2021 Declutter Project | Eyeshadow Collection

Before I choose and write about what makeup I’ll be using in February, I thought why not just do a quick declutter of eyeshadows to narrow down my options. So in today’s post, I will be going through all the eyeshadows I currently have in my collection, along with swatches, and deciding which ones to keep, which to test out as part of my monthly makeup, and which ones I’ll discard straight away.

It’s going to be a long one, but I’ll be writing about them in alphabetical order of brands and then group them together into discard, keep & continue testing headings at the end.

Alima Pure: Luminous Shimmer Shadow in Chai

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I’ve only used this once a long time ago. Swatching it now is making me want to use it more often as it’s such a beautiful neutral nude shimmer that matches my skin tone well. Although you can’t really tell by the swatch on my arm above, it does actually give a nice subtle sheen to the eyelids.

Banila Co: Quad Eye Palette Shadow in Lumiere

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I’m absolutely in love with this quad and mentioned it in my 100th Blog Post | 100 Favourite Things. As you can see I’m particularly fond of shade 4 ‘Glow Gold Brown’, I’ve used it alone almost everyday for years, and now I’m trying to preserve what’s left. It’s a shame that this quad is discontinued as I really want to repurchase it; hoping its a seasonal product that they will sell again in future.

Barry M: Dazzle Dust in 131 Sparkle Blue

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I went through a blue eyeshadow phase in my teens and early 20s but I also went through a hoarding not using phase around then too so this one never made it on my eyelids. It’s a beautiful shimmery blue but now that I’m in my 30s my colour preference has changed a lot so I don’t see myself ever wearing this.

Benefit: Where there’s Smoke Velvet Eyeshadow PD33 Gabbi

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Another discontinued eyeshadow that I’m sure is more than 10 years old. I remember going to the benefit counter asking for a smoky shadow that will suit my skin tone and was recommended this grey khaki taupe colour. I don’t wear this type of colour that often anymore but I’ve been testing it out as part of my 2021 Declutter Project | January Makeup, and I do still like it. I honestly should just throw it out as it’s really old.

Charlotte Tilbury: Eyes To Mesmerise Cream Eyeshadows in Marie Antoinette & Norma Jean

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I purchased both of these in 2015 but recently the shade Marie Antoinette has been renamed Oyster Pearl and the shade Norma Jean has been renamed Champagne. They both last such a long time without drying out and a little goes a long way so for me they’re worth the price. They are both great one and done type of eyeshadows as they aren’t flat colours and have some depth to them; in different angles and lighting it looks like more than one shade has been applied. I noticed that if I use too much this whipped mousey cream formulation can gather in the crease of my eye so I make sure to apply it in thin sheer layers and use a matte powder to blend and set the crease. Both of these are keepers and I might actually get 1 or 2 more shades in future.

Dior: Gold Shimmer Topcoat

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I was gifted this tester a long time ago but I don’t remember exactly what it is and can’t seem to find it on the Dior website. The closest thing on the Dior website seems to be the Gold Topcoat from the Universal Neutral Backstage Custom Eye Palette. This has either dried out or was originally not that great in terms of colour payoff; I’m not sure as I haven’t used it much but I’ll definately be testing it out more this year.

Elizabeth Arden Makeup Set

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I don’t know the name of this set and I’m guessing it was limited edition as it’s not on their website. The few times that I have used the eyeshadows in this set, I noticed that they are subtle in pigment but sit smoothly on the lids with a hint of shimmer. I don’t use this palette much at all but I’m going to try and use it more sometime this year.

Etude House: Play Color Eyes Palettes – In The Cafe, Cherry Blossom, Juice Bar, Wine Party & KitKat Original

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I love the Etude House Play Colour Eyes palettes. I think the ‘In The Cafe’ palette is perfect for an everyday look any time of the year, the ‘Cherry Blossom’ palette is great for spring, the ‘Juice Bar’ palette is great for summer, and the ‘Wine Party’ palette is perfect for autumn & winter. As for the ‘KitKat Original’ palette I admit I totally just fell for the marketing and didn’t actually need it in my collection. It came with actual KitKat to eat and a soft makeup pouch too, plus the colours look very wearable so I thought why not?. I’ve noticed that I reach for the ‘Wine Party’ palette more though, but also sometimes mix and match complementing shades from each palette. I shared a look I did with the ‘Wine Party’ palette 2 years ago in My Go-To Winter Makeup post, and I pretty much still do the same now. I can’t say I use every single shade from each of the palettes though, and I’m realising I’m more of a single, duo or quad shadow sort of person, so I’ll make a note of all the shades I like and get them in singles when the palettes finish.

