I am going to make a confession that will make most beauty bloggers and readers scream: I am not (yet) a fan of taupe.
Before you pelt me with stones however, you have to hear my story. In the beginning of this blog, I swatched the NYX Rock and Roll trio (click here for a trip down memory lane). While I was impressed with the quality in general, I just never managed to make the colors work for me. Since people say the middle shade is a dupe for MAC Satin Taupe, I did the math and decided that taupe is not for my rather warm skin tone.
However, recently, to help a bride who never wears makeup to obtain a small amount of foundation she needed for her makeup trial and big day, I had to purchase something from MAC. That’s when I thought: maybe I can make this immensely popular shade work for me after all. Long story short, Satin Taupe ended up in my hands.
Satin Taupe is a medium taupe with a bit of frosty sheen, though very rarely in this case I don’t mean frosty in a negative way. Taupe is an interesting color, and if you follow some beauty blogs, you have probably heard many beauty bloggers tout it as their favorite eyeshadow color. In short, taupe is between gray and brown. In Satin Taupe’s case, at least on my NC30 skin with warm undertone, it’s more like a brown with a grayish tinge.
What makes Satin Taupe so great, especially for someone who has so many neutral shades as it is?
In my humble opinion, Satin Taupe’s versatility is its biggest selling point. In these FOTDs I paired it with MAC All That Glitters, but I think it looks even better paired with cooler-toned shade. I have tried it with the Browbone shade of the right column of Wet n’ Wild Comfort Zone, which is allegedly rather similar to MAC Vex (I hesitate to call it a dupe, because I have never compared the two), and it looks even better!
The color payoff and texture of Satin Taupe are great. I haven’t tried it personally, but I heard that you can get a gorgeous taupe smokey eye with Satin Taupe and Added Goodness. I will make sure I try it out and report back!
Now let’s delve into its “dupe,” shall we?
The middle shade of NYX Rock and Roll looks (on the left in the picture) indeed rather similar to Satin Taupe in pan, but are they the same swatched?
As you can see, they are not even remotely close! The NYX shade looks really just mauve-y next to Satin Taupe, let alone the fact that Satin Taupe has a much stronger frosty sheen.
I know we’ve taken too many trips down memory lane in this post, but here is a post I wrote half a year ago that I still think makes some sense. Essentially: when people call two shades dupes, are they necessarily dupes?
Maybe for some, but probably not for all. I know it’s annoying to tell you the ONLY way to find dupes is to swatch both side by side, but essentially you cannot guarantee something is a dupe otherwise.
Bottom line: MAC Satin Taupe has changed my opinion about taupe. Versatility is the key word when it comes to this shade, and the quality is very decent. I’d say it’s a great beginner’s taupe, because it is very easy to pair it with other eyeshadows (warm-toned or cool-toned, bring them on)!
Do you own Satin Taupe? What’s your favorite way to wear it? Can you recommend other taupes for this taupe newbie?
Sunny, your beauty culture translator xx