MAC Stroke of Midnight: Eyeshadow Palette in Smoky

Last week, MAC released a new collection called Stroke of Midnight, which features a variety of colour kits and is the second part of MAC's Holiday 2013 offerings. The packaging of this year's holiday collections are inspired by the elegance and geometric designs of 1920s Art Deco, as well as the lavish lifestyles of the Studio 54 era. Stroke of Midnight consists of 19 products, and sees the release of three new and limited edition eyeshadow palettes. Each palette features five shades of eyeshadow, and comes with a mini double-ended 213/266 brush. They are housed in special edition black mirrored compacts with a white geometric design, yellow gold trim, and matching secondary cardstock packaging. Each eyeshadow palette contains a total of 4 grams of product, and retails for $47.50. 
Chillproof, Retrospeck, Gaelic Gold, Well Put Together, and Carbon
Chillproof, Retrospeck, Gaelic Gold, Well Put Together, and Carbon

Chillproof is a pale brightened neutral white in a Frost finish. This is a re-promoted shade from 2008's Colour Forms collection, and is limited edition. It has a soft, buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is similar though a touch softer than Crystal Avalanche, and similar but a little more neutral than White Frost.

Retrospeck is a light-medium wheat beige with champagne shimmer-sheen in a Lustre finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a soft, buttery texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and less brown than Honesty, and lighter and more gold than Sweet Satisfaction Pro Longwear Eyeshadow.

Gaelic Gold is a medium brightened molten yellow gold in a Veluxe Pearl finish. This is a re-promoted shade from 2010's Tartan Tale collection, and is limited edition. It has a soft, silky texture, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is darker and richer than Goldmine.

Well Put Together is a blackened neutral brown with copper and gold micro-shimmer in a Velvet finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. It has a somewhat drier, stiffer texture, and can go on patchy and unevenly as a result. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered easily, but takes some work to blend out. It is more brown than Black Tied, and more sparkly than Brun.

Carbon is a soft black in a Matte finish. This is a permanent shade. It has a dry, stiff texture, and goes on a patchy and unevenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered easily, but is difficult to blend out well. It is warmer than Nehru, and less pigmented than Typographic.

This is the least impressive palette of the three that were brought out for this collection. While the three lighter shades perform beautifully — smooth, pigmented, and easily blendable — the two darker shades leave something to be desired. Again, we see the release of Carbon in a palette, and while it does actually work a lot better in execution than in a swatch, it would've been nice to see a different shade than one that is released all the time (and is also permanent). Moreover, I don't think Well Put Together was that different in execution than Carbon, so I feel like the opportunity to fill that palette space with something more intriguing was wasted. I'm glad MAC re-released Gaelic Gold, and though I was surprised to see it in this Smoky palette rather than the Warm palette, it does add a gorgeous pop of colour in an otherwise very neutral palette. Still, in this instance, I think you're better off putting together a custom palette at a MAC Store, especially given the price point.