Face powder has a PR problem. A generation of women have been told by magazine articles that it’s ageing, and their experience probably reflects this. Old-fashioned powders were full of talc, which is both drying and unflattering. This was blended with waxes, which gave a thick, cakey finish to the skin, unappealingly settling into lines and creases. Together, they could easily make you appear as though you’d run through a flour mill in a severe draught. This is powder’s unfortunate legacy, but it is simply no longer representative today.
Pressed powders nowadays are usually talc-free and pressure-blasted into compacts without the need for caking agents. They’re infinitely finer, softer and more natural-looking. In fact, pressed is now so great that I can’t remember the last time I bothered with loose (previously the more subtle but less convenient variety). Instead, I carry a powder compact everywhere – usually a Bobbi Brown or Charlotte Tilbury, but more recently MAC’s exceptional new offering, Studio Sculpt Defining Powder (£22). It has a gel-powder consistency that blends beautifully to an almost invisible finish. The texture is ideal for precision contouring, if that’s your poison, but I use it as a general powder to lock down foundation and/or concealer, mattify shine and make my face look more pulled together and polished. The key to modern application is to apply powder only where needed. Buff with a brush into nose, forehead and chin and, if you like, leave the natural gleam of your cheeks uncovered.
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