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The Best Green Eyeshadows: MAC Must-Haves

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Christine |

Must-Have MAC Green Eyeshadows

About the Temptalia Must-Haves Series

A series of posts showcasing must-have products from MAC Cosmetics’ permanent line of products. Selections are based on quality, universality, uniqueness amongst the line, and the like. Limited edition shades are deliberately excluded to make buying easier. Readers’ comments act as a supplement to these lists of their favorites and must-haves. You can find the entire series here.

Swimming eyeshadow is a shimmery/glitter medium green. It’s a really great staple color to have, because its lightness in color makes it versatile. The only part they could improve on is by not making it a lustre finish!

Humid eyeshadow is an absolute must-have for anyone who wants to try their hand at a smokey green eye. Humid is a rich, pigmented deep green. It’s more of a forest green than an emerald green. The finish and texture are easy to work with, making this shadow extremely blendable.

Juxt eyeshadow is a light, pastel green. It’s not a cool green, but a slightly warmed up green. It’s kind of yellow-based, which is probably why it has noticeable warmth to its tone. It makes for an excellent all-over-the-lid color or even as a subtle highlighter when using other greens.

See three more must-haves, plus get pairing recommendations and limited edition recommendations!

Bitter eyeshadow is a bright pop of chartreuse (yellowed green). Although I prefer limited edition colors to this (e.g. Overgrown or PRO Sour Lemon), Bitter is a good replacement if you can’t get your hands on the others. It’s a satiny finish, which means the color goes on a little faded unless you have the proper base. The color is what makes it so different–this color works well with teals, blues, and other greens.

Greensmoke eyeshadow is a deep brown-olive green. It’s got a little bit of gray, brown, and olive to it, but it’s still not too dark. I love it for a smokey green eye.

Sumptuous Olive eyeshadow is blendable, smooth, and deliciously rich in pigmentation. It’s a nice olive green that just works with so many colors from golds to browns to greens.

Pair these shadows with…

white-golds (like Nylon), golds (like Gorgeous Gold), browns (like Woodwinked), blues (like Electric Eel), teals (like Shimmermoss), or grays/blacks (like Carbon)

Check your stash for a few awesome limited edition finds…

Wondergrass, Aquavert, Metamorph, Lucky Green, Guacamole, Eyepopping, Overgrown, Femme Noir, Velvet Moss, Scarab

What are your must-have green eyeshadows?

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of great eyeshadows — these are shades I personally think are worth getting as a whole. I also only list permanent eyeshadow colors (and eyeshadows only–no other eye products, *just* eyeshadows for this list), which is why limited edition colors do not make the list. 🙂

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92 Comments

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Mag Avatar
Mag

What a fab blast from the past! I love most of the colours you mentioned and you just reminded me to use Humid. 😀 I recently used Bitter after a long time of neglecting it and loved it over Aquavert.

Jessie Avatar
Jessie

God, I use greens all the time lmao

Pagan is a good LE green! I pair it with its counterpart Pharoh paintpot. Wondergrass is another. Bio Green and Kelly, too.

Pastorelle Pigment.. Old Gold! Omg, I know it’s not technically ‘green’ but it reflects green. at least on me. If you put it with the right colors.

Jessie Avatar
Jessie

I only picked up Pagan/Pharoah and Haunting/Otherworldly from that collection.

Wait! No, Feline, Jealousy, and 24k liners, too I believe.

Pagan is a lot like Bitter or Juxt. Not as yellow, but the pigment is awesome and it goes on smoothly. I love it! I actually pair it with Paradisco and Sushi Flower. It’s an off the wall combo, but looks really cool when you wear a black shirt.

It’s by far my favorite of the LE greens alongside Wondergrass.

Jessie Avatar
Jessie

I’m not a big black liner — or liner person at all (I use eyeshadows as liners), but those three.. and Mystery are my favorites! I can never apply liner without it getting gloopy on me :[

And Otherworldly is AMAZING! It’s almost the same color as Rollickin’, but it shimmers where as Rollickin’ is more of a satiny matte. I pair the two together when I do bright teal looks.

