Consider the formulaīe honest with yourself: If you're a makeup beginner, and a highly-pigmented or glitter eyeshadow sounds intimidating, opt for a stick formula that'll allow you to shade in your eyelid like a coloring book and control exactly where you deposit the color. But if you're shopping online, make sure to really read through reviews, look at customer photos, and, hello, listen to me, who broke down every one of the best cream eyeshadows for color and pigment, below. If you can test the product in store, compare the pigment intensity by blending it on the back of your hand.

Other cream formulas can pack on the pigment with just a couple taps of your finger or eyeshadow brush-perfect if you like to go big and bold. Some cream eyeshadows skew toward the sheer side, giving you a wash of color that's perfect for anyone who likes light, subtle makeup. But before you get overwhelmed by choices (you've got everything from drugstore eyeshadow to splurge-worthy picks to choose from) let's narrow down your options, starting with: How to choose a cream eyeshadow Look at the color and pigment So if you’ve felt chained to your powder eyeshadow palettes and crave a simpler makeup routine like I did, please tiptoe into the cream-eyeshadow world for me, k? Below are the 13 best cream eyeshadows I highly recommend for both your low-key makeup days and your bold makeup trend days. Sounds too good to be true, but trust me-I'm a full convert now. Not only can I easily tap them on with my (clean!) finger, but I don't need to spend 10 minutes buffing and blending, since today's formulas are silky, blendable, and surprisingly long-lasting. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally gave cream eyeshadows a second chance and realized that these formulas have gotten way better since my middle-school days. They were sticky, greasy, and creased on my eyelids in exactly three minutes (eye primer wasn't really a thing back then-dark times, I know).

Confession: My very early makeup days (circa 2008) turned me off of cream eyeshadows for basically an entire decade.

Red mac eyeshadow