The BEST Face Powder for Mature Skin – Part 1: Normal to Dry

I just posted a video on the best face powder for mature skin. It focuses on setting powder for both the under eyes and the face. But to make this blog post more streamlined, I’d like to break it down further. I’m going to focus just on face powder for those of you with normal to dry skin. Future posts will tackle combo/oily skin, under-eye setting powder, talc-free powder, and finishing powder. You can see my full video on YouTube or at the bottom of this post.

A Couple of Face Powder Notes

Some powders span all skin types. I questioned whether to do one HUGE post or break this up. In the end, I figured it would be more digestible to break the list up and place the powders for all skin types under the post they fit the best.

I want to note that all powders I discuss appear translucent on my skin as I never want a setting powder to alter my concealer or foundation shade. So even if a listed powder has a shade or a tint, it will appear translucent on my skin.

Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish

Spoiler Alert: this is one of the best setting powders out there for dry under eyes in my opinion. This face powder is ultra-fine, buttery smooth and blurs imperfections like a dream. If you’re looking for a diffused, smooth appearance to your skin, this will give it to you. The light-diffusing particles blur away fine lines and imperfections beautifully, which is perfect for the face, but even better under the eyes.

There are also nourishing ingredients that are especially beneficial for dry skin.

Although I have the Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish powder in Fair 1, it appears completely translucent on my light/medium warm skin. There are three shades in this powder. The packaging is ultra-slim and beautiful, making it perfect for travel or to display on your vanity.

Although this face powder is listed on my dry skin list, it’s actually a universal powder that’s perfect for almost any skin type. I will say the Airbrush Flawless Finish doesn’t mattify me the way some other powders do, but it’s a great option that perfects the skin and gives a soft, velvety matte finish, while still being very light-weight and natural-looking. If you’re extremely oily, this may not be the perfect powder for you. But for anyone else, I think it’s absolutely stunning.

Shop the Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Powder.

Too Faced Ethereal

Too Faced Ethereal Loose setting powder is very silky and lightweight and gives just a hint of natural luminosity without sparkle.

It contains hyaluronic acid, which is naturally occurring in the body and depletes as we age. HA can attract up to 1,000 times its weight in water. Any skin type can benefit from additional hyaluronic acid.

I enjoy this face powder is because gives me an option to have a setting powder that looks great under my dry eyes as well as look natural on my oily-combination skin. It allows me to have slight luminosity and radiance without appearing greasy. Some radiant powders allow shine to break through quickly during the day. This is a really great option that works well for dry skin as well as combo/oily.

There are three shades in Too Faced Ethereal. When I got mine there was just one shade which is the shade I still have.

Shop Too Faced Ethereal Loose Setting Powder.

No 7 Perfect Light Setting Powder

I have both versions of the No 7 Perfect Light Setting Powder. There are three shades in the pressed version and one shade in the loose. I have translucent in both versions. It’s wonderful to have both options based on which you prefer – do you want a loose powder to set your makeup at home or a pressed powder to touch up with during the day or to travel with? Do you want both? You have options here.

This is one of my favorite drugstore powders. It’s so beautiful on the skin and truly perfect for any skin type. The packaging and the powder feel very high-end. Perfect Light Setting Powder is very sheer and light diffusing.

I love that a drugstore face powder has such wonderful ingredients in it like hyaluronic acid, vitamin b5, and vitamin E. All of these do really nice things for the skin in terms of hydration and conditioning.

For the price point, I don’t think you can get much better than the No 7 powders. There’s a reason why these just keep sticking around for me.

Shop No7 Perfect Light Setting Powder (Loose)

Shop No7 Perfect Light Setting Powder (Pressed)

Flower Beauty Light Illusion Perfecting Powder

I was shocked to find this dupe for my beloved CharlotteTilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Powder. I demonstrated this in my first dupes video.

There are eight shades in the Flower Beauty Light Illusion Perfecting Powder. I am in the shade Porcelain which, similar to the Charlotte Tilbury face powder, appears translucent on my skin.

This powder is supposed to give medium-buildable coverage. Next-generation blurring pigment pigments give the skin a luminous glow to perfect the skin. I truly feel it does everything the Charlotte Tilbury powder does for me but in a less elegant, bulkier package. It smooths my under eye area and sets my makeup beautifully while blurring and minimizing pores and imperfections. Flower Beauty is available online.

Shop Flower Beauty Light Illusion Perfecting Powder

By Terry Hyaluronic Hydra-Powder

There are now nine total shades of the By Terry powder. For setting purposes, I’m only referring to the translucent shade. I’ll be discussing the tinted versions when we get to the finishing powder blog post and video. I personally do not like to use tinted powders to set my makeup since it alters the concealer and foundation shades underneath.

This face powder uses hyaluronic acid to hydrate and plump lines, minimize pores and imperfections, smooth the skin, and help control shine.

This powder will blur your pores like no other. (Well, I have a few that blur all skin types amazingly well that I’ll be mentioning in my oily/combo post!)

You only need the tiniest amount of this powder. I mean it when I say that. If you use too much, it just doesn’t look right. I actually didn’t like this powder at first because I used the same amount of powder I normally use underneath my eyes. I didn’t like the way it looked at all! Once I got the hang of how little I needed, it was all good!

Because I have oily-combination skin, this isn’t my typical face setting powder. It just doesn’t control the shine to the same extent that some of my other favorites do, which I’ll talk about in my future post (and you can hear about in the below video). But for people with dry to normal skin, the hydra-powder is a heavenly, light veil that makes the skin look beautiful and perfected.

Shop By Terry Hyaluronic Hydra-Powder

Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder

Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder is hands down the queen of all face powders. With over 8,000 reviews on Sephora, it has over 4.5 stars. That’s truly impressive! There are two shades. I wear the shade translucent.

This face powder is very weightless. It softly blurs lines and imperfections, locking in makeup and reducing shine for a long period of time. This was actually one of my first favorite translucent powders because of how well it consistently performs. If you’re looking for a translucent powder that is consistently good at doing what it’s supposed to do, this is your powder.

However, as much as I like this powder for the face, it’s not one I enjoy for my under-eye area. It seems to darken that area a bit, which is why choose a different powder for my under eyes when I use Laura Mercier translucent to set my face. But to set the face, it’s a beautiful, top-notch setting powder that spans multiple skin types.

Shop Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder

Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder

The Hourglass Setting Powder wasn’t in my setting powder video because it just didn’t work for me. But I’ve received enough viewer comments from dry skinned ladies that I decided to go ahead and put it on this list. I know this face powder is a wonderful option for many people. So that you can make an informed decision, I’ll tell you why it works for so many as well as why it didn’t work for me.

The Hourglass face powder is a very fine powder that has diamond powder and light-reflecting particles to blur imperfections which is a dream for most people. However, for my dry, textured under eye area, the luminosity seemed to emphasize my texture, though many seem to love it. Although my face looked beautiful and airbrushed directly after application, my oily-combination skin got shiny very quickly. Dry skinned ladies love the finish it gives and how long it sets their makeup.

Shop Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder

There’s More to Come!

Even since posting this video, I’ve tried an under eye setting powder that’s blown me away! So stay tuned for more under eye and face powder posts with great options for different needs!