What I'm Not Buying: MAC Spellbinder Shadows

MAC has released eight limited-edition loose eyeshadows that are held together with ionized pigments that are magnetically charged. 

And I won't be buying. 

These shadows cost $22 each for 0.02 ounces of product. That is tiny. To put it into perspective:

• Traditional MAC shadows cost $6 per pan for 0.04 ounces 
• Makeup Geek shadows cost $6–$10 for 0.064 ounces
• Inglot shadows cost $7 for 0.08 ounces 
• Make Up For Ever shadows cost $21 for 0.07 ounces
• Kat Von D Metal Crush shadows cost $21 for 0.10 ounces
• Burberry shadows cost $29 for 0.09 ounces 

The Spellbinder shadows cost as much as Make Up For Ever and Kat Von D shadows but have less than a third and  fifth of the product. 

These eyeshadows—pointblank—are a gimmick. Hands down the most interesting thing about them is their appearance (which looks like velvet) and the fact that if you hover a magnet over them, the pigment will move and can stick to the magnet. YouTube personality Tati demonstrates this in a video about the shadows. 

Other than that, when swatched and applied to the eye, they look just like every other eyeshadow. They wear the same as a normal eyeshadow, and they blend the same. I cannot say this enough: there is nothing special about these in terms of performance. 

There are eight shadows in this collection:

Even the colors are not very complex. They are very basic jewel tones. That's it. 

What's interesting about the shadow formula is that they apply much better with a brush than they do with fingers. This is best shown in the Tati video linked above, but you can also see swatches on Temptalia's blog. 

Let's look at some other jewel-tone options:

There's the Sleek Storm palette:

Photo: So Loverly

Urban Decay Smoked:

Makeup Geek foiled shadows:

Inglot shadows:

Photo: Temptalia

Note: This is a palette made by Christine of Temptalia. For more information, see her post.

Kat Von D Metal Crush eyeshadows:

Photo: Temptalia

And Juvia's Place Masquerade:

When I saw the swatches of the Spellbinder shadows, I felt angry at the price. Sure the shadows look nice when applied with a brush, can last well over primer, and blend fine, but so do most eyeshadows. Not even most quality eyeshadows. All the Spellbinder shadows have a shimmer finish, and as I've said many times, I think it's a lot harder to make a good matte than it is to make a good shimmer. 

I'd like to talk about price just a little more. These shadows are overpriced. You are paying for the design and the concept (the gimmick) more than any ingredient benefits that I can see. If you're going to spend $22 on an eyeshadow, I would recommend getting a Make Up For Ever or Kat Von D Metal Crush eyeshadow. 

In terms of palettes, the Sleek Storm palette costs $10 US. The Juvia's Place Masquerade palette costs  $25–$35. I owned the Storm palette several years ago and thought the quality was on par with MAC shadows. I currently own the Masquerade palette and think it is a great palette with variety and good quality. Both of these palettes offer substantially more product and variety and the Spellbinder shadows. 

This is something else that I don't really understand about MAC. Their pan shadows used to cost $10 each. When Makeup Geek came on the market and started selling shadows with comparable, if not better, quality with more product for $6, it hit MAC hard. Since the beauty community has boomed on YouTube and social media, MAC has become less and less part of the everyday conversation. So last year, MAC took action and lowered the price of their pan eyeshadows to meet Makeup Geek's price. However, the pan eyeshadows seem to be the only product to receive that consideration, as the price of the Spellbinder and other limited-edition eyeshadows are very disproportionate. 

As I've been writing this blog and seeing the influx of new products flood the market, I've been able to take a really critical look at products. And the trend that I've noticed quite a bit is that in order to get attention now, a product needs to be attached to a gimmick. And I'm really sick of that trend. I don't need my eyeshadow to look like lead when I run a magnet over it. I don't need my eyeshadow to smell like chocolate or peach or eggnog or anything else. And I certainly don't need my eyeshadow to have cutesy childlike packaging. I just don't need it. When you think about how much the Spellbinder shadows cost in comparison to how little product you get, you have to wonder what you're paying for. Frankly, it's not the shadow or shadow quality. It's everything else. If you take away the packaging and gimmick, these are just normal-perfomring eyeshadows. I have plenty of shadows, including jewel tones, and I don't need magnetic ones. And I won't be buying.