Serenity now! Gwyneth works the natural look.
Despite the sea of electric-blue liner, orange lids and crystalised eyebrows recently spotted at New York and Paris Fashion Weeks, the good news for the time-poor woman is that everyone’s favourite play-it-safe neutral shades of shadow, like beige, taupe and mocha, are continuing to hold their own.
To prove it, a bevy of practical-thinking beauty brands have taken heed of our everyday eye makeup habits and put their thinking caps on to release limited edition palettes made up of their top-selling, most-natural-looking shadows. Then, to top things off there are the innovative brands, like Laura Mercier and Shu Uemura that encourage you to head in store to cherry pick your favourites from their full collection of matte, sparkly and metallic shadows to create your very own totally-wearable capsule of powders.
Handy hint: if you’re keen to go down the pick ‘n’ mix route, always start with a milky cream shadow that you can use to prep and brighten the lids and finish with a dark chocolate that you can also wear wet as eye liner for a refreshing change from straight-up black.
Bobbi Brown ultra nude palette
Here are two limited-edition palettes that have practicality and prettiness in spades
1. Bobbi Brown Ultra Nude Eye Palette, $99, Six coffee-based shades, but unlike most pressed shadows, Bobbi’s are milled to perfection so they’re nowhere near as messy as cheaper versions and look punchier on the skin for longer.
2. Stila Naturaleyes Eye Shadow Palette, $80: With glowing names like, Bare, Sunset, Bliss and Gilded Gold, this palette of top-ten-sellers is the holiday you can afford. Plus, the bonus waterproof eye liner and 8-page how-to booklet makes it a must-have for beauty novices.
Stila Natural Eyes Palette
