Viseart Basic Eyeshadow Palette

Matte. Neutral. Eyeshadow. Heaven. This a palette of 12 neutral mattes from bone to black and all the neutrals you could wish for in between.

I bought this because Olivia told me I really, really needed it. (Click on the link for pictures of swatches of the colours on her skin, as well as the reasons why you might need it too.)

The formula looks really basic, but these just work so well. They don't feel dry, they don't look chalky, they blend well and you can build the colours up (even the black and the dark brown) without patchiness. The pressed-ness of the shadows is also perfect - it's easy to pick up colour but not so soft that you get fallout in the pan or on the face/eye.

The two left hand shades in the top row make good neutral blushes for me too. The other good thing about these is that the browns don't oxidise or turn orange on my skin (the two middle shades in middle row are more red-based, so they do apply as warm colours, but the neutral and grey-browns stay neutral and cool.)

If you are looking for a complete spectrum of basic matte shades, this palette would be extremely hard to beat. I bought mine from www.theneatkit.com and it cost me £46 (I'm not a MakeUp Artist, so don't qualify for the MUA discount shown on the catalogue.) The only other possible UK stockist is www.preciousaboutmakeup.com who have a Viseart Basic Eyeshadow palette on sale for £60, but they don't show a picture and describe it as shimmer, so I'd shoot them an email or ring before buying sight unseen.