MAC Painterly Paint Pot Review

Unlike my MAC Fix+, I did not look up any reviews on MAC's paint pot in the shade Painterly. Yes, I took a risk. However I did purchase the paint pot at a MAC counter, so I was able to swatch the product and compare the shade of Painterly with the rest of MAC's collection of  paint pots. A "paint pot" is a cream eyeshadow that can be used on their own or as a base for other eyeshadows that would be used. They come in various finishes, but most of them are frosts.

My initial reason for buying this product was for those lazy days when I just wanted to wack on some eyeliner, a bit of lipstick and go! I have very fair skin, so my eyelids have slight discolouration due to the veins surrounding and on my eyelids. In words, it's sounds pretty weird but in reality it's most likely only me that notices the discolouration on my eyes, but it bugs me! So I wanted an eyeshadow of a cream formula (NOT CONCEALER!) that covered up the majority of the discolouration on my eyes and at the same time appearing as an even, neautral eyeshadow for underneath my eyeliner.

Other reasons for buying this product were that as an opaque, light, cream base, the paint pot intesifies the eyeshadow that you plan to apply on top of it and prolongs the wear of the eyeshadow. Paint pots are also known for being good eye primers, preventing or reducing creasing of the eyeshadow worn.

Painterly is described as a Nude Beige. This shade literally matches my skin colour, though it may have a slight darker pink tone to it than what my skin does, but that doesn't bother me!

This product applies amazingly well! On myself I use my ring finger to apply the product, this works well because it warms the cream formula as you place the eyeshadow on your eyelids. I found that as soon as I placed my finger into the pot and onto the product, the product starts to melt and feel super silky, which makes it so much easier to apply! Obviously on someone else for hygienic reason, using a brush is a must! I am sure that the paint pot will apply just as well with a brush. I would advise you to use a good quality eye cream every night as this will stop the skin around your eyes being dry and the paint pot clinging and emphasising flaky skin. The paint pot dries fairly quickly after it is applied but I feel that this prevents smudging of the product into nooks and crannies where you don't want it to go!

I will say when you purchase a paint pot for the first time you will discover that the first few times you use it, it is not as creamy and soft as you expected. This is because you need to break through the very thin, top layer of the paint pot; this is done by running whatever you apply the paint pot with over the entire surface of the product everytime you use it. Eventually, the paint pot will be broken in and you will be thrown into it's loveliness.

Paint pots have also been known to dry up after a short amount of time after purchase. This has not yet happened to me, and hopefully it won't! I bought my paint pot in March 2010 and it is still in perfect condition. It could be due to how well you take care of your product, if you leave the lid off for a period of time regularly, then you should expect something like this to happen.

I did try the paint pot as a replacement of my Urban Decay Primer Potion for a couple of days or so. I wasn't impressed. My eyeshadow creased and went all over the place, but with all respect the paint pots aren't promoted as an eye primer, this is just word of mouth that they are good as eye primers. I disagree, this could be because I have ridiculously oily skin. The same product can be different for everyone!

On the other hand, the paint pot is fantastic for what I bought it for; a neutral eyeshadow with good coverage to be applied underneath my eyeliner, to give me that "bright eyed and bushy tailed" appearence!

You can purchase this product online from http://www.maccosmetics.co.uk/ if you are in the UK or http://www.maccosmetics.com/ if you are in the USA or Canada.

If you have any further questions contact me in the comment section below!

xoxo