Hello! Today I am going to review a product that I have had for over 2 years. I will be honest with all of you, I didn't like this product at first. I thought it was a colossal waste of money. Online beauty bloggers rave about this stuff and I just didn't get it. It's $35 Canadian and it's a powder...a MAC powder. Not a Chanel or Hourglass powder, but a MAC powder. I thought $35 was highway robbery.
Of course I am talking about the MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural as many of you have likely guessed from the title of this blog. I have the shade Light Medium which is perfect for me and guess what??? This colour is discontinued! Figures. From what I understand online, the new Light Plus is a similar replacement.
Maybe I misunderstood this product when it first came out. In my mind, this was like a baked, compact version of a Bare Minerals foundation a la MAC style. I swirled this stuff on my face and thought to myself, "Wow, that did nothing". I used it as a powder over foundation and noticed that if you use too much it can look cakey and if you use too little it looks like any old powder that you slapped on at first glance. To add to this, the clear plastic lid insert kept popping out. It drove me mad! I chucked this product aside.
Fast forward to a few months ago. I fished this out and dusted it off as I was sick of my loose powders making a mess and I remembered I had this tucked away and it was the right colour. In my mind I thought that I would use this up and make it one of my Back to MAC returns so I could get me some new eye shadow. I started using this as a very light dusting over my foundation just to kind of set the foundation and control some of the shine. I noticed shortly that this product was controlling quite a bit of shine and one application was lasting throughout a good part of the day. I also started noticing that my skin looked better with it on than without it on top of foundation. My foundation was working better. My skin had a slight glow which I find is only noticeable after you have had it on for a little while. I even took the time to pop the plastic lid back into place once again.
It appears the key is to use a very light hand and to put it over foundation (good foundation I might add). I don't find that this product looks good over some of the older MAC foundations as it can get quite cakey together. Looks great over Estee Lauder Double Wear though! Then I decided to try this product on my bare face again with some cover-up applied over my blemishes first. This stuff looked good! Unless you have beautiful skin (which I don't) this will not look good unless you conceal your problem areas with a liquid or cream cover-up first. Get rid of those powder cover-ups my friends (they look bad in my opinion). If you do use a proper concealer first on targeted areas, then this will look decent on the rest of your skin. It blends in well too I find with other brand concealers.
I use a Real Techniques brush when I apply this by the way. I use the Multi Task Brush. When I discovered that the colour that I am using was discontinued, I noticed that a lot of online beauty bloggers are also using a real techniques brush to apply this product. Humph. How funny is that? Great minds think alike. I do think that what brush you use will also make a huge difference with this product. When I started using this product, I used another brush and it wasn't working so great.
I've been long winded about a powder! Sheesh. I guess what I am really trying to say is to give this a chance. I didn't like it at all at first but it grew on me. You just have to know how to use this and find how it works for you. When you do, you may find it is a bit of a gem! Also, there is a lot of product in one of these compacts (10g or 0.35 oz.). You don't need a lot and mine has been lasting forever. As you can see from the picture above, I have lots left. I have no doubt that it will be a long time before this becomes a Back to MAC. Maybe I will get my $35 worth after all!
Packaging: 7/10 (MAC I love your packaging but this faulty lid can be the pits!)
Pigmentation: 7.5/10 (blends in well, matches my skin but doesn't lay down mad pigment)
Easy to Work With: 7/10 (assuming you know what you are doing)
Longevity: 8/10
Texture: 7.5/10 (could feel better on the skin, be more silky)
Price: 5/10 (you do get a ton of product/value for your money but it's still steep for a talc powder)
Ingredients: 7.5/10
Travel Worthy: 7/10 (that damn lid may cause a catastrophe but otherwise great on the go)
Attractiveness of Product: 9/10 (once you get the hang of it)
Would I buy this again? Likely
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment