Archived Post
The Best Makeup Geek Eyeshadows + Overview
Makeup Geek Eyeshadows ($6.00 for 0.068 oz.) are available in a slew of shades ranging from go-to neutrals to pops of color. Here’s a list of the best Makeup Geek eyeshadows I’ve tried 🙂 This list will continue to update as they release other permanent shades–if they do well enough to break into the top 25! You can also see how the formula has done overall as well as see how readers have rated it!
What are your go-to Makeup Geek eyeshadows?
Oooooo thanks for this. How do you think this compare to the Mac shadows that just decreased to the same price (generally, overall)?
An A is an A is an A, regardless of price. Like all products, there are hits and there are misses, so it just depends on the shade you’re interested in!
I would go with Mac. Mac doesn’t lie about ingredients and they have better customer service overall. If you don’t like it, you can return it.
You make a valid point, Lee. I don’t like buying from a brand that doesn’t have an exchange or return policy, generally speaking.
That’s so interesting. I’ve had way better customer service experiences with Makeup Geek than Mac! I guess it just depends.
I recently purchased a brush from MUG that was very scratchy. I e-mailed customer service the night I got the package about the issue and within 2 days, they wrote back. They did ask for a picture and wanted to know what was wrong with the item, and 2 days after that I had a tracking number for a replacement item. They didn’t even ask me to send back the old one. I’ve been pretty happy about dealing with their customer service dept.
To my mind the MUG shadows are waayyy better.
Here in Germany MAC refill pans are 15€, which is like 17$ atm – insanely overpriced for the quality you get.
I started to buy MUG after the fifth MAC eyeshadow I bought that was hardly pigmented.
Now that they are the same price (at least in the US) I would always prefer MUG over MAC though.
MUG is cruelty free, MAC isn’t.
This is really helpful! Thank you! 🙂
Glad I could help, Nicole!
These SO helpful Christine! I need to jump on the Makeup Geel bandwagon! I got the Viseart Paris Nudes palette because you like it so much and I LOVE it! Every color is so beautiful! 🙂
Aw, thank you Divya! 🙂
Funnily enough I found a MUG eye-shadow retailer where I live about 2-3 days ago. So this round-up came out right on time 😀 Now I can finally try the illustrious shadows…
Ooh, nice!
Cosmopolitan is my all time favorite , it’s so pigmented ; Coco bear is a favorite too , i love cinderella for highlight and love also bitten and homecoming if i want a cooler look.
Cocoa Bear is great!
I love Mesmerized foil shadow, bitten matte shadow, and the Blacklight duo chrome shadow.
Nice picks, Stephanie!
Some of these look quite appealing. But with all that’s taken place with this brand lately, I don’t know that I would feel 100% comfortable purchasing their products. This is just my own honest opinion.
I totally understand, Nancy! 🙂
To use the current cliche, I feel ya. I have a big Z plus of shadows and 4-5 blushes. Marlena and Cora (vintageortacky) were my original blogs to read/check reviews, until….. It started long before MUG outgrew their lady bloomers and started flying too close to the sun. How’s that for mixing metaphors? There was no critical eye. They loved everything, even $^€k¥ stuff. No discernment, no refinement, no SYSTEM. Then mug got big time greedy and full of themselves. Not sure I’ll ever get another MUG product. Greed breeds unscrupulous behavior.
Same here. And I haven’t been very happy with the quality of the shadows I bought. None of them were these shades, though.
I’m pretty new to MUG brand, so I guess I am unaware. If you don’t mind me asking, what has been taking place with the brand, that makes you uncomfortable with them? Thank you
My absolute favorites are a few of the mattes. Cocoa Bear, Creme Brulee, Desert Sands, Beaches and Cream, and Unexpected. Corrupt is very pigmented but it migrates all over my eye lid 🙁
Migrates! Does it crease or transfer or just… moves?
I usually wear it as an upper lash liner, either on its own or to smoke out a liquid liner. Later it will end up bleeding through to my lower lashline, moreso than your typical mascara does, and it will end up transferring further up on my lid from my outer corners/wings. I guess it is the way my eye is shaped (my lid folds over a bit on itself in my outer corner, but I do not consider my eyes to be hooded, they are pretty “typical”) and that my lids are slightly oily. I prefer UD Blackout. Corrupt is still a great black, though!
