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.

Top Dupes

View Swatches View All Dupes

Hourglass Surreal Bronze Light (LE, $50.00) is lighter (95% similar).
Sephora Bora Bora (P, $17.00) is less shimmery, lighter, warmer (90% similar).
Too Faced Sweetie Pie (P, $30.00) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar).
Viseart Bronze #1 (PiP, ) is lighter (90% similar).
Becca Aloha Bronze (LE, $38.00) is warmer (90% similar).
Laura Mercier Earth (LE, $24.00) is lighter (90% similar).
MAC Give Me Life (LE, $28.00) is less shimmery, warmer (90% similar).
Colour Pop Barre Hopping (P, $8.00) is less shimmery, lighter (90% similar).
By Terry Tropical Sunset #4 (LE, ) is less shimmery, warmer (90% similar).
MAC Liberating (LE, $24.00) is lighter (90% similar).
More dupes -- click to see the full list!

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)]