Monday, April 7, 2008

lilac comparison

who says you can't get new makeup when you're on a ban? ;)

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^sample of Pink Pearl pigment courtesy of a MAC counter :)

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So Nic Nic asked me to compare Maybelline Mousse Lilac Cloud eyeshadow with MAC Beautiful Iris a week or so ago. I've also noticed though that the ELF Wisteria eyeshadow resembles Beautiful Iris, so I decided to throw it into the mix.


Under different camera settings - the real life colour is somewhere between these two pictures actually.

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Swatched, no base whatsoever.

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Maybelline Dream Mousse Lilac vs MAC Beautiful Iris:

As you can see, the colour is less pigmented than the MAC or ELF colours. In fact a LOT less pigmented. One single swipe yields mere shimmer, so it took a lot of swipes to get the colour to show up like that. The texture of the shadow is nice and moussse-y, but thats about it. I don't think anyone else would like this eyeshadow really....I'd definitely use it for a barely there natural look, but I would not recommend this to anyone. Simply because its too expensive for a barely-there colour - it cost me CDN $8-9. Oh well. So definitely nowhere close to MAC's Beautiful Iris.

ELF Wisteria vs MAC Beautiful Iris:

The ELF shadow is quite close actually in terms of pigmentation and colour when swatched. However MAC is still superior in some respects. Firstly, the MAC colour has a blue undertone/duochrome thingy (I don't know what is the right term! lol) while ELF is a straight light purple colour. Also, the ELF shadow is softer in texture, which is great for application, but that also results in less staying power than the MAC shadow.

So between the ELF and MAC, I guess it depends on what matters more to you, and the price difference :) Definitely would not recommend the Maybelline though.

17 comments:

ilurvemakeup said...

Lucky! My counter/store are bitches when it comes to free samples :(

I've been lemming beautiful and stars & rockets, they both a must have???

Ewww ELF.

Christiana Divine @ Memoirs of A Shopping Addict said...

wowee. i was tripping off of how well the ELF showed up! better than maybelline? wow. anywho, great comparison. :D the piggie sample you got is SUPER pretty. i lurve how it looks. :D

watercoloursky said...

yeah i remember you mentioning it on ABB, that sucks :(

Beautiful Iris yes, I don't know about Stars n Rockets but I remember Rolos using it for some fotds and it looked good on her :)

watercoloursky said...

christiana: i know, i was quite surprised at the texture of the ELF singles myself when I first got them :) But so many people seem to hate them so I dunno....my theory is that they probably work better for less oily lids like mine.

to be fair, some of the maybelline quad shadows are alright, just that this cream one sucks.

Rae // theNotice said...

MAC counters do SAMPLES?! News to me... x.x!!

The ELF swatch surprised me as well! Wow, it's so pigmented!

Anonymous said...

Oooh I have never gotten any samples from MAC counters. That's probably because I never go to them lol. But the little jar is so cute! I didn't know MAC had its own sample jars. I swatched some of the Maybelline Mousse stuff before and I was very unimpressed with the color payoff, but hey, I think it would look nice on top of powder eyeshadow as a highlight or to add an extra shimmery dimension to it? Just a thought :)

♡ Nic Nic ♡ said...

thanks for the comparison :D :D
well you can't actually get that maybelline lilac mousse here.. ill def get beautiful iris now :) it so pretty!! Im surprised how the ELF colour showed up like that!! :O but i have promised myself to never get ELF products again lol.

cheryl said...

interesting comparisons!

Tracy Roa said...

wow. who would've thought elf would be better than maybelline AND comparable to mac? haha. good post. thanks for the info. =)

theChas said...

Hmmm...it also seems like the ELF shadow is more matte. Or it could be that I'm biased towards Beautiful Iris. It's one of my favorite purples...

(g)ezebel said...

hmm, you could use the maybelline mousse as a base underneath the mac or elf shadows for a more vibrant color...? that way it's not a total waste of money.

♡ Nic Nic ♡ said...

Argh where did my comment go? :( LOL. gosh i swear i left a comment! Thanks alot of comparing the colours! I know which brand to pick now ;) im surprised ELF's colour looked that pigmented tbh! but like you say, it will come off easily.. im trying to lay off ELF from now on lol.

priincesspeach said...

Beautiful colors. Now I need a light purple eyeshadow to add to my collection =P. Thanks for the review!

sara said...

wow! the elf eyeshadow showed up so well; the color is beautiful and (dare I say it) better than the mac one! I'm going to have to shimmy over to the drugstore to hunt down that ELF shade...

watercoloursky said...

rae: yep they do. the counters and stores i've been to around Toronto always do it :)

petitebelle & gezebel: thats a good idea, i should do that!

nicnic: sorry! I read your comment through my email and I thought I clicked approve but I think i closed the message before doing that :S thanks for commenting again though :D

thechas: it doesn't show in the swatch but actually the ELF is more frosty in real life. Beautiful Iris is a Veluxe Pearl I believe, so in my opinion the ELF one is almost like a Frost version of it :)

tracy, cheryl, her.peachieness: no problem :)

jejuney: lol well if you don't find it, let me know as i'm thinking of getting rid of mine. i need to get rid of some makeup and i don't need two duplicate colours :)

priincesspeach said...

You definitely should get Pink Pearl (since it's LE!!). At first I was like, it's OK looking and I actually thought about returning it. But once I had it on, I couldn't stop looking at it. ^_^ I sound so conceded! It's a great color for both subtle and bright looks.

na said...

Wow, I had no idea the Elf one was that good. For $1, it's gotta be better than MAC's, haha.

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