Helen E Cosmetics: Loose Pigment Shimmer 13 & Loose Glitter Pigments in Merlot, Silver Hologram, Gun Metal & Cupcake

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I bought these at the 2012 IMATS. I like the shimmery orange copper with silver and gold glitter of Loose Pigment 13 and want to use it more this year. As for the 4 glitters, I ended up not really enjoying the hassle of faffing around with fixing gel and loose glitters that fly around everywhere so these are a definite discard.

Loreal: Color Riche Smoky Marron Glace Quad

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This is my 2nd loreal marron glace quad; I finished the first one years ago which was given to me in a secret santa. When it finished I repurchased it but I wasn’t feeling the cool undertone anymore so ended up not using it much. The 4th shade now seems to have something bumpy in it which creeps me out so this is definitely going in the discard pile. This quad has been discontinued but I’m sure when I throw it out I won’t have any regrets.

Loreal: Color Riche 502 Lumiere Quartz Fume

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This to me seems like an almost upgraded single shadow version of the above quad. It feels like a velvety cushion and is quite smooth and pigmented. The shade has a nice depth to it that looks slightly different in different angles. It’s not too cool or too warm, but a nice neutral smoky deep taupe with a bit of an aubergine undertone. I’ve been using this as part of my 2021 Declutter Project | January Makeup, and I like it but I might end up being over this type of smoky look by the end of the year.

MAC: Loose Pigment

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I’m not sure what the name of this shade is but it looks like a sparkly grey black. This is going straight in the discard pile purely because of how messy it is; the powder gets everywhere and being such a dark colour makes it more of a pain to deal with. I don’t really wear this type of charcoal colour much anymore so it won’t be missed. I know MAC is kind of pricey so rather than actually throwing it in the bin, I might just pass it on to a friend.

NYX: Jumbo Eye Pencil in 604 Milk, 605 Strawberry Milk, 609 French Fries, 617 Iced Mocha, 625 Sparkle Nude, 630 Cashmere, 631 Sparkle Leopard

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My sister got the shade Milk and Strawberry Milk in 2013, then in 2016 got the shades French Fries, Iced Mocha, Sparkle Nude, Cashmere and Sparkle Leopard. I never really felt the need to use ‘Milk’, not even as a base, and ‘Strawberry Milk’ was also a bit too cool and icy for my skin tone. As for the other colours that I chose myself, they seem more up my alley, but I found that they all crease and smudge quite badly as the day goes on. The two sparkle shades were also a bit too chunky for my liking. The only shade I found myself wearing very often without any problems was ‘Cashmere’ (6th champagne gold swatch), so that’s staying in my collection.

NYX: Smokey Fumé The Smokey Shadow Palette

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I got this in Malaysia back in 2013 as part of the limited edition NYX Parallel Worlds Makeup Collection inspired by The Mortal Instruments – City of Bones movie. Out of all the shades, I actually really like the 5th shade which reminds me of ‘Marathon Finish’ from the Etude House Play Color Eyes Wine Palette. I’ll take out the 5th shade to continue using and discard the rest of the palette as I don’t see myself using the rest of them.

NYX: The Runway Collection Palette in Velvet Rope

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I used to like purple shades so I purchased this at the 2012 IMATS. This palette isn’t sold anymore but I won’t regret discarding it because I have actually used it quite a bit in the past and now I’m just not into this type of colour as I prefer more of a natural look. I did also attempt a bit of artwork with this last May in my bullet journal, creating a sort of purple night sky for a song appreciation spread as part of my 30 Day Happiness Challenge that I was doing on Instagram (I still have the story highlights for that challenge on my Insta, if you’re interested to take a look).

NYX: Smokey Look Kit

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Another discontinued NYX product that I think I got at IMATS back in 2012. I never reached for this and looking at it now, it kind of remind me of the Loreal Marron Glace Quad I mentioned earlier in this post. As I don’t use cool toned smoky shadows anymore, and also never really enjoyed the lip shades, this is going straight in the discard pile.

Revlon: Color Stay 12 Hour Eyeshadow 99 Charcoal

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Another discontinued eyeshadow, this time by Revlon. I don’t recall purchasing this but it’s in my collection so maybe it was given to me by a friend. I’m much more into darker blacks or browns for eyeliner and won’t use this shade for anything really, so discard pile it is.

