Make-up palettes are the show ponies of the new spring beauty collections. Each year we wait eagerly for these beauty heavyweights to land, with a satisfying thud, onto our desks. Then comes the fun part. Unboxing and having a play. Some even come with their own suede pochettes! It's all impossibly fancy.

But, aside from the frippery and the subtle nuance of an invisible magnetic fastening, there is a practical side to palettes. Because these objects of cosmetic luxe house a ready made eye or cheek look that takes the laborious decision making out of getting ready.

The shades are pre-selected and presented in one palm-friendly package that slips easily into a jeans back pocket. There's no scrabbling around your make-up bag for three different eye shadows, a luxe palette does all that hard work for you. They can also push you out of your beauty comfort zone. That's a good thing. That lilac shadow might look scary in the box but on your lids, it can be surprisingly wearable, but you'd never have gone there without a little auto-suggestion, would you? And that, people, is the magic of a palette.

Find out how we got on testing our pick of the new season palettes below.

 

Kelly, deputy editor, tried Guerlain Écrin 4 Couleurs Spring Eye Shadow Palette, £39

'Guerlain know how to make things look appealing. Everything is fancy and beautiful and gold; you get pleasure from just holding their products. So if you’re one of those women that applies make-up on the bus then you’re going to feel pretty smug when you pull this beauty of a compact out of your cosmetic bag. You’ll still feel smug after you’ve used it too because the selection of colours complement each other wonderfully (NB. that aqua blue looks more silver once applied) and they blend very easily. I went for the standard issue eye shadow application – lightest colour on brow bone, second lightest on lid, darkest in the socket and the accent shade on the corner of the eye. It worked well, but I think they could happily stand to be mixed up and still look great. From a practical point of view this compact has a very useful and large mirror, the importance of which is not to be underestimated. Speaking from experience, there’s nothing worse than only being able to see one eye at a time when applying eye shadow (especially on public transport).'

 

 

Lynn, staff writer, tried Clarins Limited Edition Colours of Brazil Quartet & Eye Liner Palette, £32 (available in May)

'I’m pretty clueless about eye shadow. To me there is something slightly stuffy about it and I usually just avoid it, only bothering with eyeliner and mascara. So, to be honest, I was a little daunted by this dinky little palette, which had five different colours: beige, light brown, dark brown, orange and blue. But I persevered and applied beige all over, shadowing with the browns and topping off with the orange, before using the blue (which went on more navy than blue) as an eyeliner. The brushes were good and the shadows themselves were smooth with lots of pigment and staying power. They really lasted. The colours don’t strike me as particularly spring-y but I’ll definitely be adding eye-shadow to my make-up look for evenings from now on.'

 

 

Joanna, beauty director, tried Lancome Doll Eyes Hypnose Palette in Rose Ballerine, £37

'I know they shouldn’t, but eye shadow palettes remind me of playing around with make-up as a child, or indeed snaffling away plastic Polly Pocket cases away from the reach of my sister. Must be the click and clasp, it takes me right back there like Pavlov’s dog. But it’s worth being reminded of just how absurdly simple palettes make things; they take out all the hard work of selecting shades that go together. They even give you little tools (much better thought out than they used to be) to apply the make-up with. They are the cosmetic equivalent of walk-in closet, it’s all there for the taking. This Lancome number offers up all the pretty femininity of pink without any of the overt girliness, alongside darker, complimentary tones to do jazzy, non-complicated stuff with. I laced my lash line with a deep mauve and for the first time this week, felt properly done up. It’s how my seven year old self would have wanted it.'

 

 

Laura, staff writer, tried Laura Mercier Limited Edition Enlightenment Eye and Cheek Palette, £42.50

'I often use several eye shadows at once, fan as I am of a contoured eye, so I love a palette. It seems a given to me that you’d apply the lightest shade all over, a medium one on the socket line and outer lid and a dark one around the outer lash-line for definition, so I wasn’t bothered that the palette didn’t tell you what to put where. To be honest, if someone wasn’t into that level of detail they’d probably stick with one nude shade anyway. I like that the earthy colours were quite light, which is nice in spring if you want that slightly contoured effect without the full smoky-eye impact darker colours might give. It didn’t come with a brush but I’d rather use my own anyway – unless it came with a seriously good quality brush, which palettes rarely do.  I can definitely imagine keeping this slinky little palette on hand in case I need to scrub up for impromptu after-work beer garden visits, and the addition of blusher makes it an even better quick fix.'

 

 

Alice, beauty intern, tried Aerin Kaleidolight Palette, £40

'For cheeks, this palette is the dream. Namely because you have so much choice, from warm bronzer right through to peachy blush. The lilac eye shadow threw me a bit as I would never usually touch a colour like this, but its eye brightening abilities were second to none and it goes on very subtly.  The palette was beautiful, it’s only downside was that it didn’t come with brushes – but that’s a small price to pay for the sheer delights inside.'