MAC Paint Pots - Soft Ochre vs Painterly

MAC’s Paint Pots are fab, they can be used as a primer before applying your eyeshadow, or as a shadow in themselves. Unless you like a skin coloured eyeshadow though, Soft Ochre and Painterly are best used as a base. Both apply easily with fingers or a brush, both will go a whole day without creasing and both will make your shadow last all day (or night) – everything you want from a primer, right?!

So what’s the difference between the two and how do you choose one over the other? Well it really is very simple, basically the only difference is that they’re aimed at different skin tones. As you can see, while they are both skin coloured, Soft Ochre is yellow toned which will balance pink tones in the skin and counteract any redness around the eyes, while Painterly is much more pink, which is great for sallow toned skin as the contrast really brightens up the eye area. Wearing pink on the eyes if you have a pink skin tone is a recipe for disaster as it will give a look of being flushed and a bit piggy (for want of a better word), while if your skin is yellow toned, wearing yellow on the eyes can make you look, in all honesty, quite unwell. Counteracting these undertones is what Soft Ochre and Painterly are great for.

 I have an olive skin tone and I love using Painterly as a base for shadow as well as by itself if I just want to look like I’m not wearing anything – like the way you’d use a natural lipstick for a ‘my lips but better’ look, this is a ‘my lids but better’ if you will. My mum uses and loves Soft Ochre as she finds that by balancing out the pink in her skin, it really brightens her eyes.

If you’re unsure of what your skin tone is and would like to find out, staff at any makeup counter will be able to fill you in!

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