Thursday, February 24, 2011

Updated MAC Eyeshadow Collection and Swatches

My MAC eyeshadows are my favourite part of my makeup collection, I love looking at the pretty colours and use them regularly. I love how you can customize your palette, no one else's is the same and it's fun collecting them. I am a fan of neutrals, so that's mostly what you will see here, I have very few "colourful" shades, since I don't wear them and prefer to spend my money on everyday shades. I did a MAC eyeshadow collection post about a year ago, and it's come a long way since then, so I thought I would do an update. I have acquired these from MAC purchases (obviously), blog sales, makeup/discounted etailers such as allcosmeticswholesale and bridgette's boutique and the many were purchased "free" on Amazon from Swagbucks. I redeem my Swagbucks for amazon.com gift cards on a regular basis and have one seller in particular that I purchase from again and again, with shipping it ends up being a bit more than retail, but since they are "free" I have no issue with that at all. I always buy pots, and then take them back to MAC once I have 6 and get a free one.

I am very picky with the shadows that I choose to purchase, I often look through swatches online and youtube videos to decide. I thought it would be helpful to show you guys my shadows and accompanying swatches. All pictures can be enlarged to gigantic size by clicking on the image, you can see the labeling better that way too.

The neutrals/browns palette is my favourite, this was the first palette that I completed, although I do shuffle shadows around as I get new ones. This includes highlighter colours (although I don't really highlight, mostly use them as lid colours), light-medium browns and some shimmery ones too. The lighter shades all tend to look the same, with varying levels of pink/gold/peach undertones. My favourites out of this one are Grand Entrance, Naked Lunch, All That Glitters, Kid, Patina and Satin Taupe. Biggest disappointment was Woodwinked, I know people love this shadow but it just looks orange on me, and I can only wear it in the crease.

As you can tell the top row shadows look slightly different when swatched. I don't wear Retrospeck a whole lot because it is a Lustre and can be prone to fallout. Some nice cooler browns are Patina and Charcoal Brown. All That Glitters is basically a more peach version of Naked Lunch, both are nice.

This is my redy brown/purple palette. I find purples work great for those with green eyes and MAC has a ton of red-based browns. Some of my favourites in this one include Style Snob, Star Violet, Shale, Sable, Embark, Twinks, 100 Strokes, and Glamour Check.

And the swatches, Trax is prettier than it appears here, it's a purple with gold reflects. My camera isn't the greatest, I redid these swatches so many times, it's hard to get them to look just right. Sable is a favourite of many and it's gorgeous, should belong in my neutral/brown palette, but it's more a red-based on. Glamour Check is very similar to Antiqued, and Starflash finish is my favourite by far, if you can get anything Starflash go for it, they are super pigmented and rich.

And my purple/colours palette, this is as colourful as I get. Some of my favourites here include Memorabilia, Signed and Sealed, Club and Smoke and Diamonds. Biggest disappointed (and biggest ever MAC shadow disappointed) was Shadowy Lady, this looks pretty in the pan, but does not show up hardly at all unless you foil it, Signed and Sealed is 100x better and very similar. Blackberry is not red like it appears here, it's a dark matte purple.
Swatches of the purple palette, the top row purples are all very different, Lotusland (Starflash) is a pinky purple, Parfait Amour is a blue purple, Nocturnelle a plum, Memorabilia a matte purple and Blackberry a dark matte purple. Gleam is pretty, but a Lustre and it got demoted from the neutral palette for that reason. Club is gorgeous and unique, it doubles up as two shadows in one, can look green and brown and red.

Please recommend me any shadows that you think I should acquire! I have Copperplate and Warming Trend on order at the moment. I also have Carbon and some others from the Smokey Eye palette that came out with the Red She Said collection.

33 comments:

Sarah Ali / Glossicious said... Best Blogger Tips

I love the redy brown/purple palette, all the shades are so gorgeous

Risa said... Best Blogger Tips

These are so pretty! U have a lovely collection. I still don't own any of the MAC eyeshadows but I'm definitely looking into expanding my collections with them...Thanks for the lovely swatches..

xx

rakhshanda said... Best Blogger Tips

wow..all shades are gorgeous...you have a lovely collection..i love brown and purple shades...lucky girl.

Dee said... Best Blogger Tips

That's a beautiful collection - lots of gorgeous shades, but all very wearable too so there's no waste. Thanks for doing all that swatching work! :-)

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

@Dee - thanks, love reading and doing these types of posts. :)

Isabella said... Best Blogger Tips

im so jealousss!! i'm totally working towards a neutral palette (and by that, i mean start...xD) i'm surprised that you didn't like woodwinked tho :( that's actually one of my top ones to buy (havent actually tried it yet but based off recs)

2 highlighter shades that i really wanna try is ricepaper & brule but i'm surprised you don't own those o_o do you have mac pigments that you're planning to swatch? thanks for the post! i lovee these posts :D

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

@sweetkiss - I am not much for highlighting, I just use those light shades for lid colours, and I find Brule to be pretty dupeable and a lot like the others that I have, but I know lots of people like that one. Woodwinked tends to look orange on a lot of people, from reviews I've read.

I don't own any pigments unfortunately, don't see the point of them, I would never get through one.

