Beauty,  Beauty Advice,  Black Radiance,  NARS,  Revlon,  Rimmel

For all the Singles Ladies: Best Value When Buying Eyeshadow

So the single’s I’m talking about are the single use makeup items you may have purchased in the past, or on a regular basis. Eyeshadows in particular tend to add up to big bucks when it comes to buying single pans.  Suppose you add 6 eyeshadows to your fall makeup wardrobe this year, how much money is that?  Well,  let’s do the math:

Let’s go with NARS eyeshadows since I’m such a fan of his makeup:

6 new single NARS shadows at $22 each = $132

NARS single eyeshadow
NARS single eyeshadow

Ok, so we decide that buying singles isn’t such a good idea, and we opt for NARS duos:

6 NARS duo eyeshadows at $32 each = $192.  Ouch, well that brings the price per shadow down to $16 each.  Hmm, making sense yet?

NARS duo eyeshadow
NARS duo eyeshadow

Or, I can buy a palette of NARS shadows or a combination palette:

NARS 6 pan palette -- Day and Night
NARS 6 pan palette -- Day and Night

So, now I have cut my shadow cost in almost half from the duo.  This palette equal $8.33 per shadow.  Good deal!

Or, you can go full hog and get the whole face palette (I recommend this option)

NARS Everlasting love palette
NARS Everlasting love palette
NARS Wild at heart palette
NARS Wild at heart palette

Now these palettes I LOVE!  I have all NARS palettes, except these two (new) and use them constantly in my professional kit.  So let’s do the math again:  10 colors, two cheeks, 4 lips, 4 eyes = $7.50 per color.  YAY!

Okay, so we did the math on a prestige brand, let’s check out a drugstore brand.  I recently picked up the following shadow kits:

Revlon 4 shadow kit at $6.99 (I actually paid $2.49 for mine) as opposed to $4.99 for one.  That is $1.74 per shadow. Good deal.

Revlon Color Stay shadow kit
Revlon Color Stay shadow kit

Rimmel Quad for Smoky Eyes at $5.99 = $1.19 per shadow!

Rimmel Shadow Quad
Rimmel Shadow Quad

And another brand I LOVE, Black Radiance.  $3.99 for 4 shadows = $.99.  A big WOOT!

Black Radiance shadow quad
Black Radiance shadow quad

So when it comes to shopping for singles, my advice is to check out palettes.  A few words of advice to remember though:

  • Be sure the colors in the palette are user friendly.  Just because you are getting 100 shadows for a couple bucks is not a great deal if you only use two of them.
  • Remember that drugstore brands tend to have more filler to pigment content.  So for women of color, this can mean that you may not have the “pay off ” in color when you apply your shadow.  This is why I love NARS and Black Radiance brands.
  • Keep shimmery colors to a minimum.  Look for matte colors and leave the shimmer for the brow bone, the club or Halloween.

I think about the money I have spent on makeup over the years and when I add it up, it’s kind of shocking.  What has saved me is that fact that I can write it off on my taxes or charge my client a “kit fee” when it’s work related.  But for the everyday woman feeding a makeup addiction, the dollars can seriously add up.

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