People either love or hate MAC’s Strobe Cream, but is the sparkly moisturizer really worth $33?
MAC’s Strobe Cream is a moisturizer that is full of sparkly particles to make your skin look glowy, and it’s an underappreciated holy grail, according to many die-hard fans on makeup forums everywhere. It tends to be very well-reviewed, but there are always a few naysayers around to say that it is heavy, or greasy, or made them break out. People really seem to love it or hate it. Either it makes you look young and fresh, or you wind up covered in whiteheads and cursing God. (The vast majority of reviewers do seem to love it, though.)
Well, I want to look young and fresh, and I was intrigued by the variance of people’s opinions on the products, so I decided to give it a try. I did some Googling to see how exactly a person is supposed to apply it–is it a highlighter? A moisturizer? A foundation primer?–and MAC suggests to just blend it over the face with your fingertips, so that’s what I did.
Here is the control shot, without any makeup at all. If it looks like I am home with a terrible flu, that’s because I am. Well, maybe this product will work, and I’ll look young and fresh and healthy when the delivery guy brings me a case of ginger ale this afternoon.
And here’s what the Strobe Cream looks like when applied just as a moisturizer.
I have extremely dry skin, and it’s the middle of winter, but the green tea and eucalyptus in this product actually felt more like a sting than a refreshing tingle. The scent is also strong and rubbery.
A lot of people seemed to be praising Strobe Cream for being able to transmit a glow from under foundation, so I decided to try that out as well. Here’s the Strobe Cream under Makeup For Ever’s HD foundation.
I like it. It seems a bit more glowy than the Laura Mercier Radiance Primer, which does the same thing, but the Strobe Cream feels a bit heavier and stickier, and it also stings a bit where my face was feeling particularly dry before I applied it. It looks nice in the pictures, but it feels a bit gooey. I have very dry skin, so that’s normally not an issue for me, but it just feels a bit unpleasant.
I probably won’t be re-buying this one. Have you ever tried it? Let us know how you use it in the comments.