8 Must-Have MAC Pigments
8 Must-Have MAC (Consumer) Pigments
About the Temptalia Must-Haves Series
A series of posts showcasing must-have products from MAC Cosmetics’ permanent line of products. Selections are based on quality, universality, uniqueness amongst the line, and the like. Limited edition shades are deliberately excluded to make buying easier. Readers’ comments act as a supplement to these lists of their favorites and must-haves. You can find the entire series here.
Old Gold pigment is a stunning combination of yellowed green and green-gold mixed together. It’s an interesting mix of green and gold with a little bit of brown. This is a particularly good pigment for those with warmer tones in their skin.
Teal pigment is exactly as it is named — teal. It’s pigmented, smooth, and looks rich on eyes.
Golden Lemon pigment is a bright pop of yellow gold with lots of frost in its finish. It’s not necessarily a product for those who don’t love shimmer/frost in their eye products, but it is one of the best bases to use for gold, orange, and red eyeshadows.
Golden Olive pigment is a gorgeous soft, olive green. It’s smooth in texture, rich in color pay off, and feels soft. If you wear green eyeshdaow often, tihs is an absolute must.
See four more must-have pigments!
Melon pigment is a sunny, peachy-pink combination that can be worn alone, as a base, or to highlight.
Pink Opal pigment is perfect for highlighting and accenting the face, lips, or eyes. It’s one of the most versatile pigment shades, and definitely a favorite of mine.
Violet pigment is a beautiful shade of rich, medium-to-dark purple. It’s not too cool, not too warm–almost neutral–so it is great for all skin tones. Like the other pigments on this list, the product is pigmented and smooth to the touch.]
Vanilla or Naked pigments are superb highlighter/neutral shades to have in your pigment collection. Vanilla tends to work better on cooler skin tones, while Naked works on all skin tones, but it can lean just a touch warm.
Note: This list only considers consumer pigments, so it does not include PRO-only pigments. (There is a separate list for PRO-only pigments.)
I love Naked (h/l) and Kelly 🙂
Another Saira – I’ve not met many other people with the same name! I only just met another Saira for the first time a couple of weeks ago!
Kelly Green is a fave!
I have JardinAires and love it!
I do too!! I love it, but so sad they dont sell it at my local MAC store ;(
Booo!
It’s a great shade!
Omg I love most of those pigments but golden lemon is too chunky but I love how soft and velvety some are like teal
Aww! I find it is a bit on the chunky side, but the color makes up for it 🙂
My favorite MAC pigments are Rose Gold, Gold, Deep Blue Green, Reflects Antique Gold and Reflects Bronze.
Reflects aren’t meant to be used as pigments, are they?
Well, they’re multiuse products, like pigments, but they’re not eye safe, so not to be used on the eyes.
Rose Gold is stunning! Reflects Antique Gold is another fave, if only it were eye safe.
i recently just started to like MAC Pigments again. I have jotted down your list. Thanks!
Which have you started to acquire again or use again, Jojoba?
I’d like to give a shout-out for Tan~~ this is a really under-rated neutral for blue-eyed makeup lovers or if you cannot handle the richer shades like violet or teal
Shout out to Tan! I totally agree. I use this pigment color a lot & i LOVE it!
Tan is definitely a good, everyday kind of shade!
I really like Old Gold and Pink Bronze pigments. Those two pigments have lots of different tones in them which come out depending on the way the light catches them.
Both are fab! I love the way a lot of pigments are duochromes!
I love melon and pink opal. I love using pink opal on my lips to do a nice pinky lipgloss and i’m definitely loving naked these days :p
I LOVE Pink Opal on lips!
Naked is the BEST!!
How do you love to use it, Shefali?
my go to pigment is “deck chair”… its no longer available but it was oh so pretty and my jar is still nearly full and i’ve had it since 2005 i think. current shades i love are rose and vanilla and melon! mutiny is becoming a new love … need to get me pink opal.
Deckchair was gorgeous for sure! 🙂 I hope they repromote it sometime.
My favorites are generally duochrome
– “Old Gold” (my first pigment!)
– “Blue Brown” (that gorgeous red brown with blue-green reflects! – it’s my big favorite)
– “Steel Blue” (medium blue with gold reflects)
…but I also really love “Violet”. Not a color I thought I could wear because so far from my usual range but surprisingly, it works on me! I’d love to pick “Teal” someday.
