The Best Drugstore Neutral Eyeshadow Palette: L'Oreal vs. Maybelline

With the success of the Urban Decay Naked palettes and the current "no makeup look" trend going on right now it's not surprising that there are some drugstore neutral eyeshadow palettes available. At $54 the Urban Decay palettes are definitely a splurge, and I love awesome drugstore makeup alternatives so I decided to test out Maybelline's The Nudes Palette and L'Oreal's Colour Riche La Palette Nude to see which one (or if both of them) were worth the money.

I've seen the Maybelline palette on the market for some time now, but it was only the other day that I spotted the L'Oreal palette at Ulta. How long has it been on the market? I haven't seen it in drugstores or Walmart. The Maybelline palette comes with 12 shades and I bought if from Ulta for around $10. The L'Oreal palette comes in 2 different versions, one for light to medium skin tones and one for medium to dark skin tones. I got the one for light to medium skin tones. It costs around $19 to $20 and comes with ten different shades. I haven't tried a lot of different L'Oreal eyeshadows, but I do like the Maybelline Eye Studio makeup. It's really pigmented and the color range is good. 

The first six shades in the Maybelline The Nudes palette.

Shades 7-12 in The Nudes palette.

As you can tell from the pictures above, the last six shades are the darkest and most pigmented. Some colors are shimmery and others are matte. I like that, like the Urban decay Naked palettes, the colors are not just different shades of brown; there's a navy-gray color (the last one in the bottom picture). Also, the colors aren't exclusively warm, so I can see them working with a lot of different skin tones.

The con? I was disappointed with the lack of pigmentation, even in the darker colors. I had to apply a lot of layers of product just to get something that would show up on camera.

The first five shades in the L'Oreal Colour Riche La Palette Nude.

The last five shades in the L'Oreal palette.

Like the Maybelline palette the last five shades are the darkest ones. Though the lightest colors don't show up on camera well, I think they were a little less work to apply than the Maybelline shades. These shades are warmer than the Maybelline ones, but there's not one "true" dark color so if you wanted to do a heavy smokey eye or something like that you would probably need some darker colors.

The cons? Because these shades are warmer, I'm not sure if this palette would work on every skin tone. Also, the shades are a little powdery, but I found that applying the product with a damp brush helped. Another thing: this palette is significantly more expensive than the Maybelline one and has less color options. 

All in all, after playing around with both eyeshadow palettes, I like them both. Even though they're both "neutral" palettes, the colors are very different so I think I will be using both of them a lot in the future. With spring and summer coming soon, I'll probably reach for the L'Oreal palette a little more because the colors are a little warmer. If you like drugstore makeup and you wear a lot of natural makeup, I think both of these palettes are good buys. 

Have you tried these palettes? What do you think of them? Let me know with your comments below!

-Greer