Elf's High Definition Powder - Not For The Big Screen

Elf’s Studio High Definition Powder is a product that receives a lot of hype in the blogosphere. It is regularly compared to Make Up For Ever’s HD Powder and MAC’s Prep & Prime Powder. Unfortunately, I have not tried either powder, but I have been playing around with the Elf powder for the last couple of days and putting it through its paces.

The powder comes in a solid black box about 2 inches square. It has a sifter lid and a powder puff inside. The powder itself appears to be a bright white although it goes on translucent. It promises to mask fine lines and imperfections by using a light diffusion, and work particularly well in photographs. I have to admit, I would rather that my make up looked amazing in real life than in photographs, because I’m just not being photographed every day, apart from the blog things. But something that could do both would be worth taking a look at, for sure.

Although it come with a powder puff, there is no way I could apply it with it. I just couldn’t imagine applying anything with a puff for fear of ending up looking cakey and overdone. The puff is really there, for me anyway, to make sure that too much powder does not come through the spiller top, and for that it is useful. I use an Elf Fan brush or a standard powder brush to lightly apply this to my skin. It definitely make skin look matte and has good staying power. In terms of masking imperfections, in real life, I have not yet seen any real improvement. I do notice that I have to make very sure that I’ve blended it all in otherwise I’m left with the odd random white / gray patch, which does not look at all good. I’ve been using it for about a week, and I haven’t had any problems with breakouts, or irritation which is encouraging.

Do I think that this is a great product? Um. I think it’s a good enough, matte powder. I haven’t noticed it doing any of the things that it promises to do, but then again the price point is very nice (to check). I got it during a 50% sale on the website which made it even sweeter on the wallet. However, despite the low price point, I do not think that I’ll be purchasing again as I have not noticed any significant improvements. Instead, I’ll either spring for the MAC or MUFE powders, or look for something else entirely, ignoring this whole HD powder phenomenon.