Sleek Makeup i-Divine Eyeshadow Palettes: 320 Arabian Nights Palette, 568 Sunset Palette, 570 Acid Palette, 596 Bad Girl Palette, 600 Primer Palette

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There was a time when I was obsessed with collecting Sleek Eyeshadow Palettes but all the ones I have are discontinued now. They’re extremely smooth and pigmented even to this day (more than 10 years later), but they’re also very powdery so I end up with quite a bit of fall out. My best friend gifted me the Limited Edition Arabian Nights Palette years ago and I used it quite a few times, but now the colours lean a bit too cool toned for my liking. Out of all of these palettes, the ‘Sunset’ palette is the only one that has shades I’d consider using as the colours are quite wearable especially for the summer. The ‘Acid’ palette is quite a vibrant fun neon palette that actually belongs to my sister; we probably would have enjoyed using it for some sort of cosplay in our younger years but I really don’t see either of us ever wearing this now in our 30s so I’ve asked her and she’s agreed for it to be discarded. The ‘Bad Girl’ palette was the first eyeshadow palette I ever bought; although it’s no longer my cup of tea, I used to be really drawn to these dark shades and I recall using the top middle silver shades a lot in my late teens to early 20s for a shimmery grey smoky look. The ‘Primer’ palette works well in bringing out the vibrancy of powder shades I apply on top, especially other sleek shadows, however I’ve found that I prefer to be quite minimal with the steps in my makeup routine so having these primers as a base really isn’t necessary.

Too Faced: Eye Shadow Insurance Policy Palette & Liquif-Eye Shadow Collection Palette

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More of my first palette purchases from my late teens. You can see I used both of these quite a bit. I love the satiny smooth high pigment of the ‘Eyeshadow Insurance Policy’ palette, especially the brown shade ‘Full Frontal’, but although I used the ‘Liquif-Eye’ palette just as much the formulation just wasn’t it for me in comparison. For now, I’ll take out 3 shades (Full Frontal, Glamazon & Socialite) from the ‘Eyeshadow Insurance Policy’ palette to keep until I find similar replacements, and 2 shades from the ‘Liquif-Eye’ palette (‘Full Frontal’ & ‘Oscar’) to test out, but I’ll throw out the rest.

Update October 2021: I found that Full Frontal and Socialite from the Too Faced Eyeshadow Insurance Policy palette have similar colour matches in my Urban Decay Naked Heat palette so I will be discarding these extremely old Too Faced ones.

Sugarpill: Cold Chemistry Collection Palette

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This Sugarpill Cold Chemistry Palette was a collab palette with Amelia Arsenic and I only came to know of it when I saw Shrinkle (the founder of Sugarpill) and Amelia Arsenic promoting it in the 2012 IMATS looking fabulously badass. These kind of colours were totally my vibe back in the day, sort of a condensed version of the Sleek Bad Girl Palette mentioned earlier, but I have definitely changed since then. I’ll keep the palette and play around with it a bit this year but it might just stay as a collectors item or be passed on to a friend. I also purchased 3 Chroma Lust Loose Eyeshadows at IMATS which I will talk about below, but they’re pretty much in the same category as this palette.

Sugarpill: Chroma Lust Loose Eyeshadows in Magpie, Stella & Olivia

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I purchased ‘Magpie’ purely because I was blown away by the colour and how accurately they named it. Although I doubt I’ll use this type of colour on my eyes anymore, I want to test it out a bit maybe as an eyeliner and maybe also use it for some artwork. I would describe ‘Stella’ as a starry galaxy night type of colour, another accurately named shade. I actually purchased it thinking I’d do a galaxy inspired makeup look for my old blog but never ended up doing it. Still I’ve never let go because it’s just so beautiful to look at and I’d like to try doing some artwork with it too. As for the limited edition ‘Olivia’, I used to like wearing green eyeshadow, usually a darker green, but I purchased this lighter green shade because the gold glitter that’s in it gives such a pretty effect. I’m sure I’ve only ever used ‘Olivia’ 3 times so I want to play around with it a bit more this year before passing it on to a friend.

Urban Decay: Naked Heat Palette

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This palette is the most recent addition to my collection. I gave away my Naked 2 palette to a friend last year as it was a bit too cool toned for me, and I thought this full on warm palette would be better so I asked my husband for it in August as a birthday gift. But after using this throughout last summer, I realised that deep fiery warm shades can also be a bit too much for my skin tone. I lean more towards a neutral skin tone with a touch of yellow, touch of pink and touch of olive so I know now that muted neutral colours that aren’t too cool or too warm suit me more.

