Tired of Watery and Red Eyes? Here are the Best Eyeshadows for Sensitive Skin in 2023
Having sensitive eyes can be a challenge, especially if you wear makeup on a daily basis. The skin around the eyes is thinner and therefore more delicate than other areas, making it more susceptible to sensitivity and irritation.
Unfortunately, many eyeshadows can cause watery, red eyes, making it difficult for those with sensitive eyes to wear makeup comfortably.
However, there’s no need to despair! By carefully choosing eyeshadows with gentle ingredients, you can avoid sensitivity and irritation. Applying makeup should be enjoyable, not a nightmare.
That’s why we’ve put together a list of the best eyeshadows for sensitive skin in 2023. With these eyeshadows, you can say goodbye to sensitivity and irritation and enjoy beautiful eye makeup without any discomfort.
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1. BareMinerals Gen Nude Eyeshadow Palette in Rose Rebel
“Be Original, Be Natural, Be Good”, BareMinerals’ tagline will tell you right off the bat what they stand for as a brand. They are a pioneer in mineral-based products and have since then expanded to the BareMinerals it is known today.
Built on the effort to produce products that won’t let the skin break out by using non-irritation formulas.
The Gen Nude Eyeshadow Palette in Rose is an excellent addition to your makeup kit. Not only will it not irritate your eyes, but it will also give you the rosy nude makeup look that you want to achieve.
With both matte and shimmers, you can create several looks! This palette features golds and pinks that will add life to your eye makeup look.
The shades are blendable and will stay put on your eyes all day. The long-lasting eyeshadow colours are perfect for creating dramatic eyeshadow, professional eyeshadow and natural-looking eyeshadow looks!
It’s a completely sensitive skin-friendly neutral palette with cruelty-free and allergen-free ingredients.
Made with mineral-rich ingredients, including cucumber extract that soothes and reduces puffiness around your eye area. It also contains moisturising borage oil for softer skin and antioxidant-rich algae that helps protect your skin.
BareMinerals Gen Nude Eyeshadow Palette in Rose Rebel can be bought from Amazon / Look Fantastic UK
2. 100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Pretty Naked II
100% Pure is a cruelty-free and vegan brand. They are a really great all-natural company!
With their products, they ensure that they do not contain harsh detergents, chemical preservatives and artificial fragrances which makes them really safe for sensitive skin.
The Fruit Pigmented Pretty Naked II Palette is a beautiful everyday eyeshadow! These contain beautiful nude and blush tones that are perfect for any look. These eyeshadows will give you the natural and neutral looks that you want.
This is great for sensitive skin as there is no synthetic dyes palette used in this palette – instead, it’s made from vitamin-rich fruits and vegetable pigments.
The key ingredients of these eyeshadows are strawberry, cranberry, Vitamin E, acai and resveratrol, which are filled with antioxidants.
100% Pure Fruit Pigmented Pretty Naked II Palette can be bought from Amazon
3. Burt’s Bees 100% Natural Eye Shadows
“True To Nature” as Burt’s Bees tagline goes. Burt Bees are both eco-friendly and naturally sourced. These palettes are 100% natural and have been made with sensitive eyes and contact lens wearers in mind.
Burt’s Bees 100% Natural Eye Shadows are available in 4 different palettes, 2 warm-toned and 2 cool-toned.
These eyeshadow trios are simple and practical. These palettes are great to use on those fast-paced days. With just three awesome shades, you’ll be able to step out the door with a simple beautiful eye look. They’re also very compact and can fit in your purse easily.
Burt’s Bees 100% Natural Eye Shadows can be bought from Amazon
4. Ilia Beauty The Necessary in Warm Nudes
Ilia strives to create skincare-powered makeup that offers natural and skin-centric beauty. Try it out for yourself with their The Necessary Eyeshadow Palette.
It’s a clean-formulated eyeshadow palette that is buildable and highly pigmented. Ilia’s palette has an assortment of matte, satin, and metallic finishes to achieve any look.
Their formulas are velvety and allow for a smooth application. Super easy to blend and with very little fallout.
