MAC Nutcracker Sweet: Cool Eye Compact Eyeshadow x 9

Last Thursday, MAC launched their holiday collection called Nutcracker Sweet. It was inspired by the story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King: "Leap into a magical land that's a bit nutty, a little naughty, bursting with whimsy. Lose yourself in an eccentric kingdom of oversized treats and rosy-cheeked nutcrackers. Twist, turn, and tumble deeper into the land of dolls. Our story has only begun..." In previous years, MAC released their holiday collection in two parts; the first part for the colour collection and bag sets, and the second part for kits. This year, they have been released all together under the same collection name, so what you see in stores and online now is Nutcracker Sweet in its entirety. 

Nutcracker Sweet sees the release of three eye compacts, each containing nine powder eyeshadows and a double-ended 214 short shader brush/213 fluff brush. They are housed in special edition neon coral and dark purple striped mirrored compacts with a gold embroidered design on the fronts, with matching secondary card stock packaging. Each Eye Compact contains a total of 9.9 grams of product (1.1 grams of each eyeshadow), and retails for $47.50.
Enchanted Beauty, Performance Art, The Wrong Man, Marzipan, and Quite Spoiled

Enchanted Beauty is a pale cool pinked beige with silver shimmer-sheen in a Lustre finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. It has a soft, finely-milled 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 less frosted than Phloof!, brighter and more pink than Shroom, and more muted and more pink than Dazzlelight.

Performance Art is a medium cool pinked mauve with silver and pink shimmer-sheen in a Lustre finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. It has a gritty, powdery texture, and can go on patchy. It has medium pigmentation and semi-sheer to semi-opaque buildable colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is lighter and cooler than Sable, more brown than Shale, and darker and more mauve than Honesty.

The Wrong Man is a light warm muted dusty pink-beige in a Satin finish. This is a re-promoted shade from 2014's A Novel Romance collection, and is limited edition. It has a soft, finely-milled 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 more pink than Orb, warmer than Yogurt, and lighter than Malt.

Marzipan is a medium cool muted mauve-taupe in a Matte finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. It has a soft, finely-milled 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 cooler than Malt, lighter and more muted than Quarry, and lighter and more grey than Haux.

Quite Spoiled is a medium cool rosy mauve in a Satin finish. This is a re-promoted shade from 2010's Fabulous Felines collection, and is limited edition. It has a soft, finely-milled 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 than Haux, lighter and more pink than Quarry, and darker and cooler than Girlie.

Absurdly Pretty, Sugar Plum, Plum Darling, and Nutcracker

Absurdly Pretty is a medium-dark brightened cool raspberry pink in a Matte finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. It has a soft, finely-milled 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 cooler than Passionate, darker and more matte than Cherry Topped, and darker and more red than Bright Pink.

Sugar Plum is a dark warm plummy brown in a Matte finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. It has a soft, finely-milled 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 more plum than Embark, darker and more brown than Blackberry, and more brown than Sketch.

Plum Darling is a medium-dark cool taupe-charcoal in a Lustre finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. It has a slightly drier texture, but goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more grey than Satin Taupe, darker and more grey than Shale, and lighter and warmer than Knight Divine.

Nutcracker is a dark cool charcoal-black in a Satin finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. It has a soft, finely-milled 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 than Carbon, lighter than Typographic, and darker than Print.

The first thing you'll probably notice about this year's holiday eye palettes are that they bear a striking resemblance to the Urban Decay Naked Palettes. Never before has MAC put out a nine-shade eyeshadow palette for holiday — and these pans are almost full size (1.1 g vs. 1.3 g), making them a really great value at $47.50 (for $125.40 worth of eyeshadow). All the shades in this palette applied really well — smoothly and evenly with good colour pay-off — with the exception of Performance Art, which went on quite chunky with a good amount of fall-out (as some Lustre eyeshadows are prone to do — a good eye base and using a flat synthetic brush with patting motions can prevent this). I have to note that MAC has previously released an eyeshadow called Performance Art (with this year's Zac Posen collection, 2013's Temperature Rising collection, and 2012's Styleseeker collection) in a Veluxe Pearl finish, and it is not the same as the Performance Art eyeshadow in this palette.

The Cool Eye Compact has an excellent variety of cooler neutral tones, light to dark shades, and matte to shimmery finishes so you can create complete eye looks with it without having to dip into other shadows. I also like that MAC included a nice bright pop of colour (Absurdly Pretty) to keep this palette interesting and more unique than just another neutral palette. There are a good amount of mid-tone shades for blending and transitioning, and all nine shades work really nicely together to create a variety of cohesive looks. If you're a fan of cooler neutrals, this palette is definitely worth checking out.