I know many of you are taupe addicts. I am one also. The taupes I am addicted to are the matte or satin matte textures. I am always looking for that taupe that can work on my mature skin without making me look washed out and dead.
These are some of the satin matte taupe eyeshadows that I have. I know I have more but they aren't ones that I reach for much. Let's take a look at them and see how I define a taupe.
Only three of these shadows actually have the name "taupe" attached. The others are what I think are taupe to me.
The first two from the left are NYX True Taupe and Taupe. True Taupe is cooler and Taupe is warm. The next one is from Viseart. I don't know the exact name of this one since the palette wasn't labeled. This one has a good balance of grey/beige/brown; very natural looking on skin especially mature eyes as I mention here in this post. Jane Iredale Taupe is the coolest tone taupe in the bunch. It leans towards a mauve base. The Isadora is from the Matte Chocolates palette; not named but looks like a soft taupe that is neither too warm, too cool, or too ashy.
In the bottom row, Shakedown by Urban Decay which is a very ashy and dark taupe but not as dark as NARS Coconut Grove which is more of a milk chocolate brown taupe. NARS Bali is very ashy and leans a lot towards grey than medium brown. Smashbox has a nice taupe but from the Contour Palette which may be discontinued. (How disappointing.) And the last one is Il Makiage Grey Brown which is suitable for dark skintones. Not too grey but grey enough to create the shadow on skin and brown enough to blend into the skin.
Here are the swatches on white paper which makes the differences more visible.
Am I content with this collection of matte taupes? Hell no! For the moment I am contemplating Illamasqua Heroine and Illamasqua Cream Pigment in Hollow. Why another taupe? Because when there is a makeup fork in the road, there is a guarantee that all roads will lead to another taupe!
