Review: NYX Ultimate Utopia Palette

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Product Details

The NYX Ultimate Utopia Palette contains 40 shades of eyeshadows and pressed pigments in a wide range of colors and finishes. Each shade is 1 gram / 0.03 oz. It retails for $35 and can be purchased from NYX Cosmetics or Ulta.

I will note which ones are pressed pigments as I describe each shade below. Pressed pigments are not considered eye safe because they can cause staining and sometimes irritation. Regardless of this, many people still use them as eyeshadows, including myself. If I ever encounter shades that cause irritation I will always let you know.

Formula Overview

The mattes vary in quality and ease of use but, all in all, there is nothing terrible or unusable in this palette. The trend seems to be that the deeper shades tend to be a bit more resistant to blending. Some of the lighter shades are also on the sheer side but can be built up. They generally feel on the thinner and drier side (compared to something like ColourPop’s formula) but at the same time they are very smooth and finely milled.

The shimmers come in several finishes. Many of them contain larger sparkle particles and some of them have moderate fallout. Most pick up decently with a brush. The lighter shades are sheerer. Some of the deeper shades are more pigmented and contain a base color with more opacity.

Shade Selection

This palette has a very well rounded color story with a good balance between warm and cool tones and plenty of range in depth. You can do a lot with this palette. If you like the price point of something like ColourPop’s larger palettes but aren’t a fan of the thicker formula, you might enjoy this.

Wear Time

I got some really long wearing looks out of this, and some that creased earlier in the day. I tested 5 of my looks for wear time and 3 out of the 5 wore for 13 hours with minor creasing. One wore for 11 hours with heavy creasing. Yet another wore for 8 hours with very minor creasing. I think it just depends on the shades you choose to use.

• Shade 1 – Pale yellow matte base with fine golden sparkles.
• Shade 2 – Pressed pigment. Pale peach shimmer.
• Shade 3 – Pale matte peach.
• Shade 4 – Pressed pigment. Pale matte pink.

• Shade 5 – Pressed pigment. Medium coral-pink with a matte finish.
• Shade 6 – Clear base with mixture of larger gold and silver sparkles.
• Shade 7 – Pressed pigment. Pale cool toned lavender with a matte finish.
• Shade 8 – Pressed pigment. Pale grey with slight purple undertones and a matte finish.

• Shade 9 – Pale iridescent mint green with a sparkling shimmer finish. There are some larger flecks of sparkle in this.
• Shade 10 – Cool greyish green with a matte finish.
• Shade 11 – Pale gold with green undertones and a sparkling shimmer finish. There are some larger flecks of sparkle in this.
• Shade 12 – Pressed pigment. Warm reddish brown with a matte finish.

• Shade 13 – Intense yellow gold sparkles in a clear base. The sparkles are on the larger side.
• Shade 14 – Pressed pigment. Medium pinky purple with a matte finish.
• Shade 15 – Pressed pigment. Pale grey with blue undertones and a matte finish.
• Shade 16 – Light taupe with a subtle bluish grey flip.

• Shade 17 – Medium peach with a matte finish.
• Shade 18 – Pressed pigment. Medium peachy brown with golden shimmer finish.
• Shade 19 – Warm terra-cotta brown with a matte finish.
• Shade 20 – Vibrant chartreuse with a sparkling shimmer finish. There are some larger sparkles in this.

• Shade 21 – Pressed pigment. Medium peachy shimmer with some larger gold sparkles.
• Shade 22 – Pressed pigment. Deep reddish brown with a matte finish.
• Shade 23 – Pressed pigment. Subtle multi chrome. Shimmery light blue with sheen that flips between light teal, light green, and gold. When the light hits at an extreme angle, I can see that this has a lavender-grey base color.
• Shade 24 – Medium-deep muted teal with a matte finish.

• Shade 25 – Mustard yellow with a matte finish.
• Shade 26 – Clear base with larger flecks of golden sparkle.
• Shade 27 – Pressed pigment. Medium-deep brick red with a matte finish.
• Shade 28 – Pressed pigment. Medium coral with a matte finish.

• Shade 29 – Charcoal with a matte finish.
• Shade 30 – Pressed pigment. Purple-toned deep grey with a matte finish.
• Shade 31 – Deep grey matte base infused with multi color shimmer and sparkles. The shimmer has a muted plum color. Among the sparkles, cobalt blue stands out to me.
• Shade 32 – Pressed pigment. Very muted deep purple with a matte finish.