Also. Haunting over Pharoh rocks lol and vice versa. Really creates a whole new color.

evangelia Avatar
evangelia

the best green EVER is the green in NARS blade runner duo…omg! i have never been able to find a dupe. it’s a deep, smoky, mysterious, freakishly pigmented emerald green.

Sarah Avatar
Sarah

i have blade runner too and absolutely (heart) that green, but let’s not forget it’s a duo and the brown with it one of the most stunning, yummy, warm browns ever. heart nars duos.

coco72 Avatar
coco72

Bottle Green, a PRO eyeshadow. It’s really gorgeous
I also love steamy and humid.
Aquavert and Rolled Gold (From Colour Forms Palette) are my favourite LE greens

Jacquelyn Avatar
Jacquelyn

I have Bitter and it’s pretty but I’m trying to find the perfect base for it. Also, I’ve heard so much about Humid! I must get that as well as Swimming,Sumptuous Olive and Juxt.

Saira Avatar
Saira

I’ve tried Bitter over a few paintpots (Painterly, Cashflow, Greenstroke) and it’s looked really nice with them, in case this helps. Over Painterly, Bitter looks much more pale acid yellow-green; with Cashflow (gold paintpot), it brings out more of the gold/yellow tones; and over Greenstroke, it brings out more of the green tones in Bitter.

hi Avatar
hi

I would consider Gorgeous Gold a SUPER yellow green – I saw you use it as a highlighter on the browbone once in a look where you used jewel-tones greens and blues, and it looks much more green to me than gold.

Christine Avatar
Christine
Light Medium, Neutral, slight yellow undertones. Normal-to-Dry skin. View Christine Full Profile

I definitely consider Gorgeous Gold more gold than green, to be honest. It’s gold based, even if it does have green tones to it. It’ll be greener when you use it with greens/teals, but if you used it with browns, it would likely look yellower. 🙂

Arika BH Avatar
Arika BH

I am lacking greens. I need to get more of those olive toned shadows and I have had Humid on my wishlist for a year.! I have no excuse for why I haven’t bought this shadow.

Saira Avatar
Saira

Great post, I love these posts! I really like the way you’ve given a ‘Pair These Eyeshadows With’ section – it’s a really good extra wee thing to put in for inspiration for colour combinations.

I have Bitter, Juxt and Humid out of the list (not tried Greensmoke or Sumptuous Olive before). I love the sound of Swimming. It’s funny that I just read this post on green eyeshadows today, as I have green eyeshadow on :o) (Juxt on lid, UD Vert-Emerald Green-in crease and touch of Humid in outer v). Just got Aquavert last week – such a gorgeous minty green colour!

cmferrets Avatar
cmferrets

club and humid , all the way, they were my first e/s back in 2002. but i only have like 6 green colors, so i need to start building mine up, thanx for the color suggestions. i dont have swimming, sumpious olive and greensmoke,. maybe ill add those to my list.

Ilona Avatar
Ilona

Christine do you know the closest color similar to guacamole? I’ve been on a search forever!!! It doesnt necessarily have to be from mac, could be urban decay or stila.

cta808 Avatar
cta808

i was wondering could u do a “MUST HAVE” on pro mac eyeshadows?? wen ever u had time that would be awsome great suggestions im already writing them all done 🙂

sugarcrumb Avatar
sugarcrumb

Hi Christine,
would it be possible to comment on how different Swimming is from Spiritualize pigment (from Metal Urge collection)? If they are close enough, I’d rather get Spiritualize (which is still available at my MAC). thanks much

Erica Avatar
Erica

I just picked up greensmoke and i really like it but I don’t see anyone mentioning it here. Christine, I would like to do a smokey eye and a simple daytime look but nothing too drastic. Can you tell me what colors you think would look nice with it? I have olive complexion and it seems that I need to pickup quite abit of the color to show up. Help!

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