MAC Strobe Cream

Since I previously reviewed a soft focus powder, today I'm discussing a soft focus liquid/cream, MAC Strobe Cream. Strobe Cream comes in a 1.7 fl oz tube which will cost you $29.50. It's a bit expensive, but this tube should last you a fairly long time, if used correctly.

I was disappointed at the time I was contemplating purchasing this because there were no adequate reviews on this product! I hadn't gone to the MAC counter or store to test the product, so I had no idea what the finish looked like. I couldn't find any before or after photos or videos. People mostly talked about whether they liked it or not, which is somewhat useless. Unfortunately, my camera is (still) out of commission so I can't add any photos but I will do my best to describe it.

From the MAC website, Strobe Cream is:
"The ultimate quick fix for the skin. Super-powered with potent botanicals; de-snoozes, de-stresses, moistens, freshens and boosts the look of dull, flat or tired-looking skin with a fully loaded vitamin zap and a mega dose of green tea. Brightens and clarifies with iridescent particles and antioxidants. Enhances the effects of light on all skin and in all lighting conditions from sunlight to spotlight."

So Strobe Cream is not only supposed to make your skin look more refreshed, but it's also supposed to improve its condition, by delivering antioxidants, green tea, and what not.

Strobe Cream comes in a small pearly, white plastic tube with a black cap made of the similar rubbery plastic in NARS products, so if your fingers are oily, it will unfortunately accumulate marks. I don't really like the packaging because 1) I can't see how much cream I've used or have left, 2) I can't squeeze out all of it if I run low, and 3) it's a little bulky. Good thing is that since it's more hardy you don't need to worry about the cap coming off and cream oozing everywhere into your purse or makeup bag. Still, I would have much preferred they kept the original packaging in a squeeze-type tube, but oh well. Maybe they can think about that eventually.

The cream has a bit of scent, which I actually didn't like at first. Some people find it smells nice, but it doesn't smell fragrant, fruity, floral, or etc. at all. I don't think it's meant to smell like anything, but the ingredients list does contain perfume. It just smells like makeup or face powder to me. (I know that's not really helpful.)

Here's the ingredients:
Spring Water (Aqua), Cyclomethicone, Butylene Glycol, Cetyl Ricinoleate, Dimethicone, Glyceryl Distearate, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Cholesterol, Jojoba Esters, Steareth-10, Cetyl Esters, Cetyl Alcohol, Camellia Sinensis (Green Tea) Extract, Saxifraga Sarmentosa Extract, Morus Nigra (Mulberry) Root Extract, Vitis Vinifera (Grape) Extract, Whey Protein (Lactis Proteinum), Panthenol-Pro-Vitamin B5, Cyanocobalamin Vitamin B12, Tocopheryl Acetate, 7-Dehydrocholesterol Pro-Vitamin D3, Magnesium Ascorbyl Phosphate, Ceramide 2, Scutellaria Baicalensis Extract, Sodium Hyaluronate, Pyrus Malus Extract, Lactic Acid, Sucrose, Linoleic Acid, Xanthan Gum, Polyacrylamide, Laureth-7, Glycerin, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Sodium Sulfite, Fragrance (Parfum), Sodium Citrate, Sodium Metabisulfite, Citric Acid, Propylene Glycol, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Methylparaben, Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Red 4


There are a couple pore cloggers in there, so if you have super sensitive skin, or combination/oily skin, you might want to test this product and see first if it'll break you out. Also, if you're into natural products, as you can see this does contain parabens and animal cholestoral, so you'll probably want to skip out on it.

At first glance, the Strobe Cream has a very light consistency. It should probably be called Strobe Lotion instead, and the Strobe Lotion should be called Strobe Liquid. Strobe Cream is a thin, white moisturizer with this bit of luminous purple-pink-gold sheen, so when your skin catches the light at certain angles, it reflects those colors. The glow comes from the shimmer particles which have been blended so well and finely that you can't even tell it contains shimmer particles. You don't need to use a lot of it to achieve a glow. Like any lotion, you squeeze out a tiny bit and just smooth it over the intended area.

I've heard many different things about Strobe Cream's purpose-it should be a primer, it should be a highlighter, it should be a plain moisturizer, blahblahblah. So let's go through each claim. I have normal to dry combination skin, and I've noticed that Strobe Cream looks awful if used over dry, flakey skin. So the product is only as good as your current skin--unless your skin is smooth and not prone to oiliness or flakiness, Strobe Cream is not for you.

