Review: First Impressions - Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Skin Smoothing Loose Powder (Translucent)

I’ve been looking for a good setting powder that isn’t completely matte, and I’ve been mulling over the idea of spending $62 (AUD) on the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Diffused Light, which is one of the most luxurious, beautiful powders I’ve ever come across. So the other day I decided to just go and buy the powder, but also decided to have a look in David Jones (Australian department store) to see if there were any brands I had overlooked.

This is when I came across Elizabeth Arden’s Ceramide Skin Smoothing Loose Powder. Now, I’m not a total makeup neophyte, so of course I know about Elizabeth Arden’s cosmetics. I have quite a few different items from them, but the only other place near my house that stock the brand is the Myer in the same shopping centre, and the lady that usually runs the counter there is kind of pushy and, well a bit of a bitch, and I flat out refuse to buy from people like that. The lady that served me in David Jones however was so nice and helpful. She had no hesitation in putting the powder straight on me, without pushing me to buy it.

I wore it around for a little while and went back to Mecca Maxima to stare longingly at the Hourglass one. My hesitations about buying the Hourglass one has always been the massive price tag. $62 is a lot of money, especially for only 10g of product. What made up my mind about the Elizabeth Arden powder was that I felt it gave the exact same, if not slightly better effect, and even though it came in at $65, I was getting 28g, which is more than double the Hourglass. The lady at the counter promised me that because of the minimal amount needed each application, the tub should last me over a year.

So I tried it for the first time (apart from when she tested it on me in the store), and I have to say that I’m so happy with my purchase. It’s so smooth and gives an almost blurred appearance to the skin. At first I was worried that it was going to be too matte, even with the bits of shimmer and gleam to the powder, but once it settled into my foundation and skin I just looked slightly glowy and very natural. I don’t usually go for products with a lot of shimmer to them, because I don’t want to look like one of those Twilight vampires (I’m more of an Anne Rice girl), but this powder’s shimmer is so finely milled that unless you overdo the powder and are looking really, really closely, you can’t see the individual sparkles. The shimmer just illuminates the skin, as if it was a really light highlight.

The wear on this powder was pretty good. I applied my makeup at about 12pm today, and it was still going strong at 11:30pm when I took my makeup off, and considering I wear a more moisturising foundation rather than a long-wear one, that’s pretty good. Keep in mind though that I do have dry skin, so people with oily/combo skin might find it’s not quite as long lasting. That being said, there is a matte pressed version of this powder, if that’s more your thing.

Overall, I’m very happy with this powder so far. It is exactly what I have been looking for, a powder that sets without the matte finish. I setting my foundation with a bit of powder, but haven’t been lately because the effort it takes to take away the matte look (with highlighting and Fix + etc.) is honestly way more than I care to do for my everyday look. I like to just keep it as simple as possible and use as few products as possible, because that means I get to sleep in longer when I have places to be. I highly recommend this, especially for those of you like me, who don’t really care for the matte look. Like I said before, if you are matte-look fan (as I used to be), then maybe you can try the pressed version. I imagine it’s just as finely milled and silky feeling.