MAC Me Over: Evil Eye Eyeshadow Quad

MAC is releasing a new collection today called MAC Me Over, named so because MAC held an online competition in which thousands of people submitted videos and photos of themselves to be the models for this collection. This is the first collection from MAC in which all the promotional displays feature "real people" rather than hired models, and the displays feature before and after make-over shots of six different people, ranging in age, gender, and race. MAC Me Over is a huge collection, comprising of a total of 52 products, and is one of MAC's collections for fall. The Evil Eye Eyeshadow Quad is a new and limited edition eye palette that includes the following shades: Palace Pedigreed, Spellcaster, Evil Eye, and Moody. Each palette comes in regular black packaging, contains a total of 5.6 grams, and retails for $45.50.

Palace Pedigreed, Spellcaster, Evil Eye, and Moody

Palace Pedigreed is a dark burgundy in a Satin finish. This is a re-promoted shade from last fall's Fabulous Felines collection. The texture on this one is quite smooth, and I would say the pigmentation is decent. The colour pay-off could be slightly better in swatches, but it works wonderfully on the eyes. It's like a redder version of Embark, or a darker version of Folie.

Spellcaster is a cool dark plum in a Matte finish. The texture on this is smooth, but the pigmentation is on the sheerer side. I would say that this is the problem shade of the quad. Not that it's horrible, but it does require some work to get good colour pay-off. This is like a cooler version of Sketch, or a more purple version of Beauty Marked (though the pay-off of Spellcaster is better).

Evil Eye is a dark grey-tinged olive green in a Matte finish. The texture on this was fantastic: smooth, silky, and easily blendable. This is one of the best matte shades I've come across in a long time from MAC, especially in a quad. The pigmentation is excellent with great colour pay-off. There's nothing really similar to this shade in MAC's permanent range. It's like a matte and darker version of Greensmoke, or a lighter version of Femme Noir, which was discontinued.

Moody is a blackened plum-grey in a Veluxe Pearl finish. The texture is in line with Veluxe Pearls, and that is smooth, soft, buttery, and blendable. The pigmentation is phenomenal, as is the colour pay-off, which is nearly opaque. This is probably my favourite shade of the four, but I'm kind of biased because Veluxe Pearl is my all-time favourite finish. This is like a much darker version of Satin Taupe.

Overall, I think this is a great quad for those who like dark, smoky eye colours. I've read a few online reviews on this that were quite negative, but I really urge people to go to counters to swatch these shades for themselves, only because there are obviously some quality defects to those beauty bloggers that received this palette early from PR. This is honestly one of the better quads MAC has come out with in the past couple years, with only one shade that requires a bit more work. I was really surprised to see such a pigmented matte shade as well, since mattes are usually a hit or miss in terms of pigmentation and texture. My only tiff with this palette is that the four shades included aren't really wearable together; there isn't enough of a range in terms of tone. These shades would work better paired with lighter shades to create more dimension in an eye look. Other than that, I would say that this is palette is certainly worth $45.50, assuming you love wearing dark shades.