Whilst contemplating how to spend a House of Fraser voucher, obviously in the Beauty department, I was drawn to the MAC eyeshadow x 9 palettes, mainly for the pretty composition of the palettes. I was clearly having an impulsive day as I went ahead and ordered the
Burgundy x 9 and the
Navy x 9 palettes without doing much research at all (do not follow this example). I have since given away the Navy x 9 palette as I just could not figure out how to use it- the shades were so underwhelming, chalky and incredibly difficult to build up. All in all it made me realise that cool tone shadows have no place in my life.
The Burgundy x 9 Palette was a little more promising, if you watch as many YT videos as me you will know that MAC Embark is one of those shadows that everyone seems to have and Sketch is one that has been gaining noticeable popularity recently. There is a good mix of different finishes in the palette- lustre, satin velvet etc, and the colours, a mix of permanent and limited edition shades, are actually put together really well.
I'd say the stand out shades, in terms or pigment and smoothness, in this palette are Sketch (velvet deep burgundy with gold specks of shimmer), Star Violet (veluxe pearl purple- pink) and Antiqued (veluxe pearl burnt copper shimmer- pretty much the same as Morphe Burlesque ES74. #Noir (velvet black- brown with bronze shimmer) has potential- when you look at it in the pan it looks gorgeous, but it takes an awful lot of product to make any impact- I guess the # is to differentiate it from the lip colour? Honey Lust (lustre bronze dipped peach), again, one with a lot of potential has an epic amount of. It's much easier to work with if you dampen your brush and i've been using it as a tear duct highlight. I am convinced that the formula of Embark (matte dark reddish brown) in the standard MAC pots is much smoother than the one inside this palette but all in all it is a great crease shade, particularly if you don't want to use black for a smokey eye. Quarry (matte muted plum) although a bit powdery is a lovely shade for an everyday neutral eye if blended well. I am quite indifferent to Haux (matte muted plum rose) and Poppy Seed (satin pink nude)- the latter, particularly looks a bit ashy in my opinion.
You get 0.8g of product per shadow compared to the Standard MAC eyeshadow pots and pro pans which are 1.5g. I guess the main positives to this is that it is a seemingly good way to try out lots of MAC shadows before committing to full pans. The whole palette is £30, Full size
MAC single shadow pans are £10 and the
potted shadows are £13 so you definitely get a lot more colours for your money. The palettes are also very compact and would be great if you travel a lot and want to create quick looks on the go. If I'm being honest, I'm not sure if I would recommend this just for these reasons alone. I think it's just as easy to travel with a small
Z palette built with affordable full size pans from
Morphe and
Makeup Geek. You are likely to get much more use out of your own palette as you won't be left with shades that you won't use. I think the shadows in this palette could do with being a bit more smooth and creamy but I may just be biased now to buying individual shadows so don't listen to me lolz- I would definitely advise you do a bit more research than me and go and swatch the shades in a MAC store if you are thinking of purchasing this. MAC has these in
Burgundy,
Navy,
Amber and
Purple and they are part of the permanent collection for now.
Straight after this I will be posting a Valentine's Day Inspired look using this palette.. so definitely check it out if you would like to see how I used it xx
Have you tried these out? What did you think?
'Be your own kind of beautiful'
