I approach any beauty product designed and declared as an aid to good selfies with some scepticism. Not because I’ve anything against selfie culture within reason, but because many of social media’s favourite makeup looks, while striking and flawless in photographs, look pretty bad in real life. Away from filters and flashlights, sharp brows look harsh, heavy contouring robs the skin of its natural texture and signs of vitality, and “baking” (powder daubed heavily under eyes and left for several minutes to stick and provide maximum coverage) appears dry, caked and exacerbates any lines as the day wears on.
But several new “selfie powders”, all promising to flatter photographed skin with clever use of colour filters and light-reflecting particles, were sufficiently intriguing. Estée Edit’s Flash Photo Powder (£24) is a baby-blue, micro-fine finishing powder designed to brighten and enliven the face, while blurring lines. And it works remarkably well. My under-eyes were subtly, but visibly, perkier, minus the big-box washing powder cast I was expecting to be left on my skin. It’s ostensibly for “all skins”, but I’d think twice about dusting it over brown or black complexions, which would do much better with Becca’s new Soft Blurring Powder (£32), a golden tone product (too dark for me. Palefaces, avoid) that does the same thing, albeit less conveniently than a compact. It gives a pretty, almost ethereal glow to any skin upwards of beige and, to my eye, a little more coverage than the Estée Edit, which, I should mention, has been mimicked pretty shamelessly by W7 with its new Selfie Powder (£6.95). It’s not as good, but worth trying if you’re merely curious.
Entirely colourless is Beauty Pie’s One Powder Wonder (£3.68 to members), which, I’ll concede, is a dead ringer for Nars’ excellent version at 27 quid. Both have a fractionally looser texture, a good, clear, semi-mattifying finish and visible brightening capabilities. Selfie powders, applied locally to areas in need of brightening – under the eyes or on the cheekbones, for example – represent an effective extra step for special occasions, not a replacement for my beloved face powder. One can get the best of both worlds via Hourglass Ambient Light (£40) or Mac’s racially inclusive Skinfinish Natural (£24): two semi-matte powders with decent coverage and soft-focus finish, both on-camera and where it matters most.
