I remember a time when seeing huge palettes scared me. HAHAHAH omg it sounds so dumb now, but I'm sure many girls can relate. Everyone went through a knowing-jack-shit about makeup phase, and that included being so scared of makeup that we would stick to the safest colors and the most minimal basics.

Even if I have gone far in my own makeup journey, it's not that hard to recall the days I was wishing that eyeshadows were all just champagne solos =)) Quads freaked me out, what more a full 12-pan palette?

BYS Peach Palette (P 1199) is 12 pans of peaches, nudes, and browns. It can be intimidating for most, especially people who aren't too experimental with eye shadows yet. Still, the colors are so usable and trendy, and it's such a waste for people to pass up on the palette just due to fear. Let me teach you guys my hack for owning big palettes like the BYS Peach Palette!

TELLIE'S HACK FOR NAVIGATING BIG PALETTES : COLOR GROUPING

When I have a huge palette, I like to look at the options. 12 can seem like a lot of colors, but once you organize them into groups, it only becomes a matter of choosing one color within the subset for each part of the eye look.

What does that mean?

I have 3 groups: light tone, midtone and deep tone colors. Midtone colors are the brightest and most vibrant of the bunch. They are the most "Crayola" colors in your palette, and show the eyeshadow colors really clearly. I often use these as the focus color.

Anything lighter or having more white ends up in the light tone category, while anything darker or having more black ends up in the deep tone category. This is to say, it's not just whites or blacks that can fall in either category. Really light pinks and champagnes often end up in my light-tone pile, while really deep browns and purples fall in the deep tone category.

I use light tones for highlighing, adding shimmer or as a brightening base for midtone colors. On the other hand, deep tones are used to smoke out eyeliner, add shading or creasing, or to make midtone colors sultrier.

I love this hack! And the best part is that it's not a hard science. There are colors that will flit from medium to dark or medium to light. The world will not end if you change up the categories a little bit. The more important thing is to use these groupings as a tool to keep you from being overwhelmed with the palettes. This was the big hack I taught participants of the BYS Dramatic Looks Workshop.

HACKING THE BYS PEACH PALETTE

In the case of the Peach palette, it has midtone peaches and browns (Pamper, Lavish, Cherry, Peachy, Dashing, Devoted) which I can use as my main color. These are my midtones because they look the most like basic colors. They don't look too white nor too black to me. If you feel differently, that's totally fine. I sometimes use Lavish and Devoted for shading, and I can still create an interesting look.

With the hard part out of the way, it's pretty easy to see that the nudes (Dainty, Dazzling, Slay, Flashy) are my light tones. I can use this to highlight, brighten my midtones or as a solo lid wash. If I have a color that I sometimes confuse with a midtone (i.e. Flashy,) I can use that to blend my light tones and midtones together.

Lastly, my deep tones (Enticing, Brazen) are colors I can use to shade, intensify, smudge liner or sultri-fize (haha leave my made up words alone!)

Grouping it like this, I always feel like I only have to choose 3 colors! And in fact, removing the burden of choice makes me even more adventurous. When I map my palettes this way, I have an easier time mixing and matching colors for a more complex look.

Here is a sample eye look I did using the BYS Peach Palette:

Because I wanted to create a lighter and fresher look, I used my light tone colors as the main color, and shaded that using midtone colors. I barely used deep tone colors in this look!

I used Peachy (mid) to shade over my mobile lid. On the outer corner of my eye, I used the slightly deeper midtones Pamper and Lavish to shade. I used a whisper of Brazen (deep) to create some shading on the outer v of my puffy monolids. To keep the look fresh though, I used a little, and kept it to a small space.

Lastly, I used a mix of Dazzling (light) and Slay (light) at the very center of my lid. Both are shimmers and as you know, I'm a huge shimmer lover these days!

And that's my eyeshadow hack in action! Did you guys like it? Was it still confusing? Haha let me know if it's any good!

BYS is available in SM Beauty stores.