What it is: Make Up For Ever HD Skin Setting Powder is a loose powder that is supposed to be blurring, mattifying, lightweight and undetectable, and it is boldly claimed to fight shine for 24 hours. 

Price/Quantity: $43 for 18 grams / $22 for 7 grams

Availability: Make Up For Ever, Sephora, Kohl’s

Shade Range: 12 Shades. 8 of them are complexion shades, and 4 are color correcting shades.

Packaging: I’m not sure what the mini size packaging is like but this larger one has a sifter that can be closed by twisting the black portion of the jar. The puff fits perfectly over the sifter so, if you hold the puff over the holes as you turn the jar over, a bit of powder will then coat the surface of the puff. I like this concept for keeping mess down and it does sort of work. It only really keeps mess down if you apply the powder using the puff this way but I personally prefer using a brush, so I still turn the jar over with the lid on to get some powder up above the sifter. That way I’m able to pick some up on a brush. In general, I find the packaging is pretty clean to use either way. So far, I haven’t had issues with powder “leaking” out.

Smell/Fragrance: Smells like absolutely nothing to me.

Expiration/Shelf Life: 12 months after opening. 

Ingredients: Mica, Kaolin, Silica, Zea Mays (Corn) Starch, Lauroyl Lysine, Caprylyl Glycol, Pentylene Glycol, Dicaprylyl Carbonate, Squalane, Ethylhexylglycerin, Sodium Dehydroacetate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Tocopherol, [+/- Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499 (Iron Oxides)]. Source: Sephora.com

Performance

Shade Selection: This powder ends up coating the face in a way where the color is hardly noticeable. It’s nice to see a wide range of colors here, especially the color correcting ones. I’m just not sure the difference in color/tone will end up being all that noticeable unless a shade that is wildly different from someone’s skin tone is used. I bought mine from Sephora and went with the shade Light Vanilla. It was described as having golden undertones which made me a little hesitant, but with actual use, I really don’t notice any golden/yellow tone whatsoever. It ends up looking mostly like a pale neutral translucent shade on me.

Application: I prefer dusting this on lightly with a brush. Doing it this way gives me a much thinner application but still very noticeably mattifies. Even for the under eye and cheek area, this lighter application is plenty to remove any tackiness from my foundation to keep any sparkle fallout from eyeshadow from sticking to my skin, but it doesn’t look heavy. 

The puff can also be used for a heavier application that will help fight shine for a little longer than the brush method. I don’t really enjoy doing it this way because I feel it ends up looking much heavier and looks more like I’ve got an obvious layer of powder sitting on the surface of the skin. Even if I dust off excess, I still think it looks a bit too heavy. 

One thing I’ve tried doing for the sake of keeping shine away longer is using a brush to first apply a very light layer and then pressing over it with the puff (without any extra powder on it) to really sink the powder into the foundation. This kind of works and looks better.

Texture/Consistency/Finish: The powder does feel pretty fine once it’s all spread out on the skin. It may not look like it in the container, though, because it does kind of like to stick together in small clumps. It doesn’t feel like a silica powder — you know those ultra silky ones that flow almost like a liquid, and fly up into the air at the touch of a brush. It feels more like a traditional powder. Weightier, but still fine. It has a few skin conditioning ingredients a bit lower down in the ingredients list but I don’t find this to be like a “hydrating” powder. It feels like it’s more on the dry side.

Pigmentation/Color Payoff: Very sheer. I think if someone were to buy a shade that was a bit off, it probably wouldn’t be noticeable.

Longevity: This was the thing I really wanted to know about this powder. Does it actually last? For me, this falls a bit flat in terms of keeping shine away for long periods of time. I can go about half a day before I see shine coming through. I’ve tried this all week with different foundations and most days, I felt the need to reapply once midafternoon to get my skin back to a place I felt comfortable with. It certainly works better than some more “hydrating” powders I’ve used for controlling oil. Above I’ve shown this next the discontinued Too Faced Peach Perfect Powder, which I love for how smoothing it is, but it does nothing for shine control.

