MAC Eye Shadow - Expensive Pink

Ok, get ready - I'm about to make up for my lack of blogging this week. This is going to be a long, rambling one (don't ask how this is any different from my other posts) because I'm quite excited but also unsettled by an eye shadow from MAC that I finally got around to trying - Expensive Pink.

I've been feeling low this week and even after all my drugstore finds and gifts (the Milani blush is working out wonderfully, and sometimes I just stare at my NARS Taos blush), I was still unsatisfied. So, I recently stopped by the MAC counter at Macy's. I'm having second thoughts about my Smashbox eye shadows, lost my MAC Studio Fix ages ago and need to repalce it, and also desperately wanted to know what my skin color "code" was since everyone on these blogs seems to use that as a reference point (I'm NW25 - yay). Like I said yesterday, Sephora has been a bit unwieldy lately, and if possible, there is little new there left to discover.

So onto MAC. I had a plan to get some real "professional" help there and spend time experimenting so I could be happy with my purchase and avoid the dreaded Return Trip. But this pesky little boy of a man whose eyebrows were fixed in place kept showing me these awful, dull, pebble-like colors that I could immediately tell would do nothing for me. Seriously, they weren't even worth a try. When I said I'd like to try something warmer, all he could manage to suggest was "How about a pink?"

It was then than I spotted this really pretty pink color that I've definitely tried on my hand before - Expensive Pink. I shy away from color on the eye, so while I had noticed this shade before, I never seriously considered buying it. Since I've had a little more experience with shadows lately, I realized that looks can be deceiving and that most colors actually fail to even show up on me, so after another hand test (I didn't have the patience to actually practice on my eye at that point), I bought it and decided to experiment more at home.

Expensive Pink is a medium, cotton-candy pink shade with warm peach and gold tones, described by MAC as "pink with gold duochrome." Pretty accurate. When I say cotton-candy, I don't mean a very pale, milky pink. This is definitely deeper than that - almost a Barbie pink. Rose gold is probably more appropriate although it looks pinker in the pot and goes on more gold. On my hand, it was a very sheer, multi-dimensional wash of warm pink and gold tones - not actually very pink at all. The gold that was neither very metallic nor too glittery.

On my eyes at home this was a) unexpectedly, refreshingly pretty b) actually more along the lines of what I've been looking for in a "neutral" shadow. The color payoff was minimal on my skin - just a subtle tint of pretty pink and more fleshy gold. More layers of shadow gave a frostier pink, but at least it was still gold and not silver. What I liked most about this was the effect it could achieve without an ounce of the usual neutral brown, other darker tones, or deep metallics like copper. The color was buildable and one light dusting gave a very pretty, glowing sheen that was natural and yet just dramatic enough for some impact.

Expensive Pink is a veluxe pearl finish, which according to MAC means that it is "Vibrantly-toned. Velvety soft. Shimmeringly metallic. Veluxe eye shadow, now overlaid with high-shine pearl." Hate to say it, but that just about sums it up. However, this wasn't exactly "velvety soft," and the formula gave a much less smooth application than I had expected - certainly not as smooth as some of my Smashbox shimmer finishes. Still slightly more chunky than I would have preferred, but for the effect that it is meant to give, that's forgivable.

This is definitely a very versatile color that can probably work with any number of other shadows, and with various looks. The shadows that I currently have tend to get chalky or look kind of dead/dull mixed with other shades - this is a much better base for blending in other shadows. I think I can pull this off for day, and with a heavier hand and some liner, definitely exactly what I had in mind for night (since, you know, I go out so much and need a "night" look...).

Now that I've ventured into pink territory, I'm willing to give deeper shades in the same color family a shot. My friend once did my eyes with some wonderful palette of pink/plum eye shadows, so I know I can go darker without looking bruised. Overall, excited because this was a surprise find, but also unsettled because I'm not sure if it will really work out in the long run.

This has been reintroduced as part of the limited edition Neo Sci-Fi collection for 50 cents more - silly. I hope that doesn't mean it's going to be discontinued from the regular line, though. I will check out some of the darker pinks and rose golds at MAC to see if this needs to be exchanged, but for now, it's a keeper. $14.00 @ MAC