MAC Mineralize Eyeshadow Duos (2011) vs. In the Groove Mineralize Eyeshadow Trios
From top left: This & That, Sage & Wisdom, Heaven & Earth, Mix & Switch, Pretty & Prim, Thunder & Rain
MAC Mineralize Eyeshadow Duos (2011) vs. In the Groove Mineralize Eyeshadow Trios
As speculated in my review, the new duos (which I’m still waiting to get official word on re: release date for in-stores, how long they’ll be available for, etc.) are definitely reincarnations of the trios from In the Groove. Five of the six duos correspond with a trio, while one duo requires taking a shade from two different trios to match–but for the most part, they are all quite similar. All swatches are applied wet (using water to dampen).
- This & That is a duo that I had to take a shade from two different trios. The ivory side in This & That is warmer than the ivory in Cool, Calm, Collected. The beige side in This & That is indistinguishable from the beige (middle strip) in Making It Easy.
- Mix & Switch compares closely to Making It Easy. The lighter peach side looks about the same in both. The coppery shade in Mix & Switch is more orange-based than in Making It Easy, which is a little browner and redder.
- Sage & Wisdom is incredibly similar to Cool, Calm, Collected. I couldn’t tell the difference between the two in terms of color. The darker shade swatches slightly better in Sage & Wisdom than in Cool, Calm, Collected.
- Heaven & Earth is a near perfect match to Blue My Mind. The blue in Heaven & Earth is slightly more pigmented and looks a little deeper, but they are very much the same, as are the two black shades.
- Thunder & Rain matches Togetherness well–the purples are indistinguishable from each other, while the silver in Thunder & Rain applies smoother than the one in Togetherness, but the colors are about the same.
- Pretty & Prim is quite similar to Fresh & Easy. The lighter pink seems a little yellower in Pretty & Prim compared to Fresh & Easy, but the darker berry shade seems the same. I had several readers ask how Pretty & Prim compared to Band of Roses, but the two are from different planets – not at all similar.
This & That (ivory side) vs. Cool, Calm, Collected (ivory side
This & That (beige side) vs. Making It Easy (beige side, middle strip)
Mix & Switch vs. Making It Easy
Mix & Switch (peach side) vs. Making It Easy (peach side)
Mix & Switch (copper) vs. Making It Easy (copper)
Sage & Wisdom vs. Cool, Calm, Collected
Sage & Wisdom (light green) vs. Cool, Calm, Collected (light green)
Sage & Wisdom (dark green) vs. Cool, Calm, Collected (dark green)
Heaven & Earth vs. Blue My Mind
Heaven & Earth (light blue) vs. Blue My Mind (light blue)
Heaven & Earth (black) vs. Blue My Mind (black)
Togetherness vs. Thunder & Rain
Thunder & Rain (purple) vs. Togetherness (purple)
Thunder & Rain (silver) vs. Togetherness (silver)
Pretty & Prim vs. Fresh & Easy vs. Band of Roses
Band of Roses (dark pink) vs. Pretty & Prim (berry) vs. Fresh & Easy (berry)
Pretty & Prim (pink) vs. Fresh & Easy (pink) vs. Band of Roses (pink)
Pretty & Prim vs. Fresh & Easy
Pretty & Prim (berry) vs. Fresh & Easy (berry)
Pretty & Prim (pink) vs. Fresh & Easy (pink)
Great comparison! I don’t have any In The Groove shades, so I ought to be fine. =D
I do! And i hate it! I bought “fresh nd easy” on a whim. And regretted it big time! It’s a real struggle to make it work on my skin without looking ashen 🙁
They are almost identical! How weird! But it’s good for me, who missed out on them(:
amazingly similar.
AGREE!!
Wow! These are a huge NAY – what did MAC have leftover product they needed to deal with or something??
That is exactly what I was thinking!!
Wow they’re identical!
It looks like you haven’t been using those In The Groove shadows much. They barely look touched. Thanks for the good review!
