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Face palettes are a great way to streamline your makeup collection, especially for travel. They usually give you some blush, bronzer, and highlighter options in one place.
Urban Decay NAKED Flushed Paletteearns our vote because it's simple and versatile. The small size and included mirror make this a great pick for travel or everyday use.
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There are different kinds of face palettes, but the most useful and versatile ones contain some combination of highlighter, blush, and bronzer.
A face palette that covers most of the essentials you use daily helps eliminate the need for dozens of compacts cluttering your makeup drawer, and time spent searching for your favorite blush when commuting.
One thing to keep in mind is that less can be more when it comes to selecting a face palette that's right for you. Look for something that includes at least highlighter, blush, and bronzer, along with a mirror or brush, so you've got everything in one place.
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The Urban Decay NAKED Flushed Palette gives you sculpted cheekbones in seconds with blush, highlighter, and bronzer. Plus there's a mirror included for touch-ups.
The NAKED Flushed Palette by Urban Decay is the perfect everyday companion. You get powder bronzer, blush, and highlighter in one compact package, with three color stories to suit fair, medium, and deep complexions.
These pressed powders are micronized and jet-milled, so they're super soft and blendable. Instead of chunky glitter, all three shades feature tiny shimmer particles for a multi-dimensional finish. You can mix them together for a glowy, bronze blush, or apply each shade individually to different areas of your face.
The powders are all different sizes based on how and how often they're usually used. The bronzer is the largest and allows you to pick it up using a big, fluffy brush for an all-over glow, the blush is a medium size because you'd swirl a good amount of it on your cheeks, and the highlighter is smallest since you only need a tiny swipe for high impact.
Though I think you'll want to reach for this palette daily, the compact size and fairly large mirror (at least considering the small palette width) make this a great travel pick as well. What's better than makeup you can use literally all year round — even on vacation?
"This product has simplified my makeup routine, decreased the time I spend getting ready and has cut down on the clutter that is my makeup table," writes one Sephora shopper.
Overall, the product has a 4.2-star rating based on 1,700+ reviews, and was also a 2014 Allure Best of Beauty winner.
Pros: comes in three shades, travel-friendly size, mirror
Cons: no division between shades could cause the powders to mix together
For a great drugstore option that checks all the boxes, look no further than the Maybelline Master Contour Face Contouring Kit. You get a blush, bronzer, and highlighter in compact packaging for under $10.
It's the perfect travel companion for quick touch-ups, although the lack of a mirror is a downside when you're on-the-go.
Choose from Light to Medium or Medium to Deep depending on your skin tone. The powders are organized in the order you should apply them and also numbered from 1 to 3, so there's absolutely no guesswork involved.
Simply sweep the contour onto the hollow of your cheeks and around the hairline, swirl blush onto the apples of your cheeks, dot highlighter on the high points of your face and you're good to go.
"I love love love this palette! It's a 3-in-1 that doesn't take up a lot of space and does an excellent job contouring the face, coloring the cheeks and highlighting what you want highlighted," writes one Amazon reviewer.
Overall, the palette has a 4.3 rating based on more than 200 reviews.
Pros: affordable, labeled for easy use, two color options
Cons: not super pigmented, no mirror
The best luxury face palette
Natasha Denona Diamond & Blush comes in two color palettes, each with six versatile cream and powder cheek products that deliver a healthy glow to a spectrum of complexions.
No face palette is one-size-fits-all, but Natasha Denona Diamond & Blush comes pretty close. It comes in two colorways, each with six cheek products in a combination of cream and powder formulas.
The palette is designed to be layered. Combine all the shades together for major glow or apply separately for more subtle looks. The palette is available in two versions — Darya and Citrus — designed to suit a variety of skin tones. Both feature cream and powder highlighters and blushes, and have garnered rave reviews from shoppers with fair to deep complexions.
Since the formulas are buildable, you can get more or less impact by using a lighter or heavier hand. Diamond & Blush is highly rated on Sephora, with 4.6 stars based on more than 160 reviews. "I swear since I have had this it seems like I am finally applying blush properly. The combination of the creams and powders gives my skin a fresh and healthy finish. I no longer look flat," writes one shopper.
One downside to this product that there isn't much by way of bronzer. The focus is really on blush and highlight rather than contour, although depending on your skin tone, some reviewers report using "Glow Cream Base" in the Citrus palette as a subtle sculpting shade.
Pros: buildable, cream and powder formulas, works for a range of skin tones
Cons: expensive, no matte shades or deep bronzers
The best natural face palette
The RMS Beauty Signature Set Pop Collection is a compact set of the brand's best-selling cream face products, crafted with attention to natural ingredients.
The Signature Set from clean beauty brand RMS is a neat little compact with five of the brand's best-selling cheek products.
There are two colorways. The Pop Collection includes Buriti Bronzer, Magic Luminizer, Lip2Cheek stains in Demure and Beloved, and Simply Vanilla Lip & Skin Balm. The Mod Collection includes the balm as well, plus Master Mixer, Living Luminizer, and Lip2Cheek stains in Smile and Spell.
This is a very easy, on-the-go kit that is small enough to toss in a purse or luggage carry-on, but still gives you options. Several reviewers address the small pan sizes relative to the price, but the formulas are truly gorgeous, buildable, and can be applied with fingertips and blend seamlessly into the skin.
While the sets themselves don't have a ton of shopper reviews, both collections contain some of the RMS's highest-rated products like the Living Luminizer, which has 4.4 stars based on more than 300 reviews.
"It's really all you need for a full face, and the products give such a healthy dewy look and very natural. The size is small but a little goes such a long way so for me this will last a pretty long time," writes one Sephora shopper.
Most face palettes include exactly what you see in the photos online, but Make Up For Ever is doing things a little differently. The brand's Artist Color Refillable Makeup Palette gives you the chance to customize your ideal blush, bronzer, and highlighter combo.
The palette itself costs $2 and the powders cost $23 each, with a slight discount if you buy everything as a bundle — two powders and a palette is $35, three powders and a palette is $45.
After you figure out which palette size you want, choose your Artist Face Color Highlight, Sculpt, and Blush Powders. There are 35 total blushes, bronzers, and highlighters in the range with both matte and shimmery finishes.
This kit lets you choose the exact shades you're most likely to use. Want two blushes and a highlighter instead of bronzer? Three highlighters? The world is your oyster. And since each of the pans is refillable, you can replace one at a time — great news if you use one product more heavily than others.
The powders have a 4.6 Sephora rating based on more than 680 customer reviews and the palette has a 4.8 rating based on more than 180 reviews.
"I found the products to be really smooth and buttery, and they apply easily with a brush. For the price you get a decent amount of product, and the shade selection is quite nice," writes one shopper.
Pros: customizable refillable palettes, 34 shades, great value, palettes have mirrors
Cons: you only get discount if palettes and powders are purchased together
What else we considered
Too Faced Natural Face Palette ($44): This palette is pretty highly reviewed and I've personally enjoyed using it. The formula is nice and creamy, however a lot of the powders are very shimmery. Plus, there's a really intense coconut smell that might be a bit much for some.
Tom Ford Eye & Cheek Palette ($155): Tom Ford's powders are well-reviewed. This palette includes two blushes and four eyeshadows, and comes in warm and cool options for different undertones. But the price tag is just so high that it's hard to recommend.