Lately I’ve been somewhat uninspired by my eyeshadow looks. While I’ve tried switching it up and trying new shapes, colours, and techniques, I’ve typically been using my Urban Decay Naked Palette which despite having a solid range of neutral shades, contains some mediocre formulas. While I still recommend the palette to those looking to splurge on an everyday eyeshadow set, I find some shades to be too glittery, some to have too much fallout, and others to lack pigmentation.

I haven’t used MAC eyeshadows in ages (in fact, I don’t think I even own any anymore!) but I was completely inspired by a beautiful MAC smoky eye look I saw on YouTube (UK makeup artist Tanya Burr’s video). The eyeshadows were buttery smooth, the colour payoff impressive, and the final look simply beautiful. The shades used included some of my favourites from years ago, making me nostalgic!

After trying unsuccessfully to recreate the look using my Naked palette, I bit the bullet and headed over to the MAC website. I chose to create a quad (four-shadow eye palette) with the majority of the colours from the tutorial: Nylon (inner corner highlight), Naked Lunch (lid colour), Satin Taupe (outer corner and lower lash line colour), and Quarry (crease colour). Tanya also used Black Tied eyeshadow, but I have single black eyeshadows I can use for the look (which will also be easy to throw in a makeup bag with the quad for travel). I also figured I could use my face highlight colour as a browbone highlight given the quad lacks one (Nylon is quite bright).

MAC Eyeshadow Quad. Clockwise from top-left: Nylon, Naked Lunch, Quarry, Satin Taupe

MAC Eyeshadow Quad. Clockwise from top-left: Nylon, Naked Lunch, Quarry, Satin Taupe

MAC Eyeshadow in Satin Taupe

MAC Eyeshadows swatched from left to right: Quarry, Satin Taupe, Naked Lunch, Nylon

Around the same time as I saw Tanya’s video, I watched a December Favourites video from Estee (essiebutton), one of my favourite YouTubers. She mentioned putting together a custom eyebrow colour palette which I thought was a brilliant idea! I used to use MAC Charcoal Brown eyeshadow as my brow shade but it is too dark now that my hair is lighter. I’ve been using either the shade Naked from the Naked palette or a combination of Naked and Buck (also from the Naked palette) depending on how strong I want my brows to look.

While the shades work well, it’s a bit of a pain to have to travel with the Naked palette for the sake of one or two shades. I decided to order the same colours Estee has in hers: Omega (beautiful for blondes) and Charcoal Brown (a great shade for brunettes). I did this instead of buying simply Omega since Omega would be too light on its own and having the two together can allow me to mix my perfect shade more easily.

MAC Eyeshadow Duo. Left to right: Omega, Charcoal Brown

MAC Eyeshadows swatched from left to right: Omega, Charcoal Brown

Everything came beautifully packaged, and I just love the new MAC palettes with the clear lids – it makes each one easier to identify. The shadows themselves came individually packaged in small envelopes, with the palettes in cardboard boxes each in a pretty MAC bag with a velcro top and some marketing materials. While these were just small touches, it made unboxing the package feel more exciting and special!

MAC Eyeshadow Duo and Quad

MAC Custom Palette Packaging

To build your custom palette on MAC’s website, click here.

What is your favourite eyeshadow palette?