I hate splurging on Powder because I'm a makeup artist with Oily skin, so I use powder daily to set my liquid foundation, it's a must, I don't go without it. The technique I've found that works best for me is to use a damp beauty blender and heavily apply powder to my entire face, beginning with areas that crease to prevent creasing. Then I go back and swirl what ever's leftover in the lid onto my face and blend onto my neck. Then I take a clean brush and dust off any excess. I use A LOT of powder, but this is the only method that keeps me as oily free as possible. Because of this routine I go through powder like crazy and refuse to pay over $10 for it (unless it's Ben Nye Banana Powder!). I previously used elf's high definition powder in translucent, but as of lately while it's still been effective I've definitely noticed that it hasn't been as finely milled as previously and unfortunately the bottom of my last 4 containers have contained little balls of product, like powder solids. For whatever reason, I could never find elf's yellow powder in stores, so I never tried it. I gave up on elf, tried other brands, found a few that worked ok, but hated paying the more expensive price for a lesser product. One day at Ulta, low and behold they had the yellow elf powder. It's definitely brighter than Ben Nye's Banana Powder, and despite being just as finely milled, I feel like its a dryer powder, whereas ben nye was soft and luxurious. Nonetheless, it works incredibly well. It camouflages my pores, brightens my skin tone and helps neutralize pink based foundations. My undertone is yellow, but i find that pink based shades are more accurately matched to my actual skin color and look less muddy., but the tone is off. The powder fixed that completely. As long as the formula stays the same, I'll be buying only this from now on. « less
I have combo skin, so I definitely understand your issue with setting powder! If you’re looking for an inexpensive powder, ELF is great!! I like it because it uses minimal talc. WORD OF ADVICE: if you have dry skin or feel like powders dry you out, you want to find a powder that has little to no talc in it. Ive also heard people love Becca Hydra-mist setting powder but that is a more expensive option. Hope this helps!