Is No7 Perfect Light Loose Powder a dupe for Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder?

Left: No7 Perfect Light Loose Powder; Right: Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder in Translucent

Translucent powders are hard to review. If they work well, they look like nothing at all. I got a mini jar of Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder as a Christmas gift last year, and I liked it enough that I considered spending the $38 to get the full size. But that's a lot of money, so I needed to think carefully about why I liked it.

Top/Left: No7 Perfect Light Loose Powder; Bottom/Right: Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder in Translucent

It's truly invisible on my skin, no matter how much I apply. I use it to set my concealer and I've used it on bare skin and over foundation. It never looks powdery and it doesn't cause what's under it to get dry and weird. Now YMMV on this aspect, because I've read reviews in which people have said that this powder looks cakey and obvious on their skin no matter what they do with it. I don't know for sure what the cause is, but I'm guessing it has to do with the color. It's very pale and on the yellow side of neutral. Translucent, sure, but if you have darker or cooler skin, it might not be translucent enough. In fact, I'm pretty certain that's the case, because Laura Mercier recently added a second shade called Translucent Medium Deep--the original is just called "Translucent." (Of course, the mini jar only comes in the lighter shade. Sigh.) Since I'm pale and neutral-toned, the lighter shade works well for me.

It also creates a natural, flattering finish on my skin. It mattifies but not so much that it looks dry and powdery. It has a very subtle blurring or softening effect without any shimmer at all. And while it doesn't exactly make my makeup wear all day under sweaty conditions, it works well enough to set everything.

It's great and I like it a lot, but it's not exactly magic or anything. So when I read somewhere that No7 Perfect Light Loose Powder was a $13 "dupe" for the LM powder, I decided to give it a shot. I'm admittedly not terribly picky about powder, so I figured that even if it wasn't perfect, it would be adequate for the time being.

(You might note that the LM powder contains 1 full oz., while the No7 has only 0.7 oz., but that still makes the No7 significantly cheaper either way you look at it.)

The main difference between the two powders is the color. While they are both light and translucent, the No7 powder is quite a bit pinker.

Left: No7 Perfect Light Loose Powder; Right: Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder in Translucent

As I said, my skin tone is just on the warm side of neutral, but while I guess the LM powder is technically a slightly better match, they both work equally well for me in practice. Here are heavy finger swatches for another comparison:

Top: No7 Perfect Light Loose Powder; Bottom: Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder in Translucent

No shimmer, as you can see.

I also blended out the swatches, but the photo isn't very helpful. I guess you can see why I didn't bother to show you a photo of the powder on my face. They both turn invisible on my skin.

Top: No7 Perfect Light Loose Powder; Bottom: Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder in Translucent

But maybe you can see a little of the softening effect I described? Maybe not.

Other than the color, I haven't noticed any real difference in performance between these two products, so I'm quite satisfied with my budget option.

I will say that the packaging for the No7 is a little overly bulky and also slightly messier than the LM powder. Powder tends to settle on that sort of ledge around the edge of the jar and then scatter from there (you can see what I mean in the second photo above). Neither of these powders is so light that it flies all over the room and up my nose, fortunately (looking at you, MUFE HD powder). Both jars have annoyingly domed lids so that you can't stack anything on top of them--the No7 is almost but not quite flat, just to rub it in. And they both came with very nice powder puffs inside, which, in both cases, I promptly lost, because I use a brush--so no photos, sorry.

My suggestion is that if you are similar to me in coloring, just go with the cheaper No7 option. It's available for the same price at Ulta and Target. If you are pale but very warm, and you're concerned that the No7 might not be a good match, the Laura Mercier powder might be a better bet--but honestly I would still probably gamble that the No7 would be translucent enough to work for you. If you have darker skin, it's probably going to be worth your while to purchase the darker Laura Mercier shade. And let's hope that No7 and other brands get their shit together and realize that even if something is translucent, a light shade is not going to work for everyone. Is it really so hard to produce two fucking shades?

Reviews in Fifty Words or Less

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I got this idea from the wonderful Makeup Withdrawal, and I'm going to give it a shot. It will be a challenge for someone as wordy as I am, but I don't think I have a lot to say about these products, so here we go!

Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Radiance Perfecting Pen in Luminous Ivory

Sheer, slightly luminous concealer that I use on lazy days. Makes me look less dead but doesn’t cover my dark circles completely. Faint lavender fragrance. Came from a Sephora Favorites set, but I wouldn’t buy it at full price. Lots of cheap equivalents work exactly the same way.

            

Maybelline The Falsies Volum'Express Mascara

Decent volume and length without clumping. The curved brush and length of the bristles work well.

I've been liking this better in month two as it gets drier. Too much flaking for me to repurchase, though.

Wet N Wild Mattifying Powder

Does the job: mattifies, invisible on my skin, fine texture. The main problem is that it contains very little product. I've used it only a couple dozen times.

It looks thick because there’s a sponge in the bottom compartment, but the pan is shallow.

For less than $5 you can get more product from Essence.

