MAC Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette Review, Photos, Swatches
MAC Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Ice Parade: Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette ($38.00 for 0.21 oz.) is a limited edition holiday compact that features six eyeshadows: Snowball (frost white), Illegal Cargo (pale lavender), Idol Eyes (silvered violet with gold), Warm & Smoky (medium purple), Howzat (slate), and Set to Dance (dark royal blue). The MAC Ice Parade Collection launches October 27th, 2011 in-stores.
- Snowball is a cool-toned white with a shimmery finish. It has a frost finish. The color payoff of this shade was lacking; it was sheer and didn’t apply smoothly. There are many other white eyeshadows that could work instead.
- Illegal Cargo is a medium-dark, smoky purple with really poor pigmentation and a dry, stiff texture. It has a frost finish. MAC Parfait Amour is more vibrant and pigmented. Estee Lauder Untamed Violet is closer in color but more pigmented.
- Idol Eyes is an ultra sheer smoky purple with chunky gold shimmer and silver flecks. It has a lustre finish and is part of the permanent range. MAC Parlor Smoke is similar in the base color but doesn’t have the gold sparkle. I don’t like Idol Eyes, because it’s sheer, chunky, and when worn, results in a ton of fall out.
- Warm & Smoky is a rich, vibrant violet purple with good color payoff and a smooth texture. It has a veluxe pearl finish. It has a redder undertone than MAC Parfait Amour. Urban Decay Frigid is similar. MAC Grape pigment might be comparable as well.
- Howzat is a purple-tinted gray with so-so pigmentation but a smoother texture. It has a satin finish and is a repromote. MAC Moody is darker, while NARS Delphes is lighter.
- Set to Dance is a deep purple-tinted burgundy-brown. It has a matte finish and is a repromote. I have no idea how it’s described as a “royal blue,” because I couldn’t detect any blue in it at all. It had good color payoff and was rather workable for a matte finish by MAC. MAC Celestial Black is similar in base color but has shimmer. MAC Beauty Marked is redder and warmer.
For the past few years, I’ve crossed my fingers that MAC has taken note of reviews and customer feedback on their holiday palettes and amped up the quality and pigmentation of the shades they include in their eyeshadow palettes. They stand to be such a good deal with fun, pretty colors that are fun to receive or to give. I know because I remember my first set of holiday palettes by MAC; they were fantastic. Some of my favorite shades came from them–they were often better than permanent variations!
Two of the six shades had decent to good color payoff, while the other four were sheerer, and often, textures were a miss–either dry or chunky (see individual shades for specifics!). MAC can–and should–do better. It’s so painful for me to have paid $38.00 for this and have it be so lacking.
The packaging is all white with a “snowglobe” on the top of the compact. It will rain silver glitter (“snow”) if you shake and move the compact. I think it’s cute and fun, but I can’t help but point out that it makes the palette bulkier and harder to store (you can’t stack them).
MAC Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette Review, Photos, Swatches
MAC Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Cool Snowglobe Eyeshadow Palette
MAC Snowball Eyeshadow
MAC Illegal Cargo Eyeshadow
MAC Idol Eyes Eyeshadow
MAC Warm & Smoky Eyeshadow
MAC Howzat Eyeshadow
MAC Set to Dance Eyeshadow
Oh wow 🙁 Hope you return it! $38 is better spend elsewhere!
Reading your review and my stomach dropped. I’m so sad right now. I mean no harm but I seriously am wanting the one you got to have been a random mishap, but I’m doubting it will be.
Aw, C…mine is on the way, and I’m so bummed right now. =(
Wow, MAC has been really disappointing lately. I’m not the fan I once was.
The colors look very generic. I hope you return it and get your money back. :-/
This is seriously unacceptable. MAC, please, stop releasing 50 shitty collections a year and start releasing 10 amazing ones. Seriously, we won’t be mad that there’s no new MAC collection to buy every other day. Nobody will forget about you, I promise.
Oh, what a letdown! These colors looked gorgeous in the pans but the pay-off is just not there…
What garbage. I hope you take it back so you can use that money to review other products, because you obviously won’t be using it. I’m so over MAC.
What a shame….the colors are so pretty, but yes, I can see something similar by wet and wild being better quality and waaaaay cheaper (and I’m a high end brand junkie, so don’t give me the “you get what you pay for” spiel lol)
Thanks for the review Chritine! I’m SO confused about the colour Illegal Cargo. I own it (depotted into my 15 palette) and it’s a beautiful lighter purple with a hint of taupe shade that has great pigmentation. Was this a repromote? If so, it’s a different colour completely! So sad, mine is one of my favourite shades.
Definitely different – on occasion, MAC will reuse a name and either not realize or not care that it was used before!
that is so odd! they’re tainting the name of my beloved shadow by introducing it’s inferior sister, lol!
and my apologies for spelling your name incorrectly above!
Exactly what I was going to say! That looks nothing like Illegal Cargo – not just in quality but in color also. How disappointing, because the original Illegal Cargo is a beautiful shade!
Christine you really are amazing for spending your money in such a terrible product just for the sake of the review, i really appreciated it. this helps a lot, i won’t be buying this for sure.
What a shame about Illegal Cargo! I have it in a pot from the Naughty Nauticals collection and it’s soooo smooth and dreamy.
This collection is looking like a skip for me – I’ll save my money for picking up some of the Chanel and YSL offerings.
What do you think about the brush that comes in this compact? Is it too big, scratchy or not useful?
Haha, scratchy and tiny!
Warm and Smoky and Set to Dance are great!!!! But the rest really really suck
Awww, I feel sad that yours swatched so poorly. I ordered mine before seeing this review, and it arrived today.
Mine swatched really nicely! I got scared when I saw your review, and then mine was delivered. Had I seen the review beforehand, I probably would have skipped, but I’m glad things worked out the way they did.
It’s the glitter-boob palettes for christmas! For those who like sparkle in their saline! That doesn’t look like any snowglobe I’ve ever seen….
Wow, I love a good purple palette, and this doesn’t even tempt me a bit. :-/ It’s really discouraging how bad some of these palettes are. I’m plenty willing to shell out for a quality item, so seeing this complete lack of respect for customers is just overall disappointing.
For the 427 leaving it look at julieg on youtube she is wearing this palette in her haul omg <3 beautiful
I definitely recommend looking at these palettes in person. The tester at my local MAC had good payoff, so I took the chance and picked it up. My palette is perfect and the colors are gorgeous! I’m definitely picky about holiday sets from MAC. I think some batches of the products come out good and others, not so much.
I’m so disappointed that this Illegal Cargo looks NOTHING like the Illegal Cargo previously launched with Naughty Nauticals. Christine, do you know of any dupes for the first Illegal Cargo e/s? Btw, thank you so much for everything you do on here I swear I have been on here for hours daily lately! LOL!