MAC 'Club' Eyeshadow Dupes

MAC's 'Club' eyeshadow is a popular colour in beauty blogging land. Rightly so as it's duochrome appearance gives the most striking look on the lids. Depending on the natural contours of individual eye shapes and how it is blended, 'Club' looks like you have used a variety of shades on your eyes, rather than just the one.

'Club' - red-brown with green pearl.

Its’ duochrome effect (fancy make-up language for two colours in one) upon application makes it one of the easiest and quickest ways to achieve defined and smoky eyes. 

'Club' can be teamed using an array of colours on the inner corners and waterline. Here I am wearing MAC 'Vanilla' pigment on the inner corners with Avon 'Khaki' supershock gel liner on the waterline. It also looks stunning with iridescent golds, yellow golds, vibrant greens, olive greens and teals on the inner corner, lower lash line and waterline. Try it out for yourself and see what suits you. 

It's an eyeshadow that can be worn for every season and looks good on all eye colours. 

My eye edited using PicMonkey.

'Club' has a unique pigmentation which allows for its multi-tonal colours to either intensify or become muted depending on what is laid underneath it.

(From left to right) 'Club' without a base, 'Club' on top of  teal gel base (Avon 'Turquoise' Arabian glow eye pencil), 'Club' on top of a green cream base (MAC 'Moss Scape' paint pot), 'Club' on top of a black-grey cream base (MAC 'Blackground' paint pot, 'Club' on top of a metallic gold cream base (Sleek 'Gold Leaf & Pewter' molten metal). The top image was taken with a flash and the bottom is without. 

I uploaded a tutorial recently using 'Club' and a similar hued pigment from Inlgot. It has inspired me to raid my make-up collection to see what other duochrome colours I own that could be duped for this shadow. It turns out that I have quite a few.

My 'Club' dupes collection.

I should really begin with the original itself, shouldn't I? Then you will get an overview of what it is like. MAC's ’Club’ is a "red-brown with green pearl" colour and is perhaps one of my favourite MAC shadows.  That being said, out of the shadows featured and swatched, it is the patchiest in terms of colour pay-off. However, it is buildable and, when layered on top of a good shadow base, it should last for a good portion of the day/night. In comparison to the dupes, Club is prominently more brown than green. The greenish tinge does not seem too noticeable until placed on top of a black or teal base. At a price tag of £12.50/$15 (£10/$10 for pro refill pans) for 1.5g, MAC's Club is not the most affordable product on the market, but it is the most readily available to customers.

MAC's 'Club' as part of my own customised (and messy) quad of colours that I use semi-regularly which also includes Naked Lunch, Woodwinked and Satin Taupe. 

The first dupe is another MAC product. It is 'Blue Brown' pigment. It is very similar to 'Club' although with a hint more blue than green. In terms of opacity, it outdoes its pressed shadow predecessor in every way. 'Blue Brown' pigment does everything I want 'Club' to do and it is particularly beautiful when applied wet (Illamasqua sealing gel is my preference). As it is a pigment, it can be messy to work with so if you favour simple make-up application over colour pay-off then 'Blue Brown' is not for you. Again, it is not the most affordable as it currently retails at £17/$21 but it is more widely available. The full-sized pigment (the one photographed below is the charm size) is better value for money as you get 3g more product in comparison to 'Club' so it should last for years to come.

MAC's 'Blue Brown' charm sized pigment. 

The second dupe in the firing line is number '85' - one of the AMC pure pigment eyeshadow by Inlgot. When I first seen this in the store, I knew I had to have it. Bought it there and then - no swatch necessary. This is because I am infatuated with Club's dual pigmentation and must collect everything that remotely resembles it. I always heard and read about an old pigment from MAC called 'Green Brown.' I searched high and low for it, often typing its name into eBay, Amazon and other retailers but could only ever find sample sizes. Now I wish I had bought one because now samples seem to have disappeared. MAC, if you read this, please start making ‘Green Brown’ available again so I can feed the duochrome addiction. Anyway, enough rambling and back to the product at hand. This colour is what I imagine 'Green Brown' by MAC to look like should it ever come back to existence again. When first swatched it does not seem like much but believe me, it is beautiful. When applied wet, it glistens on the eyes and enhances the green hue of ‘Club’ when layered on top each other. It is a very finely milled powder and makes an alluring eyeliner teamed with the right products (again, Illamasqua sealing gel). Inlgot, once touted as the inexpensive and higher quality version of MAC, has now increased its price as it costs £12/£14, but it is available worldwide on their e-shop.

Inglot's '85' AMC pure uncut pigment. 

Breathe a sigh of relief as the remaining dupes are less expensive. Yaaay! But not all are available worldwide. Noooo! Sorry about that, but I had to include these little guys because some just might be available near you. 

So next up is Make-Up Academy MUA – ‘Shade 12 Pearl’ eyeshadow. This is a soft, velvety and highly pigmented shadow. It's like MUA studied 'Club' and just improved upon it in terms of chromaticity. The green in this shadow is more obviously detectable and the brown contrast has an extra bronze dimension to it. Even though the colour pay-off is better than MAC's Club, the longevity is not so much. Of course you can use a primer to keep it lasting all day (MAC's Moss Scape paint pot does the job rightly).  It costs just £1 for 2g of product and MUA ship to a plethora of places. Just contact them to ask if they ship to your part of the world. Not much else to say about this eyeshadow other than it has gorgeous satin finish and will intensify the natural colour of your eyes.

