Now, you guys know how much I love MAC, but I can admit that the brand has missed the mark with this eyeshadow formula. They really should have spent more time refining it before putting it on the market. The worst part to me is that they are still using this formula in palettes, so they seem to be running with it. There do tend to be inconsistencies in other finishes (from other brands as well, not just MAC), but given that there are only 10 dazzelshadow extreme shades, they really should perform more similarly to each other than they do. The shades that I have tried are Objet D’ Art, Couture Copper, Joie De Glitz, Celebutante, and Incinerated and between these 5 shades, they feel like 3 (maybe 4) different formulas.
Objet D’ Art and Joie De Glitz perform the same in that they have a gritty texture with noticeable sparkle and a good amount of fallout. If you are someone that doesn’t mind doing your eyes first or cleaning up fallout, I actually would recommend these two. I’m not sure how anyone at MAC felt right describing Celebutante as extreme. It has a very soft finish, it looks much shinier in a swatch than it does on my eyes. I would say it is satin at best, there is nothing metallic or extreme going on in my experience. If you like a more subtle eyeshadow, I do think this one performs nicely and I had no issues with fallout. It just doesn’t deliver what it should since it is grouped under the dazzleshadow extreme finish. I did purchase Celebutant from the Cosmetics Company Outlet, so I guess it is possible that it was part of a bad batch that got sent to the outlet as overstock.
Couture Copper is smoother than Objet D’ Art and Joie De Glitz and doesn’t have a noticeable sparkle to it but does have more shine than the typical MAC finish you may be used to. It is also more finicky to apply than Objet D’ Art and Joie De Glitz, applying best with fingers. I still like and use Couture Copper, but there are better more user-friendly shadows. The reason I said there are “maybe 4” formulas is that while I think that the formula of incinerated is most similar to Couture Copper, it has a thicker texture that makes it the hardest of all shades to work with. Hopefully, there isn’t much more variation in the formula of the other 5 shades in this line, but at this point, I wouldn’t be shocked.
Have you tried this formula? What do you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below.
MAC DazzleShadow Extreme Swatches (L to R):
- Objet D’ Art: Electric ochre with silver sparkle
- Couture Copper: Bright copper
- Joie De Glitz: Olive green
- Celebutante: Rosy pink with red sparkle
- Incinerated: Brown with red pearl
Final Thoughts
If I ignore the inconsistent formula, these are decent eyeshadows. There are better metallic formulas on the market that give you impact and are less fussy but they’re also more expensive and are typically only available in palettes. Pat McGrath and Natasha Denona come to mind. If you are into luxury eyeshadow quads, I also think Charlotte Tilbury eyeshadows have nice shine and impact. But if you did have your eye on the MAC Dazzleshadow Extreme formula and you don’t mind working around fallout, then I would suggest Objet D’ Art and Joie De Glitz with Couture Copper being the second best of what I tried. If you are interested in even more details, I have done separate reviews on Incinerated (click here) and Couture Copper (click here).
As I’ve mentioned in my review for Couture Copper, this formula does have more glitz and shine than MAC’s regular shimmers, but the brand is promising “one-swipe saturation” and I just don’t get that. I do think they are all pigmented, but to get the saturation you see in the pan, it definitely takes me more than one swipe.
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Mac has ten shades of the Dazzleshadow Extreme eyeshadow formula and it is available as pictured (in refill pans) for $10.00** and in a compact for $23.00 at maccosmetics.com.** You have to have a palette to store the eyeshadow if you decide to get the refill pan form. MAC sells empty containers in various sizes for this purpose.** The magnet that MAC uses is not compatible with other empty palettes on the market. If you don’t want to buy MAC’s version of the empty palette, you’ll need to add a magnet or buy the eyeshadow in the compact version.
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Nikki From HR 
That’s a pretty collection of shades! It’s interesting that Celebutante doesn’t even look as shiny as the others in the pan, but they called it a dazzle shadow anyway. That’s got to be tough for those who love one of the formulas, but have to go in-store or blindly buy online and hope to find the rest they like and hope to not get some that are flaky or thick/chunky.
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Yea, they are really all over the place. Their other finishes are more consistent for sure, but they just don’t have the impact that you can get from other brands. I know we’ve talked about it before, but they’ve really fallen behind in the eyeshadow market.
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