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This product is a category 3. For a full description of beauty product categories, please visit the My Beauty Philosophy page.

I purchased MAC’s Prep + Prime Fix + after seeing it used repeatedly in YouTube tutorials. I was curious about its use of adding vibrance to eye shadows but mostly I just wanted to figure out what its purpose was. Is it a makeup setting spray? Is it a primer? Is it for eye shadows? The answer is yes to all three. You would think that’s where it went wrong as usually when a product tries to be too versatile, it fails at everything it promises on. That was until I looked at the ingredients…

Description:

The bottle is 3.4 fl oz (100 ml). The liquid is clear and has a very pleasant fresh smell. The cap has a neat mechanism which lets you twist it to a closed position (perfect for taking with you when you travel so it won’t spill all over the place…but not on a plane because it’s over 3 fl oz).

From the MAC website, the product is described as essentially water with a bunch of crap in it (vitamins, minerals, chamomile, green tea, cucumber, etc.) which makes me think that I can make it myself. What’s more, I feel cheated as a consumer. This is water with essence in it. You know, the way the water collecting at the bottom of your garbage can is also filled with “essence.” Don’t get me wrong, this stuff smelled wonderful, but it has no purpose.

 

For setting Make up:

Pros: None
Cons: Made my eye shadow clump.
when I used it to set my make up, I noticed a few hours later that my eye shadow clumped in the creases of my mobile lid. This stopped happening to me once I discovered Urban Decay’s Primer Potion over 10 years ago.

For making eye shadow pop:

Pros: added vibrance to eye shadow, made pigments easier to apply
Cons: none
I sprayed my brush with it to help my MAC pigment stick to my lids. I put one good spray before dipping the brush. What I noticed is that it did what water would do. The brush was wet. When I dipped the brush into the pigment, it picked it up and helped it stick to the lid. Surprisingly, this held throughout the day. I was expecting that as it dried, it would clump, but the shadow stayed put.

For Refreshing:

Pros: refreshed my face…
Cons: …just like water
having washed my face earlier in the morning (I devoted the weekend to trying this spray) I sprayed it on my face just before I applied my moisturizer. I used it as a toner and wiped away any excess dirt on my face. During the summer, I can see using this during my bike rides to refresh my face after sweating through 12 miles in Brooklyn. I’m disgruntled because water would do the same.

Would I re-stock this product into my inventory?

No.

Though I really liked the bottle it came in, so as soon as it runs out, I plan on replacing it with regular water.

I took this product with me to work and used it to refresh my face in the middle of the day. I wouldn’t recommend using it before/after make up but in the middle of the day it would be perfect!

Verdict: ♥♥ (2/5)

I’m giving this such a low rating because it does nothing more than the magical liquid that comes out of your sink would do.