Pros and Cons

Things I like:

• Fine, lightweight texture. Lives up to the “undetectable” claim pretty well.
• Controls shine and oil fairly well but nowhere near what it claims.
• There’s a TON of product in here. It will last for quite some time.
• I appreciate the thought that went into the packaging design. Even if you don’t apply the product with the puff, it is nice that they included it and that mess is generally not a big problem regardless of how it’s applied.
• I can reapply this many times (so far I’ve tried about 3 times), without it building up to a point where my foundation starts to look cakey. This is actually a huge plus that sets it apart from lots of other powders I’ve tried.

Drawbacks and other considerations:

• It can look heavy if applied with the puff. I feel like this is very dependent on other factors though (what foundation you pair it with, how your skin is doing, etc.)
• The large size is really expensive for what it is. I have other powders I paid a lot less for that effectively do about the same thing.

Do I Recommend It?

This is another one of those products, where, yes, it’s a good product. It mostly does what it says, aside from the 24 hour claim (such things really should never be taken seriously). But I feel like it’s not really worth the price unless you really want the brand name, the logo, and the better packaging design. I don’t feel the powder itself is significantly better than lower cost options.

Milani Conceal + Perfect Blur Out Powder is an airy, mattifying, loose powder that helps to diffuse the look of skin texture and control oil. It retails for around $13 and is available to purchase from Milani and Ulta.

There are 5g of product in the pot. Most of my other loose (and pressed) powders contain around 10g. Just by looking at the sizes of the powder compacts and containers I have, this one isn’t that much smaller, so I wonder if the weight difference might be due to the ingredients.

INGREDIENTS: Silica, Polymethyl Methacrylate, Polymethylsilsesquioxane, HDI/Trimethylol Hexyllactone Crosspolymer, Dehydroacetic Acid, Ethylhexylglycerin, Tocopherol, Maltodextrin, Carmine (CI 75470), Iron Oxides (CI 77491, CI 77492, CI 77499).

- From Milani's Website

I am by no means an expert in cosmetic ingredients but I do like to scan over them and do some light research to see what they are. There are some that I see time and time again (like silica) and they don’t really faze me but the second one listed is new to me. If you punch Polymethyl Methacrylate into Google, you will quickly find that it is a type of plastic (acrylic). It’s supposed to be “safe” and compatible with human skin.

The powder is VERY fine and flies up in the air as I go to pick some up out of the container. I am glad they included the fabric netting to control how much comes out of the pot. This netting is stretchy and flexible so I can press a brush or puff down into the pot to reach powder that is sitting well below it. I tend to remove sifters from loose powders but I don’t think I will be doing that with this one. 

Applying this to the skin, it has a super silky, and almost kind of dry, but still very smooth feel. It creates a surface with very little friction or tack. Using this to set under eye concealer helps any eyeshadow fallout to not stick to the skin as much as it otherwise might. It darkens my concealer the tiniest bit but not enough to be a problem. I’ve had other powders that darken much more.

The main benefit of this product is that it’s supposed to blur. So how well does it do that compared to other products? I think it blurs marginally better than most of my other powders. My favorite one was the Too Faced Peach Perfect Setting Powder (now discontinued). I went into this purchase thinking the Milani powder might be a decent substitute that is actually currently available.

So far, I am happy with the smoothing effect and pleasantly surprised at the added bonus of controlling oil as well. I will say that blurring is really best done using a combination of products and not just relying on one magic pill.

There are couple of potential downsides, though. Be careful not to apply too much. You may not even see any excess powder in real life but it can definitely show up as flashback in photos. The last “after” pic below is an example of this. If you end up over applying, just buff over the area to tone it down.

Another issues is that there is only one shade and that may be a problem for those with deeper complexions, if it shows up as much as it does on me. It is supposed to be translucent and it mostly is if applied lightly but it doesn’t take much to overdo it.

As a product, I like how this powder performs. It looks good, it lasts. But I find the idea of putting powdered plastic on my skin (and then washing it down the drain) kind of disturbing. I realize plastic is everywhere and something like this is such a small percentage of it. It’s just that makeup is in no way a necessity and I don’t see why overlooking that is okay in this situation. In hindsight, I wouldn’t purchase this again for that one reason alone.

