The only powder for me - or so it seems!

The last few weeks I have been having real trouble with face powders. It started off with me finishing the compact I had of my usual face powder and deciding not to repurchase it (always a risky move!) but try something different so as not to get stuck in a make-up rut. The one that I chose, on a whim, was Maybelline Super Stay 24H Waterproof Powder. When I purchased this there wasn't an awful lot of selection when it came to shades, but thought that as I'm usually a 'Nude' shade in most other powders I thought I would be safe with shade 21 NUDE in this also, despite the fact it looked slightly dark... It turns out this was FAR too dark for me (I think I was hoping that my skin had clung on to whatever tan I had managed to accrue whilst living in Lanzarote!).

So following this slight mishap, I decided to keep looking for another face powder, although putting my new Maybelline one away for the summer in the hope that I would have a tan by then. I had read a lot of positive reviews by other bloggers on Rimmel Clear Complexion Clarifying Powder in 021 Translucent, and so that's what I chose to try.

This was described as a face powder with no pigmentation (hence translucent) and so can be used for all skin tones just to mattify your face or fix your base. After making such a bad choice on shade with the last powder this was a winner in my eyes. This went on really nicely and did match in with my own skin colour and so all seemed perfect! But then a few hours later I noticed patches on my T-zone that just looked really odd. It was difficult to describe, but looked like dry patches of skin that make-up was showing up really badly. As I (unfortunately) have quite oily skin, dry skin on my face isn't something I'm used to having. As this was the only new product I was using at the time I knew it had to be this that was causing the lizard-skin look (believe me, not attractive). I carried on using it lightly for a few days to see if my skin would settle in to it but it just wasn't working out for me. A friend told me you could only notice it if you looked closely or were looking for it but you know what it's like, if you can see it you just instantly believe the rest of the world can! I'm not sure why my skin had such an odd reaction to this as others had commented on how great it was, I guess everyone's skin is different and mine just wasn't a fan.

So I decided to just give up for the time-being and go back to my old, trusted face powder - L'Oreal True Match The Powder. 

The shade 'Rose Beige' is the perfect shade for me and just applies really lightly and gives the perfect matte finish. As soon as I switched back to this my skin went straight back to normal and I have had no problems since. I take the Rimmel powder to work to just touch up (lightly!) my T-zone whilst at work and for this it seems to work pretty well, it may be because I am only using the tiniest amount at a time.

What's your go to face powder? Do you have any recommendations of what I should try in future seeing as my attempts to try something different ended so badly? Maybe just any shade number 21 is cursed for me!!

All face powders mentioned are available from Boots and Superdrug - RRP £8.19 for L'Oreal True Match and £3.99 for Rimmel Clear Complexion.