Is my faith in pressed powders going to be restored?
Ever since I discovered that loose powders exist, I've been using them exclusively. A few years ago it was quite difficult to get any of there in Czech Republic and today, it's not the easiest task ever either. There's just not much to choose from.
However, Revolution, or former Makeup Revolution came out with Matte Base powders to match their new Matte Base Foundations. I was ordering some Revolution skincare online and I was 50 Crowns short to get a free 1.000.000 Pallete so I just thought I'll grab the powder.
A few days after I got my order, I was in Rossmann once again and I found out that they actually have a white variant of this powder, so I grabbed that one as well.
After this, I ended up with two powders, one in the shade P1 and one in the shade P0.
Some info...
According to Revolution's website, the powder it from the Matte Base collection as I mentioned. It's supposed to be weightless and silky-soft, blend effortlessly and create natural finish that keeps in all the oils. It's also supposed to be very pigmented and suitable for very oily skin.
You can apply it over your foundation (Matte Base foundation is recommended...of course) for added coverage, soft and smooth matte finish. Or you can use it on prepped and primer skin by itself for medium veil-like coverage. It's cruelty-free and vegan, as I expected from Revolution products.
There's 19 shades, the range is very good and well designed. The powder retails for 99 Crowns and you get 12g of product. Compared to my loose powders, this seems like a really good deal.
First impressions
As I first saw the powder, I was surprised by how big the packaging is. For some reason, I thought it's going to be much smaller than it is but it's really pretty. I kinda wish that all compact powders had a mirror because they're usually meant for touch-ups, but well, this one doesn't.
The texture is in fact very fine and smooth and not that chunky and dry powdery texture I was always used to. That was a really nice surprise, I had no idea, there are powders like this.
The pigmentation is also really nice, way higher than I expected and even the P0 (white) shade is very pigmented. For some weird reason, I actually thought, that the white shade it going to be translucent. I don't know why, after reading the claims and information, it's pretty obvious that it's not going to be but I feel like a translucent powder with this packaging and texture would be my all time favorite on the go type of powder.
Anyway, it's not a good idea to base with a totally white powder, as I saw myself, and even though I am as white as a paper this was still too much. But the P1 shade is a bit more my speed.
Application
I wear my makeup for 10+ hours and I don't think I want my face's wellbeing depending on a veil of powder. So I probably won't attempt doing a wear test of the powder itself because it just doesn't seem fair to me. I used to wear just a face powder when I was younger and scared of cream foundation, but these days and also since it's summer, I wouldn't try that.
However, if you do apply the powder itself on your face, it does have a very nice and natural matte finish. It's not too dry looking and I believe that if you need something quick on your face just for a couple hours, maybe this is a really good way to go.
At this point, I have used this powder for about 10 times and I really enjoy it. That is a big surprise for me, because as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I don't really like pressed powders anymore. I always applied it with a fluffy powder brush, I think it does add a little bit of coverage to my foundation and also it does even out the undertone of it. I have a few foundations which are a good match but the undertone is a bit off and this powder makes magic happen when I use it with them. So I highly recommend it for that.
I don't think it works better or worse than my loose powders, it does set my makeup in place for a decent time and I honestly cannot tell a difference between this powder and my other powders just in the job it does.
I have also used it with my makeup sponge to set my undereyes when I don't really feel like baking or fluffing powder everywhere, because my eyes can be very sensitive. This also works like a charm. If you need a bit of that extra brightening, the white powder will do the job well, I also think it could be great for baking under contour to make it super sharp. But using the P0 shade to set your whole face is a bit tricky and if you can, better get yourself a correct shade and not just the white because it does not work as a translucent powder, because, again, it's not translucent.
As someone who hates touchups, I had a little hard time using the powder to fix my makeup after several hours of wear. It was a little tricky at first, but I discovered, that using my sponge to build up coverage and set my face after blotting works amazing with this powder. It does have coverage which makes it perfect for renewing areas of your face where the foundation faded and it also makes you matte. This was my favourite when I spent weekend near a pool and didn't want to re-do my face five times a day.
At this point I even bought one in the shade P1 into my office. It will be joining my 50 lip products to create a perfect zen touch-up zone on my desk. Also, it applies very well with Artis-like brushes, so I keep one tiny one from Catrice with me at all times, because it can blend any troubles on my face away and apply a nice veil of powder over it.
I also keep a tiny powder brush with me, pretty much at all times, to just touch up the easy parts, like sweaty forehead after blotting and so on. There are so many cases, when this powder really comes in handy.
Wear testing
I don't really know how to make wear test on powder. In this weather, nothing really keeps my face in place. From what I wrote to this post, you can probably tell, that so far, I am loving this powder.
I feel like it's cheating a little bit because when it doesn't hold up the whole day, you can just put more on, smooth things out and be on your way and that's something you cannot really do with you loose setting powder at all.
After wearing it for majority of a day instead of loose powder, I must say I am surprised but the duration of keeping oils in is pretty much the same. I am very impressed.
Final thoughts
I cannot recommend this enough if you're looking for a good quality powder for a decent price. I've used many drugstore powders when I was in highschool and I was never impressed this much by any of them.
The powder quality and durability really exceeded my expectations and I am happy to report that I'm very happy with it and it found its way into my backpack that I wear pretty much everyday. It helps me feel better about my face in this unbearable heat and looks and feels great and I cannot stress enough how happy I am to finaly find a powder with some coverage! Yeah, I got a little excited.
What is your favorite type of powder? Have you also put the pressed ones away after discovering loose powder? Thank you for reading and let me know below the post!