Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Eyeshadow Palette Review

From all the products in Charlotte Tilbury’s impressive line of luxe makeup, none is as iconic as Pillow Talk. What began the perfect nude lip shade, has expanded to an entire collection that includes a highlighter, blush, and now the Pillow Talk eyeshadow palette. And at $75, the palette is easily the priciest item in the collection

• Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Eyeshadow Palette Overview
• Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Eyeshadow Palette Review
  • Color Story
  • Formula
  • Swatches
  • Possible Dupes
• Cruelty-Free and Vegan Status
• Where to Buy Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Eyeshadow Palette
• Final Thoughts

Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Eyeshadow Palette Overview

The Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Instant Eye Palette is a 12-color eyeshadow palette that retails for $75. The palette contains a total of 0.24 oz of eyeshadow.

The shadows are packaged in a slim rose gold compact with a magnetic closure and a mirror.

Charlotte Tilbury also released a Pillow Talk version of their Luxury Palette eyeshadow quads ($53) as well as a six-pan Easy Eye Palette ($57), which to me looks like an edited version of the Instant Eye Palette.

Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Eyeshadow Palette Review

As with the other 12-color palettes from the brand, the shadows are divided into four trios with each creating a look for a different occasion. The four trios in the Pillow Talk palette are dubbed, “day”, “desk”, “date”, and “dream”.

Within each trio they’ve labeled the first shadow “prime”, the second “enhance”, and the third “smoke”. I guess the idea is that each trio works independently, however, I prefer to just mix and match.

Color Story

The overall color scheme is a mix of warm neutrals and berry tones. I get a rose gold vibe when looking at the palette as a whole, even though there’s really only one rose gold shade.

There are eight matte shades that range from pale cream to deep brown, with multiple options for crease shades. The blending mattes are varying tones of warm brown, muted peach, and there’s also one berry shade.

I like the range of the mattes provided but I feel like it could use one more really deep shade for contrast. The deepest color is a matte brown that’s fairly dark but I think it falls a bit short for those really dramatic looks.

In terms of shimmers there are four colors. a pale iridescent peach, rose gold, pinky copper, and a deeper rusty berry. The deeper two metallics are pretty similar and I think they could have just included one of them and given us another shade.

If you were to cover up the berry trio, you’d be left with a warm neutral palette that I consider universally flattering. The berries are really what gives this palette it’s unique identity so consider whether or not you’ll use the berry shades if you’re thinking of picking this up.

Formula

The formula is actually what drew me to purchase the Pillow Talk Palette. At $75, the color scheme really wasn’t compelling enough on its own. Once I swatched it, however, the texture and finish of the shadows really pulled me in.

The mattes have a smooth, silky feel to them that I haven’t really seen with other shadow formulas. They don’t have the same dense, creamy texture that I’m used to from most high-end eyeshadow. These are on the thinner side and I didn’t experience fallout when applying them. Even so, the shadows have great pigmentation and they blend really easily.

The shimmers have a beautiful metallic finish and the texture feels creamy and smooth. They catch the light in a way that makes them seem just a notch above your average metallic shadow. The shimmer shades also manage to be intensely pigmented without being so thick that they kick up a lot of excess shadow.

Swatches

Possible Dupes

At a glance the first thing Pillow Talk made me think of was Naked Heat from Urban Decay. They’re both warm palettes with a range of matte neutrals however Naked Heat leans decidedly more orangey than Pillow Talk which has a pink undertone.

Anastasia’s Soft Glam palette has some similar tones but is missing the deeper berry shades.

I found quite a few similar shades in the Morphe Jaclyn Hill Palette like the rose gold, and some of the mattes. It doesn’t however have the matte berry shade and the shimmers didn’t have the same reflective finish as the Pillow Talk palette.

I was actually quite surprised that the most comparable palette in my collection was Urban Decay’s Naked Cherry. It’s not a shade for shade dupe but it contains a lot of the same tones that make Pillow Talk unique.

The main differences would be the that Naked Cherry doesn’t have the same medium brown mattes, so it’s less versatile in terms of being a neutral palette. The matte berry is also less vibrant than Pillow Talk’s and the finish on the shimmers is not exactly the same. But overall, both palettes will create similar looks.

Cruelty-Free and Vegan Status

Charlotte Tilbury and their suppliers do not test their products on animals, nor do they have third parties test on their behalf.

Their products are sold in mainland China only via eCommerce which does not require animal testing. There were samples of Charlotte Tilbury products available at pop-up shops in Mainland China in December 2019. Those samples could potentially have been subject to post-market testing if there was a consumer complaint; Charlotte Tilbury has since pulled their sample testers from the pop-up stores and their displays have closed.

The Pillow Talk Instant Eye Palette contains carmine and as such is not vegan.

Where to Buy the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Eyeshadow Palette

• Sephora – Free shipping on orders over $50 and free returns.
• Charlotte Tilbury – Free shipping and free returns. International shipping available. 10% off first orders.
• Nordstrom – Free shipping and free returns.
• Bloomingdales – Free shipping on orders over $50 and free returns.
• Beautylish – Free shipping on orders over $35 and free returns. International shipping available.

Regardless of where you purchase from, make sure to check if Rakuten (ebates) is offering cashback. If you haven’t signed up for Rakuten yet, you can do so here, it only takes a minute and then you’ll earn cashback on eligible purchases every time you shop through their link. They also have an extension which I recommend installing, that activates cash back on all eligible websites with one click. It also scans for coupons.

Final Thoughts

So this is a case where I don’t really have anything bad to say about the product but I’m not sure I’d recommend it either. The formula is certainly luxurious and the shades are beautiful. However, $75 is a lot to drop on one palette, especially one with only twelve shades. I don’t know that I get enough variety out of the palette to justify the high price tag and I feel like I could probably replicate the looks with similar, more affordable products in my collection.

Bottom line, if you absolutely love the shades, I don’t think think you’ll be disappointed with their performance. If you just want something that’ll give you a similar look, I’d say skip this palette and go for a lower priced comparable item.

Pros

• Smooth, silky mattes
• Rich, reflective metallics
• Good range of matte blending shades
• Compact Packaging

Cons

• Some shades are very similar to one another
• The palette could use one really deep matte for contrast.
• Prohibitively expensive

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Bye now,