Kevyn Aucoin eyeshadow palettes 1, 2 and 3.

Kevyn Aucoin was one of my first favourite makeup artists. I turned to his column in Allure before I read any other article in the magazine, and my copies of Making Faces and Face Forward are both very well loved indeed.

I was very pleased when I learned he had launched his own line in 2004. Unfortunately it was only available in the UK briefly before it was dropped by Harvey Nichols, but I'm still managed to get hold of a lot of the line with the help of US friends.  I have also ordered internationally from www.beauty.com, but it was a hassle each time (although this was a couple of years ago.)

From left to right, palette 1, 2 and 3.

1 gives a soft, mostly matte, neutral look. It's definitely on the warm side of neutral, and works particularly well on blue eyes. I can smoke this palette up surprisingly easily, especially with a black pencil, but it never looks overcooked.

2 gives a more dramatic and sculpted look, and has more shimmer in it than 1. Although I like the shimmery cool taupe shade in it, this is probably the least useful of the palettes to me. The two shades in the lower middle and right of the palette are incredibly similar when applied, and this is really a one-trick pony of a palette - you'll get a shimmery smoky eye, and that's your lot.

3 is my favourite of the three palettes, although I wish the pale gold (top right) was a semi-matte shade - the shimmer in this does not apply smoothly. Don't be afraid of the light yellow brown (top left) - it's a good crease shade, and it brings out the green in green or hazel eyes very well.

I think these are something like $55 each, and you only get 1g of product for the price. I'm still glad I bought these, as I feel like I own a small part of Kevyn's magic when I use them. A list of stockists can be found here - Kevyn Aucoin products are sold in Dublin and the Netherlands, in Europe.