Did you know there are products I used up in the past, but that I have never done a dedicated review for? Today we are meeting one of those products: the MAC Face & Body foundation. Used up years ago and worth a repurchase to try out for my upcoming skin tint roundup.
This isn’t the only MAC foundation I have ever used up. I also used up (and repurchased): the Waterweight foundation in 2020 and now it was time to see how I feel about the Face & Body in 1N. For funsies, I went back to my old content and found I bought my first bottle in 2012. Need proof? I blogged about it here.
Review: MAC Studio Radiance Face & Body foundation 1N
This foundation isn’t cheap, MAC isn’t cheap anyway. This retails for €42 but it does come with more product than most foundations. This comes with 50 ml of product, while a standard foundation will come with 30 mls. So this is nearly twice as much product.
What does this product have to offer?
So a bit of backstory on my MAC foundation journey: I have yet to find a shade match and every time I go into store to be matched I am matched to a completely different shade. And you can see the result here: it looks orange. But sheered out, with the rest of my makeup done it really isn’t bad, as you can see below.
But yes the MAC Face & Body foundation is one I have used before and I repurchased it just to feature it in a video, but now that I have used it again on the daily I remember again why I like this so much. This is lightweight, glowy and very pretty and it was one of the first foundations I ever bought that I actually liked.
What is the coverage like?
What you need to know about the MAC Face & Body is that it is a sheer foundation which is why it was great as my first real foundation but it’s also why no one raved about it for years and why it suddenly became popular again. A few years ago everyone was all about the full coverage life and now it’s all about sheerer skin tints. So this product was relaunched and now it is all hyped up.
As you can see this adds a nice bit of glow to my skin, it evens things out just a little bit, but it also still keep my skin looking natural. This is very thin and runny and very blendable. This is why the slightly deeper shade isn’t too bad looking on me. I tried 1C (the shade I used to own) as well and 1N (what you see here) is a much better shade for me as it has a different undertone and the neutral line wasn’t around back when I first bought this.
What is the shade match like?
While this is sold as a neutral toned foundation I feel it still runs too warm toned for my skin. Overall, I feel MAC’s foundation shade range is one of the most confusing. I have used products by them in shades ranging from NC10/ 15 to NW20 and they all worked for me in a way but never perfectly. 1C was far too yellow for me. 1W far too warm and I the 0 line is just a touch too light. So I am stuck with shades that are a touch too dark and warm toned still. Can I blend it down my neck? Yes. Does it work well when the rest of my makeup is on? For sure. And the thin formula certainly helps.
Should you buy the MAC Face & Body Foundation?
I think the MAC Face & Body foundation is a great foundation. It is more on the sheer/ skin tint side of a foundation and I am not sure this formula now beats some of the more recent skin tints we’ve seen. My Rare Beauty skin tint in 16C is a much better match for me, even the much cheaper Catrice Nude Drop Tinted Serum in 004N was much better for me. But to me, this is mostly like the Hema BAE Shake Up Skin Tint.
So to answer the question whether you really need to splurge on this? I don’t think so. I think by now this formula is done by other brands in a much better way. The mindboggling shade range doesn’t help it either, but I am still curious after their newer Studio Radiance Serum foundation. But that is even more expensive than this is, so it’s going to have to wait.
You can shop the MAC Face & Body foundation here *.
*Link is affiliated.
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