When I finally understood the concept of a transition eye shadow, it upped my eye shadow blending game by tenfold. A transition eye shadow shade is one that is typically matte and slightly darker than your natural skin tone – this helps to blend the lid colour into the brow area. Most days now, I just pop on a shimmery neutral shade [taupe!] on the lid up to the crease, then I blend the edges with a transitional shade – something like this:
My blending skills are better than my photoshop skills.
It looks like I spent a lot of time with my eye look but in fact, it took less than 5 minutes. I’ve depotted some of my most used transition colours into a small z-palette so I can have a range to choose from each morning:
I would group my transition shades into neutral, warm and cool categories. I’m around NC25 so these would be suitable for skin tones that are similar.
Neutral:
• Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Naked
• Cargo Eye Shadow Single in Surrey
• Illamasqua Powder Eyeshadow in Justify
• Physicians Formula Matte Collection Quad Eye Shadow Canyon Classics (upper left corner pan)
• MAC Eye Shadow in Wedge
Sorry these swatches are a little hard to see against my skin as they’re all just slightly darker than my skin tone – but that’s the whole point of transition colours.
These are my most reached for transition shades – they can be used with any eye shadow shade that I use on my lid. I especially like MAC Wedge for its buttery quality and ability to diffuse harsh lines of my lid colour.
Warm:
• theBalm Meet Matt(e) Nude eyeshadow in Matt Singh
• NYX Nude Matte Shadow Blame It on Midnight NMS08
• Smashbox Eye Shadow in Nude Pearl
• Mary Kay Mineral Eye Color in Hazelnut
I’ve grown quite fond of the warmer transition shades lately – these help to brighten up deeper smoky eye looks. I also enjoy wearing a cool lid shade and warming it up with one of these shades.
Cool:
• Milani Eye Shadow Single in Taup-e-ary
• Urban Decay Eyeshadow in Laced
• Constance Carroll #58
• Maybelline ExperWear Eyeshadow Single in Earthly Taupe
I reach for these less often but they do come in handy if I’m wearing a warmer lid shade (like MAC Woodwinked) which can sometimes make me look sickly. Using a cool transition shade can help to neutralize the warmness on the lid.
Do you use transition eye shadow shades? What are your favourites?
stash matters 
It has a bit of shimmer, but I like MAC Soba. Love your swatches! I probably need Wedge, don’t I? I have the NYX BIoM but haven’t tried it yet.
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I just checked and I have Soba too. I bought it because everyone raves about how great it is as an transition colour… and I hardly ever use it because it’s in a random palette. I must put it into my z-palette so it’s more accessible!
The NYX is super soft and a bit powdery, but I don’t mind that quality for a blending shade since it helps to diffuse everything.
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I do that all the time. I probably went about a year using an old Stila quad just because it was out. I ignored most of my other eyeshadows for a YEAR. LOL.
I’m gonna have to test those NYX shadows soon! I depotted a bunch and paletted them and everything, then …. didn’t use them.
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To depot or not, that is the question! I sometimes think I don’t use eye shadows as much once I depot them. I have a tone of MAC that I’m contemplating on depotting them… but, it’s one of those things that can’t be undone…
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One of my favorite transition shades is stark from my Naked 2 Basics palette by Urban Decay. That’s the only one that I can think of at the moment. I really like the shades you picked out though. 🙂 xo
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Urban Decay Naked is a long time favorite of mine! I love the Peanut Butter shades, as seen in the Semi-Sweet Chocolate palette! Anything that resembles that is okay with me!
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Peanut Butter shades?! I love the sounds of that! I’ll have to check it out at the stores. Too bad they don’t have them in singles. I actually had a little depotting mishap with my UD Naked – about 1/3 of the pan crumbled and I had to dump it into a little container and I use it loose. It’s such a soft buttery shade. 🙂
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I’d never heard the term “transition shade” before. So clever! P.S. Envying your stash, as always!
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I’m glad I’m “passing it on”! Once I learned about the transition shade, my whole life changed for the better, lol! 😛 Thanks!
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What a fun post!!! Cool toned: I love Naked 2 from the Naked Basics palette. Neutral? I also like taupe from Lorac Pro Palette. What else… Warm: Naked from the original Naked palette.
