Eye shadows—palettes in particular—are my weakness when it comes to makeup. There is just something about a beautiful palette with a beautiful concept behind it that gets my insides all tingly. Anyway, I saw this tag on YouTube (created by iluvfaces1042) and intended to do a video for it for the longest time, but I decided to do a post on it instead! Basically, there’s a round of questions that describes “the perfect palette,” as seen from many different aspects.

There were originally just 8 questions, but the 8th one—Most Used, Most Loved, Desert Island—got split into three instead:

1. Best Packaging
2. Best Color Payoff
3. Most Versatile
4. Best for Traveling
5. Biggest Regret
6. Best Color Names
7. Least Used
8. Most Used
9. Most Loved
10. Desert Island

Are you ready?

1. Best Packaging

Okay, so I’m going purely for aesthetics here. Because I love Jean-Michel Basquiat, I would have to say that the best packaging ever = Addiction’s Basquiat collection, which came out around spring or summer this year. For non-LE, non-collection specific packaging, I’d have to go with the Le Métier de Beauté Kaleidoscope Eye Kits. There’s just something about tiered pans of eyeshadow that swivel outward that makes you want to treat them like Pokémon, aka makes you want to catch them all.

2. Best Color Payoff

Again, hats off to Le Métier de Beauté, specifically their Mélange de Colour Fashion Palette from spring this year. Since this is limited edition, a close second is Urban Decay Naked, which is permanent.

3. Most Versatile

There’s really nothing like this awesome palette, the Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette for Eyes. I have the 2012 edition, and I understand that the 2013 edition is a bit more purple-leaning. This is just amazing. I used this consecutively for a few weeks when I didn’t have a lot of eyeshadows yet. If it were cruelty-free and permanent, I would buy this over and over.

An alternative to this, in the permanent range, is the Urban Decay Naked 2. I know more people prefer the original Naked, but if you look at the color range and also the range of the finishes of the Naked 2, there are just more looks you can make with it, in my personal opinion.

4. Best for Traveling

This is the And God Created the Woman palette by NARS, which is one of my most favorites as well. It has several tones and finishes of neutral shadows. It’s also lightweight, and I feel like it will suit a wide range of skintones. I think it has everything you need to make quite a few looks, and it’s so light and small.

5. Biggest Regret

My biggest regret is probably the bareMinerals READY 8.0 Palette in The September Issue, which is not awful or bad—it’s just not reached for much because half of the colors on here are colors that I don’t really see myself wearing. Maybe I should be challenged to use this for a week or a month or something?

6. Best Color Names

Coincidentally, I find that the bareMinerals READY line has the best names of shadows in palettes. All of them have a theme and the colors and names are patterned after the theme. For example, The September Issue has shades like “Pret-a-Porter,” “Editor’s Pick” and “Couture” and The Cocktail Hour has shades like “Black Tie Optional,” “Elixir,” “Shaken Not Stirred,” “Invite Only,” “Spiked” and so on.

I think names really add to the experience of the shadow, and I appreciate how bareMinerals’ READY line really helps you visualize the themes that they had in mind.

7. Least Used

This is Paul & Joe Face and Eye Color in Kittycat, and it is the least used because… it’s just so cuuuuuute.

8. Most Used

And here is my most used—hello Laura Mercier, we meet again.

9. Most Loved

These Addiction x Basquiat quads are my favorite thing.

10. Desert Island

LOL I would never bring a palette to a desert island with me, but considering this is part of the original last and 8th question, I think it was meant to pertain to best palette of all time, and it’s really the Laura Mercier Artist’s Palette. Really. Nothing has beaten it for me, so far.

So, that’s that! What do you guys think? I tag everyone to do this. If you don’t have a blog, comment down below—I’d love to know! 🙂