• Shade 33 – Pressed pigment. Eggplant with a matte finish.
• Shade 34 – Pressed pigment. Medium orangey brown with a matte finish.
• Shade 35 – Medium olive green with yellow undertones and matte finish.
• Shade 36 – Pressed pigment. Deep grey, almost black, matte base with larger golden sparkles. This mixture of colors reads as olive green when you look at the effect as a whole vs looking at what it’s composed of.

• Shade 37 – Pressed pigment. Medium reddish orange shimmer.
• Shade 38 – Pressed pigment. Light reddish peach shimmer.
• Shade 39 – Medium warm brown with a matte finish.
• Shade 40 – Pressed pigment. Deep purplish grey base with lots of cobalt blue sparkles and smaller amount of pink sparkles.

Looks

Look #1:

• Shade 3 – Brow bone and inner corner
• Shade 10 – Outer crease
• Shade 5 – Inner crease
• Shade 17 – Transition
• Shade 24 – Outer lid
• Shade 14 – Inner lid
• Shade 9 – Inner corner
• Shade 7 – Inner lower lashline
• Shade 33 – Outer lower lashline
• Shade 40 – Center of lid

Look #2:

• Shade 1 – Inner corner, brow bone
• Shade 25 – Crease, lower inner lashline
• Shade 34 – Outer lid, lower outer lashline
• Shade 35 – Center of lid
• Shade 26 – Center of lid, layered over previous shade

Look #3:

• Shade 24 – Outer and inner lid blended into crease, lower outer lashline
• Shade 8 – Transition, inner lower lashline
• Shade 23 – Center of lid
• Shade 11 – Inner corner and I used the residual left on the brush to add some sparkle to the brow bone area

Look #4:

• Shade 39 – Crease, inner lower lashline
• Shade 38 – All over lid
• Shade 34 – Outer crease, outer lower lashline
• Shade 3 – Brow bone
• Shade 2 – Inner corner

Look #5:

• Shade 12 – Outer crease, outer lower lashline
• Shade 8 – Inner crease
• Shade 15 – Inner lid
• Shade 16 – Center of lid
• Shade 30 – Outer lid, outer lower lashline
• Shade 3 – Brow bone, also used this to clean up around the edges on the outer part of my eye

Look #6:

• Shade 28 – Crease, blended pretty high up into the transition area
• Shade 27 – Outer lid, crease
• Shade 21 – Center of lid
• Shade 3 – Inner corner and brow bone

Look #7:

• Shade 4 – Brow bone, inner corner
• Shade 15 – Transition
• Shade 30 – Crease
• Shade 29 – Deepen outer corner
• Shade 31 – Center of lid
• Shade 6 – Inner lid

Look #8:

• Shade 25 – Inner crease/transition area, outer lower lashline
• Shade 24 – Crease, outer transition area, inner lower lashline

The shimmer in this look is Callisto from Terra Moons Cosmetics.

Look #9:

• Shade 3 – Brow bone
• Shade 7 – Under inner part of brow, outer lower lashline
• Shade 10 – Outer crease/transition area, inner lower lashline
• Shade 33 – Outer lid/crease
• Shade 24 – Inner lid
• Shade 20 – Center of lid
• Shade 9 – Inner corner

Look #10:

• Shade 3 – Brow bone, inner corner
• Shade 25 – Transition
• Shade 27 – Crease
• Shade 29 – All over lid
• Shade 23 – Center of lid
• Shade 24 – Lower lashline

Look #11:

• Shade 4 – Brow bone, inner corner, inner lower lashline
• Shade 15 – Inner crease, transition
• Shade 22 – Outer lid, outer crease
• Shade 20 – Center of lid
• Shade 10 – Outer lower lashline

Look #12:

• Shade 3 – Brow bone, set lids
• Shade 19 – Outer crease/transition area
• Shade 32 – Outer lid, inner lid blended all the way up to the brow
• Shade 37 – Center of lid
• Shade 18 – Lower lashline, more diffused application
• Shade 36 – Outer lower lashline, applied with dampened brush
• Shade 13 – Inner corner, applied with dampened brush