Grey eyeshadow adventures

[fieldsofclover]

Beige and brown makeup shades ain't for me, even though I'm not particularly cool-toned... they just don't work with my complexion and all the warm, sandy, muted sunset-looking palettes flooding the market these days make me look washed out. 

So lately I've been on the hunt for a decent set of neutral or warm greys and it is slim pickings out there! Here are my finalists:Heimish (Brisk Grey), CT (The Rock Chick), Sephora (N°1), Buxom (customizable)

 I really want to try the Heimish but it's also the only one I can't swatch in-store first. My Nordstrom carries CT and the Ulta close to me stocks all the Buxom singles, which have several promising options.

I'm not really a fan of the UD shadow formulas, and I don't want too large of a palette anyway, so Naked 2 is not in the running and I'm not bothering to track down a Naked Smoky. I checked out the MAC Basic B*tch palette at Nordstrom but some of the shades were patchy, so that's out.  I wish I could just build an ABH quad, but out of 80 shades they don't have a single grey! There's also a nice Burberry one, but $62 for a quad is steep enough that I'd want to actually have the SA do a look on me first.

I'll probably get restless and go a-swatching tomorrow just to see if I can make a decision.

[KrishAtl]

@firldsofclover I love a Grey smoky eye as a neutral everyday look. Been playing with jazzing grey up with pops of green or glittery shadow for a party/evening look.

[blueviolet21]

Hi @fieldsofclover, how did your Burberry palette perform in its first tour of duty for you? I've had greys on the brain ever since your post so I dug through my drawer looking for what I could find in my stash by way of greys:

Grey stash

 The Viseart is a treasure. The pigmentation isn't as intense as Neutral Mattes but I love how unique it is and I love the looks I can create with it. Like you, I'm not a fan of UD shadows in general, but Mushroom is a smooth warm grey that I really enjoy. The Armani quads are really pretty and get a lot of daytime/office use from me. They don't have the super-intense formula that's popular right now but they're really chic and they last a long time on the eyes. I also have a KVD palette called Innerstellar which I think is DCed now... that one has some nice greys and silvers in it too. It's kind of uneven as a whole but I kept it because I couldn't dupe the colors in the rest of my collection. And somewhere I have a cool grey matte MUFE single (slate?) that didn't make it into the photo. Anyway! Thanks for inspiring me to pull these pretties back out again 🙂 I hope you are enjoying your Burberry 🙂

[starsandbucks]

@fieldsofclover I know you’ve bought your beautiful Burberry palette but I just saw the greyest of grey palettes on Beautylish and had to add it here in case anyone is searching in the future. By Make-up Atelier, $35. 

[MCSSavvy]

@fieldsofclover -- I honestly love greys so I'm excited you are giving them a whirl!  MAC has a really nice grey paint pot.  I also love grey liquid eyeliner as a softer alternative to black for a cat-eye. I really like grey for a smoky eye look and for a neutral eye look.  I tend to go for light browns or pinks but grey shades can be great too.  I'm looking to build back up my shadow collection and have eyed the Burberry palette along with Charlotte Tillbury.  Let me know what you think of the Burberry palette.  🙂 

[RGbrown]

My first thought when I saw this thread was a bit of

Pffffft...grey. Boring. 😋

But!

I have been following along, and the more I think about it, the more I realize I am missing some nice greys in my life. I reach for black over brown any day; some days black is a bit too much, but it's much more likely to be the accent in a palette instead of a grey or two. 

Sadly though, I can't bring myself to buy the spendy stuff...as much as I'd love to, I just don't want that sort of expense for something I don't wear all that often, so in that vein, here are a few cheaper options I rustled up from Ulta's site. There still aren't many to choose from, but a couple of them look pretty goodIf only they'd left out the brown lol

Really liking the blue accents here

Closest to what I had in mind when I started looking

Like that it's compact

LOVE that purple

Looks like a glitter bomb (and I'm down with that lol)

Perhaps too many lighter colors for my taste

In reality, what I need to do is go through all of my palettes and singles (I have an obscene amount of Sephora singles from when they went on sale last year, and many have never been touched), and familiarize myself better with what I have before buying something else...I could likely cobble together a small grey palette to keep handy for days when I want to accent or showcase just one bright color instead of my usual 57 brights at a time 😄

[NatureGirlSD]

@RGbrown This really is a great thread. That's a great idea about putting a palette together with what you already have and maybe a few complementary brights you love. I like greys, but only have a few palettes featuring it, like the first one below, so I'll eventually end up with the Burberry. I added a few others in case you want ideas or because SPARKLES! (The Architectonic not only has the best name ever & a pop of navy, but looks amazing in swatches, so I can see caving & getting that too.)