MUA's single eyeshadow in 'Shade 12 Pearl.' 

***Update: One dupe which I have that I did not include when I first wrote this blog post but discovered in my make-up stash recently is the Accessorize single icon eyeshadow  in the shade 'Rich Earth.' The beauty line from Accessorize has somewhat disappeared over the years. It used to be available in Superdrug and then later on their website for huge discounts. When I bought 'Rich Earth' it was around £3/£4 and when I filmed my make-up dupes video to check the availability it was going for £1.30. If you want 'Rich Earth' I'd suggest hunting on eBay, Amazon and beauty blog sales. It is unbelievably pigmented and probably my favorite of the 'Club' dupes bunch. ***

Accessorize single eyeshadow in 'Rich Earth.'

Now onto trios, quads and palettes. The next dupe is a colour from the Make-Up Academy MUA – 'Innocence' eyeshadow trio. It is no longer available on their website but it is available in Superdrug for £2.50. It has a rich, metallic sheen but it not as creamy in application as its' single shadow counterpart. It is still a beautiful shade and wears weal throughout the day (my mum is a fan of this one too). The great thing about this being in a trio palette is that you can increase the multi-tonal shades with the remaining blendable and complimentary shades that come with it. 

MUA's 'Innocence' trio. 

Next up is an intensely pigmented mocha eyeshadow quad from Famous by Sue Moxley aptly named 'Café Culture.' It is currently unavailable to buy from retailers but you may be able to stock up from eBay and Amazon. If you did manage to get your hands on this palette when it was available then you would know how appealing it is to have. Out of all the dupes so far, it is most similar to MUA's 'Shade 12 Pearl' in its texture and saturation. I think I paid less than £6 for this cute little quad so it was well worth the investment for the 'Club' dupe alone. This quad is a fantastic addition to any make-up collection as it contains other shades that are comparable to MAC in colour and consistency but definitely not in price. 

Famous by Sue Moxley eye collection in 'Café Culture.' 

This is the last in my 'Club' dupe feature and it is the Wet n Wild ‘Comfort Zone’ eyeshadow palette. I got this palette during the summer of 2012 whilst on holiday in Naples, Florida so it is not readily available in the UK and Ireland. Luckily, for my fellow American citizens, this stunning 8 colour palette is still available to purchase from a range of US retailers including Walmart, Walgreens, Ulta, CVS and Kmart (oh God, this only fuels my desire to live in America) and will cost around $4.99 for 8.5g of product. What a bargain! The 'Club' shade in this palette is leaning more towards the reddish gold spectrum than the reddish brown but still a very pretty colour.

Wet n Wild 8 pan palette in 'Comfort Zone.' 

Below you will see swatches of these boys.

(From left to right) MAC Cosmetics ‘Club’ eyeshadow, MAC Cosmetics ‘Blue Brown’ pigment, Inlgot ‘85’ AMC pure pigment eyeshadow, Make-Up Academy MUA ‘Shade 12 Pearl’ eyeshadow, Make-Up Academy MUA‘Innocence’ eyeshadow trio, Famous by Sue Moxley ‘Café Culture’ eyeshadow quad, Wet n Wild – ‘Comfort Zone’ eyeshadow palette. The top image was taken with a flash and the bottom is without. 

I'll go one step further and even give you a glitter option. Oh my... it is too dazzling for words! It is the Lit Cosmetics medium cut glitter in 'Soul Sister.' If 'Club' were a glitter, 'Soul Sister' would be it.

"No glitter, no glory," 

The above picture does not do this exquisite colour justice at all. It has autumnal flecks of gold, bronze and green are perfect if you want to dramatise your 'Club' eyeshadow in order to make it suitable for evening wear - just like I did for this year's NYE.

MAC's 'Club' with Inlgot's 85 AMC pure umcut pigment on to, finished off with Lit Cosmetics 'Soul Sister' glitter. 

I have discussed eye decoration for ages now, so what about your complexion? I find the best way to complement these earthy tones is with corals, peaches and soft nudes for both cheeks and lips.

Peaches & cream complexion with sparkling earth-toned eyes.  

Make-up looks using ‘Club' and other similar hues can also look fabulous with pink lips...

A soft bronzed complexion, matte pink lips with 'Club' and 'Soul Sister' applied as eyeliner. 

And red lips.

'Club' teamed with a dewy complexion and satin red lips. 

There are plenty more dupes out there in our sea of make-up which I don't own (yet), but I have come across them in videos and reviews, so you may want to check them out if you do not own them already. They include - Too Faced single 'Petals To The Metal' eyeshadow ($16), Illamsqua 'Fervent' pure pigment (£16.50), Prestige 'Hocus Pocus' eyeshadow  ($9), Makeup Geek 'Insomnia' pigment ($6.99), Motives Cosmetics 'Heavy Metal' pressed eyeshadow ($12.50) and  the one I am coveting the most - the Ellis Faas 'E305 Holographic Bordeaux' eye lights (£26). Please note that the prices for each are from companies’ respective websites so prices may vary depending on your country's currency and the retailer's shipping costs.