Beauty Moment- Best Eyeshadow Palettes

Eyeshadow palettes make my heart beat a little faster and stir up the kind of stomach butterflies usually reserved for my husband.  Like a Pussycat Doll gravitates toward spandex and mesh, I am drawn toward just about any palette that looks cute.  But sometimes the cute packaging is all an eyeshadow palette has going for it - the shades are either incongruous, uninspired or wear off faster than my affection for Katy "I Kissed a Girl" Perry.    Here, my favorite tried and tested eyeshadow palettes (plus one thus far untried, that I'm totally lusting for).  

My friend, Ally, always has really pretty eye makeup long past bar close when the rest of us are wiping our raccoon eyes away.  She told me her go-to product is Revlon's Illuminance Creme Shadow palettes.  She's got them in every color - the shades go on smoothly and layer with each other and powder shadows.  So pretty.  

Clinique was the first brand of "real" makeup that I started wearing, way back in 1993.  As I got older, I began to experiment with and branch out to other, more "grown up" brands like Bobbi Brown.  So I sometimes forget just how great Clinique's products can be.  Take the Color Surge Eye Shadow Quads - a selection of 4 fool-proof shadows that won't flake or fade.  I think Spicy (shown) creates a great neutral look, appropriate any time of day.  And the slim compact fits into even the most over-stuffed bag.  

I find Stila's eyeshadows to be the easiest to blend and some of the longest-lasting shadows in my collection.  The brand has a number of shadow palettes (as well as empty palettes for you to fill with your own selections) but my favorite is the Smokey Eye Palette- the Sapphires.  There's something both daring and intriguing about using blues to create a sexy smokey eye- blue makes every eye color pop.  This particular combination of light and dark blues is gorgeously wearable.  And the palette actually talks you through each step of the smokey eye - a definite first!

And the one palette I can't personally vouch for, but desperately want to.  Look at the gorgeous embossed print on each bar of shadow.  And speaking of those shadows - what a beautiful combination.  This is one of three Shimmery Sparkling Eyes Tribal Quad Shadows from Global Goddess.  This collection of plummy mauves,  called Arusha,  would create a pretty day look or a more sultry night look.  

Photo credit: Revlon.com; Clinique.com; Stilacosmetics.com; GlobalGoddessBeauty.com