You’ll love that for a small palette, they’ve managed to add a convenient mirror. Ah, it’s the little touches!
This palette is vegan, cruelty-free, gluten-free, and talc-free, and contains key active ingredients vitamin E, jojoba seed oil, and honeysuckle flower extracts. It has beautiful hues that act as your antioxidants and provide nourishment at the same time.
It’s an all-around eyeshadow palette that extends itself in helping you feel confident, without asking for your skin’s health in collateral!
If you’re leaning towards greener and cleaner products this year, Ilia Beauty The Necessary Eyeshadow Palette is the one for you! With its 9 beautiful warm neutral shades, you will have plenty to experiment with.
Ilia Beauty The Necessary Eyeshadow Palette (Warm Nudes) can be bought from Amazon / Nordstrom
5. Jane Iredale Naturally Glam Kit
Jane Iredale’s motto is to get the look you love without sacrificing the skin you want. And I gotta say, that’s a motto I love! You should never have to compromise on your skin to look beautiful.
All her makeup is formulated without harmful ingredients and toxins. In fact, in their place are ingredients that will benefit your skin.
Fancy that, makeup helps strengthen your skin! With these good-for-you ingredients and natural ingredients, Jane Iredale’s makeup is suitable for even the most sensitive skin.
Formulated with ingredients like Mica, Pine Bark and Pomegranate Extract, they help to calm, soothe, and protect the eyes.
Jane Iredale Eyeshadow Kit comes in 9 different palettes. Each one comes with 4 shades and a big base shade. The palettes are mostly neutral with one or two featuring purples and blues.
These palettes may seem basic, but they are useful and do exactly as they say.
Don’t underestimate them, sometimes all we need is the basic good stuff and that’s what these palettes are! That’s not to mention that if you love neutral palettes, you will love these!
The eyeshadows are high quality, easy to apply and last really well without creasing. If you suffer from sensitive eyes, these palettes might just be the answer to your problems!
Jane Iredale Eyeshadow Kit can be bought from Amazon
6. Ofra Signature Palette in Radiant Eyes
OFRA has become a beauty vlogger’s favourite brand for a while now and they have grown a steady following over the past years. They are cruelty-free and vegan and they don’t disappoint with their products.
Ofra Signature Palette in Radiant Eyes is free of harmful ingredients and makes its products with your health in mind!
The shades are creamy and blendable, they are also very buildable and very pigmented. As for the packaging, it’s very fitting and sleek looking!
Ofra Signature Palette in Radiant Eyes can be bought from Ofra Cosmetics
7. Nude By Nature Natural Wonders
Nude by Nature is committed to creating makeup that works with your skin. They are natural and cruelty-free. They fully disclose the ingredients on their website and avoid preservatives, bad chemicals and synthetic ingredients.
The Natural Wonders Eye Palette is a 10-pan eyeshadow that is inspired by Australia’s colour story. The shades are wonderful to transform from a day to a night look.
You get the right mix of matte and shimmer as well as neutrals colours as well as some blue shades! It applies smoothly and gives an even colour payoff as you blend it into your eyes.
The ingredients on this palette are desert lime, Kakadu plum, quandong, sweet almond oil and sandalwood kennel oil. All of the ingredients are from natural substances that are rich in antioxidants and help with your skin as well.
They avoid any chemicals that can be irritating to the eyes. So you’re guaranteed to have a sensitive-skin-friendly eyeshadow with this palette!
Nude By Nature Natural Wonders Eye Palette can be bought from Boots / Niche Beauty
8. Pacifica Beauty Pink Nudes
From an all-vegan, 100% cruelty brand like Pacifica Beauty, makeup becomes completely worry-free and all the more enjoyable!
With this brand, you don’t need to worry about ingredients that will irritate your eyes, you can concentrate on the more important things like the right colour and look!
Pacifica Beauty Pink Nudes Mineral Eyeshadow Palette is infused with coconut water and minerals to keep your eyes hydrated and nourished the entire day.
So go for it! Go fresh naked or rock some brown smokey eyes with this palette. This palette will become your daily go-to set.