Patrick Ta Crème Foundation & Finishing Powder Duo is a two-in-one product containing a medium coverage foundation and a translucent, natural-finish powder. It retails for $52, contains 0.42 oz of foundation (less than half of a standard size liquid foundation), 0.32 oz of powder, and comes in 24 shades.

The outside of the compact is a mirrored reflective surface and on the inside, the creme foundation has its own cover to keep powder out and prevent powder brushes from touching the foundation. The mirror inside is fairly large and I like the longer, vertical shape for being able to see my whole face easily at once. I’m not a fan of reflective packaging but otherwise I think the design is functional and keeps things simple. Even one less product on my desk is a little bit of a mental relief.

I would not have been drawn to this foundation were it not for the cream shadows in their Major Dimension II Palette. The way those sank nearly completely into the skin without looking powdery on texture made me curious to see if the foundation was at all similar.

As I run my finger over the surface, the foundation melts almost immediately and I am able to pick product up without having to warm it up at all. It has a lot of slip and spreads over the skin with hardly any resistance. The entire application process goes by in a snap.

I have mainly applied this with my fingers. I dabbled a bit with a sponge and a brush but went back to using fingers immediately after. The sponge gave me a much sheerer application to the point where I felt I was just wasting the product. Using a brush worked about as well as using fingers but I don’t prefer this method in general for most foundations because it tends to cause foundation to catch more on texture and emphasize it. I didn’t see that happen with this foundation, though. I still felt it was necessary to use a sponge/brush afterward to finish off the blending, especially to get the product out of my pores and looking as natural as possible.

Using the foundation alone, I am left with a noticeably evened out complexion and a glowy, bordering dewy finish. For the photos below, I also used this in place of concealer under the eyes, so you can get a better idea of the coverage. I thought it worked pretty well used that way and didn’t feel like I was missing anything by skipping concealer. There was a small breakout above my lip and it managed to tone down the redness quite a bit.

One thing I didn’t love was how it sat in my pores and on texture. This is something I struggle with, with almost all foundations. Some are more forgiving and easier to blend out almost completely. This one was less forgiving.

For many of the cream foundations I’ve tried in the past, it’s almost like I could see the powders (pigments?) gather in texture more visibly than with liquid formulas. I was hoping that wasn’t going to be the case with this one, but unfortunately, it is.

The powder is sheer and does not add any extra coverage and also doesn’t alter the color of the foundation once applied. It feels lightweight but not particularly finely milled. When first applied, it eliminates most of the glow from the foundation itself, but doesn’t control shine for very long at all. For normal daily use, I think the overall finish of the foundation and the powder together along with how they look over the course of a day, looks just fine. I don’t have any issues with some glow developing over time. But this isn’t one I’d reach for when wanting to keep shine away for long periods of time.

Below are before and after of just the foundation (no powder) so you can see how it evens out the complexion.

Wearing this to work in a “normal” way, just to look a little more evened out, I was happy with how it held up all day. It didn’t slide around, even though it does have a lot of slip, and I didn’t have any areas where it completely rubbed off and left me with zero coverage. It didn’t get so shiny by the end of the day that I felt gross. “Real life” wear: A-okay.

For use on camera, filming tutorials, that’s another story. I don’t like this so much for that purpose. It has too much shine alone (and the powder doesn’t last long enough) in studio lighting. Also, the way it sits on the skin isn’t great for close up photos.

There are things I like about this product, like the speed and ease of application along with simplifying two products into one. I think it wears well in “real life” if you are not needing it to look great up close and in harsh lighting. But, I’m super picky about foundations not looking like makeup sitting on top of my skin and that is enough for me to say you may want to pass on this.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission when you make purchases through them.

Product Description

Laura Geller Filter Finish Baked Radiant Setting Powder is a universal powder designed to “blur flaws, balance your skin tone, and illuminate your face with a warm natural glow.” It contains 0.24 oz / 7 g and retails for $32. It can be purchased from Laura Geller and Ulta.

