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Eye makeup can immediately change your barely-there makeup look into something that leaves a lasting impression. It opens up the eyes and creates depth and intensity. By emphasizing the eyes, you anchor a definitive mood for your look. Pops of color, like emerald or electric blue create a fun and playful temperament. Nude or rosy hues convey romance and femininity. A palette of bronze and brown, meanwhile, reflect in a subdued effect, typically to complement hair color and skin tone.
Of all those looks, however, it’s the smokey eye that is the most dramatic—often symbolic of a powerful, independent woman. But it’s not easy to get right. It takes a while to fully master how to create the smokey eye. You don’t want clear or defined lines around the eyes unless the goal is to look like a scary raccoon or someone who has been crying for days. The key is to always blend and smudge. Regardless of the color palette you are working with, it’s important to create gradients between shades. And to achieve this, you need the right palette that will help you create the perfect smokey eye.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Sultry Eyeshadow Palette
This palette contains 14 colors—including neutrals, metallics and mattes—that allow you to go from a classic, dark smokey eye to a more glammed-up disco variation. The set also includes well-loved cream and charcoal-slate matte, which allow you to build up eye makeup from day to night. Each of the pigments is formulated so that they don’t easily smudge and last for hours.
Huda Beauty Warm Brown Obsessions Palette
Obsessions palettes from Huda are a hit because they are perfectly sized, so you can pack them in your teeny purse. It includes a well-curated selection of hues that, when mixed and matched, create warm, buttery and sultry smokey eye looks. There are matte-finished colors as well a foiled metallics in warm brown variants, ideal for creating countless smokey variations.
Too Faced Sweet Peach Eyeshadow Collection
A delicious peachy scent makes the Sweet Peach Eyeshadow Collection from Too Faced a multisensorial treat. And while most smokey eye palettes emphasize the darker and deeper tones, this one brings together sweet shades of coral and pink with rich hues of purple and bronze. Highly intense pigmentation for all 18 shades in the palette stay on for hours. And each is buildable, so it’s easy to create looks from day to night.
Morphe 9I So Iconic Artistry Palette
Take your smokey eye to new heights—and new hues—with the 9I So Iconic Artistry Palette from Morphe. Each color is intensely pigmented so that it creates full visual impact for hours. Every shade in the palette, specifically curated for the creation of various smokey eye looks, is buildable and easy to blend so even non-pros can achieve dramatic makeup looks.
NARS Narsissist Eyeshadow Palette
This limited-edition palette from the Narsissist collection of NARS features shades that range from deep and sultry to light and rosy. There are also neutrals, which are ideal for adding a highlight to a smokey eye. Once again, a buildable formulation of the makeup allows for easy application without the creasing effect on the eyes.
Laura Mercier Editorial Eye Palette Intense Clays
Inspired by professional makeup artistry, the Editorial Eye Palette from Laura Mercier allows for easy application of both shadow and highlights. Uniquely blended shades in the kit are specifically chosen for creating a wide range of smokey eye looks—from the classic to the more daring metallic and deep blue variants. Intensely saturated and pigmented, every shade in this palette glides on skin with ease and is easy to build up for added drama.
By Terry Eye Designer Palette
Ten finely milled shadows are combined in the Eye Designer Palette from By Terry to create deep and dramatic smokey eyes. The selection of shades, mostly in neutral tones, are ideal when going for shades in bronze or earth. Concentrated micro-pigmentation creates intense color on skin without the need for using too much product. This palette was also specifically put together to suit all eye colors, ages and skin tones.
Rodial Eyeshadow Palette
There are just six shades in this mini eye palette from Rodial that allow for a simple daytime look or a stunning smokey eye for night. Intense pigmentation help to create deep definition for the eyes. The matte finish shades, meanwhile, are buildable and easy to blend so that you can experiment with a variety of intensities and shapes. The effervescent pearl tones, on the other hand, are added for creating highlights.