It’s one of Pacifica Beauty’s collections of ten coconut-infused eye shadows in matte pinks, warm nudes and browns with illuminating highlighters for some popping moments.
These are highly-pigmented mineral eye shadows that have velvety finishes and gorgeous payoff, in a range of super wearable staple colours.
Aside from the fabulousness of this palette, you’ll love the sustainability of Pacifica as a company. You can send back your empties, they recycle the plastic and you get loyalty points! It’s a win-win for all!
Pacifica Beauty Pink Nudes Mineral Eyeshadows can be bought from Amazon
9. Honest Beauty ‘Get It Together’
Celebrities creating their own makeup brands is becoming quite the trend! Another big trend is clean brands popping up all over the place. Jessica Alba, founder of Honest Beauty strives to create products that are all about being good for the skin.
Since their relaunch in 2018, she streamlined her products from 83 to 40 beauty products, with all of them being clean and safe for the skin.
In her collection, they have the Honest Beauty ‘Get It Together’ Eyeshadow Palette. “made without Parabens, Paraffins, Talc, Mineral Oil, Silicones, Petrolatum,” as they promote it.
With the help of her creative colour consultant, Daniel Martin, they produced a 10-shade palette that is beautiful.
I love the packaging, it has that clean look to it that makes you think the product is good for you, yet at the same time, it has the elegance to it!
The shades are highly pigmented, you can use it for a daytime look, but personally, I think it’s more of a glam evening sort of palette. This is another great palette for those with sensitive eyes!
Honest Beauty ‘Get It Together’ Eyeshadow Palette can be bought from Amazon
10. LORAC PRO Palette 3
Lorac was created when Hollywood beauty legend and PRO makeup artist Carol Shaw was fed up with watching her celeb clients suffer from skin irritations due to the wrong ingredients in makeup. She created Lorac, which prides itself in caring about your skin.
The Lorac Pro Palette 3 is a professional eyeshadow palette for the everyday woman. Their formulas are professionally created with gentle and soothing ingredients.
Lorac Pro definitely embodies what a high-end brand should be luxurious, reliable and high-quality.
The Lorac Pro Palette 3 has 16 shadows with a combination of both mattes and shimmer. Their eyeshadows have great pigmentation are and easy to blend with little to no fallout.
The shadows aren’t irritating to the eyes and work perfectly for those with sensitive skin.
Lorac Pro Palette 3 Eyeshadow Kit can be bought from Amazon
What is Sensitive Skin?
If you suffer from redness, continuous stinging or adverse reactions to makeup products, you probably have sensitive skin.
Skin sensitivity can vary and so do the reactions, some people suffer ongoing sensitive skin while others may only suffer when it’s triggered.
Either way, it’s annoying and causes irritation, dry, flaky patches, redness and overall discomfort.
What’s the difference between an allergic reaction and sensitive skin?
An allergy occurs when your skin comes into contact with a particular allergen which causes a reaction such as itching or a burning sensation and even rashes. Reactions, when you have allergic skin, can be a lot more severe than skin sensitivity.
Another difference is that with sensitive skin your body will only react to the area that came into contact with the product, whereas, with an allergy, the reaction will be anywhere.
When you have allergies, you need to look for “hypoallergenic” products to avoid triggering an allergic reaction. Hypoallergenic basically means that specific products have fewer allergic substances or cause fewer allergic reactions to particular ingredients.
Although it is good to take note of these, sometimes brands tend to make claims that they’re ‘hypoallergenic’, but allergies and reactions differ from person to person so it’s never guaranteed.
For allergies, I recommend going to the doctor for allergy testing to know which ingredients you should avoid.
It is essential to know what to do and what ingredients to avoid when it comes to makeup on the eyes.
Tips
Below I’ve put together a few small yet easy tips that will help you keep your sensitive eyes from getting irritated!
Clean Your Brushes
Cleaning brushes is annoying, I’ll admit it! However, not cleaning them lets the bacteria build up and cause irritations and infections on your skin. This is worse for those with sensitive skin.
