Recommend some tried and trusted MAC eyeshadow combinations

radha

Up to recently I have just used cheaper high street brands but now want to branch out and experiment with MAC or similar good brands.

I'm finding it so hard to choose as they have such a huge range of shades and I don't want to make any expensive mistakes.

I have green eyes, fair skin and dark brown hair so I'm looking for suggestions to suit my colouring in the purples or bronzy shades. I only want two to three colours within these to start with and am looking for suggestions of tried and trusted combos. I have searched the internet and there are as many opinions as shades and often combinations are recommended only to find out they have been discontinued.

Any thoughts?

Many thanks

LivingDeadGirl

I have very similar colouring to you. For my first MAC eyeshadows I chose Yogurt (lid colour) and Quarry (crease colour). They both have pink/purple undertones which will bring out the green in your eyes. Blackberry is a darker version of quarry if you wanted to get another shadow for greater definition (outer crease area and lash line). For highlight shades, my favourites are Vanilla, Shroom and Solar White, though Solar White is discontinued. I could go on about MAC eyeshadows all day.

radha

Excellent. That's the kind of info I'm looking for. Have you ever bought any of the quads or is it better to buy singles. They don't seem to have many quads and one or two of the shades look a bit too risky. Also I'm not looking for any funky electric colours just some nice basics to start with.

Pythia

radha wrote: »

Excellent. That's the kind of info I'm looking for. Have you ever bought any of the quads or is it better to buy singles. They don't seem to have many quads and one or two of the shades look a bit too risky. Also I'm not looking for any funky electric colours just some nice basics to start with.

You can make your own quads if you buy in BTs in Dublin. It's great cos once you build a collection you can swap different shadows in and out of the various quads for carrying around in your make up bag. Have you seen www.specktra.net? It's a dedicated Mac forum with loads of helpful info on it.

LivingDeadGirl

radha wrote: »

Excellent. That's the kind of info I'm looking for. Have you ever bought any of the quads or is it better to buy singles. They don't seem to have many quads and one or two of the shades look a bit too risky. Also I'm not looking for any funky electric colours just some nice basics to start with.

I've never bought a quad no. I live in Cork and the MAC counter here doesn't give the option of making your own quads. I've never bought one of the made up ones either as there was always at least one colour I thought was very 'meh,' or else I didn't like the finishes. In fairness to MAC, they have a great selection of basics as well as brights, so you shouldn't have any problems there. In fact you'll be spoilt for choice! I'll throw up a few more combinations if you like?

radha

Yes please, LDG, go ahead and any recommendations for the browny shades. Also I'm a complete novice. I've nearly always stuck to one block of colour and now I realise that's been sooo boring when there's sooo much choice. So if you could recommend which shade for the different uses *searches for embarassment smiley*

I'm lucky I have always had pretty good skin so never bothered with a huge amount of makeup so I'm a bit of a late-comer to just having fun with makeup. I'm really enjoying watching Pixiwoo as the girls have the exact same colouring as myself and they're uber cool

slowmoe

mac eyeshadows are 15 euro each so if you're buying 2-3 you will be spending 30-45 euro. for 40 euro you can have a make up demo done by a mac rep and they will show you the combinations of eyeshadows and make some recommendations based on your colouring and what you want, you get the 40 back against products. just my 2c but if you're spending the money anyway i would do that

LivingDeadGirl

Hmmm well a tried and tested simple look for me would be Vanilla (lid colour) and Wedge (crease colour). I find this really good for just defining the shape of your eyes; it looks very clean and simple. This is also a good basic pin up look, all you have to add is some winger eyeliner and you have the essence of that 40s/50s look.
Pixiwoo are right on the money! Sam raved about Club eyeshadow in one of her videos, so I picked it up. I think it's my favourite MAC eyeshadow that I own! It's a reddish brown with a green reflect, totally unique colour. It's an eyeshadow you can use by itself (or with a coloured base for more impact) that looks like several because of the reflect and how the light hits your eyes at different angles. It really is gorgeous. I'll link you to that video as Sam explains it much better than I can.

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=XKzY4RDCL0s&playnext_from=TL&videos=DgZE04Nk2fI

squeakyduck

radha wrote: »

Yes please, LDG, go ahead and any recommendations for the browny shades.

I was in America about 2 years ago and my friend had a load of mac products which she just let me loose on to keep. One of my haul was a duo eyeshadow of "family silver" mineralize eyeshadow. One is a lovely brown with some little bits of copper in it. I have blue eyes and I always get compliments on it! The other color is a white silvery color again lovely on the lids but also makes a gorgeous highlighter for the brow bone or on the tear ducts to open your eyes. The colors are so natural that if they crease its not noticeable.

Last week I also got a call about mac palettes on the cheap. I got 3 palettes for 10e each. I gave one to my friend but I have a lovely black palette (MAC CREAM) with a wide variety of colors, but the other palette is gorgeous because it has a leopard print cover. Its got sandy colors on one side and dark greys and blacks on the other.

Their staying power is amazing, but like all eye shadows it does crease after a while. I am also on a hunt for a good eye shadow primer that is not too expensive. I loved urban decay, but my god it's so expensive! I just looked up eyeshadow primer on the mac website $16.50 so thats like €12! How much is it in the Mac store on grafton street does anyone know? Would any of ye girls recommend it?

LivingDeadGirl

squeakyduck wrote: »

I was in America about 2 years ago and my friend had a load of mac products which she just let me loose on to keep. One of my haul was a duo eyeshadow of "family silver" mineralize eyeshadow. One is a lovely brown with some little bits of copper in it. I have blue eyes and I always get compliments on it! The other color is a white silvery color again lovely on the lids but also makes a gorgeous highlighter for the brow bone or on the tear ducts to open your eyes. The colors are so natural that if they crease its not noticeable.

Last week I also got a call about mac palettes on the cheap. I got 3 palettes for 10e each. I gave one to my friend but I have a lovely black palette (MAC CREAM) with a wide variety of colors, but the other palette is gorgeous because it has a leopard print cover. Its got sandy colors on one side and dark greys and blacks on the other.

Their staying power is amazing, but like all eye shadows it does crease after a while. I am also on a hunt for a good eye shadow primer that is not too expensive. I loved urban decay, but my god it's so expensive! I just looked up eyeshadow primer on the mac website $16.50 so thats like €12! How much is it in the Mac store on grafton street does anyone know? Would any of ye girls recommend it?

Sorry to more than likely be the bearer of bad news but I seriously doubt those palettes are legit. There are an awful lot of fakes going around, and seeing as you 'got a call' about them, they are more than likely fake. The only cream eyeshadows I'm aware of MAC producing were the Metal X single eyeshadows a few years ago and of course their Paintpots and Paints, which are again in single form. I just googled MAC cream eyeshadow palette to be doubly sure, and all the image results were fakes.

squeakyduck

Yeah, I couldn't find a picture of the palettes on the internet. But, even if they are fake, I do enjoy the looks of envy from girls when they see the name on the cover! It's very enjoyable!

Who knew a tenner could give me so much joy?!