Sneak Peek: MAC Nordstrom's Finest Eyeshadow Palette Photos & Swatches
MAC Nordstrom’s Finest Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Nordstrom’s Finest Eyeshadow Palette ($85.00 for 0.68 oz.) includes fifteen eyeshadows, with each being full-sized (the palette is the same size as the empty 15-pan palettes MAC sells). The palette contains an assortment of permanent shades as well as limited edition/exclusive shades, though some of the shades in this palette that may seem new were released in the Gravitas palette, which was limited edition (Soft Brown, Luscious, Carbon, Persuade, Plummed are repeats). I believe only Chains of Love and Felt haven’t been released before (based on my log of MAC eyeshadows). Full review soon(ish)!
See more photos & swatches!
MAC Nordstrom’s Finest Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Nordstrom’s Finest Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Beaded Eyeshadow
MAC Beaded Eyeshadow
MAC Goldmine Eyeshadow
MAC Goldmine Eyeshadow
MAC Chains of Love Eyeshadow
MAC Chains of Love Eyeshadow
MAC Cork Eyeshadow
MAC Cork Eyeshadow
MAC Persuade Eyeshadow
MAC Persuade Eyeshadow
MAC Retrospeck Eyeshadow
MAC Retrospeck Eyeshadow
MAC Greensmoke Eyeshadow
MAC Greensmoke Eyeshadow
MAC Felt Eyeshadow
MAC Felt Eyeshadow
MAC Print Eyeshadow
MAC Print Eyeshadow
MAC Carbon Eyeshadow
MAC Carbon Eyeshadow
MAC Orb Eyeshadow
MAC Orb Eyeshadow
MAC Luscious Eyeshadow
MAC Luscious Eyeshadow
MAC Soft Brown Eyeshadow
MAC Soft Brown Eyeshadow
MAC Trax Eyeshadow
MAC Trax Eyeshadow
MAC Plummed Eyeshadow
MAC Plummed Eyeshadow
And so begins the carbon comments.
Not the worst Carbon (believe it or not…) but far from great.
You should do a blogpost comparing all the Mac Carbons for next April Fools or something.
Also I may have just imagined this, but didn’t they actually release a half decent Carbon in a palette sometime not so long ago?
Haha, I was just about to do that myself. The terrible carbon swatches are almost charming at this point.
Lol yes!
Yep, I was about to say the same.
😀 😀 😀
::chuckle:: I was going to make one, but to avoid being predictable, I will say that I wish Trax was a better performer.
I have 5-6 pans of Carbon, and if I use the Real Techniques Shading Brush, Carbon is one of the best blacks that I own, and I own somewhere in the range of 20…
Without fail it’s hilariously bad every time
“Please don’t hate on the Carbon!” said Mr. Wimple!
These actually look better than I expected (except for Carbon, of course). I still wouldn’t buy it – MAC just doesn’t do it for me anymore.
Print looks great and kind of eliminates the need for Carbon. Most of the shades look good. I wonder if you could replace the duds with your own pans.
The pans don’t come out 🙁 They haven’t in the other three pre-made 15-pans I have! (This one is a press sample without any labeling at all, so I can’t tell from mine specifically –feel more confident going off of what I’ve purchased.)
Yeah, these palettes tend to be glued in but there is nothing stopping you from prying carbon out as glue in a sheet magnet. lol
Thanks for sharing swatches – I actually don’t own any of these shades!
I wish MAC would stop including carbon in everything. Otherwise, the palette seems really nice but it seems like Nordstrom doesn’t ship it outside of the U.S.
Are you in Canada? If you are, I called Nordstrom when their first Mac x Nordstrom exclusive palette launched to see if they had it and if they could ship it to me as the store was a few cities away. They processed my payment over the phone and shipped it to me for free. I believe they can ship it anywhere in Canada for free if you call the store. I’m doing that with this palette again. But I’m not sure about other countries though.
Yes I’m in Canada and that is awesome! Thanks so much for the tip!! 😀
This looks promising, but I was not impressed with the quality of the Nordstrom Naturals palette.
Do you find that these pallettes are the same quality as the individual MAC eyeshadows? I just blindly bought the MAC warm and cool neutral palettes from Nordstrom, so I was just curious.
I’m still testing this one, but in general, the 15-pan MAC palettes have been pretty good. I would say consistent with their permanent/individual line – so not every one is a winner (ahem, Carbon), but for the most part, they’re decent to good. I reviewed the warm/cool palettes previously so you can check those if you are curious 🙂
Thank you, Christine!
