The Setting Powder Upgrade That Took Me Years to Find — And It Was at The Drugstore All Along

My makeup routine used to involve so many steps, it was a whole thing. Now I don’t even use foundation, I don’t use contour or highlight or bronzer (three things I was never really into anyway), and the only eye makeup I wear is mascara and maybe eyeliner. Sometimes if I’m trying to really cover up something, I use a setting powder, and for the past (mumblemumble) years, I was using an old Bare Minerals foundation. This pot of powder had seen better days (and better states — I literally had this when I lived in California… I moved in 2018), but I had no idea what I should buy to replace it. I didn’t really need another Bare Minerals foundation - I only used it to set small areas of my makeup, and even then, it was only when I was trying to lock in my concealer, AND it costs $39. I tried one from Maybelline and it was nothing like Bare Minerals (and why would it be) and made me realize I did want something akin to my ancient foundation powder. As is often the case, e.l.f came to my rescue, and their Halo Glow Setting Powder is exactly what I was looking for.

It’s not a foundation like Bare Minerals, but Halo Glow Setting Powder it has the same perfect finish and blendability that I couldn’t find in other powders. It also matches my skin tone much better than the few other powders I’d tried (I use Light Pink), which seem to think no one could possibly be that pale and pink and cool toned. Halo Glow Setting Powder is yet another home run by e.l.f., a brand that has really transformed into a high quality makeup brand, while still keeping their price point super low. This powder is $8! And it performs like a powder that costs 4x as much! I will be keeping one of these powders in my makeup collection always, and I promise I won’t be using the same one (mumblemumble) years from now.