15 Makeup Brands Like MAC for Professional-Grade Color
You've had the same lipstick sitting in your basket for a week, and at $25 a bullet you keep wondering what else that money buys. Maybe your shade sold out again. Maybe you want a foundation with a deeper shade range, or a palette that costs less than dinner.
MAC lists its M.A.Cximal Silky Matte Lipstick at $25 and its Lustreglass Stainglass Lip Tint at $24 (USD), which puts it in the middle of the prestige counter rather than at the top of it. We checked 15 makeup brands like MAC on their own sites, from $7 eyeshadow singles to a $128 palette, and every price below came off the brand's own store.
Quick comparison of all 15, with prices in US dollars unless the row says otherwise:
| Brand | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Make Up For Ever | Premium | Kit-grade color for stage and camera |
| NARS | $36 blush | One blush that does the whole face |
| Urban Decay | Mid-range | Loud eyeshadow and long-wear liner |
| Bobbi Brown | Premium | Skin-first, low-drama makeup |
| Anastasia Beverly Hills | $18 to $88 on makeup | Brows, and the tools to shape them |
| KVD Beauty | $23 to $42 | Eyeliner that outlasts the night |
| Pat McGrath Labs | $24 to $128 | Runway finishes at home |
| ColourPop | $7 to $8 on eye and lip singles | Building a color kit on pocket money |
| Fenty Beauty | $27 to $44 on complexion | Foundation matching across 50 shades |
| Juvia's Place | $15 to $25 | Saturated shadow that shows up on deep skin |
| Beauty Bakerie | $22 to $34 on lips | Liquid lipstick that survives coffee |
| Revolution Beauty | £6.99 to £14.99 (GBP) | Trend shades at supermarket prices |
| Kosas | $23 to $45 | Makeup you can wear on a skincare day |
| Sephora Collection | Mid-range | Basics you top up in store |
| LORAC | $23 to $45 | Matte shadow palettes that blend easily |
Make Up For Ever
Make Up For Ever is the premium French makeup house that comes closest to MAC's artist-counter roots, and it prices accordingly. One practical thing first: makeupforever.com routes you to a country selector before it will show a product page, so set your region or you'll spend five minutes going in circles.
The pitch is the same one that made MAC a fixture in professional kits, high-pigment color sold to people who use it for a living. If your reason for loving MAC is that a single pass of shadow reads exactly as it does in the pan, this is that argument at a steeper price.
Best for: kit-grade color that holds up under a camera flash.
We've weighed it against its own rivals in brands like Make Up For Ever.
NARS
NARS is the cheek brand of the group. Powder Blush costs $36 and comes in 35 shades, and NARS calls Orgasm the number one selling blush in the US on its own site. The Insatiable Liquid Blush runs to 16 shades at the same $36, and Light Reflecting Luminizing Blush costs $42.
Where MAC spreads itself across every category at once, NARS puts its energy into complexion and cheek. If you want one product that carries a face, this is the counter to stand at. Buy the mini at $18 if you're testing a shade before you commit to the full pan.
Best for: one blush that does the work of three products.
Urban Decay
Urban Decay is the mid-range answer to MAC's louder side, built on bold eyeshadow and long-wear liner rather than a full artist range. Its store runs region by region and shields itself from price scrapers, so we've left the figures for you to read at checkout rather than quote a number we couldn't confirm.
What we can tell you is where it sits. You'll pay less than a prestige counter charges for color that's aimed at a night out rather than a work face.
Best for: shadow and liner with the volume turned up.
Bobbi Brown
Bobbi Brown is the premium option for anyone who finds MAC's full-coverage matte finishes too much face. The brand made its name on skin that still looks like skin, so the shade language runs neutral and the finishes lean natural.
Pricing sits in the premium band, level with the top of MAC's range rather than below it. If your basket is mostly Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation and lip pencil, this is a sideways move on cost and a different finish on the face.
Best for: a done face that doesn't announce itself.
Anastasia Beverly Hills
Anastasia Beverly Hills built its reputation on brows and still sells the deepest bench of them. Brow Wiz costs $26, the MicroStroke Brow Pen $28, ArchiBrow Pencil $30, and the Pro Eyebrow Palette $88. Face products sit in the same band, with Impeccable Blurring Second-Skin Matte Foundation at $49 and Smooth Blur Contour Stick at $34.
MAC will sell you a brow pencil. ABH will sell you six, plus the palette and the stencil to go with them. Lip Velvet at $28 and Kiss Theory Lip Balm at $18 round out a range that's priced level with MAC and specialised in a way MAC isn't.
Best for: brows, and everything you need to shape them.
Shop Anastasia Beverly Hills Now
KVD Beauty
KVD Beauty sells the eyeliner that most often turns up in a MAC user's kit anyway. Tattoo Liner Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner costs $25 and the Tattoo Pencil Liner $23, both built for a wing that stays put.
Complexion runs a little higher. Good Apple Full-Coverage Transfer-Proof Serum Foundation lists at $42 and the matching concealer at $30, and Everlasting Hyperlight Transfer-Proof Liquid Lipstick at $23. KVD discounts hard and often, so those full prices are the ceiling rather than what you'll pay in a sale week.
Best for: a liner wing that survives a full shift.
