Should your powder be the same shade as your foundation?
For setting powder: translucent, or tinted in your foundation's shade, never lighter all over. Lighter belongs under the eyes only, and deep skin needs a powder that won't turn grey.
The short version
- For setting powder all over: translucent, or tinted in your foundation’s shade. Not lighter.
- A slightly lighter powder belongs under the eyes only, to brighten, the same rule as concealer.
- On deep skin, a white-looking translucent powder can turn grey, most of all in flash photos. Pick one made for deep skin, or a tinted one. If your foundation shade isn’t settled yet, start there.
Your foundation finally matches. Then you set it, and your face looks a shade lighter and a little flat, or fine in the mirror and patchy-white in the photos from last night. The foundation didn’t change. The powder on top did.
Setting powder or powder foundation?
They get called the same thing, but they do different jobs. Powder foundation gives coverage and colour, so you match it like any foundation; see liquid versus powder shades. Setting powder goes on top to hold foundation in place and take down shine, and it should add as little colour as possible. The rest of this guide is about setting powder.
Which shade of setting powder
Translucent
Made to add no colour of its own. It works on most fair to medium skin. Check it on the back of your hand: if it still looks white once pressed in, it may show on deeper skin.
Tinted
Choose the shade that matches your foundation. A darker one adds colour on top; a lighter one sits on your skin as a pale film, which is the “my face looks lighter after powder” problem.
Lighter under the eyes, and only there
A powder slightly lighter than your foundation can brighten under the eyes, the same way a slightly lighter concealer does. Keep it to that area and keep it slight, or it reads as a pale patch. How much lighter, by area works the same for powder.
The things nobody tells you
Flash can show what the mirror doesn’t
Some powders reflect a camera flash and come out as white patches in photos while looking invisible in person. If you’re powdering for an event, take a flash photo first. See flash photos versus daylight.
Deep skin needs a powder made for it
A translucent powder that disappears on light skin can leave a grey or ashy cast on deep skin. Powders made for deep skin, or tinted ones in your shade, avoid it.
Grey after powder isn’t always the powder
If your foundation already leans cool or light for you, powder makes it more obvious. Check the foundation on its own first; see why foundation goes grey or ashy.
How do you know you’ve got it right?
- Compare before and after powder in daylight
Your face shouldn’t look lighter or flatter after powder, just less shiny.
- Take one flash photo
No white patches on the forehead, under the eyes or along the nose.
Powder sets your shade. It shouldn’t change it.
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See it for brands →Should setting powder be lighter or darker than my foundation?
Neither, for all-over use: choose a translucent powder, or a tinted one in your foundation's shade. A lighter powder sits on top as a pale film. Slightly lighter is fine under the eyes only, to brighten.
Is translucent powder OK on deep skin?
Some translucent powders look white or grey on deep skin, and more so in flash photos. Choose a translucent powder made for deep skin, or a tinted powder in your shade.
What is powder flashback?
When a powder reflects a camera flash and shows up as white patches in photos, even though it looked invisible in the mirror. Take a flash photo before an event to check.
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