Hello my loves,
Okay, no excuses no anything and this isn't an excuse; I've not posted for a while & that was not my intention - I have been suffering with a shoulder injury since December and that has just been completely time consuming and painful. I'm a really heavily dependant right handed person and this was my right shoulder I hurt so everything has been difficult and tiring to do the past 2 months.
But I finally have some holidays from work and the rest is doing me some good so I honestly am DYING to get back into blogging at least weekly like I have done previously!
That's enough pity-me-party now so let's crack on to why you're here!
The point of this post today is to discuss loose face powders.
Loose face powders are finely milled powders used to set down sticky or tacky cream products you've put on your face like a concealer or foundation.
They come in MAAANNY colours:
- Translucent (no colour)
- Purple (will take away yellow tones and sallowness)
- Yellow (brighten & highlights)
- Peach (brightens and adds warmth)
- all regular foundation colours (these match your foundation shades to give a super natural look)
- Translucent (no colour)
- Purple (will take away yellow tones and sallowness)
- Yellow (brighten & highlights)
- Peach (brightens and adds warmth)
- all regular foundation colours (these match your foundation shades to give a super natural look)
The sister of loose powders is pressed powders, which I'm not inclined to use as they can cake and cling to dry patches very easy.
However, loose powders come with their own problems too.
Has anyone ever seen these type of pictures?
The cause of this is loose powder.
If you want to AVOID this happening to you this is what you need to do:
1. You can choose any loose powder to use on your face SO LONG as you read the back ingredients and avoid at all cost any powder that has:
100% silica (any high amount of silica will cause this so try to avoid)
zinc oxide
titanium dioxide
if you intend on using this powder all over your face or to *bake.
2. The ingredients that I have mentioned are white based so they are used to bring brightness and a highlight so they are fine if you intend on just using a smidge to set under your eyes but given the intense brightening and reflective white nature of these powders - they are not suitable for your whole face and are not suitable for 'baking' as you will be leaving a pure heavy tone and powder trace behind.
This is one of the reasons for FLASHBACK in photography.
This is one of the reasons for FLASHBACK in photography.
3. Examples of powders that have these ingredients in them would be:
- Laura Mercier 'Secret brightening powder'
- Inglot 'Translucent Loose powder'
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a small dusting of these products where you want too highlight - but these are not to set your entire face with.
I feel like that's why these products come in such small containers because it's not intended that you're to be whacking this everywhere.
4. The two powders that I love that won't cause that white powder cast are:
- Laura Mercier 'translucent loose powder'
Both of these powders are suitable to use all over your face and to bake also if you want to.
*Baking??
'Baking' in the makeup world, has nothing to do with cakes unfortunately.
When someone speaks about 'baking' what they mean is that they are taking a generous amount of translucent powder and placing it heavily under their eyes, around the nose, under the contour. By placing a generous amount in these areas, you allow your skin to absorb just the amount of powder that is requires. You leave the powder 5-10 minutes to absorb and you use a large brush to dust excess away.
What powder is best for me?:
As a rule of thumb, I would only ever use loose powders with colours in them in the areas that I need them - eg. yellow powder under my eyes/centre of the forehead to brighten. These powders can be quite chalky and most of them contain the bad ingredients we don't want so are best used sparingly.
If I'm baking or setting my whole face I will usually use just a translucent powder like my Laura Mercier Loose translucent powder I mentioned above. Because these are translucent they won't cake up as noticeably or cling to dry patches as noticeably.
If you have dry skin or skin that powder seems to cake on, avoid powders with talc if possible or stick to one where there isn't a tonne of talc - ask at the makeup counters or google product ingredients. Talc absorbs oil, think dry shampoo, but if you have dry skin as it is you will have very little to absorb Laura Mercier's 'Invisible Loose setting powder' is a talc free product, so perfect if you suffer from dry skin, be aware however, it does contain SILICA (which we don't want) but is isn't a main ingredient - still do use a light hand & no baking.
Best tools for working with loose powders:
This is totally up to preference but I will usually use the Real techniques 'powder brush' to dust loose powder all over my face and then in areas that I might need more setting where I've used more products like say concealer & foundation I will use the Real techniques 'setting brush'. If you intend on using the baking method I mentioned above, I'd suggest that you use a damp beauty sponge and apply the powder generously to the areas this way.
So that about rounds up my 'Loose powder 101'! If I've left any questions unanswered please leave me a comment and I will get back to you! <3
I hope this helps anyone who was confused! I am going to do a video on 'baking' during the week, so if this is something you want more info on keep an eye out! <3
With Love from,
Rebekah
