The fine line between finishing powder and setting powder is frustratingly blurry. The industry now seems to market these products as one and the same, making the actual uses and benefits of each unclear. If you’re feeling confused and unsure of which powder is right for you, worry no more!
We’re breaking down the differences between the two so you can feel more comfortable and educated before making a purchase. We’ve even linked to a few of the best setting and finishing powders that are perfect for any makeup bag or kit. Happy powder shopping, beauties!
What is Setting Powder?
Designed to “set” or hold foundation in place, setting powders prevent base makeup from rubbing off and reduce shine for a long-lasting, flawless complexion. There are different types of setting powders that you can pick from depending on your needs, as well as options between translucent powder or slightly tinted to match your skin tone.
Types of Setting Powders:
Loose powder
Pressed powder
Translucent powder
Tinted powder
Choosing the best form of setting powder is purely a matter of preference. Pressed powders are semi-solid, easy to use, and great for taking on the go. Loose powders are finer in consistency and don’t transport well – they’re messy! But they do offer great lightweight coverage and work well for those prone to oily skin or who prefer wearing liquid foundations.
Setting powder also serves as the perfect weapon against excess oil buildup - hello, mid-day touchups! For those in search of a more sheer look, apply setting powder in place of foundation for lightweight, natural coverage.
5 Best Setting Powders
Our makeup artist community has voted, and these are the five best setting powders, according to them:
RCMA - No Color Powder
Ben Nye - Neutral Set
Danessa Myricks Beauty - Evolution Powder
Laura Mercier - Translucent Loose Setting Powder
Mehron - UltraFine Setting Powder
RCMA’s No Color Powder: Loved amongst celebrities and makeup artists, this beauty favorite sets foundation without changing the color. The formula delivers a smooth translucent powder veil without adding unwanted texture or creating a "caked on" look. This setting powder keeps shine at bay and disappears completely for an invisible hold.
Ben Nye’s Neutral Set: This colorless powder formula blends with every skin tone without diminishing the complexion’s natural glow. Ben Nye's only non-translucent powder that contains a bright white pigment is good for very fair shades. This setting powder controls perspiration for high-energy performers.
Danessa Myricks Beauty’s Evolution Powder: This setting powder provides a silky smooth, invisible finish. This light-diffusing, weightless, translucent powder can be used over and under foundation. The product mimics perfect skin with professionally tested, vegan, and cruelty free ingredients. It’s also available in four tinted shades to match fair to deep skin tones.
Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder: This cult classic blends seamlessly, setting makeup in place for long lasting results. It’s also incredibly lightweight and offers a flawless, 16 hour mattifying finish you can count on.
Mehron’s UltraFine Setting Powder: Finish off your look with this finely processed, clump-free setting powder with a built-in antiperspirant. Specially designed to retain the smoothness of your makeup, the product comes in a user-friendly, convenient "shaker" container.
How is Finishing Powder Different from Setting Powder?
As the name suggests, finishing powders are designed for use after a makeup look is complete. While this product is not recommended for daily use, it’s a great option when you’ll be in front of bright lights and cameras.
Most commonly sold in loose form, finishing powders blur fine lines, conceal pores, and leave a flawless, camera ready finish. Blend the product well to avoid a dry, cakey appearance and also to eliminate white flashback on camera.
3 Most Popular Finishing Powders
These top three finishing powders have been vetted by the pros to help you select the best options for all your makeup needs:
Ben Nye – Banana Powder
Mehron – Celebre Pro HD Loose Mineral Finishing Powder
RCMA – Over Powder
Ben Nye’s Banana Powder: This silky-fine, mattifying translucent powder delivers a hint of color without casting a white glare in your photos. Available in four luxurious tints, this finishing powder offers a beautiful shade for every skin tone.
Mehron’s Celebré Pro HD Loose Mineral Finishing Powder: This Mehron product is a luxurious matte finishing powder that comes in three versatile shades to perfectly complement every skin tone. Made of transparent French delaminated talc, it keeps your colors bright and true. This ultra-fine powder is made with a multi-mineral complex to promote skin’s vigor and moisturization, keeping skin soft and hydrated.