I keep looking at this on the Nordstrom site but haven’t yet pulled the trigger and bought it. I have the other Nordstrom exclusive neutrals palette, and it’s lovely. This one looks way too yellow, but since I haven’t seen it in person, perhaps that is only the photo looking so warm? It also seems like a really odd color collection. All the colors I like (Print, Trax, Plummed) don’t look like they belong here. I will be eagerly awaiting your review to decide if it’s worth the $85.
Disappointed in greensmoke.
Same here. I have the Pro pan single of Greensmoke, and it looks a thousand times better than this does! This version just looks sad.
I’m so excited for this to come in the mail any day now! I’m just building my Mac collection now and I don’t have many of these colors. It a lot of them seem to.have swatched well. Still looking forward to your review. The last Mac x Nordstrom palette was a good set too and I enjoyed using it.
This palette was getting a lot of attention at the Nordstrom sale.
Christine, is luscious a color u can buy separately?
I was excited about the colors from the look in the pan, but after seeing your swatches this leans wayyy to warm toned for me. My wallet is happy!
Looks like another mixed bag here, some nice looking colors but also some that look dry or faded. I wonder if Greensmoke and Trax look better as singles
Greensmoke sure does! Trax, Idk about though…
This actually looks like a rather good palette by MAC, for once. With the exception of Trax, which is a mess as a single too imo, and Carbon, well… Someone should start an online petition for the ban of Carbon from future MAC launches!
Too warm for me!
I’m interested in the review. But, in my mind, I am already passing. I can dupe the neutrals and the two purple shades with MUFE artist shadows that I already own and I am trying to buy some Viseart Palettes. I just have never had much luck with Mac shadows. I think they are just pressed harder than what I prefer maybe. Maybe, since my skin is more on the dry side?IDK. Nice sized palette and I like the mostly neutral and the pops of color would be perfect for me for fall. But, I must be strong! 🙂
After my *initial* excitement for this very nice looking palette waned just a bit, I started to look at it more objectively…and it would seem that when I look at what I do already own, I probably in all likelihood have dupes that are in my stash and don’t even know it! I am so sorry MAC e/s’s don’t work for you, maybe my oil-well lids are why I usually don’t have problems with them. The palettes this year, I’m tellin ya!
Lol ,Nancy..I hear ya..I am sure the Holiday collections will put adequate dents in our wallets. Honesty, I got tired of pallets with half of them being let downs that I just started doing build my own z-palettes with mufe as much as I can. The formula just works for me. Some of Mac’s shadows do with primer.I own a few that I purchased after a good review. I really like Greensmoke and Luscious in this palette and those would be some off hand I can’t completely dupe to a T. But, the Carbon- what? And to me an $85 palette needs to be A material.
Carbon looks even weaker than if I took a piece of charcoal briquette to my skin, LoL! Yep, I customize as much as I can, 90% or more of my MAC e/s’s I individually picked and put into e.l.f. empty quads. I am thinking about saving for 2 Visart palettes: Paris Nude and Dark Mattes. And definitely getting 2 MUFE trios of shades I really love.
Hmm..Elf empty quads sounds less expensive than z palettes.. I will have I to investigate, thanks for the tip Nancy!
YW, Nicole! E.l.f. has them on clearance now for 49 cents a pop, I have 3 being shipped to me now, supposed to be here tomorrow. I already filled 7 quads over the past several years. But there’s a few more I love! And a few MUG shadows I have my eye on.
Agree! $85 better have a great color combo and be great quality.
I’ve been buying MAC eyeshadows for so many years that it’s a default response to load up my cart with anything new that comes out. I have it in my cart and I like (most of) the swatches so far, so now it’s just a matter of how they perform.
Actually, no. No it isn’t. I’m going to buy it anyway but I still want to see the review! :-/
I am loving the color selection for this palette, reminds me of the warm neutral palette but more on the brown/green/ yellow spectrum. Also, the colors oddly match. BUT I don’t see the need for Trax/Plummed in the same palette.
That being said, yes you can depot these 15x palette. Took me a while to figure it out, but I depotted my MAC warm neutral palette with a huge 1 wick candle. I used a tiny screwdriver to pull the back of the palette apart by putting the screwdriver between the seams and then warming each individual slot and poking it out of it’s spot with a thick knife, then putting a magnet on the back of each color. Got all 15 colors out, but I want to sell two (unwind and gingersnap, great pigmentation, but I don’t like pink or green shadows on my nc42 skintone).
