Neutral Eyeshadow Palettes: High End Vs. Affordable

My makeup collection contains a range of products from all different price points. I love my Estee Lauder foundation but I equally love my Catrice concealer which cost only a few Euros. I guess  what I mean is, higher prices don't always mean better quality. And there is always pressure out there to follow trends and pick up the latest "must-have" product that the world and their Granny are raving about. However, if you're not blessed with the bank balance to keep up with these trends, don't despair as there are plenty of affordable, drugstore makeup brands out there which will help you create the looks you want without remortgaging your home. And that, ladies, is why I'm bringing you today's post!

I'm very hesitant to use the word "dupe". If a makeup item is claimed to be a "dupe" for a more expensive counterpart, then it has to be the same - in shades, pigmentation, formula, blendability - the whole lot. I don't generally fall for dupe claims, and I buy what I buy because I like it, not because I think it is like a higher end option. This is my first post of this kind for that reason - the whole concept of "dupes" is hotly debated - and I don't want to get into that debate - just putting that out there now!

That being said, these two eyeshadow palettes are very similar, and if one is out of your budget, then here is an affordable one which is definitely worth checking out. Today I have a comparison post with two eyeshadow palettes - one high-end, one highstreet/drugstore, and my thoughts on both.

I chose neutral eyeshadow palettes for this post as colour trends will come and go, but you can never go wrong with a neutral palette in my opinion.

The high end option is my much loved Urban Decay Naked Basics.

There are six shades in this palette - one shimmer and the rest mattes - from cream to dark grey-brown - and in its compact, sleek packaging, contains everything you will need for a neutral eye look.

The affordable option is the Makeup Revolution Renaissance Palette Day. You might know already that Makeup Revolution are one of my favourite affordable makeup brands and that I already rate their eyeshadow palettes in particular highly. Makeup Revolution do eyeshadows really well and even if I didn't have the Naked Basics to be fair I would have snapped this up!

This palette contains five shades - one also a shimmer and the rest mattes and also from cream to a dark grey-brown.

First Impressions:

Naked Basics:

This palette comes in a very simple neutral coloured packaging - with a full-sized mirror inside. The palette itself is small and slim - probably around the size of an iphone 4. It is sleek and understated but sturdy. Mine is around a year old at this stage - and well loved as you can see - and it still withstands being thrown into the makeup bag or drawer. The amount of product in total is 6 1.3g pans so a total of 7.8g altogether.

Renaissance Day:

The palette itself is a very similar size to Naked Basics - however the packaging is much more ornate with a peachy coloured case and rose gold details in the shape of a coin purse or little clutch bag. The clasp to open and close it is like a little purse closure but it does feel quite sturdy. The mirror inside is also the full width of the palette. This one however also contains a small brush. The palette itself comes in a pretty gold box with a cream velvet pouch to store it in - presumably to protect the pale-coloured exterior from marks and scuffs.

A lot of the time, the brushes that come with eyeshadow palettes aren't really as good as your regular makeup brushes, so while this is handy for touch ups, I won't be using it on the daily. It does mean however that you get a bit less product as the recess for the brush takes up some of the space inside.
This palette contains 5 shades, each with a 1g quantity, making 5g of product in total. Despite the smaller size, however, this palette does feel very sturdy and very luxurious for the price.

Eyeshadow Shades:

Naked Basics.

The shades are as follows from left to right:

Venus - a pale cream, shimmery shade.
Foxy - a banana-toned shade.
W.O.S - a slightly more peach-toned version of Foxy.
Naked 2- a natural looking, light tan shade.
Faint - a cool-toned mid brown
Crave - a dark grey-brown - it looks black in the pan but in fact when you swatch it it's not totally black.

Renaissance Day.

The shades in this palette are not named, but you do have a pale cream shimmery shade, a light peachy shade, a light tan shade, a mid brown and a dark grey- brown.

Basically, the Renaissance Day palette has very close shades to Naked Basics, apart from the absence of a banana-toned shade. Foxy is probably my least used shade in the Naked Basics palette so I was not overly put off by this.

And onto the swatches. I have swatched each palette separately and then both palettes side by side so that you can get a fair idea of the shades and texture.

Naked Basics:

Renaissance Day:

Side by Side: L: Renaissance Day. R: Naked Basics.

The five shades that can be compared are very similar across the two palettes in my opinion. And at first glance at the swatches, it is very hard to tell which is which! The pigmentation is good on both - apart from the darkest shade which is a little crumbly and hard to build up in both of the palettes. However that is often the case with very dark shades.

Texture-wise, I also noticed very little difference. Apart from the afore-mentioned issue with the darkest shade, all of the shadows are soft, buttery and easy to blend and I couldn't really tell the difference between them on the swatches.

To give a proper fair trial, I decided that the best thing to do was create an eye look - with the high end palette on one eye and the affordable version on the other. Can you tell from the photos before you scroll down which was which??

Application wise, these palettes were pretty much identical. I had expected that the Makeup Revolution shades might be a little harder to blend but that wasn't the case at all. I found it hard to tell the difference between the shadows at all, in terms of application and finished result.
Note: I used separate (clean) brushes to apply each eye so that the products wouldn't get mixed). Both shadows lasted equally well and no one eye was more worn than the other at the end of the day.

And the eye on the left in the pictures is the Naked Basics palette, and the right is Renaissance Day. Did you guess right??

Overall, I would quite confidently say that if you have your eye on the Urban Decay palette but it's a little pricier than you wanted, you will absolutely not be disappointed with the Makeup Revolution one. Or if you love Naked Basics but want a cheaper version for travelling or application on the go in case it needs replacing - then Renaissance Day is absolutely perfect. Would I say they were "dupes"? Aside from the one missing shade- they are pretty identical in terms of shades, pigmentation and blendability to to be able to "dupe" 5 out of 6 shades is a win for me!

Naked Basics is available from Debenhams Ireland, priced at €30.  Renaissance Day is available from  Tam Beauty, priced at €11.49 - quite a price difference really!

What do you think?