RCMA’s Over Powder: This lightweight finishing powder adds a soft sheen effect. These powders are gorgeous when layered over blush or any of the high points of the face and perfect for achieving an ethereal effect all over the body. Dust it onto collarbones, shoulders, cheekbones, and the cupid's bow for a subtle, light-catching highlight.
Now that we’re all squared up with the differences between setting powders and finishing powders, you’re ready to get to work creating flawless makeup looks and setting and finishing them like a pro. Which finishing and setting powders do you think are the best? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to tag us on Instagram in your completed looks.
About Camera Ready Cosmetics
Camera Ready Cosmetics was founded in 2003 by a professional makeup artist. With over 20 years serving the pro community, Camera Ready Cosmetics prioritizes quality and value with the artist in mind. Our team of experts understands what makeup essentials an artist needs.
If you’ve been following along with our blogs, you’ve learned the best ways to start building your brand and step into the makeup artist industry. Now while all of that is incredibly important, you certainly are not going to get far without the right kit.
Founded by a professional makeup artist and with over 20 years working with the pro community, Camera Ready Cosmetics prioritizes quality and value with the artist in mind. Our team of experts understands what makeup essentials an artist needs.
3 Key Things to Consider When Creating your Makeup Artist Kit:
Quality
Multifunction
Sanitation
Quality Matters When It Comes to Makeup Essentials for Your Kit
When we say quality, we are talking about professional-grade products made for makeup artists. Now, while YouTube and Instagram will have a ton of suggestions for how to build your starting makeup kit, keep in mind that beauty bloggers and celebrities are often being paid to push certain products, and quality does not always factor into the equation.
High-quality makeup essentials are not going to include the eyeshadow palette you got with 20+ shades for $15 on Amazon. When purchasing a product for your makeup artist kit, you should consider the ingredients, what is the color payoff, and is the product going to lay on the skin well.
Packaging is also important. The product needs to be able to withstand wear and tear, or at least be able to be broken down and redistributed into empty palettes for ease of travel.
Multifunction is a Must for Your Makeup Artist Kit
Not everything in your starting makeup kit is going to be able to have a variety of functions, but the more items you have that can serve different purposes, the better. This will help streamline your kit, save space, and reduce weight.
Examples of this are makeup essentials like brushes that can be used on eyes or lips, shadows that can be used wet or dry, or even lip color that doubles as a blush. It’s really up to you and your imagination as to how you can use items in different ways.
For Your Starting Makeup Kit, Remember: Sanitation Is Crucial
Remember that you’re going to use this kit on many different people and not just yourself. You must keep not only your brushes and tools clean but also your makeup.
It’s important to not just choose disinfecting sprays and easily cleanable packaged products but also disposable items. Never double dip into your tubes of mascara or lip color.
How you build a starting makeup kit can vary based on your primary area of focus within makeup. Whether you’re looking to work in bridal, fashion, or movies, this makeup artist kit will fulfill your essential makeup needs. Now, let’s start shopping.
Essential Makeup Shopping List for Building Your Starting Makeup Kit
Skin Care and Prep products
Foundation
Powder
Bronzer and Blush
Eye Makeup
Lip products
Tools and Brushes
Setting Spray
Makeup Cases
Top Skincare & Prep Products for Your Starting Makeup Kit
As a makeup artist, you will be working on many different skin types. The better prepped the skin, the better your makeup application and longevity of wear.
Remember the mantra: Cleanse, Tone, and Moisturize. These steps will help you to better understand the skin you are about to work on and prepare your canvas.
Our product recommendations for this crucial step include:
Bioderma's Sensibio H2O Wipes
Skin1004's Centella Toning Toner
Embryolisse’s Lait-Crème Concentre
Bioderma’s Atoderm Lip Stick
Mehron’s Skin Prep Pro
Camera Ready Cosmetics’ Oil Free Makeup Remover
Foundation Must-Haves for Your Makeup Artist Kit
As a makeup artist, you must be prepared to accommodate a wide range of skin tones. Cream palettes are the perfect makeup essentials for your starting makeup kit because they offer a diverse selection of colors, and they work well with most skin types. Not to mention they are compact, so they take up less space than 10 liquid foundation bottles.