Performance

This was an ultra fine, smooth, and lightweight powder with a very pale neutral nude sheen. The sheen wasn’t sparkly or frosty, but was very natural looking from a normal distance. When using this as a highlighter, I found it nearly impossible to over apply, as it was both subtle yet noticeably brightening. However, using this as a setting powder didn’t work well on me, particularly on my forehead where I have large pores, and on my nose, which is shiny enough on its own.

The packaging seems to be made well. It wasn’t difficult to open, stayed closed securely, and the hinge worked well. There was no fragrance but the powder did have a faint mineral smell which was not noticeable during normal use.

The closest thing I have in my collection to this is Hourglass Incandescent Light from the Ambient Lighting Palette, which is a little bit more subtle and a smidge more powdery. They both impart a similar subtle glow and have a silky, thin texture.

Worth Buying?

I can see how this could be very beautiful as a setting powder on somebody with naturally great skin. If you have any kind of texture though, like large pores, fine lines, sun damage, or acne scaring then it’s best used sparingly as a highlighter. I recommend checking this out if you need a highlighter that is truly neutral in color and/or more subdued. It’s a good alternative to a white highlighter, which can look too intense at times.

Pros:

• Subtle, natural sheen
• Difficult to over-apply (when used as a highlighter)
• Not powdery
• Neutral color

Cons:

• Emphasizes texture
• Could easily be too glowy as a setting powder on oily skin

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission when you make purchases through them.

Product Description

What it is: Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders are meant to mimic different lighting sources and affect the way light falls on the skin, giving it a softer, more flattering look. Hourglass describes Diffused Light as “a soft, warm, pale yellow powder that conceals redness and gives skin clarity—like a soft ray of morning light.” It is formulated without parabens, talc, fragrance, nanoparticles, and gluten.

Price/Quantity: $45 US for 0.35 oz / 10 g

Availability: Hourglass, Sephora, Nordstrom, Bluemercury

Color/Finish: This shade is an ultra pale translucent yellow. It doesn’t leave a yellow cast on the skin. It leaves behind both a mattified and lightly glowing effect on the skin. In the swatch below, you can see there is some shimmer but it is nearly undetectable on the face because the shimmer particles are incredibly tiny. It’s not going to give a shimmery/shiny effect the way a highlighter would. It’s extremely subtle and perfect for everyday wear.

Packaging: The compact snaps shut and contains a decent sized mirror in the lid. The powder is thick and domed, like a baked product. I love the unique dark satin bronze color theme Hourglass uses across many of their products.

Smell/Fragrance: There is no fragrance and it has a very faint mineral smell if I get really close. I smell absolutely nothing during or after application.

Performance

Application: I apply this using a powder brush, by sweeping the side of the brush into the product and patting what I picked up on my skin. Then I buff lightly to blend it into the skin. This can be used as a setting powder, a finishing powder, or even a very subtle highlight. For me, it works best as a setting powder. That way, I get the most luminosity out of the product.

Texture: The powder is very fine and disappears into the skin. I get no powder kick up when using a brush. It does not emphasize dry patches or any textural issues in my skin. It actually casts a soft focus veil over the skin helping to reduce the appearance of texture on the skin.

Pigmentation: Very sheer.

Longevity: This hasn’t negatively affected the wear-time of any other product I’ve worn it with. It does help keep shine at bay to some degree longer than if I hadn’t powdered at all but I wouldn’t use it strictly for that purpose.

Overall Opinion

Pros:

• Very subtle and natural look
• Pretty much impossible to over-apply
• Does not look powdery on the skin
• Does not cause foundation to cake during wear

Cons:

• Not cheap

Worth Buying?

If you are someone who notices and appreciates the subtle differences in higher end products and don’t mind splurging more on products that will get used every day, then this is a product you would enjoy. Though the vast majority of people probably wouldn’t notice the difference if I used this product over a drugstore alternative, I see the difference and that’s what matters. If you are looking for something more dramatic, you might not see the point in spending $20-$30 more for such a subtle visible difference.