Carlinn said... Best Blogger Tips

Stunning collection! totaly jealous :)

Jamie Dorman said... Best Blogger Tips

Loved the swatches; they were really helpful as I've been looking for specific colors lately. Do you ever find yourself needing a specific color and seeing it in your head and you search so many stores to find the color that exists in your mind? I'm going through that and you might have just ended that frustration.

Stacey said... Best Blogger Tips

Wow amazing collection, you've got some lovely colours there. I agree about shadowy lady, I bought it for me and Mum for Christmas and was very disappointed. You say Signed Sealed is better? Might have to get that. Thanks for sharing xx

Unknown said... Best Blogger Tips

What a great collection!!! I just made notes with many shades that I want to add to my collection! I want to get mine organized in palettes too! Hey, tell me, what are swagbucks? This sounds like something I need to start doing!

Lisa said... Best Blogger Tips

thanks so much for the post, love looking at mac collections. I would recommend some colours but our palettes look very similar I dont tend to venture out into colour that often and if so I use purple or sometimes green. Nylon is a good neutral to have I use that as a lid colour with colours like tempting, mulch and phloof with colours like sable, twinks. I also like greensmoke and bronze although sometimes bronze is a little reddish/orange.

Cydonian said... Best Blogger Tips

I keep eyeing Shale and Sable and I think you've convinced me to get them =P You might like Amber Lights but I don't know if it would be too intense for you. It's quite pretty.

spiffykerms said... Best Blogger Tips

Agghh!! I loveeee all those neutral colors. I'm a fan too of all of the neutral tones more so than the bold colors. I love the first palette. We have a few of the same colors!

Tracy D said... Best Blogger Tips

I am crawling my way along with my Swagbucks :( You have such a great collection & did an awesome job of explaining each palette. Thanks for all the helpful color suggestions!

Kar Yi said... Best Blogger Tips

Awesome palette :) I only have two Mac shadows as of now but I hope to slowly build my collection ^^ You own a lot of the shadows I have on my wishlist so we have pretty similar taste! Love the purples and neutrals you have :D

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

Cydonian - Amber Lights was one that I definitely considered, but I heard it's good for those with tan skin, and has a tendency of looking orange too (like Woodwinked).

Ella Pretty Blog said... Best Blogger Tips

Such a useful post!

I'm currently using a lancome eyeshadow palette - but once it runs out, I want to dupe it with MAC shadows - so I can just buy each colour as it runs out...looking at your swatches helps me figure out what shades I need.

Also - I didn't know that lustre shadows can have fallout. I own Retrospeck - and I'm so disappointed with it - the glitter just seems to disappear. Now I know that this is because it is a lustre - I'll stay away from those!

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips

Wow, wat een awesome collection, love it! And it will be very helpful for me too... I don't own any MAC yet, so I am trying to make a list over what I would like, strike that, what I must, must, must absolutely have LOL, to have ready when I have a birthday coming up :-) I love, love nudes and your choices are very inspiring!

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

@Ella Pretty Blog - Ya with MAC shadows you gotta pay attention to the finish for sure, starflash, veluxe pearls and satins are the best or matte2 if you like a matte finish.

TINA said... Best Blogger Tips

nice collection! I love browns.

Tracy@Beauty Reflections said... Best Blogger Tips

You should look as Bronze, Folie, Romp, Sumptuous Olive, Expensive Pink.
Vex on the lid, Print in the crease with Hepcat over Print a bit-great look.

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

@Tracy - thank you for the suggestions! I am intrigued by Bronzer, Folie, Romp, Hepcat for sure, will check those out next time I am at MAC.

Jennifer from Toronto - Spiced Beauty said... Best Blogger Tips

you have a great collection :)

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips

Oooo I definitely love your brown/highlight/neutrals palette! I would wear all the shadows. Very nice MAC eyeshadow collection. :)

Obsessed.Makup.Addict said... Best Blogger Tips

Oh my gosh you have the best collection of neutrals I've seen!!! I made some bad choices when I started into makeup and I have a lot of bad colours, only recently I started getting nice neutrals and subtle colours that I can actually use.

Obsessed.Makup.Addict said... Best Blogger Tips

Ahh I forgot to add this: You should get Brule + omega. I wear them on a regular basis and I LOVE them.

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

@obsessed.makeup.addict - Thanks, I am super picky about the ones that I choose, and you can't go wrong with browns and neutrals. I'll look into brule and omega.

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips

Yay I love swatches! Great post! I really need to add some purples to my collection.

Unknown said... Best Blogger Tips

eeeee I want so many of these now!
they all look so pretty xx

prettyaspeaches said... Best Blogger Tips

Great collection! I'm going to have to check out some of your favorites since we seem to wear a lot of the same makeup colors. BTW woodwinked turns into orange poo on me too. If you use a yellow base like UD Eden it turns the color cooler. I use eden with my warmer shades to cool the crap out of them. Just dont use super cool colors on eden or it turns them into dirt poo. HTH's!

Justine (Productrater) said... Best Blogger Tips

@prettyaspeaches - UD Eden trick sounds good! I like warm shadows usually, but not orange at all, that just doesn't look good. Thanks!

Anonymous said... Best Blogger Tips

You should really try somptuous olive and greensmoke !