After reviewing the new Guerlain powder, I thought I’d revisit a less expensive blush/bronzer hybrid alternative. This is one of Flormar’s products that I haven’t gotten around to review, yet it’s my most used from them.
The Flormar Baked Powders come in a range of shades and finishes that you can use where you wish on the face according to your skintone. The one I chose was 22 Marble Beige Gold, and it has a medium tan colour as a base, and darker brown and shimmery pink veining throughout.
All swirled together, it swatches a very rosy brown with a soft glow.
Texture and application: just like you would expect from a typical baked product, this is a firm but still soft powder. I found that I would only get powder kick up in the pan if I used a coarser brush. I had to put in a little bit more work blending it out to make the colour look even on my cheeks, but I can get there, it just takes a bit more of elbow grease (the fact that there are multiple colour swirls might be contributing to this issue).
Pigmentation and finish: pigmentation is light to medium. I can never build this up to a point where it looks dark on my fair-to-light skintone, which is a good thing for me because it never looks dirty or stark, no matter how much I apply. The finish is a soft but noticeable glow that looks natural and gets better and more luminous the more you blend it in.
Longevity: this started to look slightly faded after 6 to 7 hours (over foundation and powder) but it doesn’t disappear easily. After eleven hours, it looked more faded around the edges, and a bit uneven as the only remaining strong colour was in the middle of the cheeks, but it was still there.
Packaging and other info: the compact is very bulky. The lid is unnecessarily high, and overall it takes up a lot of space. There is a small, honestly useless mirror on the lid, on the part that is covered by the brand name on the outside. It contains 9 grams, a decent size for a face powder, and it costs around 17€ (although it is currently on sale for 12€).
Final thoughts: I quite like this powder. It looks good on the skin, and this particular shade, on me, works like a “blonzer” – a blush-bronzer hybrid – so if I want a simple and quick look I can just use one product to serve as both. In fact, with the glow this has, I don’t even use highlighter with it most of the time, so it really is a 3-in-1 for me. It lasts reasonably well, and any fault it has is kind of forgiven (in my book) due to the price. I like it, I do recommend it.