Bobbie Brown Long-Wear Cream Shadow Stick in Golden Pink

Got this in a Sephora Play! box. Not really pink--I'd call it peachy-beige. It's a nice, all-over-the-lid eyeshadow, and it lasts better than any other cream eyeshadow I've used, even without primer. Could make a good highlighter, too.

Swatched:

Blended out:

Neutrogena Ultra Light Cleansing Oil

It's ok. I bought it for double cleansing, but it's a little drying, so I only use it combined with gentle micellar water. It removes most of my makeup. The generic fruity-floral scent is a bit strong--and I always end up tasting it after I've rinsed my face. Blech.

Success! Of course, if you have questions about any of these products, I'd be happy to fill in the blanks. I'm also interested to hear your experiences with them, or recommendations for alternatives, as always. 

Heads Up: The Hourglass Travel Size Ambient Lighting Powders are bullshit

I noticed the other day that Sephora had added travel sizes of all of Hourglass's Ambient Lighting Powders to the selection, which seems, on the surface, like a good option if you have been considering trying one of them but not sure how much you'd like it. Previously they had Dim Light in this size, but not the others. They're $22, less than half the price of the full-size powder ($46).

But check this out: the full size contains 10 g/0.35 oz. of product and the travel size contains 1.4 g/0.049 oz.! So you get about 15% of the product for almost half the price? In other words, the regular powder is $131 per ounce and the mini is $449 per ounce. Um, no fucking thanks. I get that sometimes the price per ounce/gram isn't that important factor to consider if it's a bottle of nail polish or a lipstick that you think you'll never finish, but these are supposed to be everyday face powders that you presumably would use up and replace. It's worse than their holiday palette.

Just in case you ever doubted that the cost of the product itself makes up much less of the price than the cost of the packaging (not to mention arbitrary profit margins).

I noticed how tiny these things were a couple of weeks ago, but this post I saw while browsing the Makeup Rehab subreddit today inspired me to write about it.

(I've tried the ALPs from samples I got from So Choix, where you get five samples for $15. I wonder if that would come out to 1.4 g between the five, but I don't really have a way to weight and calculate that. I'd say I get at least a dozen uses per sample.)

A $4 dupe for Hourglass Dim Light Ambient Lighting Powder? (from The Budget Beauty Blog)

The Budget Beauty Blog compared Wet N Wild Reserve Your Cabana to Hourglass Dim Light, and they are indeed very close. The WNW powder actually looks like it might be halfway between Dim Light and Diffused Light. I may have to give it a shot, since I've been mainly interested in Diffused (Dim looks a little to dark and peachy for me, but Reserve Your Cabana is more yellow).

Anyone have this Wet N Wild "bronzer"? I've mainly heard it described as a highlighter before, rather than a finishing powder.

Powder for the Pasty: Review of e.l.f. Tone Correcting Powder in Cool (and a comparison with Nars Light Reflecting Pressed Powder)

Disclosure: This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.
I'm going to discuss an e.l.f. product that I know a lot of people hate right now, and I'm going to give it a favorable review. I came to my conclusions about this stuff before I posted a review of some stupid sparkly e.l.f. shit and people commented how much they also disliked this non-sparkly e.l.f. powder. So I decided to take a little more time to test it and to think about it, and ultimately I ended up in the same place I started. I like it. But as with all personal reviews of cosmetics (and other things), you'll have to consider how much you have in common with me when you try to decide whether or not e.l.f. Tone Correcting Powder in Cool ($3) will work for you. In particular, I think this is a product that will work best for people with very pale, cool- or neutral-toned, combination or oily skin. Like me.

e.l.f. Tone Correcting Powder in Cool

As you can see, I've already used up quite a bit of this stuff, so the embossed e.l.f. logo on the bottom right is starting to fade away. I find it useful and wear it regularly.

This is one of those multi-colored products that promises to correct whatever skin-tone problems you have. At first I was really skeptical, because when you mix the colors together, won't they just cancel each other out? Like if green is supposed to cancel redness, and you mix it with pink . . . yes, yes they will. The more I thought about it, though, I realized that the point is to create a neutrally-colored powder to cancel whatever you've got going on. In this case, as the shade name suggests, the powder will end up a bit cool toned, because it has more blue than any other color in it (because it has both blue and green). If they mixed all the colors together in advance, you'd have a palette full of an ugly greyish powder. So they give you pretty pastels and let you do it yourself.

Unlike other multi-colored neutralizers, like the Stila One Step Correct Primer, with this powder you have the option (in theory) to just use one shade at a time to counteract a particular skin issue (green for redness, blue or blue+pink for sallowness, yellow for makeup that is too cool or for purple undereye circles, pink+yellow for bluish undereye circles, etc.). Of course, the effectiveness of this technique will depend how pigmented or opaque the powder is. I decided to swatch each color over black (Urban Decay eyeliner in Zero), because if I just swatched them on my pale-ass arm, you would be looking at photos of nothing right now. Swatching over black makes the pigmentation/color of each part of the powder easier to detect and can also provide an idea of how sheer this stuff is.

e.l.f. Tone Correcting Powder in Cool: heavy swatches (from left to right) of yellow, blue, green, pink, and all four colors combined.

