MAC Surf the Ocean Crushed Metallic Pigment Stack Review, Photos, Swatches

Christine — Fri, 06 May 2011 18:10:58 +0000

MAC Surf the Ocean Crushed Metallic Pigment Stack

MAC Surf Baby: Surf the Ocean

MAC Surf the Ocean Crushed Metallic Pigment Stack ($32.50 for 0.40 oz.) comes with two stacks of colors, with each stack having two shades. The Surf the Ocean stack’s shades are described as “frosty platinum, light yellow green, gold bronze, and dirty graphite with silver pearl.” The individual colors do not have shade names, just the stack itself.

The first shade of the stack that I tried was a medium-dark silvery gray with a metallic finish. It’s like a lighter version of Silver Ring, seems comparable to Silver pigment (long discontinued).
Next, we have a really blackened navy blue with multicolored shimmer of teal, green, and blue with more of a frost finish. Deep Blue Green would seem the closest but this is definitely bluer.
The third shade I swatched was a medium-dark, bronzy gold with a metallic finish. It’s a little less copper than Amber Lights eyeshadow.
Finally, there is a seafoam green that is really iridescent and a little sheer (even when swatched wet), and it photographs less seafoam and almost like this mauve-gray. I can’t think of any similar shades in the permanent line, but it almost seems like a lighter version of NARS Dogon.

Each stack is about 2.5x the size of a regular, full-sized pigment–essentially, the value here is about $52 worth of product. The texture of these is chunkier than pigments, though they don’t apply that way. For the most part, they have a tendency to stick together, which is why I can see the “crushed metal” name coming from, and obviously, the finishes are very strong frosts/metallics (also, expected, from the name). The gold shade was the chunkiest, unusually so (it looks nothing like the previous stacks I’ve had nor any of the ones from this launch)–made it look like little nuggets of gold goodness!

These are best used over a slightly tacky base (like MAC Mixing Medium) or wet, because they are more like a loose color than a pressed one, but the pigment itself does bind well over an eyeshadow base or regular eyeshadow without having to be used wet, because as you press the product on, it doesn’t poof everywhere. These adhere well, and for all intents and purposes, I find them very much like MAC Pigments. When applied wet, they adhere really well without a base; when applied dry, you really have to press and ensure it’s been smoothed out to wear it alone without a base.