Also, I believe that Strobe Cream works best for highlighting purposes. I apply a bit of it on my cheeks and browbone for a little extra radiance. Strobe Cream looks great alone or under gel or powder blush. I do not apply it anywhere near my T-zone since I am prone to breakouts and oiliness in those areas. However, blush is the only makeup product I ever put over my Strobe Cream. Also, I usually don't put foundation on my cheeks, so the only product under my Strobe Cream would be my SPF. I've noticed that Strobe Cream does NOT look good when applied over foundation or concealer. When I've added Strobe Cream over foundation in the past, it made my skin look cakey, and my makeup seemed to oxidize faster. The shimmer and silica in the cream also probably merely made all that oxidation seem more obvious and unnatural. Foundation should never look like it's not your natural skin, so I was absolutely repulsed when I saw my face in the mirror. So the highlighting aspect of Strobe Cream is somewhat limited.

Since Strobe Cream works great on bare or moisturized skin, it's also great for the collarbone and decollatage area, or anywhere on the body for a subtle gleam. It primes and preps your skin for shimmer powder as well.
I don't like the effect of Strobe Cream over or under foundation since I have combination skin, but I believe that dry skinned gals will love its effect. Strobe Cream works fine under mineral or loose powder foundation, but only when buffed on ever so lightly.

I recommend this product, but I say "proceed with caution." Strobe Cream does not work for everyone, it causes some people to break out horrendously, and others have said it makes them look like a "disco ball." However, I love this cream because of its unique purple-y gleam. My favorite thing to do is to layer my Smashbox limited edition Tokidoki Soft Lights in Dolce Vita over it, which also imparts a unique, violet sheen.

MAC Prep and Prime SPF 50

Since I used up all of my Oil of Olay Complete All Day Moisture Lotion SPF 15 sunscreen in mid-November, I've been on the prowl for a new sunscreen. The Oil of Olay sunscreen was my sunscreen staple since 8th grade. My mom actually bought me my first bottle (one day, she just randomly handed it to me and told me to start using it everyday--surprising, since she never had the skincare fanaticism I have since acquired). Growing up in Southern California, you get tan REALLY quickly, especially if your school is entirely outdoors. My skin didn't start becoming paler until 10th grade, when I chose an indoor PE elective. I have since discovered that the paler my skin is, the better I look, because my undertones are pretty sallow (when I tan, I look like the Crayola crayon "Maize"). So, it's important for me to use sunscreen to maintain my complexion.

However, since I have combination skin (oily T-zone, dry-normal cheeks), it's always been a challenge to find a high SPF sunscreen that won't turn me into an oilslick within 2 hours. Thus, I was attracted to MAC's Prep and Prime SPF 50. I've always wished that some company would have the genius and foresight to invite a primer with high SPF, which would eliminate an extra step (and layer of product) for us sleepyheads in the morning. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this Prep and Prime was the primer with the highest SPF I could find. It contains 16.10% zinc oxide and 7.50% octinoxate, along with oil absorbing powders, and the box indicates it's made in Japan, which is supposed to be on the cutting edge of sun care technology. Plus, everyone who tried it gave it rave reviews. I really could not find anything negative said about this product. So I thought I'd give it a try. But at $28.00 an ounce, compared to my $8-9 Oil of Olay (which was about 3.4 oz), it is appallingly more expensive. A third of the amount for three times the cost? You do the math.

The texture is hard to describe, but I'll do my best. It's white and super creamy--when I say "creamy," I don't mean it feels creamy like a normal face cream or lotion because it does have that sunblock texture. If you've ever used Coppertone Water Babies, for example, or Neutrogena Dry Touch Sunscreen, the MAC consistency has a similar "greasiness" that's creamy at the same time. I probably squeezed out a pea sized amount for each section of my face--one on each cheek, one for my forehead, one for my chin and upper lip, one for my nose and eyes. Strangely enough, when I was rubbing it into my skin, the creamy consistency disappeared fairly quickly, as if the heat was melting the prep and prime into a "greasy" coating on my face, which felt like silicon. What I didn't like was that I felt like I was just pushing silicon around on my skin, rather than smoothing on a lotion. Thus, I couldn't tell if the SPF was being evenly distributed. However, the sunblock dried to a matte finish after I let it sink into my skin for maybe 10 minutes. (which means you have to wait awhile before applying makeup.) Also, I thought my skin had a soft focus glow to it, which I liked. I've read that the primer has light reflecting properties, so this is probably what gave my face that matte glow.

