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This post was originally written in August 2019. It was last updated in February 2022.
Euphoria’s effect has been in full swing everywhere since it first aired in 2019: endless tutorials on how to achieve the same colorful makeup as some of Euphoria’s costars and brands coming out with colorful palettes left and right. It’s amazing how colorful makeup has taken a big leap worldwide and people aren’t shying away from wearing color on their eyes anymore. Do you remember the time when colorful eyeshadows were trendy in 2014? No, right?! With Instagram and Youtube tutorials, people are more adventurous to leave their comfort zones of neutrals and warms. More and more I see how consumers are getting tired of the same warm and neutral palette releases, which is why brands have jumped on the colorful eyeshadow bandwagon. Although there are many indie brands that have had bright color palettes for years, if you walk into a Sephora you’ll see that color eyeshadows are becoming more prominent among brands like Marc Jacobs, Huda Beauty, Tarte and other familiar brands.
On Euphoria, makeup plays a vital role in the show. At one point, it was hard to escape the incessant Euphoria-inspired makeup looks. People from all over the world took Instagram and Youtube to recreate the whimsical eye makeup looks the characters flaunt on the show.
Below are some amazing photos from Doniella Davy, Euphoria’s makeup designer!
If you want to make a foray into the world of color or you just want to expand your color collection, below are the best brands to do so!
I don’t know what’s taken me so long to try out this brand. Halsey’s new makeup brand is all about self-expression and freedom. About Face represents the essence of Euphoria to a tee.
I’m absolutely obsessed with the matte fluid eye paint, which comes in 15 different colorful shades. Her liquid eyeshadows are vegan and very user-friendly.
The best part is that a little bit goes a long way, so they’ll last you for a long time. I got the shade Everything Now, a beautiful chartreuse green, which compliments deeper skin tones. Because so much product comes out of the applicator, the best way to apply it is either with a brush, or by applying some product on the back of your hand and slowly building it up on the eyelids. It’s hard to try one shade and not bite the bullet and buy more. I ordered 3 more shades. The staying power? It does not fade or bulge. They’re so blendable and they look even more beautiful with a subtle layer of shimmery eyeshadow on top.
Some of my beauty inspirations for colorful looks come from Rowi Singh and Raluca Elena. The indie brand Kaleidos is a staple for their vibrant makeup looks. This brand is famous for their striking duochrome eyeshadows.
Their beaming highlighters are also not to be missed. Although they have many eyeshadow palettes, if you want to create a colorful look from a wide array of colors, the Escape Pod Palette will be your best option. This one, which is $42, is more expensive than the other palettes, which are typically priced in the $20 dollar range.
Colourpop’s monochromatic eyeshadow palettes have inarguably been a hit this summer. I really wanted to get into Huda Beauty’s Obsession palettes but something about them doesn’t do it for me. The formula of the shimmers are super chunky and the color story is a little bit out of place. In some palettes there are too many shimmers and not enough mattes. But I digress.
Colourpop is one of those brands I never thought I would get into, but the formulas and the price point ($12 a palette and $4 per single eyeshadow) are unbeatable. And guess what? Colourpop is also a staple in Euphoria’s makeup trailer!
My favorite monochromatic eyeshadow palette that Colourpop has released so far is the Uh-Hu Honey yellow eyeshadow palette. I never knew how beautiful and complimentary the color yellow could be on the eyes. The shimmers are super buttery and pigmented although I must point out that the pressed glitter located in the center is a complete mess and will get all over your face, so stay away from that one or use it carefully.
If you want to get every color under the rainbow, then get the Fade Into Hue palette, which offers the perfect mixture of stunning metallics, shimmers, and richly pigmented mattes!
Colourpop is available at Ulta but because it’s an E-commerce brand, their in-store stock is super limited, so the best thing is to scour the website and get lost in their unlimited world of eyeshadows. The shipping is really fast and they have amazing customer service. Since their single eyeshadows are so cheap it’s really easy to do credit card damage. So beware!