While Camera Ready has many high-quality foundation options, we have narrowed our favorite makeup artist kit selection down to the RCMA VK Foundation Palettes or RCMA Kevin James Bennett Complexion Palette. What is great about this product is its versatility. Use the product as concealers, blend them down for foundation, or mix with skin prep to create a sheer/tinted moisturizer. The sky’s the limit with this foundation set!
Powder Makeup Essentials for Your Kit
Set it and forget it! If you have not been living under a rock for the last few years, then you have certainly heard of RCMA No-Color Powder. While, again, we carry many comparable high-quality setting powders, RCMA has been a staple in makeup artist kits for many years.
Along with an all-over setting powder, you will want to have some tinted options for contour and highlight. We recommend a space-saving palette with a range of shades. The Mehron Celebre Pro-HD Pressed Palette Highlight & Contour is a multifunctional makeup essential that includes all the brand’s most popular shades.
No Makeup Artist Kit is Complete Without Blush & Bronzer
Let us not forget the importance of color! In keeping with the theme, we have another great palette that offers some of the best color payout on the market. La Femme has so many shade options you could probably find a use for each, but for your starting makeup kit, we suggest the Exclusive Le Femme Blush Palette. The best part of this is that you can easily switch and swap with the brand’s huge selection of refills.
Not every face needs shimmer and shine, which is why we recommend matte blush or bronzers. However, to keep your makeup artist kit versatile, always have some shimmer on standby. For this, we included Danessa Myricks Beauty Lightwork Palette. Just add over the top of your matte colors to create glow and radiance.
Eye Makeup Essentials Every Kit Needs
When it comes to eyeshadow, a pro knows less is more. You DO NOT need every shade of shadow in your starting makeup kit. There will be times that a job calls for unique color options, but if you are working with professionals, you will be informed in advance. So, keep your kit streamlined and stick with the makeup essentials.
One of our most adaptable palettes, Ben Nye Glam Shadow Palette includes 12 versatile shades. Enhance eyebrows, highlight brow bones, create the perfect smokey eye, or dip into Inglot Duraline to transform it into a cake liner. One-stop shopping!
For a long-lasting smudge-proof liner in classic black, we’d suggest the cult favorite Inglot AMC Eyeliner Gel or the Camera Ready Gel Eye Liner.
Finish off the eyes with Ben Nye Mascara. Remember to use your disposable wands! Save space by stocking up on the straight wands and just bend as needed. Add extra “oomph” with some falsies. Ardell Lashes’ Demi-Wispies are another makeup artist kit favorite.
Makeup Artist Kit Lips Essentials
Create the perfect pout with the combination of liners and a great lip palette. Graftobian Super Palette Lip Colors offers 16 long-lasting shades. Mix them together to up your color game. Use your RCMA No-Color Powder for binding, and top it off with shine using Face Atelier Lip Glaze Petite.
No Makeup Artist Kit is Complete Without Brushes & Tools
Brushes are a hard one to narrow down, and every artist has their favorites. For the purpose of simplicity, we have chosen the Bdellium Tools Maestro Series Complete 12pc Brush Set. This synthetic brush set has a little something for everything and even includes a roll-up pouch.
Keep in mind, just because a brush is meant to be used for one purpose does not mean it cannot be used for many more. Find what works for you. Plus, the fewer brushes in your makeup artist kit, the less you have to clean after the job is done.
With that being said, do not forget some of the most important tools of all, your brush cleaners. If you are new to Camera Ready Cosmetics, then you may have not yet heard of Crazy Merman Brush Soap. With a few easy steps, it can pretty much clean anything out of your brushes (even that stubborn Inglot 77). We recommend unscented because you never know if a client is sensitive to smell.
When it comes to the brushes that are doing double or even triple duty with no time to dry, make sure you have Cinema Secrets’ Brush Cleaner on hand for quick a switch.
Finally, to round out your starting makeup kit, don’t forget a mixing palette and spatula. This is the greatest way to stay sterile and also mix shades for more variety. MyKitCo was nice enough to create a palette set that also includes a double-ended spatula. Thank you, MyKitCo!
Setting Spray: The Final Touch to Your Makeup Artist Kit
Just like this blog, we are going to finish off the look with a great setting spray. Makeup artists differ between their favorites when it comes to setting sprays. For this kit, we are going to include Skindinavia Bridal Makeup Finish Spray. The award-winning formula perfectly balances skin for controlling excess moisture and leveling out temperatures, so your hard work stays fresh and flawless for up to 16 hours.
