Tap, tap, tap. Pat, pat, pat. My fingers went. Those marked the sounds of my first experience applying MAC eyeshadows to my eyelids. Gazing into the mirror, I was struck by how Expensive Pink laid like a soft, slight foil effect making my eyes bigger, brighter, more eye-catching. Show-stopping, it was. The lightweight consistency with strong pigmentation makes the final look look irresistibly good. It lays on the skin like the eyeshadow color becomes the skin--inconceivable perfection. It looked so natural while still being bold and lovely, not laying as a second coating as many other eyeshadows do. The texture, so soft and buttery, yet tightly pressed so that only a touch or two is needed to get the kind of pigment you desire. By the end of the day the eyeshadow ... MoreTap, tap, tap. Pat, pat, pat. My fingers went. Those marked the sounds of my first experience applying MAC eyeshadows to my eyelids. Gazing into the mirror, I was struck by how Expensive Pink laid like a soft, slight foil effect making my eyes bigger, brighter, more eye-catching. Show-stopping, it was. The lightweight consistency with strong pigmentation makes the final look look irresistibly good. It lays on the skin like the eyeshadow color becomes the skin--inconceivable perfection. It looked so natural while still being bold and lovely, not laying as a second coating as many other eyeshadows do. The texture, so soft and buttery, yet tightly pressed so that only a touch or two is needed to get the kind of pigment you desire. By the end of the day the eyeshadow was still on and still looking gorgeous, so I instantly determined, having tried many other eyeshadows both drugstore and high end over the years, from Wet n Wild to Urban Decay, from Milani to Anastasia Beverly Hills, from Loreal to Lorac, from Morphe to Too Faced, that MAC eyeshadows possess the most superior eyeshadow formula. With more time and experience with this formula, my great height of love grew more and more. The most important reason that makes this formula superior is that MAC eyeshadows blend to perfection. You can see the demarcation of one color to the next when you are blending multiple colors in the crease and yet the final look provides a smooth gradient effect with proper technique. ABH, though packed with lovely, out-of this world pigment, tend to lay extraordinarily well on the lid but tend to muddy in the crease. The second most valuable aspect of MAC eyeshadows is its high dimensionality. This refers to how much depth and dimension can be gleamed and achieved by the blending of colors or by colors individually. Woodwinked is a perfect example of an individual color with high dimensionality. Applied to the lid you can see its depth and richness all by itself. Continuing to bring this color up to the crease and blending it all by itself in a one-eyeshadow look provides depth and dimension to your crease untold just on its own. A single MAC eyeshadow provides extraordinary levels of dimensionality to the eye look, from deepening the outer v, adding dimension the crease, providing rich depth to the eyelid, creating soft depth in the brow bone area that amplifies the strength of the arch which lends itself to even deeper dimension in the crease area, etc. Blending multiple colors such as Soft Brown, Saddle and Espresso (or any viable combination) altogether in the crease will create a perfect, smooth, lovely gradient effect from a soft brownish peach to an espresso brown with heavy dimensionality in which you can see where each color starts and stops, the depth created in your eye socket that makes it look more pronounced and makes the eyes look larger and the high level of depth and intensity to the look created by gradually adding darker colors to the crease. Lorac shadows also offer proper dimension but it's just that MAC creates it to a higher degree and greater intensity. The richness in dimension offered by MAC eyeshadows is second to none. The third reason MAC eyeshadows are exceptional is the pigmentation. Colors like Red Brick, Amber Lights, Embark, Satin Taupe, Plumage, (discontinued) Fig 1, Bottle Green, Indian Ink, Passionate, Cranberry, Contrast, Naval, Brun, Brule, Goldmine, Scene, and I'm Into It, to name a few, strike me every time I use them with their intense pigmentation and incredible buttery-soft smoothness and ease of use. These are some of the most ink-like pigmented colors I have ever seen across the board. While not all MAC eyeshadows are as intensely pigmented, they all have excellent pigmentation (but a few are buildable--you can control the level of intensity by building it up--like Carbon, their black eyeshadow, that can be built up to smoky, dark, smoldering levels with amazing intensity...this can be positive--preventing intense black from ruining a eye look outright if not used carefully--or negative--that it is simply not as intense as other black eyeshadows on the market). Urban Decay has fantastic pigmentation and so many other brands do. But compared to MAC's best they still would not compare. Make Up For Ever's discontinued eyeshadows absolutely could compete with MAC's best in pigmentation and was a professional makeup artist's dream (but alas those eyeshadows would not have been able to compete with the dimensionality in MAC eyeshadows even though their dimensionality was near perfect but the difference is clear in dimension in both photos and real-life). Many independent brands of eyeshadows have created next-level pigmented eyeshadows that could compete with the best of high-end eyeshadows. Nevertheless, MAC's most pigmented eyeshadows, like Amber Lights, are more or less standards to which all new and old eyeshadows to the market are compared.Fourth, MAC eyeshadows are simply stunning. The pure beauty of all these eyeshadows makes them the best-in-class (e.g. matte/frost finishes) and best-in-category (e.g. browns). Fifth, endless options truly set them apart. MAC eyeshadows, like most do, require proper technique to blend and some basic knowledge of how to do eyeshadow for more complex looks but overall MAC single eyeshadows do look good also placed a little on the lid with a little eyeliner and mascara. Placing a hint of Wedge or Satin Taupe on the lid, for example, is thus easy for the beginner or for someone rushing out the door. This will of course look beautiful and will adhere to the lids wonderfully, as compared to other eyeshadows, to where it will look quite natural and effortless. After many, many years and experience with a variety of formulas, MAC eyeshadows stand as a classic in pure beauty in photos and real life, blendability, dimensionality, richness, pigmentation, long-lasting wear, superior texture and consistency, variety and versatility.... Show more
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originally posted on influenster.com