Makeup Geek Matte Eyeshadows Review

Today I have my Makeup Geek matte eyeshadows review, swatches, thoughts and look for you. As a hooded eye girl, mattes have become my new must have, so I’m always on the look out for new ones to add to my collection. I have 20 MUG shades to share with you. All are cruelty free and a few are vegan. My swatches are on N0 skin.

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Makeup Geek Matte Eyeshadows Review

Press sample.

Where to Buy
Makeup Geek

Price
$6 – individual shades
$110 – 20 shadow bundle
$160 – 27 pan bundle & large z-palette

The left side of my swatches are on Too Faced Shadow Insurance primer. The right side is on bare skin. If you look closely you can see where I taped down the center of the swatch to get a clean line with the primer, because the shadow doesn’t want to stick to that area very well.

Motown
Motown is a deep eggplant purple with a matte finish.
Deep blue-toned purple matte. I love this one.

Curfew
Curfew is a medium plum purple with a matte finish.
Deep plum purple matte. This one is nice.

Fairytale (vegan)
Fairytale is a muted lavender with gray undertones.
Muted greyed lavender matte. This is an interesting shade. I love that it’s cool toned.

Carnival (vegan)
Carnival is a bright medium orchid with a matte finish.
Midtone pinky purple matte. This is so pretty! It’s definitely a Pantone Radiant Orchid pink to me.

Petal Pusher
Petal Pusher is a medium rose brown with a matte finish.
Muted nude pink matte. This is a good crease shade on my skintone.

Confection (vegan)
Confection is a blush pink with very subtle gray undertones and a matte finish.
Light pink taupe matte. This is probably a good shade to use to blend out the edges of other shades because it wants to disappear into my skin.

Sorbet
Sorbet is a pastel melon pink with a matte finish
Pale peachy pink matte. Another good shade for blending out edges. Also good for an inner lid shade.

Concrete Jungle
Concrete Jungle is a deep gray with subtle purple undertones and a matte finish.
Perfect deep grey matte. I feel like this leans warm. I love love love this grey.

Stealth (vegan)
Stealth is a medium gray with strong slate blue undertones and a matte finish.
Deep gray with blue undertones, almost satin matte to me. I’m rather fond of this grey too.

Bedrock
Bedrock is a medium gray with strong brown undertones and a matte finish.
Ashey grey matte. It does have brown tones. I like this grey as well.

Time Travel
Time Travel is a deep teal with gray undertones and a matte finish.
Charcoal teal matte. I like this one a lot, it’s a really unique shade.

I thought these 3 might be more similar than they are. Fixated is more blue-grey than either of them. Effect is more teal blue. Time Traveler is more charcoal than either.

Enchanted Forest
Enchanted Forest is a deep ivy green with black undertones and a matte finish.
Blackened green matte.

Dragonfly
Dragonfly is a bright medium teal with a matte finish.
My least favorite shade of bright 80s teal green matte. This color does nothing for me, but it’s super pigmented.

Boo Berry
Boo Berry is a denim blue with gray undertones and a matte finish.
Muted slightly darker than royal blue matte.

Corrupt (vegan)
Not part of this release but I wanted to include it since it’s one of my favorite blacks.
It’s perfect for a smoky eye, lining your eyes, smudging at the roots of your lashes, or using to set a black creme product.

Americano
Americano is a dark brown with subtle purple undertones and a matte finish.
To me it’s a dark slightly cool brown.

Cherry Cola
Cherry Cola is a deep brown with strong red undertones and a matte finish.
A burgundy brown matte. I like this one more than I expected.

Vintage
Vintage is a medium brown with mauve undertones and a matte finish.
A midtone mauve brown. This is a good shade to use with Cherry Cola.

Morocco
Morocco is a rich, burnt orange with a matte finish
Rich, bright orange matte. This is such a perfect shade for Autumn.

Mirage
Mirage is a warm buttercream with a satin matte finish.
Warm light creamy yellow. Another of those shades that’s good for blending out the edges of other colors on my skintone.

Fuji
Fuji is a bright apple green with a demi-matte finish. Note: Fuji has microscopic shimmer particles, but functions as a matte when applied.
Bright yellow green. Super pretty.

The top of the swatch is on primer, the bottom is on bare skin.

Pairing Ideas

• Sorbet & Morocco
• Vintage & Cherry Cola
• Confection & Petal Pusher
• Mirage &  Fuji
• Carnival & Motown
• Carnival & Curfew
• Fairytale & Motown
• Fairytale & Concrete Jungle
• Bedrock & Concrete Jungle
• Dragonfly & Time Travel
• Dragonfly & Enchanted Forest
• Boo Berry & Time Travel
• Sorbet & Stealth

Makeup Geek eyeshadow pans are .064 oz of product each, so you’re getting a good amount of product for $6. For comparison, MAC refill pans are now .04 oz for $10 and Urban Decay eyeshadows are .05 oz for $19. I think this makes Makeup Geek an excellent value for the price.

Overall I feel like the MUG mattes have good pigmentation – both on primer and on bare skin – especially for the price point. I don’t think the formula on these eyeshadows are as buttery smooth as you will find with Urban Decay, but they’re also 1/3 the price. It seems like purples always suffer a bit. Fairytale and Motown were not as pigmented on bare skin as I would have liked, though they were perfect on primer.

As a member of the hooded eye club, I’m always trying to find new mattes to add to my collection. I feel like there’s a dearth of good mattes. I was happy to see such variety in the shades offered by Makeup Geek. The purples and greys are my favorite. I made myself try Morocco, Sorbet and Cherry Cola for an Autumn inspired look and was happy with how easy they were to apply and blend out.

They way I like to use mattes, as you probably know by now, is on the hood of my eye to create depth. I feel like these shades work well for that. They’re excellent to pair with duochromes. I’m really happy that Makeup Geek added so many mattes to their line up! I’m going to be using these along with the new duochrome eyeshadows that were released recently too.

What do you think of the new Makeup Geek Matte Eyeshadows?