The Perfect Case for Your Kit
Now, let’s put it all away. Bigger isn’t better. Remember that we kept this starting makeup kit streamlined. No need to dig for what you need with the Zuca Artist Backpack. It’s easy to keep everything in order, and cleaning is super easy.
Total Makeup Artist Kit Cost $972.86*
Depending on where you are in your makeup artist career, $1,000 can seem like a lot of money, but just remember you are investing in your future. Now, go forward into your career with your head high because with this starting makeup kit, you shopped like a pro!
We have some extremely exciting news to share with you! After years of research and development, Camera Ready Cosmetics has launched our very own makeup brand - Spark Cosmetics!You know we're obsessed with bringing you the best beauty products in the world. But we wanted to take it a step further by creating a line that combines pro-level performance with user-friendly versatility. Enter Spark Cosmetics. The Spark Cosmetics Backstory For over 20 years, we've been curating an epic selection of makeup from top brands to serve professional artists and beauty enthusiasts alike. In that time, we've seen hundreds of brands and literally tens of thousands of products come across our desks.While many of those products delivered amazing results, they often required serious skills and techniques to apply. As makeup lovers ourselves, we felt there was a need for pro-quality formulas that were also accessible and easy to use.That's when the spark was lit (pun intended!). We put our obsessive knowledge of beauty into action and got to work developing an independent line from scratch.We already have a branded line of products for Camera Ready Cosmetics for tools and supplies. With Spark, our goal was to create a new line with innovations and formulations that expressly met the needs of today’s enthusiasts. These are not simply white labeled, “put your brand name on a package” type products. The Spark Cosmetics Mission Spark is all about democratizing professional makeup and making it accessible to anyone who wants to unleash their inner artist.At the heart of Spark is a "product-first" mentality, relentlessly pursuing perfection in formulations that meet and exceed the highest standards while remaining user friendly. The products are conceived and developed in our office in Dallas, in partnership with a world-class Italian manufacturer. The Spark Product Philosophy and Roadmap
Exceptional performance, effortless application, and versatility across looks - these are the pillars of Spark's product development philosophy. Our formulas deliver rich pigmentation, natural and light textures, buildable coverage, and last the whole day long. They are also supremely easy to use, requiring no formal makeup training.More than just high performance, Spark's products defy conventional categories with multi-use capabilities. This encourages creativity, experimentation, and allows each individual to discover their unique style and self-expression.While the full Spark collection is still in development, we're launching with two masterpieces that epitomize the brand's philosophy. First up, there's the Velvet Muse Powder - a velvety smooth powder formula that blends like a cream. Use it as a bronzer, blusher, or for contouring in any of the six debut shades. You can get creative with where and how to apply this for different effects. This multitasker is just the start of Spark's innovative complexion range. Then there's Ethereal Glow, a revolutionary baked highlighting powder. This finely-milled, buildable formula leaves you with the most ethereal, lit-from-within glow. The texture is so weightless and smooth, it's like applying a veil of luminous perfection. We can't wait for you to experience the full Spark Cosmetics collection as it rolls out. There are more products on the way that are sure to ignite the artist within!
An Invitation to Explore With Spark Cosmetics, the joy of professional-quality beauty is open to everyone. Get ready to explore makeup without boundaries, trying new looks with confidence. Spark's revolutionary products are the tools to unlock your personal beauty aesthetic. Shop the brand now on the CameraReadyCosmetics.com or Sparkcosmetics.com. Let us know what you think of Spark in the comments below. We're so excited to take you along on this journey. About Camera Ready Cosmetics
Camera Ready Cosmetics was founded in 2003 by Makeup Artist Mary Erickson. She dreamed of having a pro makeup showroom where artists could play with professional products without the typical makeup store attitude. Today, our team of beauty industry veterans work together to curate the best quality products on the market. We partner with brands who respect the industry and formulate products for true working artists. You won’t find CRC in high-end malls, and we don't wear matching brush belts. If you want to play with products for a few hours and buy nothing, that's okay ... come in and play! Our store is your playground.
