Mac Paint Pots – Tailor Grey and Perky

If you want to capture my attention you mention “long wear” and you get it… you mention Paint Pots and you’ll see my fingertips twiching with excitement ready to swatch! 😀

On Saturday I saw these new paint pots by surprise, I haven’t been following Mac collections at all so I did not know about them. I really should keep an eye on Mac news but happy and relieved that I was there at the right time after all. A few intense swatching minutes later, I selected two, Perky and Tailor Grey, utterly in love with the shades, I had to take them home and give them a deeper test :

Why these two ?

I am attracted to pink corals and taupes, specially when they are both combined in the same look. When I tried a first look with them  (Perky on the eyelid and Tailor Grey in the outer crease and lower lashline) it reminded of a look that I do on a daily basis with the 2 recent trios from Tom Ford, In The Pink and She Wolf but once home I noticed that the shades don’t really compare.

Tailor Grey

TF She Wolf is darker, this trio (not really a trio since I don’t use the glitter) is glamorous yet wearable, appropriate for the office, easy to wear, etc etc It’s neutral but the final look with it is always sultry and never ever looks tacky and for a powder texture, this is very long lasting. Of course I prefer the TF to the Mac but this Mac Tailor Grey is not bad and I will actually get a lot of use from it.

With the Tailor Grey I was also hoping for a dupe to the Ellis Faas 107 because I am struggling with the EF packaging. The pens are a great idea in terms of how they look but they just don’t work. If you  read my previous posts, you may have come across Ellis Faas reviews, I will just take this out of the way and tell you that in my opinion there is no better texture in the beauty world than the Ellis Faas, it combines the best texture with the best wearable colours and mind blowing lasting power. The problem with Ellis Faas is the bleeping packaging, it has been driving insane for a while and today I simply reached the point of no return, either they do something or I’ll stop purchasing them. Today I wanted to do some swatches but they just “exploded”, product got spread all over the place, also on my (beige leather) shoes… I am really mad at them because some time ago I wrote to Ellis Faas and they told me that they have no intention of changing it.

I have hooded eyes, when I apply color in the crease (specially a cream based shadow), the finish has to be smooth otherwise the skin there may look crepey, that is the big strength of Ellis Faas, the finish with their products is the best to me and unfortunately I haven’t found a similar product yet. The Mac Tailor Grey finish is acceptable, after 10 hours it looks a little bit dry but it hasn’t flaked, just faded and it fades evenly without creasing.

Note for Ellis Faas (if they ever read): please for the love of Beauty, do something about it!!!

Anyway, that’s why it’s now depotted (because it was either that or the bin), I transferred the product that stayed inside the tube to a little sterilized pot but I am not sure it will remain usable. It may completely dry out.

The messy mess

The Tom Ford is really darker and I really love the lasting power as I said before, although it’s neutral, I wish that these trio (duo) would remain in their permanent collection.

Mac Tailor Grey is warmer than the Maybelline but still not similar to the Ellis Faas, it’s something in between the Ellis Faas 105 and 107,  the 107 being the most beautiful and subtle smokey eye ever on my lids. I was hoping this Mac paint pot could replace the 107 but it’s not as warm. It will be good enough anyway because I won’t repurchase any more bleeping EF pens again.

I use the EL Mochachino on the lid blended till near the crease, then I apply very thin black eyeliner and I set the liner with a black eyeshadow (Addiction) bringing it a bit further up than the black liner fading into the Mochachino, this is really a gorgeous look, kind of smokey but office wearable, I just won’t apply the Mochachino too high because it has too much pearly shine and on hooded lids that’s not a pretty thing.

The purpose of this paint pot was to see how it could actually “replace” the Ellis Faas. By the way, I had bought the Bobbi Brown stick in “Shadow” some time ago but gosh, I absolutely hate it, it applies and looks horrible, dry, patchy, just like mud and that is clearly not a flattering formula in my humble opinion.

Perky

This Perky Paint Pot is fresh and beautiful, it’s a coral peachy pink with pearly shine to it, the texture is easily blendable, buildable and once applied you get very decent color payoff that stays put. The shade is not that similar to the Tom Ford, but it lasts much longer and reflects the light with more intensity, a sort of pearly metallic finish but wearable. The Tom Ford is more subtle and therefore more elegant.  If you also own the Tom Ford In The Pink, you can combine them, apply Perky on the lid, Tailor Grey in the “outer crease” and add In The Pink in the browbone. At the end of the day the application of Perky will remain more noticeable than the Tom Ford, the TF are “just” powder shadows after all but for the browbone area the paint pot is just a bit too much for me.

The TF In The Pink is just elegance in a palette, again, not a trio for me since the glitter pan is unnecessary but a wonderful little palette with the most finely milled shadows, very flattering, very straightforward, a wash of these shadows with the TF eye defining pen (or any other black eyeliner of your choice) and you are ready for whatever your intentions take you. Now, if you want a brighter and long-lasting result, you can use the Mac Perky instead and you get it. I have no complaints on the lasting power of the Perky paint pot, lasts all day, again it does not flake when fading and even when faded it looks evenly applied (after 10 hours).

If this Perky paint pot made you think of the Chanel Illusion D’Ombre mousse shadows, it won’t result in the same application. My issue with these Ombres is that it’s actually an Illusion thinking that this will last on my eyelids. They fade and crease and it’s ok for a short period of time but it’s not even conceivable to wear them for a whole day at the office, the Chanel are more for a spring picnic, where you want just a fresh splash of color that will last the time of a meal (spanish meal) or an afternoon out.

You can’t see  much with my swatches but well, once I’ll get better lighting I hope the swatches will be more helpful, for now, I can only manage that :

 The Mac Coral Crepe is much more coral, not as flattering for me as the Perky is. 

How to apply these paint pots 

I usually love paint pots, it’s not the best formula but it’s good enough, my Blackground paint pot is nearly all gone actually, I apply it as a base for smokey looks over and over again.

I think that the more product you layer the more it will end creasing, for some mousse shadows in order to get a nice colour pay off I need to layer more product, with the paint pots I don’t need as much product therefore I really think that it does help preventing the creasing. In general I apply sheer paint pot colours with the fingertips and darker colors with a brush in order to build up the color gradually. I like the new Make Up For Ever brushes (the round ones) to apply paint pot textures because they are firm enough for blending and very soft, these brushes are very good for this but not much for anything else I am afraid.

The technique when I apply a dark shade as a base for a smokey eye is that I apply a little layer very close to the top lashes on the mobile eyelid then blend upwards towards the crease. If you take too little product it may look patchy because it will dry before you had the time to blend properly. If you apply too much it will be difficult to remove the excess, sometimes I use also tiny stippling motions to blend, as long as the brushes are soft they won’t irritate my eyes. It’s not easy at first to get an even finish but after a few times you get the technique.

More Comparisons

I still did not find a way to take nice swatch pictures but I will link other bloggers who will be able to help with that task 🙂

Temptalia, Perky and Tailor Grey.

Bottom line

Specially happy with the Perky but Tailor Grey is not a dupe for the Ellis Faas I am afraid, still I will definitely stop buying Ellis Faas unless they do something about the packaging, I am sure there is a way to keep the same packaging but change the way the applicator works (remove the brush or improve the mechanism for example).

I noticed that I am too in love with Tom Ford at the moment and that I struggle reaching for anything else anyway, so my pain of not being able to use the Ellis Faas pens is under control right now  🙂