Physicians Formula Mineral Wear Color Correcting Powder

4.27.2010

Physicians Formula Mineral Wear Color Correcting Powder

Has anyone else been super-excited to try this new powder by P.F?  Lured in by oh-so-cute swirls of pink, yellow, green, and beige that promise to fight all of our discoloration needs?  Well, if you're as curious as a chesire cat but reluctant to believe the marketing, I've compiled an in-depth review to (hopefully) ease your mind and show and tell you everything you wanted to know.

Claims:

Powder-

-Hypoallergenic. Fragrance Free. Paraben Free. Dermatologist Approved. Non-Comedogenic.

-3-In-1 Corrector + Primer + Powder

-Versatile powder color corrects the most common skin imperfections, smoothes skin texture and evens out skin tone.
-All colors blend together to create a perfect canvas finish: Pink brightens, Green tones down redness and Yellow adds warmth.
-High-tech Japanese formula delivers a natural-looking finish that won't cake, crease or settle into fine lines.

Concealor Trio-
-Hypoallergenic. Dermatologist Approved. Fragrance Free. Non-Comedogenic. Paraben Free.
-Essential cream concealer trio provides medium coverage for any and all imperfections.

•  1. Soft Yellow- Color Corrects dark circles & other bluish imperfections.
•  2. Natural Light- Conceals imperfections
•  3. Pink Highlighter- Illuminates brow bones & temples

-Light reflective pigments optically blur skin imperfections and diffuse the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
-Ultra convenient and portable vials snap together and pull apart for easy touch-ups on the go!

Source: Physiciansformula.com

Oh-kay, you had me at green.  I have super-pink/red skin, especially around my nose and while I love my Luara Mercier green tinted powder, that stuff is pricey and not readily available. Plus, right now you can get the P.F. powder + bonus concealor trio for only $10!  That's an actual deal-sometimes "drugstore" cosmetics can get pretty pricey.

Packaging

The packaging for this is genius.  I love the lucite case and adorable tri-color half-moon brush.  This is one of those items you actually love taking out of your purse.  Everything about this is travel friendly, the powder, mirror, and brush are all stored in a snap-tight case, and the concealors snap together fairly securely and are just the right size for purse travel.  The only real hang-up in the packaging itself is that the powder gets all over the top lid and looks a little less attractive.  For review purposes, I used the Translucent shade.

The real question is whether or not you would actually want to apply this on-the-go or in front of other people (who wants to be watched while they have to blend away streaks or reverse raccoon eyes?), in which case, you're in luck because I'm brave enough to look like crap on the internet on a pretty regular basis in the name of fair reporting.

Just kidding.  Kind of...

On to the brush itself.  I know, this is the part you've been dying for.  Not literally I hope, but between us, this is one of the man reasons I "had to have" this compact.  I've been wanting to try a half moon brush and the colors are neopolitian-alicous.  

But there's a catch, if you want to see how it looks you'll have to keep reading ahead!

(Okay, if you're really dying to see how it turns out, check out the bare-faced application towards the bottom to see brush coverage..)

*Application*

Okay, now on to the fun stuff.  I'm going to do two different applications, one with both items in the set, and one with only the powder so you can see the differences in coverage.  I'm hoping this will give a true showing of the coverage this provides, and who wants to do all the steps all the time anyways?

Pre-Application

Bonus Concealors

Step 1-Yellow

These P.F. concealors come with sponge tip applicators, and pick up a lot of product.  They blend in to skin fairly well though, with minimal line settling.  They are very thick and dry quickly so work fast and blend, blend, blend!

Actually, the yellow wasn't as extreme as I thought it would be.  Even though I have more purple toned eye circles, I thought this did a good job of brightening up my eyes.  I think I should have used a little less product, but I was really surprised by the full coverage.

Step 2-Beige/Natural Light

This is supposed to be the "regular" concealor in the set.  It's meant to be applied directly over the yellow and anywhere else you want coverage.  This was just a little off for my skin tone, but not by much.  I was actually a little surprised that this was a pretty close match.

As you can see, it did cover up the yellow.  I didn't like the feel of the layers though, it felt a little thick and tugged at the skin under my eyes when I tried to apply it over the yellow.  It was just a little more noticable than the pictures show, but once again it gave full coverage.  I think it did a really great job of covering up my dark circles and blemishes.  Also, the more you layered it, the more visible the product was.

Step 3-Pink

Don't go to closely by the picture on this one, it really looks much pinker in person.  This has a good amount of shimmer to it, and is the trio's highlighter.

The highlighting on this was so subtle, I'm not sure if I really saw any difference.  But at least I didn't end up with a face full of glitter. 

All in all, the concealors offer thick coverage but for some reason they made my skin burn.  I'm not sure how this happened, since they are supposed to be hypoallergenic, but something in this really irritates my skin.

Powder + Concealers

As you can see, there's a clear stripe of product when you first apply.  The brush is a little stiffer than I'd imagined it would be; it's a little scratchy on my face but it's not harsh.

To just a clear idea of coverage, the right half of my face is completely bare. You can really tell the difference, but the powder is a little noticable.  I wouldn't exactly describe it as "cake free".

This stuff photographs fantastically, it in fact looks better in photographs than real life.  I found the application to be a little cakey, very noticable that I was wearing powder.  I couldn't get a close up picture to turn out with my camera to show this though.  :(

Bare-Face + Powder

half-face

I swear, looking at myself in the mirror I could see almost no difference in my skin.  While I could see the powder and my red spots were a little lessened, I wasn't that impressed.  However, in this photograph it looks pretty darn good!

Full face coverage sans concealer trio; I liked this better since I prefer an almost natural look. 

I wasn't real impressed with this powder over-all for a few reasons.  My biggest problem with it was that the powder just sat on top of my skin looking pretty noticable.  Despite the heavy look of the powder, my face was left still shiny looking.  In natural lighting I didn't see the pretty, even coverage that came through in the pictures.

Despite my attachment to the clear lucite case and artsy brush, I disliked having to wipe all the excess powder off the lid and my arm.  This stuff is m-e-s-s-y, it spreads everywhere!  I took a pic of what happened to my arm in just 2 swipes and had to share it.

It's no match for my beloved Erno Laszlo duo-phase powder, nor my d.s. (drugstore) standby Almay.  I wouldn't wear it for everyday, but however I think it makes a fabulous powder for photographing. 

Despite it's photo-merits, I don't really want to clutter up my makeup bag with something I'll only use once in a great moon, I would love this if it wasn't so cakey.  I'm strictly matte-face, but I don't want to look like a powder puff.  IMO, this just isn't a match for the Laura Mercier green pressed powder either.  I don't think I'll be repurchasing this, unless I need to grab something just for pictures (in which case I'd return it when finished).

I think the concealers are better, and despite the irritation I exprienced, the coverage was so good and the application so easy, I might just buy these 'lil guys seperately.  (If you buy seperately, there's a combo w/ yellow,beige,pink and one with green,beige,pink).

Rating:
3/5 (I gave it points for the cute brush, and awesome photo coverage)