Makeup Geek New Matte Eyeshadows : Review and Swatches!!!

I have been waiting forever for Makeup Geek (MUG) to come out with some new dark colorful matte shades! Take a look at my Instagram feed and you will see how much I love to integrate colors in my eye looks; I am not overly experimental or adventurous but I do love to wear shades like midnight blue, purple and emerald green! I have been feeling a lack of some deep and rich colorful mattes in my collection that would be perfect on the crease and for blending with my more vivid shimmery-glittery shades! I looked into MUG website but none interested me a lot! Currently my heart is set on the fancy Viseart Dark Matte Palette! But that’s too big of a cost for me at this moment. So I was very elated when I saw sneak peaks of these shades!

There are a total of 20 new and reformulated mattes in this launch! MUG already had a very impressive range of eyeshadows and these definitely have broadened the range. They also came out with some new finishes this year– I will be reviewing “Steampunk” duo chrome eyeshadow and “Flame Thrower” foiled eyeshadow very soon! Anyway, check out swatches of all these new shades from MUG on their Website here. There are some really cool colors like Dragon Fly- I wish I could be brave enough to wear those colors! Anyway, I bought Motown, Curfew, Booberry, Enchanted Forest and Morocco. You can buy these from here; individual links are attached with each shade. The price for these shadows is now $6.00/pan for 0.064 oz. (1.8 g). I know MUG gained popularity because of its incredible quality at much affordable price. However, if you get 10 shadows, that price easily exceeds 60$ whereas some palettes from few good higher end brands will cost you much less (think Lorac Pro, Too Faced Chocolate Bar etc.). But then again, a palette might not have every color you want or every shade may not be to your liking. And for all these reason I tend to prefer MUG only when I am looking for particular shades!

All of these make excellent crease color, blending shades and you can surely apply them as lid shades or on the outer V to bring in some depth in a look! I tried to use these shades in the simplest application so that you get a better look!

Morocco: Ever since I tried “Morocco” from Anastasia Beverly Hills (ABH) Shadow Couture World Traveler Palette (reviewed here), I have grown immense fondness for this type of very burnt orange/terracotta shades! But because that palette is going to be gift to my sister, I “really” needed a shade that could possibly replace “Morocco”! And luckily I got another “Morocco”. It’s a very warm burnt orange with red undertone; it’s a bit lighter than ABH Morocco. Very opaque, very intensely pigmented and has amazing color payoff! You need to just barely touch the pan with your brush; it packs on color and blends in without much effort. The formula is much better than all of these 5 shades; very much at par with some of MUG’s original shades like Cocoa Bear (my very favorite) which is also one of the best shadows from them. I truly LOVE “morocco”.

Enchanted Forest: Very appropriately named! It’s a dark deep forest green shade! Blendable, smooth and very densely packed with color. The color shows up on the lid as dark and as green on the pan. It’s the perfect crease color with “MUG Envy” or “MUFE ME-302” for a beautiful emerald green smokey look, I have been also loving it as a lid shade; applied as a lid shade this creates such a sultry and elegant look. Apart from Morocco, this is the non-patchiest shade among these.

Motown: Dark eggplant purple with grey undertone. It felt a little scratchy and powdery when I swatched with my finger. It is pigmented but can be a little patchy when I pat on the shade with the intent to wear it as an all-over-lid shade and it needs 2-3 layers to get an even opaque look! But as a crease color, it works and blends absolutely flawlessly. 

Curfew: This is a much brighter, vibrant purple! I am totally loving this shade. It is not as patchy as “Motown” when layered on the lid. Pigmented and blends beautifully.

Booberry: At the risk of being repetitive, I would like to mention that blue is my most favorite fun shade to wear on my eyes. “Booberry” is a very beautiful deep royal blue. It’s a reformulated shade. I did not own the original so I would not know if the formula has improved! I always tried to buy this shade whenever I ordered from MUG but it was always out of stock!! I was very excited to finally be able to get it. It’s not as bright as I thought it would be! Although it is exactly the same color on the eyes as seen on the pan. Brilliant as crease shade but it needs a bit of effort to use as a lid shade. Nonetheless I am just happy to have an intense blue matte shade to wear with my blue smokey eye looks!

I have been playing with these for more than 2 weeks now! Formula, texture and performance  wise “Morocco” is my most favorite and I would recommend it 100%. Enchanted Forest and Curfew are ok! I feel like formula of Booberry and Motown are not as buttery smooth and consistent with their incredible original shades. If you are not particularly looking for those shades, I would say skip Motown and Booberry. Again, they are very easy to blend on the crease though! As lid shade they need a bit effort. But, once they are on, they have great staying power. over eye primer. The wear times of these shades are around 10 hrs. which is very consistent with their original range of shades. One day I forgot to use a primer and the shades faded 2-3 hrs. earlier than with primer but I always wear primer :-).  

Overall, I am quite satisfied with my purchase. Formula on some of these should have been better, but I am not entirely disappointed to not to recommend this to you. Point is, you won’t regret it. Sorry for the conflicting review but I hope it helps :-)

In my very first order I had Envy, Nautica, Burlesque, Drama Queen, Ocean Breeze, Cocoa Bear, Corrupt, Cupcake and you can see the reviews here. Although I expected a tiny bit more smoothness in the formulas of Motown, Booberry I am absolutely enjoying all the shades. They are so pretty for Fall as well. I know that I am definitely going to get a lot of use out of these. 

Have you got anything from this launch? What’s your favorite MUG product?

Love,

~Arrru