What shades have you found difficult to describe? Has there been a shade of eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, etc. that you’ve found yourself at a loss to describe?
Shades like MAC Star Violet, theBalm Just This Once Jamie, etc. are always more challenging!
Thanks to CeeBee for today’s question!
Got a question idea? Submit yours here.
We're here to help you make better beauty purchases that you'll enjoy and love! We recommend signing up to take advantage of personalized features like tracking products you own, viewing dupes that you already have, and more!
Here are some useful resources for you:
Curious how two shades compare to each other? Type in the shades below to get instant side-by-side swatches!
Comments that do not adhere to our comment policy may be removed. Discussion and debate are highly encouraged but we expect community members to participate respectfully. Please keep discussion on-topic, and if you have general feedback, a product review request, an off-topic question, or need technical support, please contact us!
Please help us streamline the comments' section and be more efficient: double-check the post above for more basic information like pricing, availability, and so on to make sure your question wasn't answered already. Comments alerting us to typos or small errors in the post are appreciated (!) but will typically be removed after errors are fixed (unless a response is needed).
We appreciate enthusiasm for new releases but ask readers to please hold questions regarding if/when a review will be posted as we can't commit to or guarantee product reviews. We don't want to set expectations and then disappoint readers as even products that are swatched don't always end up being reviewed due to time constraints and changes in priorities! Thank you for understanding!
We try to approve comments within 24 hours (and reply to them within 72 hours) but can sometimes get behind and appreciate your patience! 🙂 If you have general feedback, product review requests, off-topic questions, or need technical support, please contact us directly. Thank you for your patience!
I’m kind of colorblind, so whenever i’m describing shades to my friends, I’m always wondering whether i’m giving them the right info!
MAC’S VEX!!!! “Ummmm, ummmmm…, it’s like a…” hahaha
I would say satin taupe, because on me, it pulls very brownish, but I have seen swatches where it pulls purple on other people.
The eyelid shade in Wet N Wild’s Silent Treatment Color Icon Eyeshadow Trio. It’s a gorgeous complex color that I haven’t been able to find a dupe for in my extensive collection.
Dalliance from the Mega metals eyeshadows was difficult, in different lights it looks…..different? LOL it was just a weird one to put a label on….but its actually favorite from that release!
The “A Different Groove” lipglass from the Liberty of London collection. I love it, but it is such a complicated color to describe! In some lighting it looks brown, but it is really like a purple reddish wine color with some brown to it. Also, pretty please lipstick. It does not show up on me at all, but it is very difficult to describe. It almost looks grey in the tube! Also, MAC Elle Lipglass. It goes on the lips completely different than it is in the tube. I could go on forever, because I have such a hard time describing certain colors!!!!
I have a mineral loose shadow from Facefront Cosmetics called Death by Rubies. It’s such a unique, duo-chrome like color and its really hard to describe.
MAC Unflappable Mega Metal eyeshadow. It’s beautiful for a daytime smoky eye look, and it looks muddy or ‘muddied’ but in the BEST way possible which I know sounds a little silly or crazy! It’s a shimmery purple/dark brown/dark gray, and each color component comes in equal amounts as do the others; these different colors don’t really compete or dominate each other.
So that’s why it’s a beautiful jumble of a color! People say that Unflappable looks like Satin Taupe, and on me it doesn’t at all, they don’t even look alike in their pans.
Satin Taupe almost looks like the Knight Divine shadow on me like a silvery frosty gray. I think I’m the only person who doesn’t like Satin Taupe very much.
I love Just This Once Jamie and I agree, it is kind of hard to describe – mauve pinkish grey with a beige tone is about as far as I can get and if you haven’t seen it in person it’s hard to imagine…
Rouge Dior Voluptuous Care lipsticks in Diorling Pink and Mirza Mauve are also hard for me to categorize. Diorling Pink is a deep rosy red but-not-quite-red but it’s not pink either. Same for Shiseido Perfect Roude in RD732 Blush – it’s about 3 shades lighter than Roseate, red toned but not what I’d call pink!
Mirza Mauve is mesmerizing – the lipstick bullet looks like a deep bronzy gold but applies a deep shimmering mauve rose. It’s quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen before…
Yes, Star Violet!It’s burgundy-brown-purple-eggplant-gold…?
Moth Brown for some reason is kind of hard for me to describe. It pulls hints of many colors and I can never explain it to anyone who has asked…I end up throwing up a bunch of shades and I sound like a dork.
Not really. It’s all about identifying what kind of tertiary color it is, and separating a base color from its shimmer. I find that, if I’m having trouble determining what a color is, I can take a color-accurate photo of it, open up the photo in GIMP, select the color, and see where it is in the color selector. (Actually, that sounds complicated, lol.)
M.A.C.’s Club. It looks brown, green, teal and sometimes taupe-ish purple, depending on the person.
I am bad at describing things in general so most mac eyeshadows.
I agree with Vex, very hard color to describe.
Well some of the lipsticks. Like what i just bought the shiseido in RD 732. It says RED but it’s on the pink or rose side.lol Im surprised when I tried it on it’s a rosy pink.