As much I adore pigments, there are some I hate: Mutiny (really gorgeous on the jar but awful on me) and Helium (I’m having hard times with pink duochrome).
oh yes i need to add blue brown to my collection! violet is awesome i agree! i use hellium in my tear ducts… I get compliments asking what’s that colour!!! give it a try.
I hope you enjoy ’em!
Steel Blue = Love 🙂
I love the color, but I wish the texture was smoother!
Aww!! I think Teal, Violet, & Golden Lemon were my first pigments 🙂
I live in mauritius and MAC cosmetics are not available in my country 🙁
Do you know an online store where I can order them. The colours are beautiful
🙁 I can only think of a CP in that case! Or ebay…
chartreuse is so pretty :]
Agreed full heartedly, Mary!
My faves are blue brown and tan… I just hate how I have to be so careful so it doesnt get all over the place. But the colors are worth it!!
Aww! The worst is when you knock over a jar 🙁
press ur pigments in a pallet either Mac pallet or I used an old estee lauder eyeshadow palette n saves you from making a mess xx
yuppers and makes them portable by putting them in a quad for touch ups… but with pigments you rarely need to touch up because they have such great staying power if you use a good emollient base. keeps your jars fresher longer too and less chance of contamination – we all want to save $ these days replacing makeup (so we can buy more of course!)
thats such a great idea, thank you!
Hiya,
Actually an easier way to deal with it would be to transfer a small amount of pigment into a jar (MAC sells those little see thru jars or you can use others) and its really easy to use that way. you can use the lids like a little dish to mix with your mixing medium. you also reduce risk of contamination of the whole jar of pigment which will last FOREVER!
I’ve always found that they don’t feel the same when pressed 🙁 I pressed all of mine and then threw them away ’cause I hated them pressed!
Why do you hate them pressed Christine?
The texture changes/it doesn’t work the same. Sometimes the color changes a bit, too. I just much prefer them loose than pressed myself 🙂
I love Gold Mode…such a beautiful and original shade.
Oh yeah, that was a gorgeous LE color!
I have all these except for Old Gold & Pink Opal but Pink Opal is my next purchase, not sure why i haven’t gotten it sooner. It’s a staple. I love Vanilla & use it everyday practically in some form or another. I totally agree with this list. These pigments are definite must-haves!!!
Pink Opal is amazingggggg! You will love it.
Another fave pigment of mine would have to be Fuschia! If you mix Fuschia pigment with Deep Coral pigment (PRO) you get the most beautiful vibrant shimmer peach ever. Love it for summer!
Fuchsia is great! Now you make me one to pick up Dusty Coral!
I have all except:
– Teal (but want)
– Pink Opal (want)
– Golden Olive (really want)
Of all the pigments I own, my faves are:
– Naked
– Dark Soul
– Copperized
– Mauvement
– Clear Blue Sky (PRO)
– Silver (PRO)
– Deep Blue Green
– Milk
– Smoke Signal
– Pink Pearl
– True Chartreuse
– Forest Green
– Helium
– Naval Blue
– Softwash Grey
I know, that’s a lot! 😛
your screen name says it all darling… Macaddict!
Whew, I can see you are a big fan of pigments 🙂
Do you have the super old ones, like Mustard?
Yesterday I was at MAC, and I got three pigment samples (along with the mineralized Blush in Warm Soul and the eye shadow duo in Odd Couple) . . . I was thrilled to read your list when you posted it, because all three samples that I got yesterday are on your Must Have list! I got Vanilla, Violet, and Melon, and I am definitely looking forward to using them 🙂
So glad you were able to get some samples!! You will love them!
Can i ask a maybe stupid question – hope someone answer me.Is NW in MAC -cooler skin tone or warm? I’m guessing W is for Warm but i’m not 100% sure.Thank you
Hey Kim,
NW are for cooler-toned skins in MAC language.
It means that you have a beige/pink undertone vs. a yellow undertone which is classified as an NC.
Hope this helps 🙂
Thank you very much Roxanne 🙂
NW is cool toned.
All the mentioned pigments I have in fullsize, I LOVE them so much. I would add Pink Bronze to the list and Chartreuse is my favorite PRO-pigment.
