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Build a Quad: "Purple Shock"

Build a Quad: “Purple Shock”

Rich in purples, Purple Shock is a mix of cool-toned, blue-based purples and a more red-toned fuchsia purple to give it a little more oomph, a little something extra. Featured in the quad are MAC Parfait Amour eyeshadow (a cool-toned medium purple frost), MAC Stars ‘n Rockets eyeshadow (a fuchsia-purple with a icy purple sheen), MAC Beautiful Iris eyeshadow (a soft, iridescent lilac purple), and MAC Shroom eyeshadow (a soft, lightly shimmered highlighter).

For more customization, you can easily swap in your favorite highlighter in place of Shroom, or if you’re not looking to use this quad on its lonesome (e.g. you have plenty of highlighters elsewhere), you could add in a fleshy pink like MAC Hush eyeshadow instead. On the opposite end, you could go darker and smokier by adding MAC Contrast eyeshadow in place of Shroom.

A few combinations to try with this…

  • Shroom all over the lid, Stars ‘n Rockets on the outer lid, Parfait Amour in the crease, Shroom to highlight
  • Beautiful Iris all over the lid, Stars ‘n Rockets on the outer lid, Parfait Amour in the crease, Shroom to highlight
  • Beautiful Iris all over the lid, Parfait Amour in the crease, Shroom to highlight
  • Shroom all over the lid, Beautiful Iris on the outer lid, Stars ‘n Rockets in the crease, Shroom to highlight

A few looks I’ve done that can be replicated with these shades…

Build a Quad is a feature focusing on creating different eyeshadow palettes that are both beautiful and functional using permanent shades of eyeshadow. We invite readers to suggest their own build-a-quads — just leave your ideas in the comments! Don’t forget to name your quad! 🙂

P.S. — Thank you for all of your fantastic and encouraging feedback on last week’s debut of this feature.

See swatches

65 Comments

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amy Avatar

These are such beautiful colours together. What a wonderful way to remind us to of the wonderful permanent MAC products. I am in love with these colours again, I just get so distracted by the limited edition colours.

dolce aria Avatar

These are fun to see! I have to admit-i organize my makeup more in terms of the overall color families, the ones in teh same quad can’t be used together, but they’re all overall similar. I keep wondering if organizing them like that would be easier, and i could just grab a palette to apply on the go… but i think that just opens up too many options for me to be happy doing. i am obsessive enough that i really NEED limitations. SO yeah, i have all of my palettes arranged as bright pinks, bright blues, dark blues, dark browns, neutral browns, dark purples, etc. Its pretty when they’re all open, but can be a chore to find and match shades in. But i can always find something i forgot i HAD that exact shade, lol!

Christine Avatar

I personally only use 15 pan palettes and keep empty 4 pan palettes for travel (whereupon I transfer and choose shades out of my 15 pan palettes). I organize mine by rainbow order and then a palette for highlighters and two palettes for matte shades (but also in rainbow order, LOL). I just find it’s easier for me to grab the *shade* I want.

dolce aria Avatar

I’d rather do that, but I’m on a massively tight budget, so it was cheaper to get 10$ worth of ELF quad palettes (half off, so twice as many… yay!) rather than spending 2-3 times that on MAC palettes. Every time i’ve gone to buy a MAC palette, i’ve gotten distracted by the products and spent it on THAT instead, heh. Its a constant tease with my boyfriend, since he’s not even remotely artistic and is boggled at the money I’ve spent on my collection.

Do you know of any other brands that make palettes for large quantities, preferably fairly cheaply? I just did the sephora sale for more than i should have, but after i can get saved up from that….. Well, and after i get new foundation(was thinking of trying Eve Pearls, in fair. Just gotta make up my mind-its hard not being able to swatch it!) Sigh. I’m obsessed. Hehehehe.

lesleykat Avatar

you could try a Z palette. google it to find out how to buy them. they are $20 but hold lots of different shapes/sizes of colors. i have one and i really really like it.

stephanie Avatar

i have a few quads i have built. i really love being able to so this. especially for travel. 4 colors i can go to right away. here goes my 2.

my perfect smokey:

my recipe for the perfect smokey eye. i dress this up or down:

nehru, black tied, cork and mulch

AND

bordeaux bleu:

just colors i love together

shadowy lady, contrast, sketch, malt.

rashmi Avatar

wow nice idea for keeping empty palettes
christine the first thing m going to miss after going to india is ur website
coz for few days i will not have access to internet and then again i will be with in-laws so they will just laugh at me if they find browsing me a beauty blog
hahahah
so i think i will have to spend whole 1 or 2 days to go through ur site…
again a nice feature … i already organized my 2 palettes and m planning to buy 1 more and fill in with ur colour ideas and i will buy 15 pans palettes its nice idea
hey i want ur suggestion on rubensque paint pot … will it look good on my nc 40 skin
and any suggestions for eyeshadow colour and pigment colour to go with that

Christine Avatar

Aww! That’s so sweet. At least you’ll have plenty of reading to do when you’re back online 😉 Make sure you have a safe and happy travel to India!

