review: mac prep+prime skin

So after going back to MAC for work, only a week this time, I've noticed a few things about products I haven't noticed before. The main thing being, one of the products that is most popular and gets sold the most, especially among our Brazilian clients, I absolutely detest. 

That would be, the Prep + Prime Skin. This is MAC's all-purpose primer. I actually used it often on clients when I worked there the first time, and I never noticed a lot of the things it claims to do, but since a lot of people that came in the store raved about it, I never really thought it was that bad. Now, on the website and the information we get as MAC MUAs, it claims to "calm and soothe the skin, blot away excess oil, even out skin redness, improve laydown and application of foundation or powder". I did notice people with sensitive skin seemed to prefer it to the coloured primers, the Prep + Prime Fortified Skin Enhancers (which I love). I also noticed it does feel smooth and makes the foundation go on just slightly more even - definitely not as much as my Smashbox Photo Finish primer. It does not however even out skin redness in the least. 

But my main point is, it says it "blots away excess oil". Considering most people looking for a primer suffer from oily or combination to oily skin, I'm not sure how something that is extremely glittery is supposed to help. It's not luminous, it's glittery. Bluish, purplish, pinkish glitter. If you have oily skin, and you buy something to blot away excess oil, you don't want it to add extra shine to your face. And I think most people don't want glitter all over their faces. And worse, I actually have combination to dry skin, and as the strong air conditioning at work makes my skin compensate with extra oil, I decided to put on some of this primer a couple of hours before I left. What happened? My skin never looked and felt more oily in my entire life. And I barely get oily. Also, as I was looking at myself in the mirror, with proper non-workplace lighting, wondering how I got so oily, all I saw was glitter. I even thought maybe I had gotten myself covered in some of those loose shimmer powders by accident. 

So, I suppose this is a negative review. I hate it. So yes, don't buy it unless you like glitter all over your face. You could use it on your body, as one of those glittery body lotions - a damn expensive one. I think the fact that so many of our Brazilian clients rave about it is a classic case of MAC OCD. When they blindly believe anything MAC is the absolute holy grail.