Review: MAC Stroke of Midnight Eyes In Smoky

Quick update: I still have no idea what happened to my Clinique shadow. I even looked through other makeup bags it might have previously been in but no luck! I guess we will never know what happened. Pop Expo yesterday was amazing! I had a great time with my friends and will have a post about it up soon, but I need some time to go thorugh the pictures and photograph what I got. I got a few fun nerdy things and a cute dress though! Now on to today's post.

I recently went to a MAC event where I got a makeover and then, sadly was forced to buy a couple of products. You can read all about that debacle here. Regardless of that drama, I still like the products I got, which were the Stroke of Midnight Eyes palette in Smoky and the Mineralize Blush in Talk of The Town. I will be reviewing the eye palette today. I already did a review of the blush which you can read here.

The Stroke of Midnight Eyes palettes costs $47.50 Canadian and it come in three different options: The Warm Eyes palette, the Cool Eyes palette and the Smoky Eyes palette. Each palette contains 5 shadows and a little double ended brush, which I have actually found quite useful for on the go.

The worst part of these is that the packaging is really bulky. I love the colour scheme with the white and gold over the black, but the whole thing is enormous and plastic and somehow it feels just feels kind of cheap... I also found that opening this the first time was a bit of an ordeal. The front closure looks like it should open differently, so I found myself standing there prying at a box for minutes until it flew open by accident. I tested this out on a friend from work and my boyfriend by handing them the palette and saying "open this". My boyfriend couldn't do it at all and my friend eventually got it open but was laughing at herself by the end because of how long it took. I did notice later though that if you actually look carefully before trying to open it up, you will see where to put your fingers and pull.

The shades in the smoky eyes palette, from lightest to darkest, are Chillproof, Retrospeck, Gaelic Gold, Well Put Together and Carbon. Gaelic Gold is the reason I bought this palette. It is a gorgeous gold with a green undertone to it. I wanted this becaue I thought it would go perfectly with my MAC Humid for Holiday looks. I have already done one look using this combination that you can see here.

Since purchasing this palette, I have found that the stars in it really are Retrospeck and Chillproof. Retrospeck is a gorgeous shimmery taupe colour and Chillproof is a very frosty, pearly white. Retrospeck has quickly become my go to eyeshadow for the winter. I sweep this all over the lid, pop a bit of Chillproof in my inner corner, throw on some mascara and then a bright lip and I'm out the door. The taupe colour goes really well with almost any lipcolour I choose.

The last two colours are pretty standard for a smoky eyes palette. Well Put Together is a mostly matte dark brown with a few specks of gold glitter in it and Carbon is a matte black. The both have alright pigmentation and blendability, but carbon honestly isn't my favourite black. I think I might even prefer the matte black by NYX! These two actually looked pretty pathetic when I swatched them as you will see, but they do perform better over a base. These swatches were done without a base:

So that's it. Overall I like this palette, but I don't love it. The three shimmery shades are all really amazing, but the other two are pretty unimpressive. I am also not a huge fan of the packaging, but I do like the little brush they included. I'm not entirely sure this is worth the almost $50 price tag. If you are curious what they look like on my eyes, I have used this in many looks lately. You just have to look through some of my recent posts.

What do you think of this palette? Have you tried any products from the Stroke of Midnight collection?