Drugstore Palettes: Ranking and Reviews

I own six palettes on the more expensive side of the spectrum. Two of them are larger palettes, and the rest of them are smaller-sized, including one "mini palette."

As for drugstore priced palettes, I've got five. Today I wanted to rank them according to quality and how much I choose to use them.

All five are commendable in their own way, but all vary in their effectiveness for me. Only the palettes that I am talking about for the first time on this blog will be swatched. I will link to the reviews for the others.

Let's begin with the one I use the least:

5. Milani Palette in Earthly Elements ($10.67). One, I am not loving the price increase on these. When they were first introduced, they cost $9.99. Not a huge price difference, but I am having trouble believing they are over $10.00. This is a pretty popular palette, but only valuable in my eyes for the two mattes. The one glitter shade is a total dud. There is a satin peach that has no pigmentation, and the two shimmers are too similar to inspire creativity. The two mattes are very high quality- the swatches are only one swipe of the finger, without too much pressure. But besides the mattes, I really would not use the palette for anything else.

4. Milani Palette in Must Have Metals ($10.67). My review and swatches of this palette can be found here. I still agree with my original review, that even though the pigmentation of all shades in this palette are wonderful, you still have to bring in other palettes for a cohesive look.

To demonstrate, though, how awful the large cream-colored shimmer in the Earthly Elements palette is, let me compare it to the one in Must Have Metals:

Earthly Elements (l), Must Have Metals (r) no comparison frankly. One is a glitter bomb, the other metallic

3. City Mini Palette by Maybellie in Downtown Sunrise
My review and swatches for this palette can be found here.
Overall, this is a cohesive palette that I do reach for once in a while for the shimmers, and more often for the mattes. They are creamy and aside from the very pigmented brown shade, have okay pigmentation.

Because of how pale the light orange shade was, I was inspired to buy Angel Face from Coloured Raine, because I was frustrated that the shade in the City Mini palette wasn't showing up exactly how I wanted:

Angel Face (l), City Mini (r)

The quality of the Angel Face single also lies in its staying powder, compared to the shade in the City Mini Palette, which wipes away quite quickly.

2. Okalan Jupiter Palette (Lime Crime Venus 2 Dupe) from Hush, $8.00

I am including this in my post because it is priced in the same range as the other palettes, and if this did appear in the drugstore, I think many people would be very excited. I personally will not buy from LimeCrime, so to get an affordable version of that palette works for me.

As of now, I am incorporating this palette into a lot of my looks, but I don't have a comprehensive review up yet. I do have some swatches, though:

My personal favorites from this are Mustard and Mud (second to last on the right). 

1. Finally, my number one drug store palette is one that is currently being sold on Amazon for $0.98. It is the Greed palette by Wet 'n Wild. I love this. As the swatches will show, the peach and blue shimmers are duds, but the mattes are something special. That salmon one I use especially quite a bit.

All in all, drugstore palettes can be quite good, and I am frustrated that ones of a high quality, such as the W'nW one end up being discontinued. I find in interesting that though I did give the Maybelline palette a lower review than the Milani Metallic one, in terms of usability from day to day, the City Mini palette scored a lot higher. It goes to show that the pigmentation of a shadow may be intense, but whether or not one is drawn to it for daily use is another story.

Thanks for reading!