Pat McGrath Labs
Pat McGrath Labs is the step up from MAC rather than the step sideways. MatteTrance Lipstick costs $29, LUST Gloss $29, Skin Fetish Divine Blush $39, and a Backstage Artistry Luxe Eye Quad $62.
The headline pieces cost real money. Skin Fetish Sublime Perfection Foundation is $69 and the Mothership XII Petalmorphosis palette $128, which buys you the kind of finish that shows up on a runway rather than in a school run.
Cheapest way in is Invisibrow Gel at $24. Best for: one showpiece product you'll reach for on the nights that matter.
ColourPop
ColourPop is where the math changes. Super Shock Shadow singles cost $7 and Lippie Stix $8, so a full eye and lip look lands under the price of one MAC lipstick.
Buy it the way you'd buy a trend piece. One $7 shadow you're curious about costs less than a coffee, which is a friendlier way to test a color than a $25 commitment to something you might wear twice.
Best for: trying a color you're not sure about yet.
Fenty Beauty
Fenty Beauty answers the shade-range question more directly than anyone else here. Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Longwear Foundation comes in 50 shades, and Soft'lit Naturally Luminous Longwear Foundation costs $44.
The rest of the complexion range holds the same line. Eaze Drop Lightweight Blurring Skin Tint is $41, Match Stix Contour Skinstick $33, and Gloss Bomb Stix $27. That shade count is still the reason people move across from a counter that matched them to the nearest neighbour instead of the right shade.
Best for: finding your actual shade rather than the closest one in stock.
Juvia's Place
Juvia's Place gives you the most pigment per dollar on this list. Palettes cost $25, the Culture Duochrome Pencil Liner $15, and the I Am My Skin Foundation Sticks $20.
We reach for it when a cheaper palette washes out on deeper skin, because these shadows go on at full strength instead of needing four layers. Blushed Liquid Tint at $20 does the same job on cheeks.
Best for: color that shows up properly on medium and deep skin tones.
Beauty Bakerie
Beauty Bakerie sells its Matte Lip Whip liquid lipsticks at $22, with the Gimme Lip Duos at $34 and the Lip Slip High Shine Gloss at $22. Names like Bowl of Cherries and Cinnamon Roll tell you how seriously the branding takes itself.
The formula does the opposite. The brand's own product copy promises a smudge-free finish, and a liquid matte that stays through lunch is a different proposition from a bullet lipstick you top up after every cup of tea.
Best for: a lip color you can eat lunch in.
Revolution Beauty
Revolution Beauty is the brand you'll know as Makeup Revolution. The name on the storefront changed, the pricing didn't. Maxi Reloaded Eyeshadow Palette costs £14.99, Double Baked Loose Baking Powder £6.99, and Superfix All Night Long Fixing Mist £7.99 in a mini size. Those are UK prices in pounds on the UK store, so check your own region before you convert anything in your head.
BH Cosmetics now lives here too, as a small clearance range of liners and lashes at £2 to £5 rather than the big palettes it was known for. If you came looking for bhcosmetics.com, that domain stopped resolving.
Best for: trying five trend shades for the price of one MAC lipstick.
Kosas
Kosas is the clean beauty pick, built around makeup with skincare ingredients in it. Revealer Concealer costs $32, Revealer Skin-Improving Foundation SPF 25 is $45, Brow Pop $26, and Blush is Life $29.
Finishes run dewy and light rather than the flat matte MAC does best, so it suits a day when you'd rather not feel the makeup. Cloud Set Loose Powder at $38 is the piece that bridges the two. If clean formulas are the reason you're switching, we've mapped that shelf in brands like Beautycounter.
Best for: light coverage on a day your skin needs a break.
Sephora Collection
Sephora Collection is the house line, priced in the mid-range and sitting in every store you'd walk into anyway. Prices shift with whatever promotion is running, so read them in the app before you plan a basket around them.
Reach for it the way you'd reach for a MAC brush or a setting spray, as the reliable part of the routine rather than the exciting one. Our full read on the retailer sits in brands like Sephora.
Best for: topping up the basics in the same trip as everything else.
LORAC
LORAC is the shadow-palette specialist, and it's the one brand here whose old address will strand you. Loraccosmetics.com no longer resolves, and the live store is lorac.com.
The PRO Matte Eye Shadow Palette costs $25, the PRO Palette Fairytale Forest and UNZIPPED GOLD both $39, and the PRO Contour Palette comes with its brush for $45. Smaller pieces fill in around them, with Color Source Buildable Blush at $23 and PRO Skin Matte Primer at $35.
Best for: matte neutrals that blend without a fight.
How to Pick Your MAC Alternative
Start from the product you buy most, because that's where switching pays. If it's lipstick, ColourPop at $8 and Beauty Bakerie at $22 both undercut MAC's $25 bullet with a different finish. If it's foundation, Fenty's 50 shades solve a matching problem that price alone won't.
Spending more only makes sense at the top of the range, where Pat McGrath's $128 palette buys a finish you can't get for less. Everything in between comes down to which category a brand has chosen to be excellent at: brows at Anastasia Beverly Hills, cheeks at NARS, liner at KVD Beauty.
Two of these brands changed address since we last checked, so bookmark the working ones. If the switch is about ingredients more than price, start with brands like Krave Beauty instead.
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Written by
Spencer Lanoue
