MAC Culturalized Eyeshadow Duo Review, Photos, Swatches

Christine — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 18:00:38 +0000

MAC Culturalized Eyeshadow Duo

Where Retrospeck is Not Actually Retrospeck… in Retrospect!

MAC Culturalized Eyeshadow Duo ($27.50 for 0.09 oz.) contains two shades: Brule (soft creamy beige) and Retrospeck (mid-tone neutral gold). It’s a new and limited edition duo from Styleseeker.

Brule is a pale, white beige with very subtle warm undertones. It has a satin finish, though it reads more matte against the skin. It has good color payoff, and it blends really easily. Urban Decay Kinky is lighter, less warm. theBalm Matt Smith is pinker. Urban Decay Walk of Shame is grayer, pinker. MAC Vanilla is warmer, lighter, less beige. Urban Decay Skimp has more of a shimmer-sheen finish and is warmer in tone.

Retrospeck is a molten gold with bronze and gold shimmer. It’s supposed to have a lustre finish, but I’m not entirely sure, since the color is NOTHING like Retrospeck. The texture feels somewhat like a lustre, as it has a looseness of sparkle that is very true-to-lustre-finish. The payoff is much, much more than a lot of lustres, though. I did experience noticeable fall out both during and after application (and the latter is what I worry and look for). Clarins Enchanted Summer is lighter, less brown. Milani Gold Dust is lighter. Tarina Tarantino Amber is very similar but smoother.

I could go on a rant about the ridiculousness of including a shade called Retrospeck, a shade that’s part of your core permanent range, and making it entirely different, but I’ll restrain myself. I wasn’t originally going to purchase this duo, just the other three, because both of these shades were permanent, but I figured, “Why not?” so I’m glad I did!

I like Brule. It’s a nice highlighter color for light to medium skin tones–it doesn’t look too chalky or pale. It’s also a nice all-over-lid color; consider patting it all over the lid and carving out the crease with a brown or gray to define eyes. I’m not loving Retrospeck (V2) due to the residual fall out I experienced during the day when I wore it. Both shades wore for eight hours over bare lids with no creasing or fading, though Retrospeck had fall out.