This brand has so many different palettes to choose from. All the palettes are beautiful and provide a nice array of bright colors and neutrals, but if you want vivid colors, the Zulu palette is the best – super versatile and perfect to use in conjunction with different colors. You have to pack up the product on your brush and slowly build it up. The shimmers are very buttery and will add the cherry on top to any of your looks, like the stunning blue or green shimmers from the Zulu palette. Juvia’s Place palettes are also super inexpensive and the formula has zero fallout! Part of the reason Juvia’s Place eyeshadows are so pigmented is because it’s owned by an African-American woman, providing you the richest, most vibrant and highly pigmented colors. Because the brand’s main target are dark-skinned women, their eyeshadows are extra pigmented.
She needs no introduction, but for those unfamiliar with her, Pat McGrath is considered the best makeup artist of our time. She’s been in the game forever and has worked with almost every single celebrity for editorials, runway shows and countless photoshoots. Not too long ago, she released her eyeshadow singles, also known as Eyedols. This release included an impressive selection of creamy shimmers and beautiful soft metallics. I’m a sucker for blues so I got Lapis Luxury, a stunning multidimensional turquoise color. You can also use it on its own as an eyeliner.
Actress Sophie Turner used this exact same color at the 2019 MET Gala.
A few of her single eyeshadows are repeat colors from other palettes but the formula is slightly different. Pat McGrath’s metallics are the best on the market, yes the best. Her palettes are pricey but the performance is mind-blowing enough to stop traffic. Not only is the color payoff insane, but the staying power of her shimmer eyeshadows pulls out all the stops. With other brands, the shimmer eyeshadow slowly fades away once it’s on your eyelid, but with Pat McGrath, you can leave your house, come back at the end of the day, and the shimmer will look like the picture below. I mean… you’re not paying that much money for nothing right?
Ruby May Cosmetics was founded by Nicole Rhodes Galusha and it specializes in high-quality affordable glitter and colorful eyeshadows. Since they are based in Palm Desert (Indio, California), the popular annual festival Coachella was a genius way to get noticed by hundreds of thousands of festival goers. Although they don’t have a big presence on Youtube, the few video reviews that are out there are very detailed and instructional. On Instagram, they rack up over 180,000 followers.
Ruby May Cosmetics offers a wide range of bright colored and glitter palettes worth checking out on their website, but my personal favorite is the Pop Zombie 9 color eyeshadow palette.
If you want to take your look to the next level, you can’t forget the gemstones! They’re widely available, but make sure you don’t forget to buy an eye safe glue and tweezers. Eyelash glue will do just fine!
Midas Cosmetics is a Dominican-owned indie brand founded in 2018 by Rocio Nunez. This makes me so proud because I’m half Dominican 🇩🇴!! The fact that the brand focuses on inclusivity and diversity by giving aspiring makeup artists a chance to collaborate on their palette releases, make Midas a one-of-a-kind brand in the indie makeup sphere.
If you’re looking for a colorful palette to add to your collection, do yourself a favor and get the Flower Bomb palette. I got mine in the mail a few days ago and is a color lover’s dream. It’s even more beautiful in person! There is an overwhelming amount of palettes that are released on a monthly basis, most of them have a predictable color story and are underwhelming to say the least. Midas just gets it right. The pigmentation on the Flower Bomb palette is crazy and the matte shadows are super easy to blend, making it very suitable for beginners. Moreover, Midas offers a wide selection of beautiful multichrome pressed glitters, loose fine glitters and eye pigments that will earn you a few double takes.
I discovered this brand thanks to Rowi Singh, an insanely super talented makeup guru on Instagram. In one of her stories she mentioned the Psyche’s Box palette as one of her favorite palettes of 2019. I ordered it and it did not disappoint! First of all, the color story is so different from all the other palettes that are released on a weekly basis. I couldn’t be happier to have come across this brand and I highly recommend for you to check it out. It is not cheap, but the quality in those mattes is there. You can create a stunning pastel look or just a soft matte over the lid. The standouts for me are the baby lavender “fantasia and the baby pink “life on mars”. I mentioned above that you can find the baby blue shadow in Nars, but it’s not a color that you see very often because it’s not easy to formulate. Besides this, Clarophyche’s Instagram feed is pretty much an extension of Euphoria –so many creative looks to draw inspiration from!
