MAC Matchmaster Shade Intelligence Compact Foundation Review

I feel like MAC foundations are quite a love/hate thing in the beauty world - some people swear by their bases, whereas many find that their products have a tendency to break them out, or they just don't agree with their skin. Personally, I've always quite liked MAC foundations. I enjoyed using Studio Fix when I was younger, and Face and Body is one of my all time favourites.
When I heard MAC were releasing their own cushion foundation, I was seriously excited - I'm obsessed with the Lancome Miracle Cushion, so I expected the same standard from MAC's offering.

According to MAC's website, the Matchmaster Shade Intelligence Compact (what a mouthful!) is an "innovative cushion foundation that lends true-to-life coverage, provides instant hydration, controls oil, instantly blurs lines and wrinkles, is long-wearing and is non-caking, non-streaking and non-settling." These are just some of the key claims I found on MAC's website, so they lead you to believe that there are a lot of benefits to choosing this foundation.

When you open up the compact, you'll find a little black powder puff, which I found absolutely useless for trying to apply the foundation. The foundation has quite a watery consistency, so the powder puff just didn't pick up enough of the product for me. Similar to the Lancome cushion, the coverage is quite light but buildable. As of late I've definitely been more into light coverage foundations, so I just apply one initial layer and then add concealer wherever necessary.

One of the key features to this foundation, as the name would suggest, is the fact that the shade is supposed to match your own skintone perfectly. There's a good selection of shades in this range, and the girl at my local MAC counter matched me to the palest, which is 1.0. I'm particularly pale at the moment, so this is still a little dark for me, but nothing blending it down the neck won't fix. However I found that after an hour or two, it oxidised on me and went a little orange. It was nothing major, but definitely be aware that you'll be looking darker going home than you did leaving the house! 

I love the satin finish of this foundation, and it definitely wears as long as it claims to - I work as a waitress in a pub, so I can certainly test the longevity of a foundation in those conditions! It does absorb oil, and it doesn't need to be touched up during the day. I've never had a reaction to foundations before, however my skin actually broke out quite badly after using this. I wasn't sure if this foundation was the reason at first, but when I reverted back to my Chanel Les Beiges, my skin cleared up again. This was obviously hugely disappointing as it's a nice foundation and it was expensive!

Overall, I think this is a nice foundation, however I'd definitely recommend trying it in store before purchasing to ensure you don't end up breaking out like I did. Breakouts aside, I don't think this is worth the €39. As I said, it's a nice foundation, but you can get much better for much less. As MAC foundations go, I don't think it's one of their best.

If you want to give a cushion foundation a go, I couldn't recommend the Lancome one more, and apparently Maybelline and YSL are releasing their versions of them this year too.  I'm so disappointed that this foundation didn't agree with my skin as I had such high hopes for it.

If you want to give it a go, it's on MAC counters now for €39.
Have you tried this latest offering from MAC?

Zara :-)x