I'd personally go for Kryolan. You'd wind up with much more product for the same amount of money. LOVE Kryolan pressed powder blushes & cream blushes, as well as a lot of their lip products, gel liners, single pan eyeshadows, Dermacolor foundation-type products, etc. As far as MAC goes, I prefer their matte blushes as opposed to their Sheertone blushes Their mattes are far more pigmented. Cant stand their foundations, concealers, predefined eyeshadow palettes that they release in limited edition collections. Regarding their Amplified lipstick formula, I dont find them creamy. I find them too slick & that they wear off too quickly. I prefer their other lip product formulas if I bother buying them. Absolutely hated Smashbox til last year, when they finally improved their eyeshadow formulas. Had far too many bad experiences with them before that. Their Halo powder is not bad, but cant stand their lip, bronzer, nasty primer & other products. Not at all a fan of those. I dont find them a very impressive company, personally. Any time I've made the mistake of buying their products I've wound up finding far nicer formulas with other brands for a fraction of the price. I've pretty much given up on them for the time being My vote: try Kryolan! Ben Nye also has some nice products, as does Maq Pro, Estee Lauder (no longer your granny's makeup), Kett & several others. Try researching so-called 'pro' brands. There are so many out there that are rarely seen in typical retail cosmetic stores. Check out Camera Ready Cosmetics for a start.