Ahh, gotcha! 🙂 That must be so frustrating!
What nice of you to sum up the best of a brand! I might complete my little MUG collection :3
Yay!
I have all of these except three…. I love Makeup Geek… my favorite eyeshadows 😛 😛
Ooh, very nice 🙂
By the look of the Z, it’s sensuous, unicorn, shimmer mint, cupcake, and rockstar. They seem to be the most used, not nec. the best liked. Disappointments: stealth, prom night, shoreline. 2 or more aren’t in that Z; didn’t look. I like Barcelona beach and high tea as crease shades.. Moondust is one of the only shades I ever bought that lost its binder & turned into Bare Minerals! Chickadee and Razzleberry are somewhat unusual. I do have issues with MUG now. Replied to Nancy.
Rockstar is a cool one. Barcelona Beach-type shades should be more common across brands.
I’m so glad you posted this! I’ve been trying to decide which ones to pick up!
No problem, Brooke!
I own a bunch of them and in my honest opinion, they are rather “meh”. Just too powdery. They are by no chance bad and used to be a good alternative to more pricy shadows out there….until MAC put there old price back. Now they cost same as MAC, and they positioned themselves as “MAC but cheaper”, i don’t see any reason to get MUG eyeshadows. And on top, their half-baked launches and $45 palette are rather disappointing as well as the whole ingredients issue and deleting customers’ comments and complaints. Nope from my wallet.
I’ve found both lines to have hits and misses – they’re definitely not all good! 🙂
They’re still a great alternative for those who buy only cruelty-free products!
Don’t they use carmine in their shadows? And also, i am no expert but i am wondering, who certified them? I haven’t seen any official logo of official cruelty-free orgs. Eg i use Kevin Murphy hair products and every bottle comes with a bunny logo – this is peta logo. MUG only talks about being cruelty free, but there is no evidence or logo.
Yes they use carmine but that’s not a requirement for being cruelty-free. You might be thinking about Vegan makeup. You can’t use carmine in Vegan makeup since carmine is made from an acid derived from a beetle. They don’t have a cruelty-free certification but many brands don’t. That’s just something some cruelty-free brands pay extra for, to be certified by PETA or another animal advocacy group. But I give brands the benefit of the doubt when they say they’re cruelty-free, because there are many watch dog groups who check up on this sort of thing and we would have heard about it if they tested on animals but claimed to be cruelty-free. And it would be very very stupid of them to go that route (claiming to be cruelty-free but testing on animals) because once discovered they would lose all their credibility as a brand and lose most of their business. I personally don’t buy only cruelty-free makeup, just because some of my favorite brands are not cruelty-free. But I really wish that all brands were cruelty-free because there’s no good reason to test on animals in this day and age IMO.
Holy smokes! What a weird coincidence… I just placed an order for nine MUG eyeshadows yesterday! I did, of course, consult your reviews and swatches beforehand. ?
Which nine did you get, Susan?
Duochromes: Steampunk and Typhoon. Regular: Drama Queen, Rapunzel, Shimma Shimma and Day Dreamer. Foiled: Fantasy, Jester and Magic Act. I also bought a Makeup Geek Travel Vault Palette to store and protect the shadows.
Thank you so much for this list – MUG have amazing eye shadows, beautiful colours, great ratings and at a fabulous price. What’s not to love?
My pleasure, Genevieve!
LOVE this post so much!!! it made it super easy to add MUG shadows with good grades to my list that I need to get! Thank you!!
Thank you, Bonnie!! 🙂
I wonder why most of the best-performing eyeshadows are warm colors. Some of it must be difficulty in formulation (it seems like blues and blue-violets must be hard to make well, since so few brands succeed), but I wonder if some if it is lack of interest in cool colors on the part of the marketing people. Is it really that hard to sell cool colors?
Their line is mostly warm colors, IMO, particularly for neutrals!
They have a few really cool cool colors, though, that keep attracting me 😉
Peach Smoothie, Barcelona Beach, Cocoa Bear and Frappe are probable my most used eyeshadows of all brands. I have more MUG eyeshadows and I like them a lot.