MAC Cinderella: Studio Eye Gloss - Lightly Tauped Swatches & Review

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Hey lovelies,

MAC's decision to include the pro product Studio Eye Gloss in a very commerical launch has been a talking point amongst MAC fans since we heard the first whispers of the Cinderella collection. So I was delighted and intrigued when a parcel showed up from MAC NZ's PR containing the shade Lightly Tauped.

The Studio Eye Gloss comes packaged in a 15ml screw top jar. If you have or recall MAC's (now discontinued in the potted form) lip conditioner or tinted lip conditioners, this is the same jar format. The shade I have, Lightly Tauped, is one of two, the other being Pearl Varnish which is a white gloss with pearl.

This stuff looks positively magical in the jar and swatched on my arm, the complexity to the shimmer is just incredible and has to be seen in person.

Left: Applied heavily/Right: Sheered out

Although Lightly Tauped does have a taupe base it is translucent enough to be nearly imperceptible when sheered out on the skin.The sparkle didn't show up on my lids so well in photos but could be glimpsed a bit more readily in real life. It is subtle though, definitely not the full on sparkle seen in the heavy swatch!

Here's how I wore Lightly Tauped:

Using a synthetic flat concealer brush, I patted a thin layer of Lightly Tauped over a similarly coloured base (Colourpop I Heart This).

See the rest of this makeup look here

And here's how it looked after half an hour:

The Studio Eye Gloss has a very tacky, gluey consistency. Temptalia described it physically snapping her eyelid back; I didn't find it quite so extreme but wearing this there is definitely a difference in the way that your lid moves. It's a very odd sensation having the folds of your eyelids come un-stuck in slow motion with each blink.

Always keen to put a product through its paces, I trialled it several ways.

Applied to bare lids, I found the Eye Gloss began to crease after an hour. After that time the creasing didn't seem to happen any further and the stickiness of the formula was still noticeable, but not as annoying. The product shifted noticeably during wear though, and we're talking within an hour of application. Although I applied it just to my mobile lid, it found its way above my crease, underneath my eye and began winging its way out to settle into crows feet I didn't know I had.
I then tried using it as a sticky base for shimmery eyeshadows, reasoning that glitter glues like Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy share a similar tackiness but the Studio Eye Gloss is stickier again. When I applied a shimmer eyeshadow over it (I used a neutral pink shimmer from a MUA palette) it intensified it into a molten, metallic finish, but the eyeshadow did nothing to set it. The Eye Gloss remained tacky and pulls formed in the shadow as the Eye Gloss stuck to itself with the natural movement of my lids. Within ten minutes, the shadow had been pulled away from most of my mobile lid and had begun forming into clumps along my crease.
And as you can see from the photos above, when worn over eyeshadow it creased heavily within half an hour on me. You can even see the beginnings of the creasing in the last eye photo before the 'after' shot. It also grabbed at my liquid eyeliner, forming lines above my crease. This was more noticeable on my left eye (your right), which is more hooded than my right and can be seen if you enlarge the full face photo above.
I also tried slicking it on my cheeks as a highlighter and it looked beautiful, but the tackiness does feel odd. I only tried it on bare cheeks and I'm not sure how well it would fare over foundation, given the strong dislike it took to my eye makeup.

I haven't got any information as to whether the Studio Eye Gloss is lip safe but I'm tempted to try it as a lipgloss to make the most of that incredible shimmer! When I removed Lightly Tauped from both my eyes and my cheeks, I found that a lot of shimmer and tackiness still remained and a double cleanse was required to get rid of all of it.

It's worth bearing in mind that I have super oily eyelids and I have seen other people mention the Eye Gloss not creasing for them. As with all makeup, your mileage will vary! I can only speak to my experience.

I think this is a product that could go either way for a lot of people. I can see it being fantastic for fashion photo shoots where you're not so concerned with longevity or potentially SFX makeup. If you love the lived-in, messy, sexy look the Eye Gloss would be perfect for that. But for most consumers and especially anyone who prefers a polished look - not so much. I intend to keep playing with it, but it's something I'd probably reserve for a concert or dress up party rather than everyday use.

I like that MAC is a brand that takes risks so on the one hand I want to congratulate them for including a product which has a pretty specific purpose. On the other hand, being a movie tie-in, the Cinderella collection had the potential to attract the attention of greater numbers and convert new MAC fans (the eyeshadow palette containing a greatest hits of MAC eyeshadows seems to back this theory up). So wouldn't they want to put their best foot forward and put out more of the products they're known best for? Then again, MAC has never been a predictable brand. From the original Viva Glam campaign with RuPaul to this unforgettable Heatherette collaboration starring Amanda Lepore - perhaps a move like this is exactly what we should have expected! (Links are NSFW).