Review & Swatches: MAC Glamour Daze Extra Dimension Mini Eye Shadows

Availability: MAC Stores & Online, Nordstrom
Price: $19.50

This review is for the eight (8) new Extra Dimension eye shadow shades releasing with MAC’s Holiday Glamour Daze Collection. This post includes photographs and swatches of the following colors:

• A Natural Flirt: Soft peachy nude
• Divine Blue: Midtone aqua
• Ready To Party: Pale lilac
• Tall Dark & Handsome: Black with pearl
• Stylishly Merry: Midtone dusty violet
• Evening Grey: Steel silver
• Round Midnight: Dark burgundy
• Stolen Moment: Dark taupe

Packaging: 9.25/10

These shadows come in standard MAC packaging but have smaller compacts which are made of shiny black plastic as opposed to MAC’s traditional matte plastic. The compacts come with snap-shut, flip-up tops. The pans have the MAC logo and a wave design embossed on them.

Quality: 8.5/10

A Natural Flirt is a nude-toned cream with good color payoff.

Divine Blue is a light aqua that needs two layers of color to get closer to the vibrancy you see in the pan.

Ready To Party is a very pale lilac-pink. This shade had the most difficult time applying smoothly on the skin and you need to add an additional one (1) to two (2) layers on the skin for it to really show up decently. This was particularly disappointing, because the shade look very interesting in the pan (with its almost duo-chromed look). I’d suggest using this shade over a base to bring out the color’s quality.

Tall, Dark & Handsome is a charcoal black with silver shimmers and has great color payoff.

Stylishly Merry is a violet shade that needs two (2) layers to get a smooth finish and to help the vibrancy of the color.

Evening Grey is a smokey grey-silver shade with good payoff. It applies in a fairly smooth manner even on the first layer.

Round Midnight is a rich, coca brown with great color strength.

Stolen Moment is a medium taupe-brown that also has good color payoff.

Overall, these colors have good pigmentation and impart a smooth finish if they are layered. Ready To Party is probably the most disappointing of the shades, but pairing it with a base (especially a dark base) will give you quite a unique color. The most rich colors are probably Tall, Dark & Handsome and Round Midnight.

The formula is quite unique. It’s more airy than your traditional powder eye shadow. These aren’t as pigmented or vibrant as some traditional formulas, but what I notice about the Extra Dimension formula is how easily the transfer onto the skin and blend over the skin. I also love the shimmery effect these give. The sheen you get is very refined, making these shadows uniquely suitable for daytime-wear even though they’re shimmery. If you’re someone who is conservative with their eye makeup either because of workplace constraints or personal preference, I would suggest you still give these shadows a chance for day-wear.

MAC claims that these eye shadows last “up to” 6 hours. Using a primer, I saw the teeniest bit of creasing after 3 hours, but for practical purposes there’s no noticeable creasing even after 6 hours. Without a primer, there is definite (but not horrible) creasing after 3 hours of wear. After 5 hours, the color does fade slightly too.

These don’t crease nearly as easily as MAC’s Metal-X shadows, but do crease more quickly than MAC’s standard shadows. That said, formula surpasses most anything else MAC has to offer for eye products when it comes to smooth application and rich finishes.

Ease of Use: 9.25/10

These transfer onto the skin effortlessly and blend nicely. The lighter shades don’t layer as effectively as the darker shades do. You also have the option of using these wet, but I’ve found that this type of application works better with the lighter shades. Using it with some of the darker or brighter shades sometimes makes the shadow more streaky.

Price: 8.25/10

The full-sized Extra Dimension eye shadows cost $20.00 and contain 2 grams (0.07 ounces) of product. The Glamour Daze mini-versions, contain 1.3 grams (0.04 ounces) and cost just $0.50 less. The price definitely does not reflect the smaller amount of product you are getting compared with the full-sized version. Then again, MAC is charging extra for the packaging on the other items included in the Holiday collection.