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Milani has come out with 5 new mini eyeshadow palettes. These are their Gilded Mini Eyeshadow Palettes and they come in 5 warm and neutral shade variations. They go for around $10 each and contain six shades. So far I have seen these available on Milani’s website and at Ulta.
The mattes and shimmers are all pretty consistent in quality across all of the palettes. In general, the mattes had decent, but not great color payoff. Pigmentation was better for the mattes than the shimmers. They applied mostly evenly except for some of the deepest shades, which needed some extra time and effort. At times, I found some of the mattes didn’t adhere super well over bare lids, but did fine over a primer. Blending was mostly easy.
The shimmers are sheerer than the mattes and aren’t as intense as the ones in the older Milani Most Wanted Palettes in similar packaging. They aren’t terrible or unusable, just kind of lackluster. There wasn’t too much fallout from most of them except for a single shade that had very large chunky sparkle in it (in the Call Me Old Fashioned palette). I preferred to use them with damp brushes to amp up the color and shine.
These are all more neutral and muted than the older Most Wanted palettes. Out of all of them I enjoyed the two pink ones the most and felt they were nice to have in addition to the old palettes.
Milani Whiskey Business Gilded Mini Palette
This is an all-matte palette that is very warm overall and doesn’t look anything like the product photos on Ulta or Milani’s website. Most of the shades worked well with decent color payoff and easy blending. The one that was hardest to use was the last shade on the right. It could be more pigmented and it could sit more evenly on the skin but it’s not terrible. The selection of shades isn’t my favorite in Whiskey Business. I wish there weren’t two midtone oranges and that the purple-brown on the end actually looked on the eye the way it does in the pan. It is far more muted on the skin.
Here, I used both deep shades, one on the upper lid and one on the lower lid and you really can’t tell them apart.
Milani Call Me Old Fashioned Gilded Mini Palette
This is generally a cool toned neutral palette, except for the one bronze shade in the middle. I like how the range of colors feels “complete” in that you can use this palette by itself, BUT I wish that the dark brown in the middle was maybe a little bit lighter. It makes me want to reach for another palette to find more blending shades. The quality is generally okay. The shadows work, they show up, they perform. They just don’t blow me away. The fallout from Shade 5 and the lack of blending shades for my skin tone make this one a pass for me. Wear time seemed good. I wasn’t super careful about noting times but I think I got around 8 hours over primer and at least 6 without.
For this look, I used Shade 5 tapped over the deepest matte. It had a TON of sparkle fallout. This was the only shade in all 5 palettes that was problematic with fallout.
Milani Champagne Problems Gilded Mini Palette
I think the shades chosen for Champagne Problems make sense and are pretty good quality but I’m not inspired by them. The 3 deeper mattes are all kind of close in depth and are not all necessary. One medium orange and one much deeper shade than the one that’s provided would have been better IMO. The whole palette is very similar to the older Milani Burning Desire Most Wanted Palette. If you have that one, this isn’t going to do anything that’s much different. All of the mattes work well, even the darkest one. The orange shimmer has a smooth finish and all fine particles. The metallic gold has a thicker feel, much more color payoff, and larger specks of sparkle in it.
Milani It’s All Rosé Gilded Mini Palette
This palette and the next one are the two I liked best out of the five. All of the shimmers have a mixture of fine shimmer and large sparkle. The last shade is a subtle pink-peach duochrome but the shift isn’t very obvious on the eye. The two mattes are a bit too close in color for my taste and they have some trouble adhering.
I tested this for about 6 hours over bare lids and it didn’t hold up very well. What I could see was significant fading in the crease, but not a whole lot of actual creasing. This is somewhat normal for me though no matter what eyeshadow I use. I haven’t worn this one yet with primer.
Milani The Wine Down Gilded Mini Palette
I think this palette has a solid selection of shades and works fine by itself. Pigmentation is decent. It doesn’t blow me away or wow me but it also doesn’t disappoint me. The shimmers and mattes have a similar level of color payoff. Some building is necessary but it’s not hard to get the color to show up. Even the light matte shade shows up pretty well. Blending is easy for the darker shades. This lasted pretty well. After 7 hours over primer, I could see a little bit of fading in the crease, but no actual creasing yet. I did not test this without primer.
More Looks
And here are some more looks where I used more than one palette together. I definitely enjoyed using these palettes more this way than trying to force myself to use just one at a time.
This was a combo of The Wine Down and It’s All Rosé Palettes. I used the palest matte shade as a matte highlight, the light purple matte all over the lid, and the deeper matte burgundy on the inner/outer parts of the lid. Underneath the brow, I have Shade 4 from It’s All Rosé and Shade 6 from the same palette slightly below that but above the crease. I applied the shimmery burgundy with a wet brush all along the lower lashline. The shimmers aren’t bad but using a wet brush is super helpful to get them to have more impact.
This was another look using a combo of The Wine Down and It’s All Rosé Palettes. I used the lighter matte pink from It’s All Rosé on the upper crease, the darker matte pink on the lower lashline and one of the pale mattes as a highlight and on the upper lid. I used a wet brush to apply Shade 2 from It’s All Rosé to the lower lashline and a wet brush to apply Shade 4 from The Wine Down to the upper lashline. I used some of the matte light purple on the inner/outer part of the crease.
A simpler, all matte eye using a combo of Champagne Problems and Whiskey Business. I used the palest matte as a highlight and on the upper lid, the two matte orange shades from Champagne Problems in the crease, the deepest matte from Whiskey Business on the lower lashline and the second palest matte in Whiskey Business on the inner lower lashline and as a transition above the crease.
Comparisons
I am mainly comparing these to some of the older Milani Most Wanted Palettes. The format is about the same between the old and new palettes except you might notice that the new ones have metal pans in each shade compartment and in the old ones, it seems the eyeshadows are pressed directly into the palette. The formulas are different between the two. If you look at the ingredients lists, the old ones did not contain talc and the new ones do. Here are the lists from one of each line. They vary somewhat from palette to palette but you can get an idea:
In general, I like the quality of the older palettes more, especially in the color payoff of the shimmers. The mattes apply similarly but I get a bit better wear time out of the new ones.
These two are both basic matte palettes that are good to use together with other palettes or just for a simple eye look. I prefer the shades in Partner in Crime because they are more neutral on me. Whiskey Business is both very warm and quite dark, so I don’t find it to be all that useful for pairing. The shades in the older palette are matte but have a tiny bit of pearl that isn’t really noticeable on the eye. The new ones are truly matte.
Here are the new and old orange palettes. I think the shade selection in the new one is better. The two midtone oranges are different enough to tell apart on the eye even though they look kind of similar here. I use the lighter one mainly as a transition but I feel it isn’t super necessary. It would have been nice if the darkest matte shade was a little bit deeper.
And here are all the pink palettes. The two new ones are different enough from the old one, in case you already had the old one.