When the individual colors are heavily swatched over black, it's clear that the blue powder is the least opaque. The green has least tint, showing up as nearly white here. When all four colors are combined, you get, as expected, a greyish white. A cool neutral. (This post is a long one with some large photos, so click through to see the rest.)

Some sparkly shit from e.l.f. (Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! and Studio Tone Correcting Powder in Shimmer)

I bought both of these products mainly because I didn't really understand what they were supposed to be. Even after googling them, they remained mysterious to me. They were cheap and I was curious, so whatever. I got them.

e.l.f. Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! and e.l.f. Studio Tone Correcting Powder in Shimmer

To explain my journey of discovery with e.l.f. Studio Blush in Gotta Glow! and e.l.f. Studio Tone Correcting Powder in Shimmer in more visual terms, before I tried them, I was like this:

 And then after I tried them, I was like this:

And also this:

So that about sums it up, I think. But I'll show you some photos anyway.

Cheap near-dupe for Nars Light Reflecting Powder? (from Makeup Withdrawal)

Makeup Withdrawal compares Wet N Wild Take on the Day Mattifying Powder to Nars Light Reflecting Powder and finds them to be pretty close.

I actually bought that Nars powder a while back when I won a gift card and wanted to use it on some kind of product that I didn't think I could find in a cheaper version. I guess I should have waited! Or gone with one of the Hourglass powders. (By the way, I still stand by what I said in this post: I think finishing powders can add a little something, but they are subtle and not crucial. I don't really notice when I forget to use one. But now there are more cheap options, so the cost/benefit aspect is a little different.)

8 minute basic, work appropriate makeup routine for the lazy and/or incompetent (using affordable products)

See below for the list of products used.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
I feel like if this were a feature in a magazine, it would be called a 5-minute makeup look. But since I do not move quickly in the morning, I'd categorize it in the 8-12 minute range, to account for the time I spend staring blankly at the wall between each step. My criteria for choosing each product in this routine is what I oh-so-fucking-cleverly decided to call the "fast/last" rule. That is, it has to apply fast, and it has to last through most of the day without reapplying. Fast, for me, means minimizing the use of tools like brushes. If I can smear it directly on my face, great. Your version of the routine might include more or fewer steps, depending on what you like/need. For instance, I'm lucky enough that my skin is fairly clear, or at least there isn't too much that I really strongly feel like I need to cover up. I just go with concealer and powder when I am in a hurry. That's just me. If you prefer to use foundation etc., then you'd have to factor in the extra time for that.

By the way, the "lazy and/or incompetent" bit in the title refers to me in the morning. Also during the rest of the day, but mostly the morning.

Here's are the steps I take:

Do I Need This? Fancy Finishing Powder

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Welcome to the first installment of "Do I Need This?", a series about new and trendy beauty products (or just those that might be unfamiliar and baffling to both of us). I'll offer my experience and opinion about whether or not I think that the product under consideration is worth shelling out for. Obviously, you don't need ANY beauty products, so the answer is always going to be no, a little bit. But is it going to change your life (or face)? Is it going to make things easier? Are you going to notice any difference at all if you use it? That's what I'm getting at. You may disagree with my verdict, because we all have different bodies/faces/brains/desires, but I'll try to give you a starting point at least.

Short answer: No.

Has anyone tried any of Drew Barrymore's new makeup line, Flower?

It's only available at Walmart, and I live in a smug Walmart-less city, so I haven't checked it out yet. It's also available online, though. I'm particularly interested in the quadruple-milled loose powder, but I haven't seen any reviews yet (and it's sold out online). Here's a review of the cream eyeshadow, though, which sounds intriguing.

Fix Your Face: My Cheap Favorites

Today I’m just going to write about some of my favorite cheap makeup. Some of these I’ve posted about individually before, and others I haven’t. They aren’t all necessarily revolutionary and life changing, but they are are good and reliable and useful. These are the products I tend to use on a daily basis and that I keep buying when I run out.

This is a long one, so get ready.

• Monistat Soothing Care Chafing Relief Powder-Gel (as primer), $7

Here’s my previous post about this one. I just got a sample from Sephora of Lancome LA BASE PRO Perfecting makeup primer. It costs 42-fucking-dollars a bottle. It looks, feels, and even SMELLS identical to this Monistat shit. I haven’t compared the ingredients, but I’ll wager it is exactly the same. Do not waste your money on that nonsense, or I will have to hunt you down and kick you in the taint.

Fix Your Face: Everyday Minerals (Free Shit)

If you’ve never tried mineral makeup (or even if you have), check this out. Everyday Minerals lets you order 7 free samples and just pay for shipping, which is usually less than $3. The samples are decently sized (at least they were last time I got some) and last me for months! This is some good shit right here. Right now they are offering base (i.e. foundation), blush, and finishing powder samples. 

If you want to be really nice, you can pay a little extra and all of the money you put in will go to the Everyday Minerals Wilderness Preservation Plan.

UPDATE: I just got some samples in the mail. They no longer send you the little jars that they used to send, so I think the sample size is smaller now, fyi. Still pretty good, though.