Ever created an entire look with just one eyeshadow?
No? Oh you must try it! All you need is a colored base and your duochrome eyeshadows to accomplish these easy looks. What are duochrome eyeshadows? These are eyeshadows that have two colors within it, so if you look at the eyeshadow straight on it can appear to be one color, but if you tilt it at an angle you can see an entirely different color. Some of the most well-known duochrome shades in MAC’s line are:
- Club
- Expensive Pink
- Gorgeous Gold
- Motif
- Rose (PRO)
- Seedy Pearl (discontinued)
- Stars ‘N Rockets
- Tilt
- Vellum (PRO)
- Vex
By adding a simple base color to the look with one of these eyeshadows, you can get a two-color eyeshadow combination … but you’re really only using one eyeshadow to create the look. Let me show you what I mean … 😉
STARS ‘N ROCKETS
Stars ‘N Rockets is one of my most favorite shades because it has two of my most favorite colors mixed together: pink and purple! This eyeshadow looks COMPLETELY different when layered over a black base. In this look I applied MAC’s Blackground paint pot as a base on the lid, layered Stars ‘N Rockets over it and then applied Stars ‘N Rockets into the crease … and that’s it! What a look!
EXPENSIVE PINK
For this look, I chose to go with more of a red-based paint pot in MAC’s limited edition, Idyllic. (Note: Expensive Pink does NOT look all that great over a black base.) If you don’t already have Idyllic, you can also use Maybelline’s Color Tattoo in ‘Pomegranate Punk’ in its place as the two are very similar in color. For this look, I did the same thing: applied Idyllic as a base on the lid and then layered Expensive Pink over it and applied more Expensive Pink in the crease. It changes the color enough to make it appear as if you’re wearing two eyeshadows.
*hard to capture this one in pictures; looks AMAZING in person!
CLUB
Ah! The most elusive shade of all of MAC’s duochrome eyeshadows (and another one of my favorites!). Club realllly shines when it’s used over a black base as the black helps to cancel out the brown tones in the eyeshadow and emphasize the green. For this look I used MAC’s Blackground paint pot once again on the lid … by the way, if you don’t have Blackground or a black base, you can also use your black gel eyeliner in the same way. 😉 Then I layered Club over the black base on the lid and applied it into the crease and on the lower lashline. Looks like two completely different eyeshadows, right?!
Adel
Good tips
Marge Burkell
GREAT article Zabrina! Some of those (especially the ones over black) look entirely different when layered! Always fun to get MORE bang for your buck! Thanks!
Zabrena
Thanks, Marge! YES! Definitely! I really LOVE SNR over a black base, sooooo beautiful!
Ruth Lyons
LOVE this idea and can’t wait to try it. Thanks!
Zabrena
You’re welcome! Enjoy, Ruth! 😀
Mariella
I have really limited use for a black base like Blackground. It’s taken me years to get even close to finishing Painterly, which I use often. So it would be really great if MAC made “Paint Pot minis” (sort of like they did recently with some of the pigments) so that we could buy some of these “novelty” colours and have a chance of using them up.
Zabrena
Wouldn’t that be nice?! I know you have a black gel eyeliner though 😉 Try that instead! Works perfectly in place of a paint pot!
laurie ratnoff
Try the body needs website. They sell samples of paintpots for around 3$ 🙂 it has saved me a lot of $$ on paint pots I would have regretted buying otherwise
KristaS
I just got an email from them. They’re having a sale through the 8th that gives tiered discounts up to 30%, depending on how much you spend. It would be a good time to snap up a few of those paint pot samples.
Laura
Zabrena, you’re awesome! Love the YouTube videos!!
Zabrena
Thank you for your support, Laura! 😀
Jeanette
Wow! That is ingenious…saves time and it looks good…I would like to see more ideas!
KristaS
What a great idea! Now I want to experiment. I think the SNR one is my favorite, but I don’t have that color. I could try it with UD Fishnet. That one is also pink with a purple shift.
Zabrena
YES! Fishnet would be a great one to try it with!