Well, aside from the nice matte finish, I didn't like this sunscreen because it completely broke me out! When I started this blog, I had horrible skin. On a scale of 1 - 10, with 1 being flawless skin and 10 being skin with pitted acne, maybe I ranked a 5 or 6? I didn't have moderate to severe acne, but I could not get rid of the comedones on my T-zone. Also, my nose pores were so huge, they looked like craters. I couldn't even remove the sebum in my nose pores with nose strips because the sebum was too large for the strips to pull out. So I would also use a blemish extractor to force out the sebum plugs on my T-zone, and inadvertently create scabs or scars in the process, which no amount of makeup could hide. It was really gross.

After making some changes to my skin routine a couple months ago, I was amazed to see how much my skin was improving. My comedones disappeared, my pores shrank, and I wasn't breaking out anymore. Then, I started using MAC Prep + Prime shortly before Thanksgiving (sometime between November 22nd--24th maybe?). By December 2nd (when I wrote my Clarisonic 3rd week update), I felt like this sunscreen had completely reversed all the improvement my skin had made. After using this sunscreen, I started breaking out a little on my forehead, then these pimples I've had on my cheek for awhile became inflamed again, then I started getting clogged pores on my upper lip too. By the third week of usage, my skin was a minefield of clogged pores and comedones.

I was still a bit in denial. I wasn't really sure if the Prep and Prime was to blame, or if it was my new MUFE HD Powder, since they're both full of silicon/silica. So I stopped using the HD Powder, but nothing really happened. I then thought maybe the Clarisonic wasn't cleansing properly, so I washed it out completely and continued to use the MAC Prep and Prime for the next two days. My skin got a tad better, but I was still getting newly formed comedones on my forehead. When I flew home on Tuesday, I didn't put on any sunscreen (mostly because I didn't have time...I do not advise being in an aircraft without sun protection since everyone around you keeps the windows open). I also didn't use it for the the next few days that I was at home (and indoors); as a result, nearly all my comedones started clearing up within only 2 days. However I can also see that it's going to take a while for my skin to get back to normal, because as the comedones go away, I'm left with these blemish scars.

Another thing to watch out for is, if you have normal to dry skin, this sunscreen might also be too drying for you. Though I applied a thin layer of my regular moisturizer underneath the prep and prime, at the end of the day, my cheeks and chin felt uncomfortably dehydrated. It also didn't prevent my T-zone's oiliness, because I still needed to blot. So in the end, this product didn't work on my oily T-zone or my dry/normal cheeks.

The Clarisonic is supposed to be able to remove up to 6 times more makeup than normal cleansing, so I highly doubt that there was still SPF on my skin after I washed my face everyday. I was going to experiment and add another cleansing step, DHC Cleansing Oil, to see if it would solve the problem. However I'm too lazy and scarred (literally) from this experience to put myself through something again that just does not work for me.

Here's the ingredients list. I see a lot of silicon:

Water, cyclopentasloxane, butylene glycol, peg-7 dimehicone, cyclohexasiloxane, dimethecone, phenyl trimethicone, vinyl dimethicone/methcone, silsequioxane crosspolymer, methyl gluceth-10, glycerin, dimethicone/ vinyl dimethicone crosspolymer, caffeine, tocepherol, sucrose, stearyl glycrrhetinate, cellulose acteate, glycyrrhetinate, cellulose acetate, methicone, PEG/PPG-19/19 Dimethicone, magnesium sulfate, silicia dimethyl silylate, silica, sorbic acid, phenoxyethanol, chlorphenesin



It's unfortunate that even though I exfoliate more than the typical person, I still broke out. I mean, I use the Clarisonic and the Clinique Turnaround...the pinnacle of cleansing and exfoliation. What more can I really do?
So, this post is really a counter to all those rave reviews out there. This product did seem to work for everyone else, so I'm not discouraging you from buying it. Just know that it has the potential to aggravate your skin. If you go to a MAC counter, ask for a sample, and test it on a small portion of your face for at least a week before committing to buy it.

