Swatches: Matte Neutrals

Saturday, August 25, 2012

I can't tell you how many neutral shades I have in my various palettes or as single shadows. It's sort of ridiculous. I think it's the reason why I've never been tempted by things like the Urban Decay Naked Palettes. In an effort to cherish and use my collection, I swatched and photographed some of my favorite neutral mattes. Some of these are hard to see because they are so close to the color of my arm, but let me assure you that they are highly pigmented, or else they wouldn't have made it into my favorites!

From left to right: LORAC Beige, Milani Almondine, MAC Concrete

I've been literally using this LORAC shade as my highlight for years. It's a matte color that is about a shade lighter than my skin tone so it looks really natural. Milani Almondine is a tad darker than my skin tone, which makes it really great for creating a sutble nude sculpted eye. Fantastic quality, very pigmented. I've never finished a shadow, but I'm secretly freaking out because these Milani shadows were discontinued forever ago. MAC Concrete (all thoughts about the company aside) is a fantastic greige shadow that works so well for blending out darker shades.

From left to right: the left side of Dior Nude Look duo, Urban Decay Secret Service, Laura Mercier Fresco

I love the left side of Dior Nude Look, it's so soft and finely milled. Fantastic blending shade. Urban Decay Secret Service is a nice staple cocoa brown. Great for deepening creases. I had the hardest time learning to work with Laura Mercier Fresco, but once I figured out how to utilize it to its fullest potential- I use it all the time! I like using it as a crease shade paired with a sparkling champagne shade (like Stila Kitten).

Left and right: NARS Best Palette- featuring Bali shadow and Rock & Republic Fatalistic

These are my absolute holy grails. I use Bali every single day to define my brows- who would have thought that it would be such a perfect brow color? Rock & Republic Fatalistic is as black as a night in the countryside. I'd be lost without it!

Altogether now. From left to right: LORAC Beige, Milani Almondine, MAC Concrete, Dior Nude Look Duo left side, Urban Decay Secret Service, Laura Mercier Fresco, NARS Bali, Rock & Republic Fatalistic.

What about you? What are you favorite matte neutral shadows?

**This is an automated post, I'm away on vacation for a few days. It may take me a while to read and get back to any comments, thank you for your patience!**

Products featured were purchased by me or given to me as gifts for my own use. For additional information please refer to my Disclosure Policy.