Claropsyche’s website and Instagram
Their other famous palette is the Real Fantasy Palette!
As much as I enjoy playing with the aforementioned brands, Urban Decay has been dominating the eyeshadow game for years and it’s no wonder why. The brand was born in the grunge era of the mid-90’s, becoming a staple in every girl’s makeup kits. Not only is their eyeshadow formula one of the best on the market, but it takes years to hit pan on their palettes (makeup term that means finish a product). I bought the Naked Heat Palette in 2017 and used it consistently for over a year. I’m not kidding when I say that I yet to hit pan. Someone on a forum thread hilariously mentioned how Urban Decay palettes will outlive you. Intothegloss.com ( the beauty bible), made a thread on the best single eyeshadows and Urban Decay was the brand that kept popping up the most in the comments among readers. One user said:
“Urban Decay in Solstice (every one of my friends bought this after trying it at my house)”
The shade Crux will also make heads turn. I bought it at the Urban Decay store and I’m in love. It immediately caught my eye upon seeing it online. This shade is not available at Sephora. You have to buy it either online or at one of the Urban Decay’s stores. It was incredibly hard to get and was not on the display shelves at the store either. If it’s sold out online, call your nearest Urban Decay store and ask for it!
According to Allure.com, Urban Decay is the number one selling eyeshadow in the United States.
I already talked about Melt cosmetics in another blog post called “The Best Indie Glitter Brands”. Despite having eyeshadow palettes, their individual stacks are the most popular and are often sold out. If you want to purchase a colorful pigment eyeshadow from Melt Cosmetics, I highly recommend buying the Radioactive stack or you can also buy singles individually for $17 each.
Pinky Rose’s eyeshadow formulas are pigmented, super blendable and last all day without any creases. I have tested them out before and the shades are simply beautiful. If you don’t want to buy single eyeshadows, Pinky Rose has a great variety of bright color theme palettes. The Exotic Peacock eyeshadow palette is a best-seller and includes greens and blues. It’s so odd to see how blue and green have become trendy. Each palette has unique colors, no repeats here. They have also been approved by Swedish Youtuber Angelica Nyqvist, who I love and you should also checkout too.
This brand also has some of the most colorful pigments I’ve ever seen. I love the quality and the packaging. Not only do they have a wide array of bright colors, but they’re best-selling product includes the Hydra-Liners, which are super creamy smudge-proof neon pigments perfect for delivering a punch of color to your lash line. Suva Beauty single eyeshadows and Hydra-Liners retail for $11 each – a steal! NYX also has the crème gel liners, which are very similar and retail for $7. But from my experience of testing them out at the store, the formula seems to dry out rather quickly. The online reviews only confirmed it so yep, the hydra liners from Suva Beauty are worth the $4 difference.
Sugarpill Cosmetics is a cult-beauty indie brand known for its vivid hues and expressive colorful makeup. I talked about this brand on my post “The best indie glitter makeup brands”. The brand was created for drag queens, so rest assured that pigmentation and formula won’t disappoint.
I was in search of a baby blue to add to my collection. Let me tell you guys, it is hard! I went to the NYX store and the girl even told me that this type of blue is very difficult to find. I went to Riley Rose, which is makeup and skincare heaven, and swatched Sugarpill’s “Hypnotic” on the back of my hand. This blue combined with the shimmer from the Zulu Palette by Juvia’s Place are the perfect combination for a vivid blue mermaid look.
Sugarpill recently released their Fun Size Palette. If you want more colors and bigger pans, you can get their pro palette and add customizable eyeshadows! The brand theme is too adorable! Visit the Sugarpill Cosmetic website here.
Have you tried any of these brands?
