MAC Spring Bling High-Light Powder Review & Swatches
Spring Bling
MAC Spring Bling High-Light Powder ($30.00 for 0.31 oz.) is a muted, medium-dark, reddish-brown with faint golden pearl. The overspray was strong, but I tried to get as much off of the powder by taking a large powder brush, swirling and swirling, and then taking another brush to get the loosened powder into a trash can before actually swatching and applying. I even took the back of a brush and dug out a divot in my pan to see if there really were fine shimmers in it, and I still saw them–very subtly but there.
The powder ends up looking more like a more typical satin-finish bronzer, so it might be a very subtle highlighter on medium-tan and deeper skin tones but will add some warmth and/or color along with a subtle glow (so at least it’s in “highlighter” territory!). It wasn’t a “sheer” layer of color at all; try mostly opaque and buildable. The sheen it gave was incredibly subtle, and I think the natural finish of my skin (normal at the moment) was doing more lifting than the product itself. The texture, though, is the high point of the product: velvety, creamy, and smooth without being powdery–it’s much richer in feel than most of MAC’s powder-based products (which tend to be firmer/stiffer, not necessarily in a bad way!). It wore well for eight hours on me before fading noticeably.
FURTHER READING: Formula Overview for details on general performance and characteristics (like scent).
Top Dupes
- Hourglass Surreal Bronze Light (LE, $52.00) is lighter (95% similar).
- Becca Aloha Bronze (LE, $38.00) is warmer (90% similar).
- Kaleidos Joyride (LE, $18.00) is less shimmery, lighter, warmer (90% similar).
- MAC Give Me Life (LE, $28.00) is less shimmery, warmer (90% similar).
- MAC Liberating (LE, $24.00) is lighter (90% similar).
- Tom Ford Beauty Peach Poison (Right) (PiP, ) is less shimmery, cooler (90% similar).
- By Terry Tropical Sunset #4 (LE, ) is less shimmery, warmer (90% similar).
- ColourPop All the Feels (PiP, $8.00) is less shimmery, lighter, warmer (90% similar).
- Sephora Bora Bora (P, $17.00) is less shimmery, lighter, warmer (90% similar).
- Viseart Bronze #1 (PiP, ) is lighter (90% similar).
Formula Overview
$35.50/0.35 oz. - $101.43 Per Ounce
It's supposed to have a "sheer veil of colour" that "blends effortlessly," but it is still labeled as a "highlighter." Most, if not at all (depending on the shade, of the shimmer is an overspray (as is the gradient effect), and this is in line with this formula -- MAC's "High-Light Powder" has typically been over-designed with a more underwhelming product underneath. It's one of the most confusing formulas MAC has in their arsenal, because it really doesn't jive with the expectations they set with the overspray nor the product's name. It's too bad they didn't pull out their Blush Ombre formula from years past.
It's just not at all what anyone would expect with a formula name of "High-Light Powder" nor with how it appears in the pan (upon purchase). Most of the iterations I've come across are more blush-like in color with semi-matte to matte finishes that really mattify the skin rather than bring in any luminosity. The colors have ranged from pale pink to brown to coral. Even Marine Life was nowhere near a highlighter, which I recall being one of the more covetable MAC products of years gone by.
Browse all of our MAC High-Light Powder swatches.
Ingredients
Talc , Zea Mays (Corn) Starch , Dimethicone , Octyldodecyl Stearoyl Stearate , Zinc Stearate , Pentaerythrityl Tetraisostearate , Rosa Canina (Rose Hips) Fruit Extract , Ginkgo Biloba Leaf Extract , Acrylates/Octylacrylamide Copolymer , Isostearyl Alcohol , Zea Mays (Corn) Oil , Tetrasodium Edta , Potassium Sorbate , Chlorphenesin , [+/- Mica , Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891) , Iron Oxides (Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499) , Bismuth Oxychloride (Ci 77163) , Chromium Oxide Greens (Ci 77288) , Ferric Ferrocyanide (Ci 77510) , Red 6 (Ci 15850) , Red 7 Lake (Ci 15850) , Red 30 Lake (Ci 73360) , Red 33 (Ci 17200) , Ultramarines (Ci 77007) , Yellow 5 Lake (Ci 19140)]
Disclaimer: Ingredient lists are as available by the brand (or retailer) at the time of publishing. Please always check product packaging, if it exists, for the ingredient list applicable to the product you're purchasing, or the brand or retailer's website for the most up-to-date ingredient list.
Hmm – not MAC’s best, but if you wanted a lower wattage finish, this would be it.
Very nice rosy toned bronze! Exactly the type I love to use to get a natural sun-kissed faux tan across my cheeks, as I don’t get much sun whatsoever.
Maybe I will get it if it makes it into the Goodbyes section.
If this was marketed and sold as a bronzer, I’d be less mad.
But putting a shimmery overspray on a highlighter is disingenuous at best.
Not impressed AT ALL!
I don’t know what to make of this product. It might be too deep for me to use as a bronzer, and wouldn’t be a highlighter. Likely a pass.
I really like the end product, after all the overspray is gone. I wish companies would just stop with it already.
I am reading this, as well as the comments, and I am just wondering if somebody could fill me in on what “overspray” is? I don’t believe I’ve ever heard this term before and am curious as to what it means. Thanks in advance!
Hi Linda,
If you look at the first photo, you’ll see the powder looks shimmery and has a gradient going from a dark to light. If you look at third photo, it’s just one color and looks more matte – so all of the gradient effect/shimmer was an overspray – a top layer that goes away and doesn’t go all the way through the powder.
Ok I see that! So it’s basically something added to make the product look nicer in the package? Seems quite dishonest and misleading of companies to manufacture the products this way!
Pretty much! They aren’t always so different – sometimes it might just be a little more gold sparkle over a shimmery powder, so the actual product is still similar. Other times, they can be drastic (like this one).