Makeup on a Budget: My Top 5 Eyeshadow Brands

I've been thinking for a longer time to do some posts about drugstore purchases or better said budget purchases. In a drugstore there are many products that are a hit or a total miss and since I tried quite few products that impressed me, I thought to share them with you, specially if you're a makeup beginner and you don't want to spend a whole lot of money on makeup. I'll do two or three posts, it depend from the longevity of each, but I decided to do a separate post with eyeshadows. As you know they are very special part of my makeup, very adored, and since I tried - I can say - a lot of them, I'll talk about my favourites today. But of course I haven't tried all drugstore and inexpensive eyeshadows or other makeup ... There have been written posts like this before, be bloggers have different experience, we live in different countries which means we tried different makeup brands, so I think posts like this are always welcome. One thing I also have to mention - when I'm talking about eyeshadows, I mean mono eyeshadows and palettes as well.

Sleek palettes are on the top of my favourite list of eyeshadows. Their quality is amazing, and not just that, Sleek also has big selection, so anyone can find a palette for themselves. My favourite palette is Storm, which has eyeshadows with matte and shimmery finish and the shades are neutral and dark, so it's appropriate for day and night looks. Other everyday palette is Au Naturel. I don't have it, but from the swatches on other blogs I'd say it's a perfect palette for everyone who is just starting with makeup (you probably want to wear more natural looks at the beginning) and of course for everyone who prefers neutral looks. Sleek eyeshadows are always nicely pigmented, easy to apply, blend and last whole day on lids (sometimes they do crease, but that depends from each eyeshadows, for example matte colorful shades can crease quicker than shimmery ones etc.). Shimmery eyeshadows fall out, but there are more than one solution to this: 1. do your eyes before foundation, 2. use a wet wipe to clean all fall out from your face and re-apply foundation under your eyes or 3. use a tissue under your eyes when you're applying eyeshadows. 

The other thing I like about Sleek palettes a lot is the packaging. They come in a sturdy matte black packaging with a big mirror inside. Each palette has 12 eyeshadows and in Slovenia you can get one palette for around 12 €, it depends where you buy it. They are available on Ličila.si, Moja drogerija, Zapikonai, Click2Chic.

Swatches of palettes I own: Chaos, Vintage Romance,  Curacao, Storm, Ultra Mattes V2 Darks, Acid.

I tried few MUA palettes, but none impressed me a lot, only Undressed. This is a dupe for Urban Decay Naked 1, which has my favourite shades from all three. Undressed has 12 eyeshadows, mostly shimmery, that are great for everyday looks and smokey eyes. Eyeshadows are easy bleandable, pigmented, longlasting, don't crease. I definitely think this is a perfect palette for someone who's just starting with makeup. It was available on Ličila.si for a long time, but as I see now they don't sell this brand anymore, so you may also try Makeup Revolution Iconic 1 which is basically the same palette, since is a dupe for Naked 1 as well. It's inexpensive, it costs only 6 €.

Creamy eyeshadows can be used alone or as a base for powder eyeshadow. Maybelline has great ones. I own three Color Tattoo shades: On and on Bronze, Pomegranate Punk and Permanent Taupe. On and on Bronze is a shimmery shade that I like to use alone on lids with addition of mascara on lashes. What I love about these is that they can be applied with fingers or with an eyeshadow brush. Pigmentation is very nicely, although Pomegranate Punk is a bit sheerer than other two. They have such a great formula that blends easy, but the problem can be, that they can crease if you wear them alone (it depends if you have oily lids or not). But I noticed that if I used them as secondary base (which means I apply powder eyeshadow over them) they don't crease. I think there are around 6 shades available in Slovenia and you can get them in any drugstore that has Maybelline stand. Price is around 5 €.

When it comes to matte eyeshadows, Miyo has the best ones I tried. It's true I mostly have colorful ones and one brown, but the selection is big, they have 40 mono eyeshadows, from amazingly pigmented white and black to browns for daily looks and colorful ones for more daring ones. They do fall out, but they look amazing on eyes, even after many hours and I didn't had problems with creasing at all. These eyeshadows are available only in Nama, so if you'll visit Ljubljana, I recommend a stop there, specially because they cost less than 2 €. Unfortunately I don't have swatches of these eyeshadows. I thought I already reviewed them, but I haven't, so that needs to be done soon.

Wet n Wild is a new brand on Slovenian market, but if you'll check Destination Pretty store you'll see their selection of palettes isn't bad at all. They have mono eyeshadows, trio palettes and palettes with 8 eyeshadows. My favourite is Comfort Zone, a palette with 8 eyeshadows, that are perfect for delicate daily looks. They also have engraved a purpose on each eyeshadows which is amazing for beginners, so that they'll know, where to put any eyeshadow, but of course that doesn't mean it needs to be used only on that part of the eye. Pigmentation, blending, application, longevity - I have no complaints here. Comfort Zone costs 8,48 € and it's available on Destination Pretty.

I bet you tried many other brands that you love as well, so I'd be happy if you'd share your choices with my readers in a comment below or even in your own post. Be sure to tell me your opinion about my choices as well. Thank you for reading!