MAC Cranberry + Woodwinked Eyeshadow Review

Cranberry (left), Woodwinked (right)

Enter two of the prettiest eyeshadows ever. My two best chums bought me these to start off my own MAC palette (love you guys) and though I had 4 colours I'd like on my wish list, they chose the best 2 out of the 4. Cranberry is the most stunning red shade. I always thought that red (along with blue, green, purple etc - 70s/80s/90s I'm looking at you) was a colour to be avoided in eyeshadows but this is not the case here. It's hard to describe but it's subtle enough not to be a full on red, yet still pigmented enough to tell that it is red. This even as a wash all over the eyelid looks amazing with heavy black mascara contrasting against it.

Woodwinked is a true gold shade that can easily be built up. While both are highly pigmented and give great colour this is the one you want to be light with when applying - it's beautiful when applied lightly or if you go for a full eye look using it heavier as a highlight looks amazing. This one can literally be used for any kind of eye look you want to create.

Being MAC shadows of course the formula is great - pigmented, long lasting, smooth to apply - no complaints here. Now just to finish those 2 empty spots..

Disappointing Products 1: MAC Eye Shadow Gilt By Association

As many beauty bloggers will find, sometimes you lust and lust after a product and then when you get it - it breaks your heart. This is most definitely the case with this MAC eyeshadow.

Can we all just appreciate how freaking beautiful this shadow is?! It is stunning. A true black flecked and swirled with a pure gold. I could rave about how it looks in the pan all day.. but on my eyes, not so much. The two colours together actually make it very hard to work with - you cannot achieve a true smoky eye because the gold throws it off, but the black makes it hard to use the gold (err… that kind of made sense right?). 

This is swatched with no flash and natural lighting - and it almost comes off brown in this picture! I could have taken a million pictures with my arm turned this way and that to show the different flecks. The consistency is also a bit of a problem - you don't get a lot of colour payoff with one swipe so you have to work to build it  a lot. And I mean a lot - the above picture was 4-5 firm swipes. 

It makes me so sad as I literally love this eyeshadow to death but you cannot use it in an eye look without looking terrible. I'm sorry, MAC. I thought we got along with everything. *violin music*

Disappointing products will be a recurring theme on here (sadly as I have quite a few). Have you had any luck with shadows like this?