!

The Bargain
Wet ‘n’ Wild Comfort Zone Palette, €6 from Penneys and pharmacies nationwide

The Comfort Zone palette is brilliant value even if you don't end up using all of the colours – I'm mad about the deep, dark shimmery brown in it, and the shade down on the bottom right-hand corner is a pretty excellent dupe for MAC's Club eyeshadow. The pigment on these is incredible, they’re easy to blend, and just like any shadow, they’ll last all day with the help of a good primer.

Deirdre Foley is a history grad, sceptic, wearer of red lipstick and self-confessed 'beauty maniac'. She is also the co-founder of fabulous Irish beauty blog, Viva Adonis.