The Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Pressed Powder in Translucent Tan ($54, 10.5g) is a sheer, vegan, cruelty-free, talc-free powder, and it partially lives up to the brand’s claims. I had difficulty finding reviews of this powder that went into much detail. It seemed that people either loved or hated it, but I couldn’t find much information about why. At this point, I’ve been using this powder for over 3 months, and I think it is ok. I’ve tested it during both summer high temperatures and, more recently, when it has been in the 20s at times. First, some background about me for context: I’m 42 and have dry, eczema-prone skin. My best foundation matches are Estee Lauder Double Wear in 4W4 Hazel and NARS Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation in Tahoe. The TL;DR is that the formula is fine, controls shine well, and works well for touch-ups, but other powders perform better for me for less money. Now, let’s get into the details. 🙂
I thought discussing 2024 favorites before Black Friday (rather than at the end of the year) would be more helpful, so here we are. This time, I decided to only pick from the makeup I reviewed in 2024. I’ll also link to some of the end-of-year wrap-ups and favorite posts that I’ve done in past years. If you are curious about some things in heavy rotation, regardless of what I reviewed, I’ll list those at the bottom. Alright, let’s get into it. 🙂
You can also check out my makeup favorites from 2025 by clicking here.
I am in my early 40s, and my skin type is dry, sensitive, and eczema-prone. I look for medium to full coverage because I have darkness around my mouth and forehead, and the occasional acne scar I want to cover. I often don’t take the time to spot conceal, so I want my foundation to do most of the heavy lifting around my face. I occasionally try lighter coverage products, but they aren’t my preference.
Creasing will happen, especially as we age and expression lines and wrinkles deepen. I’ve talked about this in most of my concealer reviews and a dedicated post about makeup creasing, but everything will eventually settle into lines. When the pigment starts collecting in the lines so much that I can see it from a distance, I consider that a deal breaker. You may be surprised that I need to powder some foundations despite having dry skin. Sometimes, that is for better longevity and others to tone down an overly luminous finish. I use both a moisturizing serum and a heavy oil-based moisturizer, so that does come into play with how foundations perform. Keeping that in mind, you may be able to get better longevity or need less powder if you use a gel cream or silicone-based moisturizer. You may also have varying results if you use primer, which I don’t.
I have a warm olive, medium-deep skin tone (sometimes medium or tan, depending on the shade range). For shade reference, my best matches are NARS Natural Radiant Longwear Tahoe and Estee Lauder Double Wear 4W4 Hazel.
Wearing NARS Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation Tahoe
Wearing Estee Lauder Double Wear 4W4 Hazel
I decided not to even attempt to do this in a ranking style like I did with concealers. There are so many variations on formula, finish, and coverage that it didn’t feel like I could make sense of it that way. I have embedded a Google Sheet with the prices, shade range, notes, etc. I have also linked to reviews and swatches that you can click on for further information if I have it.
One last note on the terminology I used for finishes other than matte formulas. I think the terms natural and satin are used interchangeably, so that is how I list them. To me, a natural/satin finish looks slightly drier than my moisturized skin and lacks the more smooth/blurred look of a matte finish. A radiant finish looks like freshly moisturized skin, and a luminous/dewy finish looks wet and sometimes oily.
Click the continue reading link to see the spreadsheet.
When freshly applied, the Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Pressed Powder is mattifying without being dry-looking and blurring. As you can imagine, that impressed me. However, I always end up with a shiny nose after about 3 hours. I have dry skin, and in the winter, it gets very dry. In the summer, I can get slightly normal through the t-zone; I’m mostly dry, though. My point is that I get shiny after a few hours, regardless of the season. So, for the mattified blurred effect of this powder to only last for 3 hours is baffling. I just can’t imagine who this is mattifying, but there are a lot of good reviews on it. The only thing I can think of is that it’s one of those instances where it’s drying me out so much that it’s making my skin overproduce oil. The other issue I have is that despite its lack of longevity, it still feels dry and tight on my skin.
Here in the Boston area, fall weather can be all over the place, and this year has been no exception. Monday morning, when I checked the weather, it was 27 degrees. On the other hand, we’ve had days in the 70s and 80s. So, on one of those glorious warm and sunny days, I decided to dust off my Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation and concealer. My 41-year-old, dry, eczema-prone skin can no longer tolerate this matte formula when temperatures are low. The last time I wore it was in the winter, and it was no surprise, but it was uncomfortable to wear. So, I took full advantage of the warm weather to wear it again and see if I could even still use it. I’ll give you a rundown of the makeup look and other favorite products I used and link to full reviews in the headings if I have one. I’ll also mention if these items are still favorites. Let’s get into it. 🙂
IMPORTANT NOTE: I just want to quickly point out that the Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation is very matte in person, but the pictures below were taken in front of a large window on a sunny day. The light coming from the window makes it look like a natural finish, but I can assure you it is matte.
Depending on how long you’ve been visiting my website, you may remember when I talked about the Armani Beauty Lip Power Longwear Satin Lipstick ($45) in the shade 400. It was over 2 years ago, but I did not have a good experience and labeled it a failure. I purchased the Shade 400 as part of a set while I was on a trip to Las Vegas. There is an Outlet called the Luxury Beauty Store, and it carries brands that fall under the L’oreal Group. I’m mentioning this because I started to wonder if the set I bought was old stock, considering that it was at an outlet store. It is common for outlets to carry overstock and discontinued products, so the items can be older. I saw a lot of people raving about these lipsticks, and the hype got to me. So, I purchased the Armani Lip Power in shade 107 Sensual in October last year to find out if my experience with shade 400 was a fluke. Long story short: the performance of shade 107 is much better, but I stand by my opinion that the formula is slightly drying.
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I’m back with more from Pat McGrath’s Holiday Collection. When I posted about the Luminous Legends Dawn Divinity 5-pan Palette earlier this month, I decided to leave out the duos. At the time, I wasn’t sure how I felt about their performance and wanted to give them more of a chance before I talked about them. Compared to the eyeshadows in the Dawn Divinity Palette, the texture of the Celestial Jade Duo ($25) and Petallic Passion Duo ($25) is looser and chunkier. However, the shade Twilight Topaz is an exception and feels similar to the duos. I prefer a more traditional smooth metallic texture, and since I don’t use glitter glue or a wet brush for application, I wanted to take my time and give these a fair shot. Now that I’ve had a good opportunity to use them and see how they wear, I wanted to share my thoughts and some swatches.
MAC Cosmetics will always take up some space in my makeup bag, but I’m especially excited about this new lipstick formula. Since I tried my first MAC lipstick back in 2013, I have always kept a few colors around. Never because of the formula, though; it was always the color selection that kept me wearing them. They always have a variety of finishes to choose from, but regardless, I found the old formulas drying. That all changed with the Lustreglass formula, which I liked, but I wasn’t impressed with the formula. Enter the new MACximal Sleek Satin Lipstick ($25), which has delivered the beautiful, flattering colors I’ve come to expect from MAC but in a moisturizing, comfortable-to-wear formula. And unlike my experience with the Lusterglass formula, the shine sticks around.
Nikki From HR 