Review: MAC Magically Cool Liquid Powder

I bought the new MAC Magically Cool Liquid Powder on the morning that it launched on the MAC website, I was super excited about this product because I missed out on it when it first appeared in the Venomous Villains collection. Since I have dry skin, anything hydrating or cooling is high on my list. This product is a really neat concept, it's a loose powder, but when applied on the skin it has a "wet" or "cooling" sensation because of the high water content in the product. Other brands have some this before, including Presciptives, Revlon and Almay (which I will discuss below). I had some time to try this out this weekend and I can give an initial review here. Please note, to really "see" the sparkles in this product, please click on the images to enlarge the image.

MAC's Magically Cool Liquid powder comes in 3 shades: Truth and Light (the one I have), Honey Rose and Cajun. It's described on the MAC website as "A silky, feather-light powder, formulated with 70% water, dusts on to the skin as a cooling mist to set and enhance the look of any foundation. Beyond sheer: light-reflecting and translucent. A virtually invisible way to add luminosity and a soft radiant glow to the skin." It retails for $35.50 CAD and you get 24g or 0.84g of product. To compare, the Laura Mercier Loose Setting Translucent Powder comes with 29g. So the container is quite large.

It comes with a black sticker on the top that you peel back to reveal the powder. I have only peeled back half because as you can tell, lots of product escapes the holes and I don't want it getting everywhere. "Truth and Light" is the lightest of the three, it's a pale yellow shade, but the powder does not deposit much coverage or colour at all, I suspect the darker ones would show up more, but I am fair so this was the only one that interested me. The powder is ultra fine and smooth, it moves like water when you tilt the container. If you click on the image you will see how shimmery this product is! Very very shimmery, it glows with tiny, multi coloured shimmers. And that's where this product pretty much is a loser for me, this product is advertised as a setter to your foundation, who would want to put this on to set their foundation? It's way too shimmery in my opinion (and I don't mind a glow actually). I also would not use this in place of foundation, since it's so sheer, it gives no coverage, and again, the shimmer. I think this is purely a highlighter product, and don't we all have enough highlighters from MAC already? I know I do.

Here I will compared it with Almay Wake Up Hydrating Makeup, which I was a big fan of, see review of that here. The concept of these two is similar, I think Almay is targeted more as a foundation, it gives a lot more colour (I have Buff here) and coverage (even though it's low). And they both give that cooling, watery feel to your skin. I thought Almay had a lot of shimmers....MAC has tons more!

And swatched here on my fingers, Almay on the left, MAC on the right. You can tell MAC is lighter in colour, appears less chalky and more sheer for sure.

I've tried to capture the shimmers here, please click to enlarge, the MAC on the right is shimmer-city and the Almay, although shimmery too, not as much and gives more coverage.

MAC's Magically Cool Powder did not give me what I expected, this is not a traditional loose powder that you'd use to set your makeup. This is a highlighter, I'd use this over blushes to enhance the glow, or on tops of cheekbones. In the summer, sure a cooling effect would feel nice, but the shimmers will make you glow like Edward Cullen (ya I know everyone makes that comparison, I just had to).

Would I recommend this product? To buy it just for the cooling concept, sure. To buy it to use it as a setter or all over the place? Definitely not. I am still looking for a good cooling liquid powder with no shimmer in it. If you have one, or know where I can pick up the Prescriptives one, please let me know.