MAC Unsung Heroes: Swiss Chocolate Eyeshadow

I was at the gym last week when we started talking about desserts (These are the things you do when you hang out with a bunch of people who do HIIT together. You talk about desserts!), and the teacher, Nicol, said that if you put anything chocolaty in front of her, she’s basically toast.

I’m the same way with chocolate desserts AND eyeshadow, and especially MAC Swiss Chocolate Eyeshadow.

What’s an unsung makeup hero? For me, it’s an oftentimes underrated makeup morsel, a permanent collection product that scoots under the radar screen of many makeup lovers but regularly rocks my world. The long-running Unsung Heroes series features some of my favorites.

Oh, my goodness, I’ve been wearing this shades for eons! — and I start busting it out more often in the fall because I love the way it looks with vampy fall berry, burgundy, purple and wine lip shades. A little MAC Swiss Chocolate added to your eyeshadow mix ties everything together in a DEEEEE-luscious chocolate bow.

Don’t fear the red.

I repeat! — do not fear the red, because matte reddish brown Swiss Chocolate strikes that delicate balance between being red and not being too red, so you won’t look like you’ve got demon eyes, OK?

It functions a little like MAC Saddle in that you can do your lighter brown crease color first (colors like Soft Brown and Texture, by the way, look great in the crease with Swiss Chocolate), and then layer Swiss Chocolate on top, but if you leave room for it to feather up into that crease color, it’ll appear to deepen your crease.

Now, instead of being an orange brown like Saddle, Swiss Chocolate is more of a reddish brown. It’s still warm and brown, but I prefer to wear Saddle with warm brown, peach and coral lipsticks and blushes, and Swiss Chocolate with berries, plums, etc.

Swiss Chocolate’s red tones really make blue, green and hazel eyes pop IMO, but, you know, I have brown eyes, and I think it looks great on brown eyes, too, especially if you do a bronzed brown or reddish brown liner like MAC Teddy or MAC Costa Riche. It’s perfection.

I’ve heard some folks say that they have issues blending out Swiss Chocolate. I haven’t experienced that myself, but if it’s something you’ve run into before, here are some things that might help. First is to lay down a primer, of course, and if your primer doesn’t seem to be working well with Swiss Chocolate, try using a thinner layer of primer. That seems to make the blending easier for me.

Also, after you apply your primer, wait for it to completely dry. Then, blend a bit of transparent powder on top, because that powder will act as a buffer between your eyeshadow and your primer, enabling those powder grains to slip and slide better.

Swiss Chocolate goes well with SO many classic MAC neutrals, too. Sometimes I’ll wear it with Bare Study or Laying Low Paint Pot, then, like I mentioned, I’ll add Texture, Bamboo or Soft Brown in the crease. Then to define the crease further, I’ll add a little Swiss Chocolate in the crease and the outer V.

I like to use MAC Brule to highlight when I do a look like this, but Ricepaper looks good, too. Thing is, Ricepaper’s shimmer has more of a ’90s vibe (which is great, though, but it can be dated), especially if you’re putting it along your brown bone, so I’ll usually keep it on my lid and in the inner corner.

A pan of MAC Swiss Chocolate is available now for $16 in the permanent line, but if you have any empty palettes sitting around, you can save some dough by getting one of the refill pans instead, which are $6.

Swiss Chocolate is an awesome fall color! I hope you check it out sometime.

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen