Nothing forces us to assess our usual makeup routines like a summer heat wave. This is the time to pare down, to lighten up, and to keep things simple. It’s also the time when we (or I, at least) need to fight extra facial shine. The problem is that most “mattifying” makeup also has a tendency to look chalky, or else it includes ingredients that irritate my skin.

LUSH’s Emotional Brilliance Translucent Face Powder is beautifully simple, and it’s been my everyday finishing powder for the past year. For special days/nights, I still turn to Caron’s loose powder, but Emotional Brilliance is a basic yet effective (and affordable) alternative.

The ingredients for Emotional Brilliance are talc, mica, jojoba oil, iron oxides, and zinc oxide. The powder has a pale pink appearance in the jar, but it applies invisibly on my fair/light-toned skin. I use a fluffy powder brush to apply it, and I find that a light layer applied over my usual sunblock-moisturizer and foundation is sufficient to keep my skin looking fresh until mid-day. Then I touch up with blotting papers and another very light layer of powder.

The secret weapon here, I think, is the jojoba oil. I can’t detect it in the look and feel of the powder, but it certainly makes a difference in giving the product a “clean” look on the skin. This powder doesn’t give me a completely matte appearance, but now that I’m a certain age, I realize that an all-matte face really isn’t the most flattering or healthy look for me. Emotional Brilliance makes my makeup look finished, but not dull.

One small quibble: LUSH’s packaging is a little too minimal here: the jar is small-mouthed but doesn’t have a sifter of any kind, so that it’s too narrow to accommodate a brush but too open for shaking the powder out onto the back of my hand. Ironically, I’ve ended up transferring the powder into an empty Caron canister with a sifter screen.

LUSH Emotional Brilliance Translucent Face Powder (.4 oz. for $18.95) is available at the LUSH website and LUSH stores.

Product source: I received my first jar of this product as a press sample and purchased my second jar on my own.

Images: photos by Tinsel Creation.