I mentioned the consistency of Bobbi Brown’s matte eyeshadows in my last post about the brand’s best sellers and it reminded me that I wanted to post about this. It took me a long time to buy this shade because I was worried it would be too cool-toned for me, but it turned out to be just warm enough.
This particular shade is a classic matte finish from Bobbi Brown, simply labeled as Eye Shadow. The brand also has Mettalic Eyeshadow, Shimmer Wash Eye Shadow, and Luxe Eye Shadow.
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Bobbi Brown Taupe Eye Shadow (matte finish), $29.00**
Product shots are tricky in the winter when you rely on natural light for photos. It was a bit of a struggle, but hopefully, the images are still helpful.
There is no getting around it, Bobbi Brown is an expensive brand. You can obviously find eyeshadows at a better price point, but I do think that this is a unique shade, so at least that is something. The brand describes this as a warm taupe and I agree with that. If you can appreciate a neutral shade this is a nice crease color. It has enough taupe/coolness to pair easily with cooler tones and also enough warmth to still work with warm tones.
Overall, I find the Bobbi Brown matte eyeshadow formula to be well pigmented and easy to blend. I am able to use them with both natural and synthetic brushes and they blend well regardless. The press in the pain is not as firm as MAC or NARS, but it is not loose. I don’t see any dust up in the pan when I place my brush in it and I don’t find it necessary to knock off any extra powder.
MAC Cork** vs Bobbi Brown Taupe** vs MAC Sandstone**
As you can see, the Bobbi Brown shade is the warmest of these shades. MAC Cork is described as a muted golden brown and MAC Sandstone is described as a warm taupe. MAC shadows retail for $8.00 in the refill (as pictured) and $19.00 in a single compact.
MAC Cork** vs Bobbi Brown Taupe** vs MAC Sandstone** (finger swatches)
I’m fairly picky about dupes, so while I wouldn’t consider these dupes, I do think that they will all get you to about the same place. I think the warmer you are, the more you should consider Bobbi Brown Taupe**. To my eye, MAC Cork** is the most neutral (of these three shades), so most people can get along with this shade depending on what it is paired with. MAC Cork will look warmer in warm looks and cooler in neutral and cool looks, whereas Bobbi Brown Taupe maintains a hint of warmth regardless of what I pair it with. The cooler-toned you are, the more you may want to consider MAC Sandstone**. At least on me, MAC Sandstone looks like a cool-toned taupe in every look I’ve tried.
MAC Cork** vs Bobbi Brown Taupe** vs MAC Sandstone** (brush swatches over primer)
I don’t usually include brush swatches, but these shades become so much more similar when blended out that I thought this would help make that more clear. The other consideration between these shades is a small difference in my opinion. To me, the Bobbi Brown formula is smoother and easier to blend. The reason I think this is a small difference is that the MAC formula still works well for me and the Bobbi Brown formula costs $10 more (when comparing MAC’s compact pricing). Basically, the Bobbi Brown eyeshadows should perform better if they cost $10 more. So to me, it would come down to how much you want to spend.
UPDATE January 15, 2022: I had the caption for the brush swatch picture below listed out of order, but it is now fixed. Swatched from left to right are MAC Cork, Bobbi Brown Taupe, and MAC Sandstone.
I always find it hard to track down swatches of Bobbi Brown’s products so I also wanted to include a photo that I have from my old blog of other shades. The shades toast, velvet plum, cognac, and camel are all still available for purchase. However, the shades 3 banana and 21 blonde unfortunately seem to have been discontinued.
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Nikki From HR 
This reminds me to pull out my Bobbi Brown singles. I do love them a lot, I should pick up this Taupe shade next time I buy from their site. I’m a little bit worried about the brand, it seems a lot less popular than it used to be.
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I think they’ll likely be ok. I feel like a lot of their loyal customers are propping the brand up fairly well. But then again, I consider myself a loyal customer and I’ve been neglecting them a little myself lol.
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Hi! I would love to try Bobbi Brown cosmetics. I used to read her make up books a lot for learrning how to apply makeup.
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Seems like her books helped a lot of people. Thanks for reading 🙂
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i really did! nowwwww…if only i could properly apply make up especially foundation and concealer
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Properly is whatever works best for you and makes you feel good 🙂. Have you tried practicing in your downtime? When you don’t have anywhere to go and can afford to “mess up”, you can use that time to test out different methods to see what you like.
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