I don’t know why MAC can’t make it easier to depot their “potted” products. Surely they know just how many people do this and how many others would if it were easier. They should take a leaf from Sephora’s book (or the other companies who make this a simpler process).
Even though I already own Orb (almost hitting pan!), Soft Brown and Greensmoke, I am very into this palette! Truly digging it! Weird though, that the Greensmoke in this palette looks so pathetic compared to my permanent Pro pan of it? I wonder what happened there? On the other hand, Trax looks somewhat better than the permanent one. All in all, I do want this one, but don’t know how long it’ll be around though.
Orb (along with Quarry) was the very first MAC eyeshadow I ever bought!
I have Trax, which I bought *years* ago, and have no issues with it. The one here, however, looks dreadful in comparison!
I love the color Trax is *supposed* to be, but even when I swatched it at MAC, it just seemed dry. But the one that Smashbox offers in a trio swatches way richer in pigment. It’s weird!
I really wish they would freakin BAN that dreadful Carbon…like dnt even give it the satisfaction of placing it on the “goodbye” list but straight to the endless pits of the black hole! Come ooooon mac…reformulate or something cuz anytime I see or hear Carbon I cringe >:<
Well, rather than comment on Crummy Carbon, can I just say something about Ghastly Greensmoke (sorry, I’m in a silly mood). I have it as a single and like it despite its crummy Lustre qualities – lousy pigmentation, patchy application, glitter that goes somewhere but not on my lids! But the Greensmoke in this palette looks even WORSE! And looking at the fallout all over the palette around some of the shadows….that’s something that would put me off even if I could purchase this palette and didn’t already have close to half the shadows in it. I love the look of Persuade, though, and will be eager to read the Dupes for it.
Persuade was in Gravitas, so you can probably get some ideas starting with Christine’s review of that one! HTH
Also, Gravitas tends to pop up on eBay pretty regularly, and at a fairly reasonable price ( especially considering the Canadian retail price!), so that may be a good place to check (or Amazon).
Amy thanks so much for that info. I didn’t realize that Persuade had been released before so there are dupes listed at Temptalia. Turns out I have 3 or 4 dupes so I don’t have to fret too much. I’m not willing to purchase makeup off eBay – too many fakes, too much hassle but knowing I have several dupes is nice.
It almost looks like sparkles in the palette though, to me, not fallout. I wonder if they make different packaging for the press samples.
I was thinking of getting Greensmoke as a single, but thanks for saving me $
The single I have looks great, like way nicer than this one by a million!
This is a very pretty palette. I like the colors. I wish Trax were better, though. (Insert disparaging Carbon comment here.)
Man, I was planning on buying Greensmoke and Trax (and a few others in here), so I was pretty interested in this palette, but after seeing those two swatched… maybe not! Are they both this dry as singles too?! Better dupes?
i was excited about this palette (i didn’t know about it!) but after the swatches idk…i’m not too excited anymore 🙁 i think i’ve been spoiled by saucebox & KVD shadows
Felt was the only one that caught my attention, based on the description, but it’s really quite “brown”, and doesn’t seem so unique… I have all the permanent shades, plus the Gravitas palette, so this is definitely an easy skip for me; however, for anyone who missed out on Gravitas, this seems like a great alternative!
I am thinking that MAC can’t do matt anymore – all the matt shades look very average. Some of the shimmer shades are nice, but oh so dupable. The only interesting colour was greensmoke and that swatched poorly.
Apart from Carbon this all looks really good to me!
I’m glad I’m not the only one talking about how Carbon looks in this palette. You would think that MAC would notice everyone’s complaints about Carbon’s quality in palettes over the years. Do they even read the reviews and/or complaints? I hope they do something about it. It used to be the best black eyeshadow on the market (too long ago), but now it’s terrible!
I don’t know… there doesn’t seem to be a lot of cohesion here. Pass.
What is with MAC and Carbon!? Grrrr. They have so many other colors for these palettes. The sad thing is, the Carbon that I have is from 1999. Yup, I still have it. It’s a deep, dark, rich, smooth black. They need to either reformulate or get rid of it. Seems like the batches now keep getting worse in quality. Don’t think I’ll be grabing this palette. Sigh.
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