Thank you for the comparissons, Christine – this definitely saves me some money. 🙂
Wow, they are EXACTLY the same. I guess that could be good or bad depending on what you already own. Good thing you posted this for people who own the trios. At least it looks like the quality stayed the same.
This is good news for me, because I dropped my Making it Easy trio and it broke completeley…I’d love to get Mix & Switch to recover that loss! I really loved the In the Groove eyeshadows and am happy to know there will probably be a chance to get some other colors with this new release!
My question is, why come out with duos and not just repromote the trios? At least with the trios you get three colors instead of two.
Maybe because the trios are REALLY annoying to use. The two outer shades are fine, but the one in the middle is a pain in the butt. You have to use a smaller brush and angle it just-so, otherwise you hit the other colours and mixes them up. Argh.
Oddly enough, I’m wearing all three colours from Cool, Calm and Collected today.
Thanks so much for this comparison. I was really attracted to the two ones I already had from In The Groove, so I’ll definitely be passing on those since they’re near (if not absolutely) identical.
Wow, great post! I don’t have any of the In the Groove trios, but none of these shades really call out to me anyhow. That’s really interesting how similar they are, though!
Thanks for the comparison! I am so glad I didn’t order any because I have all the ones I like from previous collection….
It is interesting how similar they are. Its most likely that they decided to improve them which would kind of mean they would also need to re-name them. But isn’t there a bunch of mineralize eyeshadows comming out with semi precious? it would make more sense to have one or the other. I have never understood out MAC makes decisions like this. I think MAC needs a new PR person.
These are permanent, whereas Semi-Precious is a limited launch – though, based on preliminary information, I’d say the colors/textures seem pretty different.
Thanks for the review/comparison! Skipping all these because I bought Togetherness last year and the rest are at my CCO now if I want to pick them up LOL
Wow, identical much?
Thank you for the comparissons
Nice to see this, I wanted to get Cool, Calm, Collected last year so I will try to save for Sage & Wisdom. I also wanted to get Making It Easy and like the beige side in it as well so will look to get This & That if Semiprecious collection doesn’t have something comparable to it..
I was so excited about these new duos, but I guess since I have all the In The Groove trios, I might as well not bother with these new ones. Thanks Christine, you just saved me some money (it’s not often I say this). 🙂
MAC must’ve done this on purpose. Thanks for the comparison swatches! You’re always so very helpful.
Seems like they’re willing to do just about anything to get us to part with our money needlessly. If they have to repeat/copy stuff, why not just repromote some shades that people are hankering for and willing to pay ridiculous sums for on ebay, etc., shades like Moth Brown, Smoke&Diamonds and so many other colours that people wish they could get their makeup-lovin’ mitts on?
Do MAC stores carry eyeshadow pans? I know the ones in Macy’s don’t, just wondering if the individual stores do.
Yes, stores do.
Thank you!! 🙂
that’s pretty uncool of them, seems kinda silly putting out the same stuff again?
Waw! That’s clear: colors are the same! But I don’t really care: I haven’t got any In The Groove Mineraliez Eyeshadows and I really really love the Heaven & Earth! I hope it will be released in France!
But for those ones who have already bought trios, they will be disappointed…
What’s going on MAC? I knew these looked familiar. When I saw Pretty Prim in your sneak peak post I thought of my Band of Roses…nothing alike which is grat.
Christine thanks so much for the comparisons. Too bad they didn’t have any dupe for “Love to Love” from the trios. That is my favorite travel eyeshadow set and the “highlight” color is amazing for me, I hope there is something similar in the up-coming Semi-Precious collection. ((crossing-fingers))
So true, that was exactly what I thought. I only got Love to Love and In the Groove last year as they were my favourites and I was hoping the colours were included here as I am using Love to Love a lot. But it is nice if these remain permanent cause there are a couple of them I wouldn´t mind buying in the future.
Semi-precious eyeshadows this year are going to be a different stuff, based on the photos on the net, I am not very sold on those…too messy to work with them
GREAT post! I mean I am not a big mineralize eyeshadow fan to begin with. But you nailed the comparisons!
