I heart MAC Pigments!! (MAC Pigments)

Member Name: missixty

Product:	MAC Pigments
Date:	04/04/08 (1743 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Most probably the most amazing product you'll ever come across

Disadvantages: Price

One product that is definitely worthy of their cult status, and perhaps even of their hefty price tag. If you have ever watched a make up tutorial on youtube, or admired the make up on a fashion shoot shown on television, or simply seen a photograph with stunning make up then the chances are that you have seen the work of MAC Pigments.

MAC Pigments are loose powders, coming in highly pigmented colours. Think along the lines of Barry M Dazzle Dusts and the like, only about a billion times better. Better how you say? Especially since I am a huge fan of Barry M. Well quite simply, MAC Pigments are better in almost every way (the only way they are not better is the price!). They are more highly pigmented, which means the colours are much more vivid, they apply easier, they have a more professional finish and simply look better and are better to use all round.

I personally have only recently tried MAC Pigments, although I have watched youtube tutorials using them for a long time, and admired many a MAC Pigment created look on the numerous photos on the internet. The reason I only recently tried them is due to the price. At £15 for a 7.5g tub, they obviously are coming in a lot more expensive than their more easily affordable alternatives. I actually can't find any information saying how many grams are in Barry M Dazzle Dusts, or even GOSH Effect powders but you do get a LOT more in the MAC Pigments, which does make them a little more worthy of the higher price. It's hard to estimate but I would say you get possibly four times as much in a MAC Pigment than the others. My MAC Pigments are actually in 2.5g vials, which are a different shape to the Barry M pots, but there definitely appears to be more product than in the Barry M pots.

Added to this fact is due to the fact the powder is so highly pigmented, even less is needed. I honestly think that you would never get through a full £15 Pigment pot in your life (unless it was a shade like Vanilla - more on that later). It would be nice if MAC themselves had a good selection of their pigments in the 2.5g jars, at a cheaper price, to make them more accessible to us normal people, and so that you could get a bigger range of colours for your money. I bought my 2.5g jars off ebay, although colours available in this size are limited, I think they may have been out of a limited edition set or something.

On the MAC website there are currently 22 colours available including neutral tones, dark tones, pale tones, and some bright colourful tones. There appears to be more shades actually available on ebay, whether these are discontinued, or whether the MAC website simply doesn't show a full selection I'm not sure. Available from other places on the web there are simply loads of colours, and also glitters, even coming in neon shades. There really is something for everyone.

Now for the price, you are going to need to either be rich, or be willing to buy samples (there are seriously people selling ¼ teaspoons of the stuff on ebay) if you want to build up a good colour collection. For this reason, I still love my cheaper alternatives, as I do like a bit of variety to the colours I wear.

So the time come when to fund my make up addiction I sold some of my boyfriend's things on ebay (don't worry I did ask first!) and with the money I bought myself two 2.5g jars of MAC Pigment at £6 each. The colours I chose were Vanilla and Chartreuse, which is great reviewing wise as both have different purposes.

Vanilla is perhaps the most widely loved of all the MAC Pigments. It is as you might imagine from the name a creamy white colour, which means it is a great multipurpose product. I personally use it for anywhere I would like highlighting or brightening up a little. I brush it on the top of my cheekbones, up past my temples to give my (none existent) cheek bones a lift, on the brow bone for an instant eye lift, in the inner corners of my eyes for that wide awake look, on my cupids bow for plumper lips etc. You get the idea. It serves its purpose well as a highlighter, and is great for people who like a more matte finish, rather than a dewy look, as this will work well over a powdered face, whereas a liquid highlighter wouldn't. The product is easy to use and the results it gives are brilliant. It's hard to describe exactly how fantastic it is, but it's one of those that once you try it you will instantly fall in love with. Everything from the application, to the finished look, to the durability is absolutely perfect. It would be almost impossible to go wrong with this product. It could also be used as a neutral eye shadow of course and would really brighten up the eyes. Mixed with a little lip gloss it even creates a lovely vanilla lip gloss. You could add a little to your foundation or tinted moisturiser or even your normal highlighter to give it a little boost and lovely vanilla sheen.

The beauty of these pigments, this one in particularly is they can be used for almost anything, and everything you do use them for works excellently. They are a really high quality product. You can even mix them with clear nail varnish!

The second colour I got, Chartreuse is a light green shade, which I would only ever use exclusively on my eyes, although again depending on your creativity you could use it for anything you like. You could even use it as face paint, mixed with a little mixing medium (1 part glycerine, 3 parts water) if you wanted to be a witch/alien for Halloween. However, back to the eyes and this is by far the best eye colour I have ever used. I have mentioned on other products about them being long lasting, bright colours, none creasing etc, so where do I go from there? It is hard for me to express how supremely better these can be to products I was already perfectly happy with. Put simply, they just are. The other products were great, but these are even better. They are perfect! The colour was exactly as it appeared in the jar and was a vivid shade, it went on smooth as silk and never once budged creased smudged or faded throughout a whole night of drinking, dancing, and the thing that goes without saying up here in Manchester; queuing in the rain! I received compliments on my eye shadow during the night out and from the photos, which it looks equally great on.

Like other loose products for using on the eyes they can be applied wet or dry. There are in fact many methods. Dry they appear more subtle but still with great colour, applied wet they just have that extra oomph and are even more vivid. To apply wet some people dip their brush in water, or simply wet it with a wipe. I myself have made some home made mixing medium and find if I mix the colour with that it forms a sort of paint which you can then paint onto your eye lids and this works absolutely beautifully.

There was little fall out or mess, so you don't have to worry about getting your cheeks all messy, the product you got on your brush seemed to stay on your brush and apply only where you wanted it to. It was easy to get precise defined edges with this, but also really easy to blend out.

It's worth mentioning that it blends perfectly with other colours that are from different brands too, so you don't need to worry about needing to have the full range of MAC pigments, you can mix and match them with what you already have.

Due to the many uses of Vanilla pigment (and perhaps other similar shades) I do believe a £15 jar would eventually be used up, although so little is needed I would imagine it lasting at least a year. For the other colours that are used exclusively for eyes, I honestly can't see a £15 jar ever being fully used up, if just for using it on yourself. I do wish MAC did a bigger variety of smaller jars at cheaper prices so that it would be easier to get a selection of colours going. For the time being if you are interested in trying them out before splashing out on a full size one, or simply want a small amount of a colour so you can build up a selection (I can not verify this but the people selling samples on ebay claim you will get 100 uses at least from the minimal amount they are selling you and I do actually find this quite believable as a little does go a LONG way) then the samples or the smaller 2.5g vials available on ebay may be the way to go. Alternatively, there are the other set of people who buy the £15 jars, take what they need for themselves and decant the rest to sell as samples and therefore make their money back (and the rest!) by selling on ebay so if this is your thing then there is definitely a market out there for it.

The full size jars are available from the MAC website and also in Selfridges.

All in all I absolutely love my MAC pigments and I wish I could have a larger selection of them. In reality I will probably be mainly sticking to my Barry M and similar priced products simply due to the price of the MAC Pigments, but where possible I do want to build up my MAC Pigment selection as they simply are the best thing available and I can't even begin to describe how amazing they are or how much I love them.

Summary: Did I mention how much I adore them??