Product Review: Milani Gilded Noir Eyeshadow Palette

* Milani is an excellent high quality drugstore priced brand, and I have had a lot of positive experience with many types of makeup from them from eyelners to lipsticks to blushes, but their eyeshadows are by far the hero of this brand. They do gorgeous smooth, and easily blendable shadows in a variety of textures and finishes and also offering fun and unusual colors not typical to most other drugstore brands. A great one-stop- shop for trying an array of their beautiful shadows is their Gilded Noir palette, which is a jewel tone-themed palette coupled with some neutral shades in a variety of matte and varying degrees of metallic finishes. I recently picked this up after wanting to experiment with more colorful eye looks again, and it has been one of the most fun and enjoyable makeup purchases I've ever made. The shades are:

Bubbly: a soft ivory peach with subtle champagne reflects , which is great for all over the lid to add glimmer or as a browbone highlight.

Entitled: a neutral light matte brown

Rococo: a bright canary yellow with lots of gold shimmer.

After Party: a shimmery bronze with some hints of pink. This is a great all-over the lid easy one-shadow look shade.

Don't Ask: a pewter and light gold duochrome with silver shimmer. This is a favorite of mine in the palette for another one-shadow look idea or as a accent color to pop in the center of the lid to liven up a traditional black and white smoky eye.

Solid Gold: a light-to- medium classic true gold with gold shimmer. This is very versatile in that it can be brushed on lightly for a subtle look or packed on for more of a punch. If applied wet, this shadow shines all the more, looking like liquid metal. Applied dry, the beautiful bright chunky shimmer stands out as a contrasting texture to the drier power.

Twisted: a dark hunter green emerald with a satin finish. Applied dry and with a brush, the shade will look almost black just with a slightly lighter dimension, making this a very beautiful colored eyeliner as well as working very well in the crease for a nontraditional smoky eye. However to make the green tone pop out more, tapping the shade across the lids with a slightly dampened finger will make the color show up more brightly.

Gilded Noir: The namesake of the palette and another favorite of mine. Though it is called noir, the shade is more of a dark charcoal with beautiful amber glitter. Applied wet and layered up, there will be less contrast between the dark cool-toned gray and the warmer shimmer and instead give off a very interesting dark taupe brown with a slight glittery shimmer of a similar color.

Why Not?: a shining medium silver -gray with lots of silver reflects. This one is another favorite and another great smoky eye shade, especially when blended with a matte black eyeshadow.

Gasp: an azure cobalt blue with blue glitter. This is a particularly fun color to wear all over the lid, and I like how, though, it is bright, it is still rich so the overall effect is very sophisticated and grounded.

Posh: a metallic dark mauve-plum with pink reflects. I love pairing this with the matte browns in this palette for a muted, more mysterious look that is especially pretty for autumn.

No Pictures: a reddish burgundy with metallic sheen accented with lots of ruby red glitter. This was the shadow that drew me to the palette in the first place and it is perfect for a rich cranberry or a subtle blushed toned eye. The more you blend, the more diffused and pink-looking this color gets, so it can almost double as a pink when wished.

Dripping: a three way mix of mauve, blue, and brown with a silvery- green sheen. This color really plays with lighting in a fun way,seeming to show off new highs and lows constantly. Dripping is another of my favorites to just wear on its own to really maximize the effect of all its dimension.

Fuzzy: a metallic amethyst plum: Compared to Posh (the other plum shade) Fuzzy is much deeper and cooler and is more purple in tone without having the pinky cast that Posh does. This color is very versatile as both a one shadow serving of rich color on the lid or as a liner or crease shade.

Lust: a matte rich chocolate brown. This color I mainly use as a liner, and it applies super smoothly and with great pigment on the lashline and pairs really well with all the plum and gold shades as well as Twisted (the dark green) **** This shade contains talc.

Dark Side: a rich matte black. This is the anchor for the palette for me and is wonderful for deepening up the outer corners of the eyelid to really offset the more colorful shadows when worn on the lid and to use as an eyeliner. Like Lust, I have no problems with it dragging our applying patchily as I go across the lashline.

Overall, I really have loved playing an experimenting with this palette. It offers every color, bold or neutral, that I could ever ask for and with great buildability. I really appreciated that, though the colors are rich and bold, these shadows blend so easily that they can be sheered out for more subtle looks too. It really gives you colorful looks with control, which is great if you are just dipping your toe into the world of color like me. I also really like the sturdy but compact square packaging and the large mirror that is also included, which is rare for a drugstore palette.

Whether you are beginner just dipping your toe into the world of colorful eye makeup or consider yourself a color master, , I really think you would enjoy the Gilded Noir palette along with Milani eyeshadows on the whole. The Gilded Noir palette currently retails for $19.99 USD and can be found at Ulta, many drugstores and super markets, and also MilaniCosmetics.com.

* Update 4/16/20: Though I have continued to enjoy this product and still stand by all opinions expressed in this review, I have personally decided to discontinue using the shade Lust because it contains talc.