You know what's the most annoying thing about suddenly having dry skin? The powders...all the powder you used to use are just too matte. So I just dedicaded my free time to finding actually good glowy powders that don't dry out your skin. Here's one of the candidates.
The Physicians Formula Rose All Day Set & Glow contains an illuminating powder and a dewy balm to give you that luminous finish. It retails for $16 and it comes in three shades. I got the shade Luminous Light which is the lightest. You get 8.3g of the powder and 2g of the balm. The products are cruelty-free, vegan, paraben-free and gluten-free.
It comes in a compact similar to the Butter Bronzer packaging but it has two "layers". I first thought that there's just one split pan inside but there's actually two. The first one is the balm and once you lift that up, you see the whole pan of powder. Under that you have the mirror and a little brush as Physicians Formula products usually have. This product is a part of their rose collection so it smells just like the other products, strongly of roses. I don't mind the smell but if you're too sensitive, beware.
According to the website the powder is supposed to be a setting powder as well so it should set your makeup and also give you that glow. This kind of reminds me of the Hourglass powders. It contains Calming Rose Extract, Brightening Kakadu Plum, Antioxidant-Rich Goji Berry and Tightening Blend so there's a lot of nice ingredients in it. There are micropearls in the formula that diffuse the light and make your skin look softer and younger.
The dewy balm is a moisturizing and glow enhancing balm. It gives you a soft glow all over compexion. It doesn't seem to have glitters in it at all, it's really just to give you that glass skin look without any shimmer.
The powder looks like a highlighter once you see it. It's very reflective in the pan to the point where you don't really feel like putting it all over your face. Once you swatch it you see that it looks more like a sheen and not a highlighter. Altough if you like a really bustle highlight I would say this is a good one.
The balm feels like you would expect, it's a little sticky and feels a lot like a thick lip balm. I am not the biggest fan of these balmy highlighters but I suppose on bare skin it could look great. I think it's usable on a full face as well but you probably don't want to get powder anywhere near it because it may become cakey really fast.
On the swatches you can see how it looks next to my other brightening powders but I admit that swatching finishing/glowy powders is just not a great idea. It has a similar type of sheen as the Hourglass powder and it's very smooth and not matte as the Brightening Powder from Essence. That one is great but more on the matte side.
Wear test
I wanted to see how the balm wears and how it works with other products. I applied it over my base with my finger. I didn't set the cheekbone area at all. But you could clearly see that it's making quite a mess. It was disrupting the foundation and slightly moving everything around it so there's a budged patch of product under my right eye. Not very nice. I suppose this balm is just better worn just on top of base skin. It does look very subtle and glowy and I like the look a lot. But it's not something you want to mix with other products. It was very tacky once I applied it and it's slowly becoming less and less tacky but it probably won't completely dry.
The powder is very smooth and not as reflective in a thin layer. I went a little too heavy under my eyes but at first it looked really nice. As I kept buffing it, it just became a little too glowy for my liking. But it feels like it sets the creams under it and it looks nice and glowy. I also used it on my T-zone and everywhere where I usually use the higlighter (except my inner corners, brow bone and the cheekbones where I applied the balm).
Wear time 9 hours
I ended up working out and I just had to take a shower so the weartime is not the longest. But the balm started getting less and less tacky, less and less glowy and a little dirty. Pretty much as I expected with a balm formula. The glow was still there but even more subtle then in the morning.
The powder held up better than expected. My undereye area still felt somewhat set after the workout. I look pretty sweaty overall but the area under my eyes is glowier because of the powder for sure.
Final thoughts
I like that there are more and more finishing powders and glowy powders on the market. I don't mind a matte look but my face is becoming quite dry and matte powders break appart my base and dry me out really bad sometimes. This powder is a setting powder but I wouldn't probably trust it with my whole face. If you're super dry, you might.
I love the look of the powder, it's very similar to the Hourglass finishing powders which are my favorites. It's very smooth, not too metallic and really brings the glow back to your face. It works great for setting your undereyes, just be careful because it can turn a little too glowy if you pile it on. It works great as a very subtle highlighter too.
The balm didn't blow me away. It's a little tacky and reminds me of a face gloss type of product. I would rather wear it on its own then with another base products as it did disrupt my foundation a bit when I applied it even on non-powdered parts. It does give you a nice wet glow and doesn't have any shimmer. I didn't hate it but I wasn't the greatest fan of how the texture wears through the day.
Overall, I would recommend this product just for the powder. It's a very unique formula and I don't think there's many products like this one without a much higher pricetag.
Do you have any favorite glowy powders? Let me know in the comments and thanks for reading!
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