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Oooh I like the look of the Taupe shade from the Lorac Pro Palette! I waaaaant. 😀
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Fantastic theme for a post! UD Naked & MAC Wedge are real good ones. I also like MAC Omega for this and UD Nooner (from the Naked 3).
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I don’t have Omega – I’ll have to swatch it at MAC next time I’m there! 🙂
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greaaaaat shades!!! really loving that shade from the balm and the illamasqua shade! I love using Makeup Geek’s Beaches and Cream, Urban Decay’s Naked, as well as almost every single shade from the Too Faced Natural Matte Eye Palette like Honey Butter, Chocolate Cookie, Nude, Strapless, Risque, and Cashmere Bunny. Also Nooner and Limit from the Urban Decay Naked3 Palette lol.
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I’ve heard so many great things about MUG eye shadows, it’s on my list to try once my No-Buy is over! It’s great there are so many transition shades out there! 😀
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You’ll love them !! You’re gonna want to buy every single shade lol & yessss there is so many! I loved your picks!😊
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these are the best shades to transition colours for an eye look, no matter if it’s a smokey eye or a soft, neutral look! 🙂
have a lovely day!
xx, Annie | Annie’s Beauty
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Thank you! Have a great day too! 😊
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You should definitely try Bobbi Brown Toast! It is my favorite transition shade of ALL TIME!! That Smashbox Nude Pearl eye shadow is beautiful! Also, the Illamasque Justify is so pretty, too! Girl, I am about to go out and by all of these ❤
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I’ve put the BB Toast on my wish list! 😀 There are SO many gorgeous BB eye shadow shades, I’ll probably have to get a few of them! 😛
The Smashbox Nude Pearl is beautiful, and the quality of the shadow is amazing! 🙂 It’s hard to get Illamasqua in North America anymore since they are no longer sold in Sephora! 😦
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I use UD Naked & Laced all the time.
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I love the quality of the UD mattes – very good blending formula! 🙂
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Some amazing colors in there 🙂 I really need a better brown transition shade, will be looking into these suggestions 🙂
xxx Anne
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MAC Wedge is a good starting point! 🙂 (when you go back to pick up more lipsticks hahaha!)
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Nice thanks 😀 Yes, that may happen sooner rather than later. My only saving grace is that there is no mac counter in my home town 😀
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Yes a good transition shade is always key…I use a few of the popular ones from MAC i.e. Wedge as well as some MUG shades (can’t think of the names right now) and I quite like the shade Bliss from the Stila in the Light Palette. 🙂 xo
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Thanks for the recommendations – I wish I had bought those Stila palettes before they were discontinued, although the new ones look like they have good colours too. 🙂
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I use transition shades every day … I agree with Bee, Peanut Butter from Too Faced is one of my favorites. I love this post xoxo
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I definitely need that shade Peanut Butter in my life! (I lurve pb as a food haha)! I wonder if they sell this shade individually?
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They don’t !!! I’ve hit pan on Nougat & Peanut Butter from the Semi-Sweet palette (That says a lot)… I will look in my stash to find a dupe 🙂
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Sienna from MUFE and Chickadee from Makeup Geek are suppose to be dupes 🙂
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Good to know – thank you so much! (but secretly I still want a shade named peanut butter? lol!)
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Transition shades are just awesome aren’t they? They really make all the difference! Great colours 🙂
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I don’t really wear eye shadow so believe it or not, I didn’t know what transition shades are! Thanks for sharing different swatches for all skin tones. I would definitely wear the warm shades! x
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I’m glad you found this helpful! Transition eye shadows make it super easy to get that blended eye shadow look. I often just wear a shimmery shade on my lid and then use a transition shade above it around the crease to blend. Really quick and easy!
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Ohhh, thanks for the tips. It sounds easy enough! I just get so lazy to do my eye makeup and usually stick to mascara hehe.
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This is a nice collection of transition shades!! I would use every single one of them. I did try the Cargo in a different shade and it barely had any pigment but I like this one on your arm. lol.
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I love transition eye shadows – I can never get enough.
Cargo can be hit and miss. The one I have is an order formula and I think they were better back then!
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Oh no!! I have one Cargo sample and I wasn’t a fan because the shade was light and barely pigmented.
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I am loving all of the shades
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