I mentioned in my last little MAC post that when I fell in love with the Walk of Flame lipstick, I ended up falling in love with the Stairs to the Stars eyeshadow too. The MAC Christmas collection this year is one of my absolute favourites, which is so nice as I really struggled with a few of their collections in the past. Stairs to the Stars is a Spellbinder shadow which MAC say are ‘Black, ionized pigments which are magnetically charged, fusing the loose powder together.’ As soon as I swatched this in store, I knew I needed to have it.
Like the lipstick, I cannot fault the packaging at all. It matches the multi coloured, glittery, party theme that MAC seem to have going on this year and I am loving it. The Spellbinder shadows come in the usual Paint Pot packaging, but instead of the black lid, they have the super sparkly Christmas version. In a similar way to the lipstick packaging, it is subtle but still keeps in with the Festive theme.
Stairs to the Stars is a rich metallic burgundy shade. It has a slight pearly finish to it, when you look closely you can see it within the glitter. You can’t really see in the photos, but there is almost a slight iridescent tone running through. In the pan, the eyeshadow has a stripy look to it, it reminds me of those nail polishes you can get, where you create the patterns with the magnets. I am guessing this is where the magnetically charged pigments come in. No flies on me! You can see mine is slightly damaged which is SO ANNOYING, but I’m sure I can move on.
This eyeshadow has a very loose feel to it, more like a pigment but with a bit more structure. When swatching, a little goes a long way as a lot of product is picked up with even the lightest touch. Even tapping the product instead of swiping picks up a lot and also enabled me to pat out the damaged part haha! MAC says that the shades cling to the lids like velvet and I couldn’t agree more. They are almost creamy to apply and once they touch the lid, they look amazing. I used both my finger and a brush and both methods worked really well.
Stairs to the Stars is such a lovely shade. I wondered how it was going to work with the lighter and darker shades running through, but they just blend together beautifully to create a lovely medium burgundy colour. At certain angles, you can see a true red running through, but most of the time it leans more towards the brown side which makes it super wearable.
This eyeshadow lasted really well before it started to gather in my eyelid crease which is my own fault for not using a primer really. It didn’t fade at all without one though and I am really impressed with it overall.
I can’t wait to use this with bright gold shades to create a smokey glam look. So if it works, watch out for that one! ❤
