MAC All About Orange: Rainy Season Eyeshadow Palette

Yesterday, MAC released a new collection in stores called All About Orange, which is inspired by the orange colour trend in Korea and "its vibrant energy and modern edge [that] ignites fashion and beauty big time throughout the world. It's one of the new global super-shades that pops with sizzle and cool sophistication." All About Orange consists of 18 products, and sees the release of one new and limited edition eyeshadow quad. Each palette comes in regular black packaging, contains 6 grams of product, and retails for $47.50.
Top row: Rainy Season and Arctic Grey; Bottom row: Courtly Grey and Typographic
Rainy Season, Arctic Grey, Courtly Grey, and Typographic

Rainy Season is a light grey-beige with a subtle sheen in a Satin finish. This is a new and limited edition shade. The texture is soft, silky, and finely-milled, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. There's nothing really similar to this in MAC's permanent range; it has the same undertone as Vex, but much flatter and without the duochrome.

Arctic Season is a light-medium beige-silver with shimmer-sheen in a Lustre finish. This is a re-promoted shade from 2008's Chill collection, and is limited edition. The texture is soft, silky, and finely-milled, and goes on smoothly and evenly. Due to the nature of the texture, there is some minor fall-out. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more beige than Vex, much warmer than Electra, more grey than Retrospeck, and much more silver than Patina.

Courtly Grey is a medium neutral grey in a Matte finish. This is a re-promoted shade from 2007's Antiquitease collection, and is limited edition. The texture is soft, silky, and finely-milled, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has medium-high pigmentation and semi-opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered easily, but it is also slightly powdery and sheers out quite easily as a result, so take care not to over-blend. It is warmer than Scene, cooler than Copperplate, and much lighter than Print.

Typographic is a blackened charcoal grey in a Matte² finish. This is a permanent shade. The texture is soft, silky, and finely-milled, and goes on smoothly and evenly. It has high pigmentation and opaque colour pay-off. It can be layered and blended out easily. It is more grey and more pigmented than Carbon, less blue than Nehru, and darker than Print.

I know what you're thinking. Why does a colour collection called "All About Orange" feature an eyeshadow palette with no orange? Well, I can't be absolutely sure why they chose to release a palette of all grey shades, but judging by the visual the accompanies this collection, I can only guess that MAC was inspired by the '60s mod trend that's happening right now, and wanted to pair a neutral, grey smoky eye with all the bright, splashy oranges. While I found all four shades in this quad to be soft, smooth, and pigmented across the board, I was also kind of disappointed in the colour selection if only because it would've been such a great opportunity to come out with an orange/peach/coral palette. That having been said, I like that all four shades have neutral undertones, so they will flatter virtually everyone. This is a very good basic grey palette and includes shades that pretty much everyone should have in their arsenal. It's not exactly an exciting palette, but it is classic.