MAC Brilliantly Cool Crushed Metallic Pigments Set Review, Photos, Swatches

Christine — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 10:00:17 +0000

MAC Brilliantly Cool Crushed Metallic Pigments Set

A Cool-Toned Set of Chunky, Metallic Pigments

MAC Brilliantly Cool Crushed Metallic Pigments Set ($32.50 for 0.40 oz.) consists of four shades: She’s Got Class (silver frost), Moss Garden (light green blue frost), Spruced (teal frost), and I’ve Got a Crush on You (browned teal frost). This set will launch early next week online and in-stores on November 8th.

She’s Got Class is a silver-tinged white with a frosted, metallic finish. It’s sheer when applied dry, and it comes together and yields better payoff when applied damp. There are a number of shades that are comparable, including Wet ‘n’ Wild Shimmer the Night Away, Cinderella Ball Gown , MAC How to Marry, theBalm Metal-ica, and Maybelline Too Cool.

Moss Garden is a pale, dirty green with a gray-rown base. It’s a very interesting color, though it is a repromote from the Butterfly Party (Vera, ’12). Lancome Enduring Vert is greener. Chanel Rivere is lighter, greener. MAC Water is much, much darker. Urban Decay Money is similar, but it is darker.

Spruced is a rich emerald green with a hint of teal. It had good color payoff both wet and dry, and it was less metallic/frosted compared to the other shades in the set. Just a heads up, this shade stains incredibly easily. I would absolutely recommend using a base underneath it to minimize it. I had major staining on my arm (and it wasn’t on for longer than five minutes there) and my eye when I wore it in the crease. Tom Ford Emerald Lust is greener, lighter. MAC Jealousy Wakes is greener, less teal. MAC Double Feature 4 is darker. Urban Decay Minx is lighter.

I’ve Got a Crush on You is a strong red-toned, medium-dark brown with a green-teal duochrome. It’s like a jacked up version of MAC Club, MAC Blue Brown, and Too Faced Label Whore. When it’s applied dry, it’s much redder and has less of a duochrome–the duochrome mostly comes out when it is applied damp. The texture on this shade was a bit finer than She’s Got Class or Moss Garden.

I always feel rather torn over these sets. The colors are often gorgeous, but the finish, which looks fun and sparkly and glitzy on my arm, looks spectacularly awful on my lids. I find they have to be used very sparingly and take some patience to work with, because they give my lids a very wrinkled, crepe-y appearance. All the frost and metallic just tends stick against itself and accentuate any texture on the lids. I used these wet for the look, as it tends to be the easiest way to minimize fall out, amplify color, and get each shade to smooth out.

I want to love these so bad, but they’re a product I never return to, for as beautiful as the colors are, they are difficult to use and are unflattering on my eyes. They are similar to MAC Pigments, but the texture is much chunkier–think of the chunkiest MAC pigment (Kitschmas always comes to my mind), and these are going to be chunkier. They wear well, though, and used damp, there is very minor fall out during wear, and they do not crease or fade even if used alone (without a primer or base).

Something really cool: these sets have always been a really good value, and the holiday sets are actually $1.50 less than the sets released in February ($34.00).