Gilded With Pat McGrath’s #Gold001

I’ve been in awe of Pat McGrath’s tremendous talent for years. Back in 2009, I attended a Dolce & Gabbana makeup event where I bought practically everything she advised the makeup artist to use on me (and I still have the autographed compact in my collection). Since then, I’ve been fortunate to see her at various industry events with CoverGirl and at NYFW. Every time she cheerfully greets me with “Hi sweetie, how are you?”, I literally freeze and can’t speak. Celebrities are cool, but Pat McGrath is my version of a rock star. When I heard that she was beginning to release her own products under the brand Pat McGrath Labs, I lost my mind and set several alarms for the first launch.

I was one of the 1,000 lucky people who were able to purchase her first product, Gold 001. When my order arrived, I immediately tore right into the large bag of gold sequins to find my Gold 001, mixing spatula, second life container, and Mehron Mixing Liquid. The pigment comes dome-shaped in a pan, and the instructions say you should use the spatula to break your pigment into the second life container. I’m not quite ready to part with the convenience the pan, but I also feel like the pigment is quite fragile and could crumble on its own (similar to Stila Kitten or the Kat Von D Metal Crush Eyeshadows).

If you use the pigment dry, it’s slightly sheerer than when wet, and the larger shimmer pieces stand out more. When used with the included mixing medium (you can also use water, MAC Fix+, etc), it does create a liquid metal effect, but I haven’t yet found the perfect combination of medium & pigment to get a perfectly opaque application. After Gold 001 arrived, I tore through my collection to find another product that had the same tone & brightness, but I couldn’t find anything similar. So far I’ve only worn it all over the lid or as a liner, but with the holiday season upon us, I hope I’ll get more adventurous soon!

Pat McGrath Labs just announced the next product, Phantom 002, available on 12/15. Obviously, I already have several alarms set. Also shoutout to Lola for photobombing my attempts at capturing Gold 001 as an eyeshadow.