Wow thanks for doing this Christine. It almost makes me mad!!
Why? I l o v e d to the groove collection!
My blue my mind is running out (and wanted to buy it on ebay) Now I don’t have too 🙂 I’m thinking up buying 2 🙂 (too bad that it doesn’t have the light blue in it) but happy with this too
YAY mac! 🙂
thanks for doing this! i saw some of the trios at the cco so i will just get those instead of getting the duos. 🙂
Kind of pathetic how they’re repromoting those :/ As beautiful as they are, those colours have been done too many times before.
Wow totally disappointed in MAC… no creativity what so ever. It amazes me that they even allow themselves to put out such obvious duped. I mean to my eye I can hardly see a difference.. the mix and switvh ones reminds me of heat element (or whatever the name is) from their permanent mineralized shadow collection… MAC keeps letting me down..
I am kinda happy about these redos because the little strips of color in the center of last year’s In The Groove shadows were too small. I am a big fan of the purple in Togetherness and most of it is gone. I also like the black in Heaven and Earth. I don’t own any black shadows and I like using this formula. Win for me, I hope these become perm. I love the less glittery MES.
oh WOW they’re SOO similar!!!!!
OMG!!! i cannot believe that these are exactly the same colors! Thank you so much for this review because i would have just bought these without even thinking twice, until now that is. Im deff skipping out on these.
It’s crazy how similar this shadows are. I’m glad that I can save money. I might still get Thunder & Rain because the purple stripe in Togetherness is so pretty and I was peeved that is was the smallest stripe in the trio.
I’m confused at the hate against MAC for putting out duos that are like the trios – clearly they are putting these out because of the good response to the older products. If you have them already, now you don’t to worry about running out, and if you need them because you didn’t get them before you can.
Yes but then they should have named them so people would know they were identical to the in the groove shadows. I’d be pretty annoyed if I bought one of these only to realise I already had the exact same product with a different name. Thanks to Christine, not so many people will make that mistake.
The only thing is – well, these are different – they aren’t trios any more, so if they named the same thing, wouldn’t that confuse people as to why they skipped an entire shade? Or for one of the shades, it’s more of a mix of two of the trios. I think perhaps something in the info to say they were inspired by or something to that effect from the trios, but I can see why the names are different.
I agree, Carrie… Everyone needs to recognize that many people loved those trios, me included. And I was worried about running out but now, thanks to MAC releasing these as permanent items, I’m not worried anymore!
i wish mac would bring something out that was finely brand new and fun…everything is always a repromote or similar to something from another line 🙁
omg hardly new exciting products! i wasnt into mac back then so ill be interested, but if they keep it up i can see me getting bored within a year or two when ive gotten all i want!
I feel like it’s cheating because those dupes are 90% identical…
Thanks for doing this comparison. I have all the trio you featured here except Making It Easy. So I guess could skip these new duos. 🙂 besides MAC is really hard to get where I am now. 🙁
What the hell, MAC?
HAHHAHAHA THEY ARE THE SAME!!!!!!!
Good for those who missed the trios – like me. Though in general, it might have been better if they made it into a palette of some sort with other “new” products worth grabbing.
I like the duo’s better than the trio’s. But I miss the previous mineralize shadows, especially Sea n Sky. Do you think Thunder and Rain compare? BTW, great comparisons, Christine. Thanks so very much!
I love Sage & Wisdom and Heaven & Earth. I like the gray in Thunder & Rain, but I’m going to skip it because the purple in it looks like the purple in the Odd Couple mineralize eyeshadow.
Hey Christine when will we get an update (at least collection names and product names) for next few months…. Is it june??? Thankyou xo
Whenever someone leaks it – I don’t have any control over when, sorry!
Thank you very much. You saved me a bundle. I am a MES addict and would have bought them all had it not been for your comparisons. Now I can save that $ for the next Mac collection instead. 🙂
Wooow glad I didn’t get them because I have all the shadows from in the groove collection