Ideally, you should clean your brushes at least once a week to avoid bacteria and germ build-up.
Avoid Your Waterline
It is best not to apply any eyeliner or eyeshadow to your waterline, especially if you have sensitive eyes. Avoid applying makeup that will block the oil glands in our eyes. Try applying it on your lash line instead.
Bad Reaction? Throw It Out!
If you notice a reaction to a certain product, even a slight reaction, it is a good idea to throw it out. Often we think that maybe the skin needs to adjust to the product.
Usually, it means you’re simply not compatible! Keeping it will only cause more harm than good to your skin.
Replace Your Makeup Regularly
Yes, makeup expiration is real (I’m talking to myself too!). Since mascara and eyeliner are more prone to dry out faster, it causes bacteria to build up a lot quicker.
My advice- replace them every 3 to 6 months. Eyeshadows last a little longer with a maximum of 2 years before you need to toss them.
With all that crucial information in mind, I know you’re excited to know the best eyeshadows for sensitive eyes! So let’s get straight into it.
Remove your makeup at the end of the day
Use a gentle makeup remover or cleanser to remove your makeup at the end of the day. Be religious about it, sleeping in makeup is one of the main causes of breakouts. Check out the best gentle makeup removers.
Take Note of Bad Ingredients
A brand or a product can easily market as ‘all-natural’ or ‘hypoallergenic’, but that doesn’t mean you should grab it and go. I recommend reading the list of ingredients on all products before purchasing, (or check on a blog like this one!).
Final Thoughts
It’s great to know that there are loads of eyeshadows available for sensitive skin now on the market. 20 years ago, most of these brands didn’t exist yet and awareness of sensitive skin was a far cry from where it is now.
There are loads of eyeshadows for sensitive skin, but I have put together the ones that I think are the best eyeshadows for sensitive skin in 2023.
Hollie xx
About Hollie
Hi, my name is Hollie, and I own BeautywithHollie.com. I love everything to do with beauty and love sharing my knowledge, advice and beauty finds! Makeup and beauty are here to enjoy, and Beauty With Hollie is here to take the stress out of it!
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Anastasia Beverly Hills Benefit Cosmetics Bobbi Brown CeraVe Chantecaille Charlotte Tilbury Clarins ColourPop Dermalogica Dior ELEMIS Elf Cosmetics Estée Lauder Fenty Beauty First Aid Beauty Fresh Hourglass Huda Beauty IT Cosmetics Jane Iredale L'Oreal lancome La Roche-Posay Laura Mercier LORAC MAC Makeup Revolution Mario Badescu Maybelline Morphe Nars Natasha Denona Neutrogena NYX Origins Peter Thomas Roth Revlon Sigma Beauty Smashbox Stila Tarte Cosmetics The Ordinary Too Faced Urban Decay YSL
I truly need to initially value your exertion in assembling this incredible site and composing this article. I really liked your article. I like to wear makeup a lot. And I have a weakness for Eyeshadow. I used Nude By Natural Wonders Eye Palette. It’s just an amazing eyeshadow palette. The shades are wonderful to transform from day-to-night. It applies smoothly and gives even color payoff as blend it on my eyes. It’s a great eyeshadow I think everyone should try. I think this article will benefit everyone. Thanks for sharing a useful and informative post.
The Nude By Nature palette is a lovely one and great for sensitive eyes!
Thanks for stopping by
Hi there,
My eyes are extremely sensitive. Red, watery, sore and dermatitis. I’m wondering is this list in order of your preference? I need the one that is your top pick. At the moment I can’t wear any. Also, what do you think of moo goo
Also, this and the skin clean article are amazing. I’m thinking of trying the Dermalogica?
I’m sorry you have such sensitive eyes, hopefully, these eyeshadows will help you. They’re listed in random order. I’ve never heard of moo goo but it looks like it has potential.
There really isn’t a top pick for the simple reason that different formulas work for different people. Everyone’s skin is so individual! It may take a little trial and error to work out which ingredients you’re most sensitive to!
Thanks for stopping by:)