My Holy Grail Foundation!
Written: Oct 02 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Light, easy and quick to apply and provides great coverage
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: Great foundation with a broad color selection, and I highly recommend it.
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| tldavis36's Full Review: Mac Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation |
I'm very picky when it comes to foundation. This summer I've been on a make-up odyssey and finding the "perfect" foundation has proven to be my biggest problem. I don't like the time factor involved with liquids. I really like cream-to-powder or powder foundations best. Simple and quick, IF you can find that one perfect color. It also has to look natural. One of my pet peeves is going out in the sunlight and having a face that's a different color than my neck. I don't care how good it looks in the store, it's got to look good outside too. Hence, my foundation search this summer.
I also have acne-prone skin and that is not the best type to experiment with a lot of different makeups, but that didn't stop me from doing it anyway. My poor skin has paid the price this summer, but I think I've finally found "the one" and I won't be trying anything else (at least not anytime soon :)).
I had heard about MAC for years, but there wasn't a store in my home town, and I rarely travel out of town just to shop, so it took me a while to finally try it.
The first time I tried it was on the way back home from a trip in 1999. I stopped at a mall about 2 hours from home. The SA matched me with an NC shade in the Studio Fix that looked great in the store, but once I got home and wore it out, was totally the wrong shade. I gave that compact to a friend and let MAC go for a while.
We finally got a MAC counter in my hometown in September 2001, plus a friend from college was working part-time there, so I decided to try the Studio Fix again. This time the shade was great, but I was having major skin problems and I think this just exacerbated them. I ended up with major cystic acne. Once again, I had to let the MAC go, and all face makeup for a while.
Fast forward to September 2003. After a round of Accutane, and looking at the ingredients of the Studio Fix, I decided to try MAC ONE MORE TIME. I had also checked out the Sage Skincare website and Studio Fix is listed as one of the Safe Foundations. I was a little nervous, but after all the trouble I'd had finding a perfect color, I knew that this was my best bet at finding a match. I'd gone the Prescriptives route earlier in the summer and always ended up having to mix two colors, which defeated my purpose of "simple and quick".
Studio Fix comes in a round, black compact. The sponge is located in the bottom of the compact, under the powder. The bottom also has holes. The compact is about an inch to 1 1/2 inches thick.
The powder foundation itself goes on rather opaque, if you use the sponge. I've used Merle Norman Luxiva powder foundation in the past, and the MAC is a heavier powder, in my opinion. That said, it still feels very light on your skin. I really don't feel like I'm wearing anything at all. It covers imperfections and redness very well. It even's out your skin tone and looks very natural. I use a concealer brush to dot the powder in places that need extra coverage, and surprisingly it works really well. I'm a fair-skinned, African-American, and every pimple I get tends to turn dark, but this foundation camouflages them very well. You can still see them, but they don't look as bad. This foundation holds up great throughout the day.
The foundation looks very powdery when I first put it on, but after about 15-20 minutes, once it oxidizes, it turns darker. I've noticed that, when it first oxidizes, it looks a little dark on me. But, once I put a little blot powder on, that takes care of the darkness, and looks like my natural skin.
I apply it using either a sponge, foundation brush or powder brush. It just really depends on my mood. I think I like the coverage I get with a powder brush better though. Lately, I've applied some Youngblood rice powder first, then the Studio Fix, then Youngblood again once it oxidizes, before I leave home. I've noticed that applying it this way helps with the oiliness. Any shine I get during the day is eliminated with the MAC blot powder (another review coming soon).
I've read on other boards where people complained about the Studio Fix making their skin very oily. I can't say that it makes my skin appear oilier, because I tend to get oily after a couple of hours anyway. That's where the blot powder comes in handy.
This go round, I haven't had any problems with breakouts from this foundation. I really love it, and I was able to find one color that matches my skin tone perfectly. I will definitely buy this again and I recommend it for people with oily/acne-prone skin. If you have dry skin or dry patches, it will definitely accentuate them, if you use the sponge. The powder brush works better for me if I'm having a flaky-skin day, which I seem to have a lot of now, since I'm using the Retin-A Micro for acne. Any flakiness I have usually doesn't show up once it oxidizes. Plus, I do have the slightly, oily skin thing going for me.
The ingredients are as follows:
talc, silica, isostearyl palmitate, methicone, methylparaben, propylparaben, May Contain: titanium dioxide CI77891, iron oxides CI77491 CI77492 CI77499, chromium oxide green CI77288, ultramarines CI77007 CI 77013
MAC products can be purchased at major department stores or online at: www.maccosmetics.com and www.gloss.com.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
tldavis36
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Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 1 member
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