More Mary Quant

Since I posted last week about my Mum’s ‘vintage’ Mary Quant eye shadows here, I was quite interested in seeing if the Mary Quant brand is still available, and what the product was like.  After all, Mary Quant makeup was one of the first mass-market ranges available, targetted at young women, and the brand is an iconic 1960's British treasure! After a bit of research I discovered that it’s still around and it’s apparently very big in Japan, although not readily available in the UK.  However, a quick check on Ebay and I found loads of makeup available at very reasonable prices.  I chose an eye shadow sample in Blue and Mint for the princely sum of £1, with 70p postage.  

  

I was hoping that the Blue would be similar in colour to the vintage makeup, and it  appears to be, although perhaps slightly lighter.  I love the light mint colour as well.  Here are some swatches on my arm.

For £1, I wasn’t expecting very much.  I found it is quite heavily pigmented and true to the colour in the pan.  However, it is slightly flaky and powdery, quite difficult to control and not that easy to blend (although I’ve used more expensive shadows that are far worse).  But as I’ll probably use these shades mainly for a ‘pop’ of colour, or as a liner, I’m not too worried – it’s definitely better quality than a £1 price tag suggests.

I’ve tried out the mint as a crease colour.  I put it on top of ELF Eye Primer, with a light coloured lid colour and highlight.  It lasted OK – not great, but then I don’t rate the ELF Primer– next time I’ll try UDPP instead.

So all in all, the Mary Quant range has great colours, is very cheap to buy (as long as you look on Ebay), and the product is better quality than I expected for the price I paid, although in the great scheme of things, distinctly average.  I love the little Mary Quant flower logo embedded on the shadow as well.  It’s nice to know that this iconic 1960s brand is still going after all this time, although sad that it’s not a better product, or still readily available in the UK.