Makeup Geek: Better Than Mac Eyeshadows?
There has been a lot of hype in the beauty community about Makeup Geek eyeshadows — some claim that they are better than Mac eyeshadows, which seems to be the golden standard when it comes to makeup. I wanted to see what all of the hype was about so I placed an order for four Makeup Geek eyeshadows — Peach Smoothie, Creme Brulee, Frappe and Chickadee. All of these shades are matte.
Peach Smoothie: This is a light peach colour that I like to use as a transition shade. Out of all of the Makeup Geek eyeshadows, this is the least pigmented and the most powdery shadow. It also isn’t as smooth as the other eyeshadows.
Creme Brulee: A warm mid-toned brown shade that is unlike anything that I have in my collection similar to Mac Texture (I thought this was unique at first, but these are very close in colour). It has decent colour pay-off and looks really nice in the crease when you’re doing a warm-toned eyeshadow look.
Frappe: A warm medium brown colour that is a couple of shades darker than Creme Brulee. This is a pretty colour that pairs nicely with Creme Brulee. The pigmentation of this shade is average.
Chickadee: This is a mustard colour that is very unlike any shade that I own. I was drawn to this shade because it is said to be a dupe for Mac Rule, which I own and is one of my favourite eyeshadows. However, I don’t think they look anything alike!
It is pretty clear that these two colours are definitely not dupes. Mac Rule is a muted orange, whereas Makeup Geek Chickadee leans very yellow.
Overall Thoughts
I really want to like Makeup Geek eyeshadows, but as far as pigmentation goes, I think they fall short in comparison to other brands like Mac, Urban Decay and Inglot. It took me about four swatches to get the colour to show up in these photos, whereas Mac Rule (which is also a matte eyeshadow) took only two swatches. I did not use primer for any of these swatches, which may explain why it took a lot of layers to get the colours to be pigmented.
However, two things I really like about Makeup Geek eyeshadows are the colour selection and the price point. Makeup Geek has really warm eyeshadow colours that many brands do not carry. In terms of price, each Makeup Geek eyeshadow costed me about $6.50 CAD (versus $12 CAD for a Mac eyeshadow), but I also had to pay for shipping as well. Despite that, it still did end up being cheaper than buying 4 Mac eyeshadows.
So is Makeup Geek worth the hype? Are they better than Mac eyeshadows? I still see myself reaching for my Mac eyeshadows more. But I did only purchase matte eyeshadows, so this could be an unfair review, since I only have one Mac matte eyeshadow to compare these Makeup Geek matte eyeshadows to. I think if you’re an eyeshadow hoarder junkie, these are definitely worth trying out. If there’s an eyeshadow shade that you’ve always wanted to try, but never wanted to spend a lot of money on it, I think you would be satisfied with purchasing the colour from Makeup Geek.
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