A makeup tool that was originally popular many years ago has since appeared again, featured in beauty magazines and in top influencer’s makeup bags. An essential product to incorporate to any makeup routine, setting powder is here to stay. For those of us who aren’t makeup gurus, you’re probably wondering, what is setting powder? Images might come to mind of ladies in pillbox hats with caked-on facial powder from decades past. Forget that. Today’s setting powder is all about smoothing and brightening the skin in a natural-looking way while setting makeup and controlling oil. At Mented, our goal is to help every woman feel her most beautiful and confident with the right makeup tools and tricks, which is why we started our collection of makeup for women of color. Read on to learn all you need to know to answer the question - what does setting powder do?
Setting Powder in a Nutshell
Setting powder is applied after your foundation to combat shine and set makeup. Setting powder may be loose or compressed, and either translucent or skin-toned. The right formulation will create a smooth, undetectable finish over your foundation, making a dewy foundation more matte without over-drying it.
It’s important to note that setting powder is not to be confused with finishing powder. Typically, finishing powders are used to blur pores and fine lines and are reserved for photography sessions and not everyday life. On the other hand, setting powders can be used in your daily routine to add that final, natural touch to any look. We created perfectly tinted setting powder for women of color to match all skin tones and help women easily achieve this in their beauty routines.
What Does Setting Powder Do?
One of the main benefits of a setting powder is that it’s versatile and multi-purpose. To showcase just how so, read on to discover all of the great feats a little dust of this powder can accomplish:
#1 Keeps foundation in place
If you’ve experienced the woes of your foundation getting sticky or falling off in the summer heat, then setting powder is the solution to your troubles! Some women have taken it as a fact of life that foundation looks best in the short hours after it is applied and that there’s no hope for how to make makeup last all day. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. With the right amount of setting powder, your foundation will stay put and give you a flawless complexion all day, even in the strongest summer heat.
#2 Mattifies oily skin
Moisture-rich skin is in for sure, with its characteristic dewy finish. However, what isn’t as popular is its less-beloved cousin, oily skin with its tell-tale shine. For women who have oily skin types, setting powder will be your new best friend. Setting powder contains oil-absorbing minerals to keep your skin looking matte and feeling fresh, with just the right amount of glow.
#3 Blends in blush and bronzer
If you use foundation, you likely dust on bronzer and blush too. Applying setting powder after foundation will make it easier to blend in your favorite bronzer or blush. Ever look in the mirror after applying makeup and feel like all the parts are there - the right products in the right colors in the right places on your face - but it’s not coming together? It’s like a deconstructed makeup look without united parts? The answer to this is setting powder. This is the blending magic that integrates your makeup. There will be no more blush and bronzer looking like separate colors laying over your foundation. With setting powder, you can achieve an integrated, blended-in, pro-level makeup look.
# 4 Achieves next-level makeup techniques
Have you heard of baking? Nope, not making cupcakes. We’re talking about the makeup technique created and perfected by drag queens. This type of baking involves thickly layering on setting powder to areas you want to highlight, letting it “bake” for 5-10 minutes and then dusting off the excess powder. The result is a flawless, highlighting finish that doesn’t budge for hours. Sandbagging is another professional setting powder technique that helps keep eye makeup from falling below the eye.
Pro Tip: Maximize the power of your powder by learning just exactly how to use setting powder in your beauty routine.
The Perfect Powder for You
When selecting setting powder, be sure to choose the one that matches your skin tone. Translucent powder for any skin tone is available on the market, but the downside is that it requires skilled blending or you can look off-color or cakey. Besides being more user-friendly, tinted setting powders also give you a bit more coverage, helping to conceal any blemishes or dark spots. For the days you don’t want full coverage foundation, tinted setting powders work as a great stand-in for lower-level coverage.
Mented has created Skin Silk Loose Setting Powder as the go-to setting powder for all skin tones. While our setting powder can be used with any foundation, we created this line specifically to complement our moisture-rich foundation sticks. Skin Silk Loose Setting Powder balances foundation perfectly by maintaining the healthy, dewy finish created by the foundation, while giving it a natural-looking, oil-fighting, stay-in-place matte finish. Our setting powder is available in three shades covering the full spectrum of skin tones:
- Light/Tan
- Medium/Deep
- Deep/Rich
If you’re unsure what your skin tone is, visit our foundation shade finder to find the best foundation for olive skin, medium skin, deep skin, and every shade in between!
Get Your (Non-Shiny) Glow On
We all want skin that glows, but doesn’t shine. Mented’s Skin Silk Loose Setting Powder puts you on the right side of the thin line between dewy skin and oily skin with its perfect blend of ingredients. What we’ve sought to accomplish with our new powder goes hand-in-hand with the intention for all of our products - to create high-quality makeup products perfectly pigmented for all women of color. We want to help women feel like their most confident, beautiful selves, empowered by makeup that fits them and their needs. Explore our collection today to find your new go-to products!
