Review of MAC Paint Pot in Painterly by thrpschr
I've gone through three tubes of Bare Canvas and I love it. I usually prefer matte shadows, though, so I was very eager to get my hands on Painterly, as I though it would replace BC as my everyday, nude base shadow/highlighter. Painterly is significantly darker and beiger than BC, though, it's an almost exact match to my skin and doesn't really brighten my eye area at all, so at first I was disappointed.
I have found that it works great as a matte base for other shadows, though, and it still is a great, no make-up kind of neutral on it's own; just rather different from Bare Canvas.
I can also use it as a concealer of sorts, because it's so close to my skin and dries completely matte - when I'm in a hurry, I apply Painterly on undereye shadows, blemishes and unevennesses with my fingertip instead of spending time on applying and Secret Camouflage with a brush, and it blends and wears amazingly well, with a good, natural-looking coverage.
So I will keep buying and using Bare Canvas as a brightening base and highlighter, but if I ever run out (huge amount of product, and I find that I need much less of Painterly than BC to get the result I want) I would repurchase Painterly, too. Both are great products in their own right.