MAC Eyeshadow Tutorial
Gone are the days where MAC eyeshadows are the holy grail, most talked about product of the beauty gurus. At least as far as I’m concerned, anyway. There’s been so many more products introduced into the market since MAC’s golden years and since then, they’ve seemed to fade to the back. I had never bought into the hype, but obviously jumped on it when they dropped their prices. As you might have read in my full review of these shadows (posted 2 years ago!), they’re just kinda okay. I can see why people have moved on. Regardless, they are still somewhat popular and the shades I have just happen to make a perfect Spring eyeshadow look!
In this tutorial, I tried to use as many products in my February Boxycharm as possible. I love taking those products every month and challenging myself! So to start, I’m using the Cover FX Shimmer Veil in the shade Amethyst. I believe they market this as a multipurpose product, but my favorite way to use it is as an eyeshadow primer. It really helps keep the shadows in place on my oily lids and intensifies the colors I put on top.
The first MAC single eyeshadow that I’ll be using is Soft Brown. I took this on a Morphe MB23 blending brush and placed that as a light transition shade into my outer corner and crease area. All of these MAC shadows that I’ll be using are all pretty light in pigmentation so you will have to build them up a little bit, but there’s no concerns of overdoing it! Or you could obviously use similar shades that you already have in your collection to achieve the same effect.
Then I took the shade called Quarry on a slightly more dense blending brush from the Sephora Collection and placed that in the same area as Soft Brown. Both of these colors are very muted, which is what I think makes them great for Spring eyeshadow! Once I had the pigmentation built up, I took the middle sized brush from the Crown Brush set (another Boxycharm product) and tried blending it out with that. I was able to get it to work, but it’s a little too big for my eyes and slightly too dense. This brush is better for blending in concealer or a really precise contour.
For the eyelid shade, I’m taking All That Glitters and placing that over the inner half of my lid. I packed it on with my finger first and then blended it out with the small shader brush from that Crown Brush set. It’s a nice brush, especially for this purpose, but the light color makes it difficult to see how much product you have picked up on the bristles.
All That Glitters wasn’t providing enough glitter for my liking, so I had to bring in one of my favorite Makeup Geek foiled eyeshadows in the shade Starry Eyed. This is very similar in color, but provides so much more pigment and shimmer. All That Glitters is kind of a regret purchase for me and I remembered that as soon as I applied it. Thankfully, a few taps of Starry Eyed fixed everything!
Because it was such a light-toned look, I did decide to take a little bit of Quarry underneath the lower lashes. This helped to deepen the look and draw more attention to the eyes. Depending on your eye shape, you can make this as modest or as dramatic as you want.
This probably goes without saying by now, but obviously the next step is to brighten the very inner corner the eyes with my favorite Ulta single eyeshadow in the shade Naked. I use this every single time I do my makeup and it’s kinda sad to see me hitting pan for the second time already!
Usually I’d go in with an eggplant colored eyeliner to match the pinks and purples of this look, but instead I’m taking the Vintage Cosmetics Smokey Eye Pencil in the shade Jet Black and placing that halfway along both the upper and lower lashes. This has got to be the smoothest, most pigmented pencil liner I’ve ever used! Then I used a black Ofra single eyeshadow to set it in place and soften the line.
I added three coats of the Tarte Tarteist Lash Paint mascara and called it quits. This is a more natural look, so it’s not something that I would typically think to pair falsies with but you do what makes you comfortable. This mascara is intense, though, so keep that in mind!
Here’s a close-up of the final look:
And a quick, more condensed guide recapping every step for easy reference:
Once the eyes were done, I dipped into the Ofra blush pan (included in the Boxycharm box) and applied that with the last brush from the Crown Brush Set. This one is marketed towards blush application and although it is very soft, I have to say it’s not my favorite for blush just because the tapered top of it makes it a little more difficult to blend. I think it might be better for bronzer or a light dusting of powder around the T-Zone. The blush is beautiful, I just wish I knew what shade it is!! Ofra really needs to take after MAC and Makeup Geek and include the shade name on the back of the pan.
I didn’t exactly know how this look was going to turn out when I started it and I was honestly a little worried when I saw how light the colors were, especially All That Glitters! I know that’s one of their most popular shades, I just don’t get it. But I think it all came together after adding eyeliner, mascara, and blush. It’s amazing what those few final steps can do!
If you enjoyed this tutorial, please feel free to share it using one of the buttons below. If you recreate this look or get inspired to do something similar, don’t forget to tag me on social media! Links are at the bottom of the post. Do you still use MAC eyeshadows? What’s your favorite Spring makeup look?
~Christina~
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