The best glitter eyeshadow overall
The Stila Glitter & Glow Liquid Eyeshadows are the ones that started my obsession with glitter. I wore them to every holiday party I attended in December and quickly found that I didn't want to stop reaching for them after January 1. These are, simply put, the easiest glitters you will ever use.
Each one comes with an extra-long doe-foot applicator that distributes pigment across the lid in one quick swipe. Some colors are more opaque than others. For example, my favorite shade, Kitten Karma, has a metallic copper base with silver and champagne glitter overlay, while Wanderlust is sheer with gold and pink flecks.
I apply them straight to my lid with the applicator and pat with my fingertips to blend. The Stila Glitter & Glow shadows can be combined with powder shadows or worn on their own; I usually throw something matte in my crease for definition. They're a bit of a challenge to wash off completely, but it's a small price to pay for long wear-time and very minimal fallout. For high-impact with minimal effort, they can't be beaten.
Shoppers and beauty editors agree: The Stila Glitter & Glow Liquid Eyeshadows have a 4.6 Sephora rating based on more than 1,600 reviews. Countless publications like Best Products, StyleCraze, Refinery29, Glamour, Coveteur, Rank & Style, and Byrdie have praised the formula. Glamour assistant Tess Kornfield even wore it to a concert, writing, "I applied it an hour or so before the opener went on and when I got home around midnight my eyes were still intact — even after all of my crazy dancing!"
A related product, the Stila Shimmer & Glow Liquid Eyeshadow, is one of our best liquid eyeshadows you can buy — another one of my go-to's. You get very similar results and costs the same, so you can't go wrong there either.
Pros: Easy-to-use applicator, long-wearing, minimal fallout, can be more subtle or impactful
Cons: Tough to wash off, may cause slight cooling or tingling sensation when first applied
Buy Stila Glitter & Glow Liquid Eyeshadow from Sephora for $24The best budget glitter eyeshadow
Glossier Glitter Gelée is the affordable chunky glitter gel of your dreams, part of Glossier's new Play line. Described as "multidimensional paillettes," the Glitter Gelée has different-sized particles suspended in a transparent gel that dries down to a budge-proof finish.
This product gives off a different look from the other glitters on this list. It's chunky and less opaque, though to varying degrees depending on the shade. For example, I use the color Phantasm, which is very sheer with big chunks of opalescent glitter in different sizes. The other shades are Bijoux Bijoux (gunmetal), Glass Bonsai (greenish-gold), and Firewalk (copper rose).
I recommend using Glossier's silicone Detailer tool or a similar brush to apply these, especially if you're going for precision. These are a bit harder to work with due to the varying sizes of the glitter, but the results are cool and unique. I love that you can add just a few flecks of sparkle in specific areas. My favorite way to wear Glitter Gelée is to layer it over eyeliner for a glimmery cat-eye.
Editors at PopSugar, Refinery29, Man Repeller, The Zoe Report, and HypeBae give the product high marks. "[T]he light-reflecting, holographic glitter pieces make it seem as if you've put in a lot of effort when it actually takes no time to achieve the playful eye look," wrote HypeBae's Teresa Lam.
One thing to keep in mind is that this, like many glitters, is made of plastic; Glossier asks users to "[a]void washing off with water to prevent getting glitter into the waterways." This is a frequent issue with glitter-based products, so I remove them with a remover-soaked cotton pad that I can toss in the trash instead of rinsing down my drain.
Pros: Dries down, doesn't move, versatile, vegan, hypoallergenic, affordable
Cons: Can be tough to work with (especially without Detailer tool), difficult to wash off, should not be rinsed down the drain
Buy Glitter Gelée from Glossier for $14The best cream glitter eyeshadow
I love cream eyeshadows so much because they are often easier to use than powders, especially when it comes to trickier formulas like glitter and metallics, and the stunning Hourglass Scattered Light Glitter Eyeshadows are no exception.
The glitter particles are micro (not chunky) but that doesn't make them subtle. Your eyelids will be spotted a mile away when you wear these. But the tiny glitters and light-reflecting pearls give off less of the festival vibe you'd get from bigger particles. Even though they're sparkly, they're quite sophisticated.
Currently available in five shades — Reflect (champagne), Blaze (copper), Foil (gold), Aura (pink), and Smoke (taupe) — these shadows are soft to the touch and highly blendable. You may experience a tiny bit of creasing, which is normal for cream shadows, so I recommend applying over an eye primer.
The product has a 4.6 Sephora rating, based on nearly 200 customer reviews. Best Products, Refinery29, Glamour, and Coveteur also recently featured Hourglass Scattered Light Glitter Eyeshadows. "[The] formula is a mix between a cream and powder, and hits the light in such a cool way that you don't even need to blend it with other shades," Lindsay Schallon, Glamour's editor, wrote.
Pros: Easy to use, long-lasting cream-to-powder formula, subtle yet expressive
Cons: Only five shades
Buy Hourglass Scattered Light Glitter Eyeshadow at Sephora for $29The best gel glitter eyeshadow
Glitter jelly is the stuff that '90s dreams are made of, but it doesn't usually call to mind words like "versatile" and "simple to use." Lemonhead LA is changing that with Spacepaste, an opaque glitter gel that can be used all over the face and body — eyes included.
If you want to go on the over-the-top, music festival vibes route, you can't do better. Spacepaste is described as a "self-adhering glitter balm," meaning it dries where you apply it and stays there, instead of trailing down your face.
The formula is vegan and free of parabens, containing skin-soothing ingredients like aloe vera, sea kelp, and marshmallow root to combat the often irritating effects of glitter, especially around the eye area. It comes in unique (and cheekily named) shades like the rose-gold Mulholland and the holographic Adult Film.
"It's malleable. It's not crunchy. It sticks on to your face, but it's not sticky," wrote The Cut's Kathleen Hou. Writers at Coveteur and Refinery29 have also included it on their lists.
Pros: Opaque, dries down, no fallout, vegan and cruelty-free
Cons: Tough to wash off
Buy Lemonhead LA Spacepaste from Revolve for $22The best smokey glitter eyeshadow
The Smith & Cult Glitterbaby Metallic-Shift Eyeshadows are the kind of makeup game-changers that only come around once in a while. They apply as typical one-color glitters and transform as you blend them out, resulting in a dimensional smokey eye effect.
Glitterbaby gives you the effect of two or three shadows in one. It comes in 12 vibrant colors and can be used in a variety of ways thanks to the paddle-shaped applicator that comes to a point at the end. You can build up the pigment in the center of the lid, blend out the edges, or even use it as liner. The duo-chrome effect means the colors change depending on the lighting.
I like to use the shade Royal Blue with a tiny bit of black eyeliner for a dramatic look. The result is an elaborate smoky eye that seems way more complicated than it actually is; if you want to impress people with your (nonexistent) makeup artistry, this is the shadow to try.
This being a new release, there aren't too many reviews. But Glitterbaby has been featured as an exciting new launch by editors at PopSugar, Refinery29, Allure, and InStyle. "I'm not exaggerating when I say that the Smith & Cult Glitterbaby Metallic-Shift Eyeshadow is life changing. Each shade goes on opaque and has more shine, holographic sheen, color, and sparkle than any other liquid eye shadow I've tried," wrote PopSugar editor Sarah Siegel.
The Smith & Cult Glitterbaby Metallic-Shift Eyeshadow is also one of our best liquid eyeshadows.
Pros: Versatile, changes color as you blend, built-in applicator, long-lasting
Cons: Creases slightly over time
Buy Smith & Cult Glitterbaby Metallic-Shift Eyeshadow on Ulta for $24