Blinc Kiss Me Mascara and Lash Primer Review

Blinc Kiss Me Mascara is one of the top selling mascaras in Japan. Rather than being oil based, like most mascaras, this mascara is water based, containing an "acrylic copolymer" which coats and forms tiny "tubes" around your eyelashes that do not come off until you wash your face and apply light pressure (read: no smudging or smearing). This mascara is also great for contact wearers or those with sensitive eyes. Celebrities like Rachael McAdams and Lucy Liu swear by this mascara. From the official Blinc website:

"Kiss Me Mascara is the original mascara invented to form tiny water-resistant “tubes” around your lashes rather than painting them like conventional mascaras. Once applied, the tubes bind to your lashes and cannot run, smudge, clump, or flake, even if you cry or rub your eyes.

Kiss Me Mascara will add both volume and length to give you a radiant natural look that lasts all day. Only when you are ready for removal, the tubes will effortlessly slide off your lashes into your hand without the use of a harsh makeup remover.

All it takes is the combination of lots of warm water and gentle pressure, from your fingertips, a washcloth or water pressure (i.e. shower) and the tubes will slide off your lashes effortlessly. Upon removal you will actually see the tiny tubes in your hand!

Kiss Me Mascara has been clinically tested to be non-irritating making it ideal for sensitive eyes, contact lens wearers, and active people in search of a mascara whose look, hold and ease of removal is without compromise."

--http://www.blincinc.com/us/kiss_me_mascara.php

I picked up a tube of this along with the Blinc Lash Primer from beauty.com during their Friends & Family event (yay for discounts!). I really wanted a mascara that would not smudge under my eyes while lengthening my lashes. I have oily eyelids, and somehow my eyeshadow always ends up under my eyes, even when I apply eyeshadow primer.

I've been using this mascara for a good one to two months now and I am very impressed with the no smudge factor. Though this mascara does not particularly lengthen or volumnize my short little lashes as it claims, it does a fairly good job of darkening and defining the lashes. However, I can't use as many coats as I'd like (only one or two) or my lashes will clump. Also, the product doesn't dry too quickly, so remember not to pile on the coats, or you'll get little smears under your eyes when you blink (unless you're an owl and can hold your eyes open for long periods of time. =p ) The good news is, though, that any messes or mistakes can be easily wiped away. I personally am horrible with applying mascara on my lower lashes, so touching the wand on my skin is not surprising. To remove it, you wait until your mascara has dried, get a clean cotton swab or tissue, and just gently brush it away. The mascara will come right off your skin without needing water or makeup remover. Amazing, right?

I took a nap with this mascara on and the stuff stayed in place. Amazing. But though the mascara doesn't smudge, it CAN flake off if you rub your eyes or apply it too heavily. The good thing is these flakes are easily brushed away and you don't have to fret over using makeup remover, only to be forced to reapply your makeup. However, despite the tube/no smear technology, definitely do NOT treat this mascara as a waterproof mascara--if you cry or your eyes tear, it's possible the tubes will slide off when you blink; at best, the lashes will begin sticking to each other in little spikes.

As for the primer, it goes on cloudy-white (semi viscous?) as reviewed by users on beauty.com...the formula is more like a clear mascara or mascara base, if anything. It doesn't use fibers, which is good for me, since the white fibers in primers still show on the tops of my lashes no matter how many coats of mascara I apply. However, this is also a con, since the fiber-less formula means that there isn't a huge difference in length and volume when the mascara and primer are applied together. The directions also say to wait 30 seconds between coats of primer, and it's important to apply additional coats when the primer is still slightly wet, and not dry (unless you want stiff spiky lashes). Another downside is that I can't curl my lashes before applying the primer, since it undoes the curl. I'm still working that out, but I'll continue to use both because I have the suspicion that Blinc mascara alone is probably pretty drying and harsh on the eyelashes. The primer actually doubles as a conditioner, so it seems logical to apply it prior to the mascara.

To remove, I simply wash my face like I normally do, and then run my fingertips gently down my closed eyelids. The tubes slip right off onto my cheeks. Be REALLY gentle when you apply pressure, cause you don't want your lashes to fall off. This is where I don't like this mascara, because my lashes fall out really easily. When washing off the product, I've noticed the lashes coming off with the tubes, which is NOT good when you have short stubby lashes like me.

I want to compare this with Clinique Lash Power Mascara and Imju Fiberwig Mascara (which is apparently the #1 selling mascara in Japan!) soon, so I'm going to purchase and do an update soon. I like that these two mascaras don't have the tube technology, but are also formulated not to smear or smudge, so they should be easier to remove/easier on my wee lashes. Updates soon.