Product Review: MAC Crushed Metallic Pigment

After perusing some of the spring colors available in shadows and the runway collections for S/S, I decided to pick up a tower of the MAC Crushed Metallic Pigments by textile designer Vera Neumann.

I scooped up the 4 pigment tower in Strawberry Patch.  Because MAC is an obvious winner in the pigment area I took the chance of snagging another tower called Aloha.  What could go wrong, right?  Well, where do I start.


First of all, I am not a professional MUA but I have a lot of experience with a variety of products and I know what I like.  I rarely buy shadow that could be considered "loose glitter" but I expected to get a nice metallic overlay for the lid that could be paired nicely with a few deep mattes. 

Giving you an idea of the "flake" size

4 Colors from the Aloha Stackable

                                                              
Each box had 4 stackable pigments.  Strawberry Patch includes 4 different shades of pink and pink/golds, while Aloha contains shades of gold/orange blends.  I have worn some high color metallics in the past and believed that based on MAC's pigment reputation these would be the same but the color isn't as impressive as some of their pressed shadows or even UD's metallics.

The Aloha stackable colors are pictured above without primer, the Strawberry patch stackables are shown below with primer.  I am going to continue to try these colors again, most likely layered as primer, matte combination before I give up on them totally.  I used various techniques including flat brush pressing, finger application, etc.  A tutorial might be pending to demonstrate the usage of the product.

Ultimately, I don't recommend this product for the following reasons:

--Large loose flakes create a significant amount of fallout (even with primer)

--Again, with primer, the pigment flaked off/creased

--Several layers are required to wear solo but this could also increase flaking