Thrifty Thursday: Two Misses and a Hit from Physicians Formula

I'm always on the lookout for The Pressed Powder, the one that will render all others obsolete. Through the years, I've tried tensy, through gratuitous whines. Physicians Formula Mineral Wear Talc-Free Mineral Correcting Powder has been a standard, and I've enjoyed it greatly, though I haven't really committed to it. I find it good, but it's hard to get excited about it. (Which is how I feel about other pressed powders, like Koh Gen Do's, but it's much easier to buy a 10$ powder one isn't excited about than it is to buy one several times that much.) 

Pros: it is definitely light enough; it feels quite creamy (thanks, I think, to boron nitride and loads of mineral oil); it is not matte yet not terribly blingy. You can see this in the powder closeup:

And here's a heavy swatch, with flash:

As you can see, it is quite pale and a bit yellow but the finish really is quite lovely when it's applied with an appropriate spare hand. I like that it's got a bit of coverage because I usually skip foundation and this evens my skin out nicely. It doesn't last as well as a totally matte, oil-free powder and it does kick up a LOT of powder dust, which are two cons. Let's also mention how well Physicians Formula excels at making ridiculously bulky yet incredibly fragile containers for their products and the completely useless brushes.

As I've said, it's hard for me to get excited about pressed powder, but this is one I've enjoyed enough to have repurchased over the years.

Unfortunately, I enjoyed it enough to give two of its flankers a try, with disastrous results.

The Mineral Wear Talc-Free 100% Mineral Facebrightener in Fair Glow and the Mineral Wear Talc-Free Mineral Correcting Pebbles in Translucent are proof positive that the longer the name does not equal the better the product, for these are indeed le suck.

I didn't swatch Fair Glow; no wonder it's such a big deal that it's "100% mineral"-- it is hard as a rock. With forceful finger pressure I managed to wipe off... a couple of sparkles. It is pretty sparkly but the base is ridiculously sheer. I don't recommend this for anybody.

The pebbles look like this in a flash swatch:

There's a delicate sheen coupled with a lot of shimmer. I'm no shimmerphobe and even I wouldn't wear this on my whole face.

The color scheme may invite comparisons to Meteorites but they are quite dissimilar. The talc free formula means the pebbles are quite fragile, much more so than Meteorites. Also, the pebbles are uniformly sheeny while Meteorites have a variety of finishes.

Here's some proof. WARNING: It may make you hungry for candy or sugary cereal.