MAC Strobe Cream Goldlite Review

Hi guys! Today I'll be sharing all about MAC's Strobe Cream in Goldlite.

If you guys remember, I'm a huge fan of glowy primers. I previously reviewed Heimish's Artless Glow Base and Klavuu's White Pearlsation Ideal Actress Backstage Cream. I quite like both of them and still use both to this day. I've had my eye on MAC's Strove Creams for a while now, and I decided to get one from Sephora during their sale.

WHAT IS IT?

MAC's Strobe Cream doubles as a moisturizer and contains iridescent particles that boosts the look of dull skin. Super-powered with potent botanicals, it boosts the look of dull, flat, or tired-looking skin with nutritious vitamins and a mega-dose of green tea, adding the softest glow to your skin.

It's main promised efficacies are:

• Pearlescent particles enhance look of healthy skin
• Improves skin luminosity
• Improves evenness of skin tone
• Provides instant hydration
• Dermatologist tested
• Ophthalmologist tested Non-acnegenic

MAC initially only had 1 strobe cream (a pinky one), but the have since added 4 more and renamed the original shade Pinklite (totalling 5 shades available):

Credit: The Beauty Look Book

I chose the shade Goldlite as I have a warm complexion that (I feel) looks best in gold. It was also the prettiest one that called out to me when I went to swatch it in-store.

WHERE TO BUY

You can currently get it from MAC's stores as well as their E-store, but as I mentioned above, I got mine from Sephora.

With 50ml of product, the full-size tube costs RM164. I got it for 20% off on Sephora during their mid-year sale!

For comparison, Klavuu's primer costs RM118 for 30ml while Heimish's costs USD22 (~RM88) for 40ml. I definitely think MAC is more premium compare to these 2 Korean brands, but the price isn't that far off from Klavuu + has 50ml. If you're solely looking to make the most of of your buck, go for Heimish. If you can splurge a bit more, I recommend going for MAC (read on to find out why!)

PACKAGING

When I first got the product, it came it a simple white box with the shade labelled on top + the info on the back:

I actually quite like the packaging. It comes in a tube for easy (and hygienic) dispensation:

One thing to note though is that the cap is made of a velvety material similar to their Studio Sculp Foundation (which I also use). Once you dirty it, it's dirty forever hahaha.

I don't remember if it was sealed (sorry!) but I can say that it doesn't leak or anything like that. Good simple packaging!

INGREDIENTS

This product is paraben-free, sulfate-free, alcohol-free and EU allergen-free. I analyzed the ingredients and found that most of the ingredients were either EWG green or yellow level, meaning that they're unlikely to irritate the skin.

I think a lot of people don't think of primer as skincare, but I actually do. I think of it as the shield that protects your skin from makeup + helps it apply better.

This strobe cream contains lots of good ingredients that have good skin benefits like wound healing (Panthenol + Sodium Hyaluronate), brightening (Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate), anti-ageing (Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Ceramide, Citric Acid, Vitamin E) and UV protection (Titanium Dioxide).

It also contains powerfully moisturizing ingredients (Panthenol, Butylene Glycol, Sodium Hyaluronate, Glycerin) and ingredients good for oily skin (Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract)

FRAGRANCE & SWATCH

Available in 5 shades, here's what all the strobe creams look like:

Credit: The Beauty Look Book

Credit: The Beauty Look Book

Goldlite has a yellow gold undertone that actually isn't as yellow as you'd think. It provides a subtle golden yellow glow to the face that peeks through on your foundation, giving you a nice glow.

Although the cream itself is white, it does not leave a white cast or tone up your face like the Klavuu one I previously reviewed.

On the face, it leaves a very natural glow that I just love!

This is what my complexion looked like with a full beat on:

So glowy! Here's some pics showing how it translates:

It doesn't look yellow/golden but gives me a nice glass skin effect. It's kind of hard to affect this with just highlighter because applying highlighter to your entire face can make you look too frosty. Plus, power highlight on some parts of my face kind of highlights the imperfections. This gives my entire face a glowy look without all of those and I love it!

I would say that this holds my makeup quite well, and it does have a bit of oil control in it. I'm a very oily person so you would expect that this would make me even oilier. On the contrary, I find that my face is only 1 constant state of glow/glossiness, and the sebum I produce throughout the day doesn't really affect it that much.

Here's my face after 6 hours of wear (without blotting/touching up):

And here's my face after 10 hours (on the same day as the gif above):

I was definitely shinier after 10 hours, but I think in person it honestly didn't look that bad.

WILL I REPURCHASE?

I think this is a fabulous primer that I would definitely recommend. The glow is very natural and does not look frosty at all. I love how it gives my face an extra boost of glow and makes it look so healthy.

Compared to the Heimish one, I think I will definitely consider repurchasing this over that. Although you can get 2 Heimish ones with the price of 1 MAC, I feel like the MAC one performed better for me. My complexion didn't disintegrate after long periods of time and I even notice that my smile lines (where my foundation usually creases) were almost non-existent when using this primer.

If you're someone who doesn't know if the glow life is for you want to try glowy primers out, I would say try the Heimish one, However, if you're a glow addict like me who has oily skin + can find yourself wearing makeup for quite a while on certain days, I would recommend the MAC. MAC also offers travel/deluxe-sized strobe creams but I feel like if you're going to buy from MAC, might as well buy the full-sized tube as you get more value from your purchase.

And that's all from me! I hope you guys found my review helpful and informative.

See y'all in my next post!