One of the best setting powders I’ve come across is the Mac Mineralize Skinfinish natural in Dark. I’ve wanted to try it for a long time and I finally came around to buying it last month. I read a lot of reviews on it and I was having second thoughts on buying it because the darkest shades in the line aren’t what dark skinned makeup users would call dark. They have shade names like Dark, Dark Tan, Dark Deep, Dark Deepest, and Sun Power. And they are all some shade of medium brown. So I figured these wouldn’t be a fit for me. From what I could tell, they either seemed too light or too warm or cool/red. In the makeup tutorials I’d seen these used in they were usually used kind of like a bronzer. That being said the tutorials were mostly done by lighter skinned people. I came across a review of the shade dark by a makeup wearer who is a few shades darker than me and it looked fine on her. And like I said, the other shades appeared to be either too cool or too warm for me. Dark looked like the safest bet. The description of the color Dark on Mac’s website is a “deep caramel” which is how my foundation shades are usually described. It sounded like it could be a good match so I took the leap and purchased the shade Dark.

Packaging and Product Features

It comes in classic black Mac packaging. Its a round compact, as you can see, featuring a mirror in the top and a magnetic closure. The packaging is sturdy but it is a bit on the bulky side. It’s not too bad its easy to find in a makeup bag that’s for sure.

The powder itself is your classic baked powder in a domed shape. It seems to have a satin finish or a pearlized finish as the Mac website describes it. It is certainly not matte and it does not have a powdery finish at all. It is a soft powder that loosens very easily that I can tell. And it applies smoothly and blends out very well.

Wear and Application Review

When it arrived and I opened it it shocked me how light it was in person. So I kept the box until after I’d tried it out just in case I had to ship it back. I finally tried it out a day or two later and I was pleasantly surprised that it blended well with my skin tone. It’s not meant to be used for coverage as it is a finishing powder. So the color being a tad too light didn’t turn out to be an issue. The Mac website says the use is perfect for contouring or adding dimension to the face and it is to provide sheer coverage with a natural yet dimensional finish. If you’ve looked at the shades, you could see that no deeper skinned person will be contouring anything with those shade options. 🙂

I think it is still good to set with and dimension can be added in a sort of inverse way because it’s skin-like and it also brightens well. I wear it in middle of the face applying it to my cheeks, nose, forehead and chin and blend outward to the edges. I’ve been liking to wear it with cheap one dollar bronzer called Le Mercerie Sunlight Bronzer that I use as a sort of contour/bronzer. The swatch below you can see that it doesn’t apply as light as you would think it would looking at the product in the pan. It applies smoothly and blends in seamlessly.

It lasts all day and it is not cakey or powdery at all. Eight hours later the finish still looks the way it did when I applied it. And I can reapply if I choose without it looking like too much. It truly gives a nice skin like glow to my face. It also looks even and airbrushed which is what I was hoping it would be. I wear it every single time I wear makeup because I really like the finish. It really provides a natural skin finish just as the name implies. It’s on the expensive end but I’d say(aside from the lack of shade range) it’s still well worth the price.

Thanks for reading!

-Amber ❤