Discard Pile

I’ll be discarding the following eyeshadows for now, which are:

• Barry M Dazzle Dust
• Helen E Cosmetics Loose Glitters in Silver Hologram, Merlot, Gun Metal, Cupcake
• Loreal Colour Riche Marron Glace Quad
• MAC Pigment
• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils in Milk, Strawberry Milk, French Fries, Iced Mocha, Sparkle Nude x2, Sparkle Leopard
• NYX Runway Collection Velvet Rope Palette
• NYX Smokey Look Kit
• NYX Smokey Fume Palette *(but keeping shade 5)
• Revlon Color Stay Charcoal
• Sleek Primer Palette
• Sleek Bad Girl Palette
• Sleek Acid Palette
• Too Faced Liquif-Eye Shadow Collection *(but keeping 2 shades: Full Frontal & Oscar). (Update June 2021: all discarded)
• Too Faced Eye Shadow Insurance Policy *(but keeping 3 shades: Full Frontal, Glamazon & Socialite). (Update October 2021: all discarded)

Update May 2021: Sleek Arabian Nights Palette & Loreal Color Riche Smoky Quartz Fume (rehomed to a friend) + Elizabeth Arden Seashell, Bronze Luster, Plush Purple, Cafe Au Lait Highlighter, Shimmering Emerald, Sterling, Romance and Truffle (Discarded)

Update June 2021: Dior Gold Shimmer Topcoat & Too Faced Liquif-Eye Full Frontal and Oscars (discarded)

Update July 2021: Too Faced Eye Shadow Insurance Policy shade Glamazon (discarded).

Update August 2021: Benefit Where There’s Smoke Gabbi & Helen E Cosmetics Loose Pigment in Shimmer 13 (discarded – too old and causing irritation but I like both eyeshadow shades so I’ll get something similar in future) + Sleek Makeup Sunset Palette (rehomed to a friend)

Update October 2021: Elizabeth Arden Brown Stone, Copper Glow, Sunblush & Highlighter, + Too Faced Eye Shadow Insurance Policy shades Full Frontal & Socialite (discarded)

Keep Pile

My definite keep collection now consists of the following eyeshadows/ palettes:

• Banila Co Lumiere Quad
• Charlotte Tilbury Eyes To Mesmerise Marie Antoinette
• Charlotte Tilbury Eyes To Mesmerise Norma Jean
• Etude House Play Color Eyes Cherry Blossom
• Etude House Play Color Eyes Juice Bar
• Etude House Play Color Eyes Wine Party
• Etude House Play Color Eyes In The Cafe
• Etude House Play Color Eyes KitKat Original
• NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Cashmere (I forgot to include this in the photo below)
• Too Faced Eye Shadow Insurance Policy shades Full Frontal, Glamazon & Socialite only. (Update July 2021: Glamazon discarded) (Update October 2021: Full Frontal & Socialite discarded)

Update May 2021: Elizabeth Arden Brown Stone, Copper Glow, Sunblush & Highlighter (Update October 2021: discarded)

Update August 2021: Alima Pure Luminous Shimmer Shadow in Chai + NYX Smokey Fume Palette shade 5 only

Update October 2021: Urban Decay Naked Heat

Continue Testing Pile

In the upcoming months I’ll be choosing shadows to test out from this pile:

• Alima Pure Luminous Shimmer Shadow in Chai (Update August 2021: keep)
• Benefit Where There’s Smoke Gabbi (Update August 2021: discarded)
• Dior Gold Shimmer Topcoat (Update June 2021: discarded)
• Elizabeth Arden Makeup Set (Update May 2021: keeping 4 shades Brown Stone, Copper Glow, Sunblush & Highlighter) (Update October 2021: discarded)
• Helen E Cosmetics Loose Pigment in Shimmer 13 (Update August 2021: discarded)
• Loreal Color Riche Smoky Quartz Fume (Update May 2021: rehomed to a friend)
• NYX Smokey Fume Palette shade 5 only (Update August 2021: keep)
• Sleek Arabian Nights Palette (Update May 2021: rehomed to a friend)
• Sleek Sunset Palette (Update August 2021: rehomed to a friend)
• Sugarpill Cold Chemistry Palette (Update November 2021: move to art collection instead of makeup)
• Sugarpill Chromalust Olivia (Update November 2021: move to art collection instead of makeup)
• Sugarpill Chromalust Magpie (Update November 2021: move to art collection instead of makeup)
• Sugarpill Chromalust Stella (Update November 2021: move to art collection instead of makeup)
• Too Faced Liquif-Eye Palette shades Full Frontal & Oscar only (Update June 2021: discarded)
• Urban Decay Naked Heat Palette (Update October 2021: keep)

I’ll do a final declutter from this pile later in the year once I’ve tested them a bit more.

If you made it this far, thank you for staying till the end of this very lengthy post. I’d love to know what you’re favourite eyeshadows are and also which of the ones in my continue testing pile would you keep and which would you discard?