MAC Daphne Guinness for MAC: Interior Life Eyeshadow Quad

MAC released a new collection in collaboration with Daphne Guinness in stores today. It features 21 products, 17 of which are limited edition. There is a new and limited edition eyeshadow palette released with this collection — it features four shades, three of which are new and one of which is a re-promote. Each eyeshadow quad comes in regular black packaging, contains a total of 5.8 grams of product, and retails for $45.

Stratus, Bruised Sky, Interior Life, and Heather Belles

Stratus is a light greyed pink in a Matte finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. The texture is very dry, stiff, and hard to blend. It has very low pigmentation and sheer colour pay-off. I honestly found this shade really, really hard to work with; I had to pack on about five layers with a MAC #239 brush to get it to show up on my eye, even with a primer. It will perhaps show up better on very fair or very dark skintones, but for all the in-between skintones, this will show up muted at best. It is slightly darker and greyer than Yogurt, and lighter than Malt.

Bruised Sky is a medium-dark mauve-taupe in a Satin finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. The texture is on the drier side and can be a little more difficult to blend, but it has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque colour pay-off. It is darker and less purple than Shale, and more grey than Haux.

Interior Life is a medium-dark cool-toned grey in a Veluxe finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. The texture is smooth, silky, and easily blendable. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. This shade is rather prone to fading, however, so it's ideal to blend in with a darker shade, especially in a smoky eye look. It is lighter than Print.

Heather Belles is a dark charcoal black in a Satin finish. This is a re-promoted shade from last year's Tartan Tale collection, and is limited edition. The texture is dry, stiff, and very difficult to blend. However, it has medium-high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. This shade is very good for darkening an eye look in the outer corner of the crease (using a stiffer brush) or used wet as a liner, but it is really hard to blend. I ended up having to blend Interior Life into Heather Belles when I used it in my crease, because it just looked completely uneven and patchy on its own. It's like a more pigmented version of Black Tied.

Overall, I think the colour combination is great for a classic smoky eye look, and these types of shades are a great addition to anyone's kit — if only the formulas were better! Only one of the four shades (Interior Life) had great texture, pigmentation, colour pay-off, and ease of use. The other three required a lot more work, and had overall dry, stiff textures that were hard to blend. These shades are also really easy to dupe, so I think many would prefer single eyeshadows with better textures. As much as I love the return of more matted colours after a whole season of shimmer and sparkle, this palette is a total pass (especially for $45!).