The first beauty purchase to which I can remember committing big bucks was Clinique Blended Face Powder, purchased from Elder-Beerman (the most upscale store in my hometown) with a large percentage of the cash I'd received for my 13th birthday. I'd read about the powder in my beloved Sassy's About Face (or maybe it was Zits and Stuff) column and was easily persuaded by Andrea L that this product was the answer to my shiny skin woes. Alas, alas. I liked the shaker, though, and this was decent enough to be my go-to powder for years.
I then convinced myself that Bobbi Brown's yellow-tinted translucent powder would be the answer not only to my shine challenge, but would also even out my skin tone and give me the beautiful skin I'd always known make-up could give me. I had just read Bobbi Brown Beauty after reading a rave review of it in Allure and was definitely worshiping at her altar. (The marketers going after that youth dollar sure had my number.) Needless to say, I was crushed when miracles didn't happen and my sebaceous emissions remained at the abnormally high levels to which I'd grown accustomed.
Foundation, blot, repeat. I would always buy high end powder when I could afford it, and drugstore brands when I was poor. When I was in LA last December, I sprung for Trish McEvoy Even Skin Perfecting Dual Powder ($26). I had done no research; I was just in the mood to spend on beauty, and was perhaps dazzled by Young & the Restless star Jess Walton (uber-diva Jill) getting made over on the stool next to me. (I'm not joking about being dazzled: I started watching Walton on the long since cancelled Capitol when I was 5, every afternoon after morning kindergarten at my babysitter's house, and was shocked to see her being exceedingly lovely to everyone around her in real life.) It was a fine powder, but I can't say I felt I got $26 worth of product - and that was before I dropped the thing on the bathroom floor and it shattered into a zillion tiny pieces.
Most recently, in the interest of not splurging on anything I hadn't researched, I picked up a pressed powder compact from 17, a brand found at British chemist (drugstore) Boots. Although it's a pressed powder and I prefer loose, I really cannot tell a difference between it and the pricier powders I have used.
When it comes to translucent powder, is there any reason to buy anything more expensive than a drugstore brand? After years of research and thousands of dollars spent trying to find the answer to this question, I'm still not sure, and my skin still goes shiny after an hour or so - which probably means no, there is not. Feel free to try to dissuade me of this in the comments or via email.