Awesome!! I am so glad others agree 🙂 Chartreuse is one of my faves, too, but I tend to reach for True Chartreuse more, since it’s matte (and it works so well for me!).
My favs of current line:
Violet
Teal
Golden Olive
Naked
Vanilla
Other favs out of my MAC collex:
Subtle -great go to shade for me
French Violet
Viz A Violet
Quietly
Naval Blue
Blue Storm
Emerald Green
Golder’s Green
Gilded Green
Pastorale
Spiritualize
Antique Green (now Pro only from 2008 rushmetals)
Blonde’s Gold (same as above)
I see you are a GREEN fan 😉
Teal, Golden Lemon, Melon and Golden Olive are the best pigments EVER. I’m very upset that I’m out of melon
You gotta get more Melon!
Sweet Sienna is lovely as well!
I agree!
I think I live for Vanilla pigment, can’t live without it for a look!
lol! I gotta find mine!
I have most of Pigments, but the ones that I use all the time are Gold Dusk (so versatile), Naked, Pink Opal and Your Ladyship. I also love all Overrich pigments, especially Blonde’s Gold, Museum Bronze and Mega Rich!
I wish I had ’em all, LOL! I used to be sooo “collect ’em all” mentality, but I’ve eased up a bit.
my all time favorite is blue brown pigment!
What do you like to wear it with?
I only have a few full sized pigments, but I own probably 30 samples. My fav’s are violet, fairylite, helium(for my lips), golder’s green, white frost. Really all the purples and violets and all the greens are favorites. And I love all the reflects glitters. I get my samples from the body needs. Any other good sites?
Samples are great, though 🙂 Few really NEED full size. Unless you’re weird like me ;P
I’m not sure who sells samples, as I’ve always gotten mine from Livejournal’s MAC_Cosmetics group.
My must-have pigments from MAC (this includes LE, HTF ones too though! LOL) would have to be:
Tan
Sweet Sienna
Old Gold
Vanilla
Coco
Blonde’s Gold
Nice choices 🙂 Love Blonde’s Gold, too!
I don’t own any pigment, but from pictures I’d say that Old Gold is gorgeous 😀
OMG! You must get one soon, Mikki!
the only one i don’t have is pink opal 🙁
GET IT! STAT!
Golden Olive and Vanilla pigments are a must-have! I love them both! I would love to get my hands on Melon, Pink Opal, Teal, Violet, Old Gold and Golden Lemon!
Both are lovely 😀
I remember loving sweet sienna but I havent used it in a really long time
Same!
My current faves are:
Apricot Pink
Violet (Gret together, check it out)
Fuchsia
Grape
Cornflower (only as liner, since it gets messy)
Copperized (stunning dark olive green)
Blue (rebel rock)
White Gold (totally underrated and forgotten)
Chartreuse
Emerald Green (original, not reformulated)
Coco Beach
Platinum
(I have 73 in total, so it is very hard to narrow it down)
Love your list, Julie! Apricot Pink & Blue are two faves!
I have Violet, Teal, Golden Olive, Mutiny, Little Darlings in Warm (Xmas 2008; which came with Melon and others) Deep Blue Green, Dark Soul and Quick Frost. Quick Frost is a fantastic pigment cos its got a really beautiful gold shimmer; i mixed up a little of Dark Soul with Quick Frost and i got a beautiful shimmery dark grey that’s perrrfect for smoky eyes.
My MAC store does not carry that many pigments that are bright colours =(
The holiday pigment sets are great! I think they’re just the right size, though I don’t *love* the container.
i love vanilla, rose, circa plum, and antique green! also love naked, chocolate brown, violet, forest green, steel blue, smoke signal, nocturnal plum, and cornflower!!
Christine, I was just wondering what pigments are your least favorites?
Really chunky textures like Kitschmas!
My favorites are non-pro pigments are Melon, Copper Sparkle, Kitchmas, Old Gold, Pink Bronze, Tan, Teal, and Vanilla! My favorite pigment EVER is Lovely Lily! So glad I have a ton left!
Rose, green-brown, old gold, pink opal.
you need pigment swatches! i cant find any!
rose gold pigment from mac is a favourite of mine, but they discontinued it at pro. is there a dupe for it by anyone do you know??