KristaS
I experimented tonight. Congratulations Z, you have created a monster!
I dug through my UD and MAC and came up with many of the same duochromes you did. Here’s what I found:
Using Blackground with Fishnet yielded basically the same results as SNR did. Very pretty!
Next, I put MUFE 22 (bright grass green) on my lid and tried some UD Shattered over it. WOW. For those of you unfamiliar with UD colors, Shattered is a light tealish color that has a yellow/gold sheen to it. So, the yellow in MUFE 22 really made it pop some serious green, the color softening up as it got to the crease.
I also tried UD Zodiac (black with a crapload of primarily green glitter) and UD Snare (greenish grey) over the green. Neither really tickled my fancy. I think Zodiac would have looked better wet, but wouldn’t that have defeated the purpose of using the cream shadow? Oh well. I could have tried UD Lounge (very similar to Club) over the green, but because of the clock decided to move on.
Next I tried Maybelline Color Tattoo in Fuchsia Fever on the lid with UD Omen over it. Omen is purpler and leans a lot more blue than Fishnet/SNR but the red in FF balanced that out and I was left with a nice purple, but it shimmered blue (will have to try it over Blackground!). I also tried Gorgeous Gold over FF and wow, it looked like a sunset! Since I also wanted to try Vex, I only put GG in the inner half and tried Vex on the outer half. That left me with a nice shimmery red-toned lavender. Both of these colors were quite subdued and I could easily see them as being office friendly. Actually, the two eyeshadows didn’t look half bad together, as GG gave a nice brighter pop to the inner half of the lid; a rather unexpected but pleasant surprise.
I told myself no more, as I’m sure you can see what time it is, haha… But I certainly had fun experimenting. Have at it ladies, and keep sharing what you come up with! 😀
beautywithin
I love doing this!! Seeing your post made me think of this again, today I tried Tilt over a green base on the inner half of lid and Tilt over a black base on outer half of lid using Swiss Chocolate in crease and Malt to blend. GORGEOUS, I love getting compliments from friends on my makeup.
Zabrena
Now THAT sounds amazing! I want to try that! I haven’t used Tilt in FOREVER and a day now, come to think of it LOL
KristaS
Oooh, I’ll have to dig out my Tilt! Thanks for sharing!
Julia
Oh WOW! I’ve never thought about that yet! I really want to get Stars ‘n rockets now! 🙂
and I have both expensive pink and the color tattoo you mentioned, so I definetely will try that! 🙂
Zabrena
YAY! Enjoy, Julia! 🙂
Saira
Great idea, Zabrena! I never thought about trying this. I can’t wait to try these combinations out, especially Club over Blackground paintpot!
Zabrena
You will LOVE it, Saira! 😀
laurie ratnoff
Wow Zabrena!! Your site always gives me new ideas and inspiration, you never disappoint!! 🙂
Now I cant wait to try this with all the above mentioned shadows as well as some pigments and several shadows I have from kat von d!!!!
You are my hero xxx
Karen Maitland
Hello Pretty lady! This post was AMAZING! Thanks so much – I can’t wait to try this out, you are so talented. Karen x
Lisa
SO excited to try these out! Thanks for the dupe for Idyllic, been looking for one forever!
Karen
LOVE all these looks! I am getting that black paint pot!!!
Zabrena
Haha! You can use a black gel eyeliner too if you don’t have a black paint pot! 😉
Nicole
I have quite a few duo chrome pigments I got in the MAC 2012 Christmas collection, one of which is “I’ve got a crush on you” only much more vibrant and it is dupe for Club (which I bought right before unknowingly, ugh!) and I am excited to use blackground with it! There is another one “Feminity” which is close to stars and rockets in coloring (don’t own that one to compare) and I was wondering what you’d recommend under that color – black ground or would it be worth buying a purple PP? I do have a lot of purple shadows especially UD ones… But I am limited on money. Thanks for the advice! Btw love this site! It is so helpful and I’ve saved a lot of money from checking out your dupe lists!