Review - MAC Eye Shadow Quad

I thought I'd make a post about my beloved MAC eye shadow quad as I wanted it for ages and was so happy when my parents offered to get me one for my 21st birthday in July, especially as they would be my first ever products from MAC. I picked the colours out myself after searching for swatches for hours online and perusing the testers in Selfridges before deciding what I thought best suited me. I wanted a palette that I could use for every day wear and that would also have a highlight, lid & crease colour in there.

I eventually decided upon Nylon for a highlight, Espresso for a crease colour and Satin Taupe & Sumptuous Olive as the main lid shades.

Here they are just swatched on my hand in natural daylight without any primer underneath. I do prefer to use a primer on my lid just for staying power but I don't really find using it enhances the colour on me anymore than they look here.

I prefer shimmer eye shadows over matte, just because I like the brightening effect that they have around the eye area and also just because who doesn't like sparkly things?! That's why I ended up picking just the one shade in matte and because I thought a matte shade would work better in the crease.

Nylon: I chose this as my inner corner and highlight shade after seeing Suzie use it in one of her YouTube videos. It's a bright but not too in-your-face shade that works well on my fair skin as a highlight but I can also use it all over the lid for a subtle every day shimmer. It's nicely pigmented and is probably the smoothest to apply in my opinion, you only need a little for it to show.

Espresso: This is probably my least favourite shade but by no means disliked. I find it a little hard to get it to blend as a crease shade and it also doesn't work well for me on the lid. But, if I spend an extra 30 seconds or so just making sure it's blended for the crease, it works really well with Ricepaper by MAC which I may post on separately as that's my only other shade left sitting in a quad all on it's own :( It's also too dark for me to use in my eyebrows so is my least used as you can probably see in the pan!

Satin Taupe: Everyone and their mum has got Satin Taupe as it's known as a universal shade and I have to say that I agree. It applies like a dream and it looks lovely on me when used as a slightly smokey eye. My sister has olive skin and it looks gorgeous on her all over the lid but not quite as dark. It's really versatile and it can also be used in the crease with a brighter eye shadow which I do fairly frequently.

Sumptuous Olive: I picked this as I thought it would go nicely with my hazel eyes. It's a gorgeous greeny-gold shade and I love it! I definitely recommend it if you have hazel eyes but I'm pretty sure it would look great on all eye colours. It hasn't shown up brilliantly swatched on my hand above but it works well for day/night make up looks, you really can't go wrong. It also applies beautifully and again, can be used as a crease shade.

Just a quick note about the packaging as well, I find it really sturdy and classy looking but it can be a bit of a pain to open. You kind of have to slide your nail into the groove to open it and sort of tear it rather than gently open it, if that makes sense... I think it would be improved by a little button to push to open it. The clear plastic also scratches quite easily but it's not really apparent unless you look closely. Overall though, for  £6.50 these are minor complaints that don't affect the functionality and it's great to store your own personalised eye shadow palette!

Do you own any of these shades or any other MAC eye shadows? If not, are you tempted to buy any?