[snoflakefaerie]

@fieldsofclover I know it's on its way out, but I really love the purple and orange version of the Kat Von D shade and light quads. It looks like they still have the grey one in stock and on sale:

https://www.sephora.com/product/shade-light-eye-contour-quad-P407872?skuId=1776863&icid2=products%20...

They are all mattes and perhaps only 2 true greys to speak of, but especially at the sale price, I think it's worth it.

[fieldsofclover]

@snowflakefaerie What do you think of the formula? I saw these come and go a few times (do they keep unearthing forgotten stashes in warehouse corners?) but didn't see the smoky one was back. When I see people get excited about them it's always related to shade range or collection value, but there's less chatter about performance.

It's too bad the quad is becoming a lost art form these days. Hers seem well-designed.

[snoflakefaerie]

I'm not the queen of eyeshadow, but I like how they apply. I think they blend well and have good pigmentation. Typically, I'm always a bit bummed with matte eyeshadows, but I don't feel that way about these. The lasting power is not super long (like 5-6 hours instead of 8; I'm using UD primer ATM), but for the price, I'm willing to accept that. 

I, too am surprised how they keep coming back in stock. But, I guess I'm not too concerned about it? 

[fieldsofclover]

So I went to Nordstrom. For science 👩‍🔬

I ended up getting the Burberry after all. It was the only palette that didn't have actual glitter in one or more of the shades, I didn't need a black pan, and it was the most neutral of the greys (I didn't want visibly cool-toned shades)... the Tom Ford was the runner-up. I liked the different Lancôme sticks but decided to wait and get one or two later. For now I want to be able to smoke it out with a brush.

[bakeamuffin]

Great choice @fieldsofclover!! That’s the one I’ve been eyeing 👀 It looks like it would be perfect for a neutral grey look without any jazz ✨

[starsandbucks]

@fieldsofclover Ooohhh keep us updated, please! I’ve never used Burberry eyeshadow, except for one counter makeover a couple years ago at Nordstrom’s Spring Trend event. I liked it but I’ve never pulled the trigger. (But for some reason I have more than my fair share of Tom Ford and Armani shadows. Makes no sense!) I always have my eyes on Burberry shadows (no pun intended). Have fun with your new purchases!

[fieldsofclover]

@starsandbucks I'm going to try using it for a week straight to sort of "stress-test" it as an everyday palette, so I'll report back about how it goes 🏋️‍♀️

[fieldsofclover]

I feel like I finally need a beauty blog. I photographed all the palettes separately but posting everything here would be way overkill! Suffice to say that Nordstrom reserve/pickup crew is beyond awesome.

Here's the Burberry up close (x-post from Hauls). You can see that the product photo is unusually accurate!

Spoiler

[NatureGirlSD]

Nice call! I love grey eyeshadows when I need to look like a grown-up, so I've been drooling over that Burberry for a while. You should totally start a beauty blog.

[blueviolet21]

That Burberry is gorgeous! I have some Burberry singles and I treasure them. I also love greys and feel somewhat ashamed to admit it given how much they are not in style these days. But they can be so beautiful. Thank you for doing all this research *for science* @fieldsofclover

[fieldsofclover]

@blueviolet21 "Trends are for the anxious." 😘👍

[MistBerry]

@fieldsofclover
Lovely!

[starsandbucks]

@fieldsofclover Looks like you got it covered but wanted to toss this into the mix. Clarins has an interesting palette of grays and blues. I bought a holiday shadow palette from them a couple years ago and really liked it. 

[Ispend2much6]

@starsandbucks  That's so pretty!  Lots of variety.  I love Clarins' lip products, but I haven't tried the eyeshadows so it's good to know they work well.