You know the drill: you put down good, hard-earned money for a new makeup palette that has all these gorgeous colours sitting in neat rows, full of the promise that this whole array of colours is going to up your makeup game like never before.
But the reality is that two months into using this palette, you realise that your brush has only been dipped into maybe 20% of the colours inside, leaving the rest to remain in their pristine, untouched states, never to come into contact with your face. Suddenly, blowing close to a hundred dollars on these 12 shades doesn’t seem like such an economical decision after all…
We’ve just come to accept that there will always be those few colours in every palette that will never see the light of day, but thankfully, some brands believe that doesn’t always have to be the case. Enter the palettes that are gloriously customisable, to give you full control over every shade that goes inside – so you know you’ll use everything (in theory, anyway).
NARS
The opening of Singapore’s first NARS boutique early this year meant that we could finally get our hands on exclusive lines like the 413 BLKR colours, books written by François Nars, and… the NARS Pro Palette range. The empty palettes come in two sizes, small and large, and open up to an expansive magnetic base that you can fill with blush, highlighter, bronzer and contour, eyeshadow, and face powder. We hear that the Pro Palettes have done so well that most of the refill colours are sold out – you might want to keep hanging around the NARS store to catch the next restock.
Palette sizes: Small and Large
Blush: 18 shades
Highlighting Blush: 3 shades
Bronzing Powder: 2 shades
Contour Blush: 2 shades
Pressed Powder: 4 shades
Duo Eyeshadow: 15 shades
Single Eyeshadow: 20 shades
Palettes, $20 to $25; refill colours, $25 to $37. Available at the NARS store at B1-53 Ngee Ann City.
Innisfree
When Innisfree launches a makeup range, they sure like to go big. Last year, it was 100 different cushion cases, and this time round, it’s more than 100 colours you can curate for your personalised makeup palette, appropriately named My Palette. To us, it’s one of the most exciting launches of the year, something helped by the incredible affordability. This just dropped this month, with limited edition palettes designed by Italian designer and illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli available while stocks last. And if you trust our taste in colours, we put together palettes for a giveaway!
Palette sizes: Small, Medium and Large
Eyeshadow: 100 shades (includes 1 primer shade)
Eyebrow: 5 shades
Blush: 22 shades
Highlighter: 4 shades
Contouring: 4 shades
Colour Corrector: 4 shades
Concealer: 3 shades
Palettes, $10 to $14; refill colours, $8 to $11. Available at Innisfree stores.
Make Up For Ever
Eyeshadow palettes are often the ones that get all the attention, but a nicely put-together blush palette never fails to make our hearts skip a beat. So when we get to customise our own face palette… cheers to that. Coming this month is Make Up For Ever’s Artist Face Color palette system, which allows you to unite your optimal blush-sculpting-highlighting combination for some seriously defined facial contours.
Palette sizes: Mono, Duo and Trio
Highlight: 5 shades
Sculpt: 9 shades
Blush: 18 shades
Palettes, $8, refill colours, $32. Full range available at Make Up For Ever stores, selected range available at Sephora from 14 September 2017.
Elizabeth Arden
Because there’s such a thing as decision fatigue, maybe having complete control over every single shade that goes into your eyeshadow palette isn’t always the most ideal thing. That’s why the simplicity of Elizabeth Arden’s Eyes Wide Open collection is appealing: the colours already come in nicely-matched trios for highlighting, enhancing and defining the eye area, and you just have to pick your two favourite trios to put into the palette.
Eyeshadow: 10 shades
Palette, $8; refill colours, $33. Available at the Elizabeth Arden store and counters.
Inglot
The main attraction of this Polish makeup brand is undoubtedly their Freedom System, a comprehensive range of customisable palettes, recognisable for their clear swivel covers. Inglot might not be one of the most well-known brands around, but those in the know when it comes to beauty will know it for being one of the first brands to lead the way with this whole customisable palette trend.
Palette sizes: More than 20
Eyeshadow: Over 200 shades
Lipstick: Over 100 shades
Brow colour: 18 shades
Concealer: 47 shades
Palettes, $15 to $61; refill colours, $15 to $29. Available at the Inglot counter at Robinsons Raffles City and on zalora.sg.
Shu Uemura
Being a makeup artistry brand at heart, of course Shu Uemura would have a customisable palette system – just that it might not be the most well-known one around. The brand actually has a whopping selection of 100 eyeshadow colours, ranging in textures from shimmer to pearl to matte to glitter, and quite a few more in between. Put them in palettes that accommodate up to 8 shades – the cases themselves come inspired by Japanese craftwork, and impressively are made without any glue, plastic frames, or other non-biodegradable materials.
Palette sizes: Mono, Duo, Quad and Octo
Eyeshadow: 100 shades
Palettes, $9 to $35; refill colours, $25. Available at Shu Uemura stores and counters.
Urban Decay
Maybe only the more hardcore of UD junkies will know this, but yes, they make customisable eyeshadow palettes! Those eyeshadow pots can actually be popped out of their case and assembled into your own personalised palette of 4 or 10 shades. The 10-shade palette is actually stackable, so you can add on as many layers as you want – with more than 100 eyeshadow colours available, you can just imagine how far you can take your palette.
Palette sizes: 4 colours, 10 colours
Eyeshadow: 92 shades
Moondust Eyeshadow: 20 shades
Palettes, $15 to $40; refill colours, $30 to $32. Available at Urban Decay stores and Sephora.
Essence
This brand proves that it’s possible to get a customisable eyeshadow palette for under $15. Essence’s new My Must Haves collection includes 20 eyeshadow colours and two palette sizes, with mostly natural, wearable hues – great for if you’re just starting out with experimenting with eye colours.
Palette sizes: 4 colours, 8 colours
Eyeshadow: 20 shades
Palettes, from $2.90; refill colours, $2.90 each. Available at Guardian and selected Watsons.
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