Milani Earthy Elements eyeshadow palette

Last Saturday, I showed you 6 of my favorite drugstore eyeshadow palettes. Almost all had already been reviewed, except for this one: the Milani Everyday Eyes Eyeshadow Collection in Earthy Elements. I found this stunner of a palette at a local make up shop that I’ve been loving this year. They sell all these hard to get brands and Milani is one of them. I had heard great things about these Milani palettes and decided to pick up the most warm toned version in the bunch. Here’s how I fared with it.

Milani Everyday Eyes Eyeshadow Collection Eartly Elements

Milani is a US drugstore brand that is hard to find in Europe. You can get it online most of the time, but it is a tad more steeply priced than in the US. Here, these palettes run around €15 a pop and they are available in 6 different shades. From bright blues, to purple tones, incredibly neutral and smokey and this warm toned version. What sold me on it? That burnt orange shade.

I first heard about these palettes on Tati’s Youtube Channel. She raved especially about Earthy Elements. The palette has a simple design. There is no mirror, an actual mini brush and there are 6 shades in the palette. The lay out of the shades is interesting and there is some information on the back of the palette to explaint he purpose of the different shades.

According to the instructions on the back, the first shade on the left is a base shade, followed by a contour, lid and crease shade. The two shades on the right (in the square pans) are meant to be a special touch and a liner. I like how the pans all have different shades depending on their intended use. A base shade will get used up more quickly so it’s good that Milani decided to make that pan the biggest in the palette.

However, the shade selection and the purpose the shades have been assigned isn’t one I necessarily agree with. Out of the 6 shades only 2 are matte. And I’m not sure about you, but I am not someone who is a big fan of a shimmery brow bone highlight, a shimmery crease and a shimmery liner. That’s why I would use these shades in a slightly different way.

My favorite shade here has to be the orange. There are also some nice warm toned bronze shades in this palette which ensures it will have a wide appeal to many people. Even if you leave out the orange, if it’s not your cup of tea, you still are left with 5 shades that are incredibly wearable and easy to combine. To me, the orange is what sets this palette apart though. It adds an extra touch to an otherwise basic palette.

The swatches do not lie. The base shade has some very noticeable shimmer and is quite sheer. The two matte shades have great pigmentation and are easy to blend despite them being mattes. The two bronze shades perform best of all: they are incredibly pigmented and are the two stand out shades quality wise. The specialty shade looks a bit bland in the swatch, but I found this is a perfect shade for highlighting the brow bone.

Eye look using all shades

As mentioned, I would use the shades differently from the way they were intended. I used the specialty shade on the brow bone. The contour shade is all over my lid and I used it to blend out the orange shade in the crease. The bronze shade is on my lower lashline and the liner shade is in my outer V. The base shade was the last one I used and I used that to highlight the inner corner. The result? A hazy orange eye that nicely complements my brown eyes and makes them look more chocolate brown.

Blending was incredibly easy: the texture of these shadows is soft and smooth like butter. I found it easy to create a look. However, with just 6 shades to choose from, your options are of course limited. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like the look I created. On the contrary, I think this is a look that suits me well and this is definitely something I will wear more often as it is perfect for work.

Full face

There is an obvious reason why I added this palette to my list of 6 musthave drugstore eyeshadow palettes. This is simply a great little palette that, despite it being on the higher end of the drugstore price range, lives up to the expectations. It is a more unique, yet still neutral eyeshadow palette that is affordable and easy to work with. I would highly recommend Milani Earthy Elements eyeshadow palette to anyone looking for a good drugstore eyeshadow palette.

What do you think of the Milani Earthy Elements palette?