I think Rubenesque would be lovely on your skin tone – it’s very warm and golden with a bit of peachiness. I like it with golds, coppers, and bronzes – shades like Motif, Goldmine, Rule, Coppering, Antiqued, and Bronze. For a pigment shade, Melon is an obvious choice (very similar), but for more distinction, perhaps Tan.

rashmi Avatar

thanks dear for the reply
i will certainly buy this paint pot
and i wanna buy only one pigment
i have few samples so i think i will see
either melon or tan
yesterday i applied melon with painterly paint pot and with woodwinked on outer corners and shroom as highlighter
and i think i was looking ok so my hubby also
agreed upon melon … he loves to comment on my makeup
and gives his advise

marina Avatar

I love these posts!!! keep them daily please! Can i ask of you to show us your palettes? I’m in my first steps in MAC and would like to se an organized palettes like yours….

Christine Avatar

Thanks, Marina! I have pictures of my stash here — http://www.temptalia.com/category/features/makeup-collection

I think I updated in June or July of this year (2009).

I haven’t taken detailed close-ups of my eyeshadows in sometime, but I did last in March:

Close ups – http://www.temptalia.com/temptalias-collection-eyeshadow-palettes-close-up-2009
Palette by palette – http://www.temptalia.com/temptalias-collection-eyeshadow-palettes-2009

sandra Avatar

I love this pallete you made!! Great! And thanks for the suggestion last week about the Knight Divine 🙂

One of my favourit 4 pan´s (home made, hihi): Bronze, Woodwinked, Ricepaper & Honey lust. I have 8 palletes of 4, In the Gallery and Photo Realism, the other ones are filled with mostly naturals. I´m still thinking about buying 2 x 15 pans, cause it´s much easier, now I have to take out all of the 8 palletes to make a choice in the morning……… any ideas? Keep going!!

Christine Avatar

No problem, Sandra – hope it helped a bit!

Would you call that palette, “Home Made” Sandra? I kind of like that name. Warm browns!

Personally, I live off of 15 pans at home. I just find it easier to have access to a bunch of reds/browns/pinks or whatever in one palette.

coco72 Avatar

Thanks Christine! I love this quad! Parfait amour and Stars n’ rockets were in my wishlist but now I need them to still alive, lol!!!
My Beautiful Iris has a hole in the pan, really beautiful eyeshadow
I would change Shroom for Femme-fi, my favourite highliter

Jennifer Avatar

This looks like a good custom purple quad Christine! I’ll have to get it made for xmas or at least grab two of the purple shadows.

I love the color purple and it is my favorite color outside of neutrals to wear!

Karley Avatar

my everyday quad would include:
Woodwinked- lid color
Mylar- highlight
soft brown- blending crease color
carbon- for the outer v to transition into the night
🙂

DevilishDoll Avatar

Ooh, I’m glad I have 3 of these colors…can use Nylon instead of Shroom. I’m a bit OCD about keeping all of my MAC in the pot and in the box, so I could never do the palettes. But I think a pretty quad would be Bitter, Haunting, Gulf Stream and Freshwater. I’d call it Mermaid Magic.

VJNS Avatar

My weakness are greens … earth tones… no pinks … wait, I take that back..they’re ALL my weakness! Can’t wait to see the next quad idea. I’m loving this 🙂

aRAMIS Avatar

I HAVE THESE EXCEPT BEAUTIFUL IRIS. INSTEAD OF SHROOM I’D USE VELLUM IMO. AND I KEEP MINE IN A 15 PALETTE BUT IF I WERE TO TRAVEL I WOULD PUT THEM IN A QUAD=).

kathy Avatar

Love the idea and love the quad! Only reccomendation I have is to skip stars ‘n rockets…the color looks gorgeous in pan but when applied it is VERY sheer with little color payoff. An alternative would be MAC’s pink pearl pigment (if you can get a hold of it) which has the same beautiful color but with much more pigment.

Christine Avatar

I love Stars ‘n Rockets — I don’t have any problems with pigmentation with it! I actually have a whole bunch of pan showing in it, because I love it so. Pink Pearl is definitely similar, but it’s not as easy to work with (since it’s a pigment) and I do find it has a slightly frostier finish than Stars ‘n Rockets. I like both, though.

Lee Avatar

What a gorgeous combo – I never would of paired stars n rockets with Beautiful Iris or Parfait Amour for some reason.. looks stunning on the swatches!

Saira Avatar

I love this feature! Great to see one on purples, as purple is one of my favourite eyeshadow colours to wear :o) (I’m wearing purples today)! I have Stars N’Rockets and Beautiful Iris, so great to get some ideas for other shades to use them with.

I have a quad with my highlighter eyeshadows, as I found that I kept having to search for the right pot in my make-up box when I was looking for a highlighter. My highlighter quad contains: Shroom, Nylon, Vanilla and UD Midnight Polyester Bride (Mac White Frost or Phloof probably be dupesfor the UD eyeshadow) .

Nicole Avatar

I like the idea of creating a “build a quad”, because it gives much inspiration waering colors together.

My alltime favorite quad consists Shroom, Patina, Satin Taupe and Juxt. I would call it “natural touch of green”.

If I have to create a quad including Beautiful Iris, I’ll add Print, Phloof!, Vanilla and name it “lilac lightning”.

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