Review of MAC 4 Sweetie Cakes Quad by toxicapathy
I just bought this via eBay, because I waited too long to get it at the counter. I got lucky and actually paid less for it than counter retail! Hence the low price rating.
I've worn these colors several times now, and while I must say they are very bright, they are very wearable for day and very pretty! I was trying to dupe the quad before I decided to buy it, and got very close I think, but I'm so glad I bought the real McCoy:
Almond Icing is very similar to Seedy Pearl, in that is is an unusual duo-chrome pink. However, while seedy pearl is very pink, Almond Icing has alot of grey-beige to the base with a candy pink flash. I used Milani Sheer Sand to dupe it. Gateaux is a lovely frosted pink with a bit of lavender to it, kind of a run-of-the-mill, easy to find shade. It's almost identical to Milani Taffy, just a bit lighter and more pink. Sugar Blue is probably the most unique shade of the quad, being a light, bright turqoise with pink shimmer in it. Prose and Fancy makes a great stand in if you don't mind the lack of pink, though honestly you wouldn't miss it unless on close inspection. My favorite shade of the lot is Demi-Sweet, a deeper dou-chrome plum shade with an elegant blue flash. I have two colors similar to it (Max Factor Plum Performance, and Lilac Smash from Avon's Lilac Dream quad) but neither comes close to the depth of color, pigmentation, or contrast from the flash. Truly a gorgeous color, and well worth getting the quad for if you like interesting colors.
The texture of all four shadows is excellent, and over my usual L'Oreal De-Crease base looked freshly applied nearly twelve hours later when I got home from work and washed my face. There's little to no fallout during application, and layering wasn't an issue. I have noticed a few of MAC's darker colors can be a little hard to layer onto other colors, especially over base, but I haven't found that yet with these.
I say I'd buy them again, because I would if the need arises, but given the size of my shadow collection and how often I change up my color rotation, I likely won't need to for quite some time. If these become the favorites I think they might, though, then I'd be inclined to purchase a back-up. We shall see. . .