Loose Powder

With everyone “going green” or picking environmentally friendly products, Physicians Formula’s Bamboo Wear definitely brings that to mind with its bamboo motifs on its boxes and pressed powders.

I only purchased the Bamboo Wear Compact, Mirror & Brush because Physicians Formula had a “Try Me Free” rebate special going on. I figured it couldn’t hurt, and I was looking for a new compact mirror that wasn’t an old Clinique mirror that came from free gift set my mother bought eons ago.

The exterior of the compact is very natural and sleek looking since it is made from bamboo and has a simple green colored bamboo motif on the front lid. The compact is on the thick side, but the three layers of the compact swivels open in any direction you prefer. Each section is snapped shut with a magnet. The magnet feels pretty secure and does not feel like it would snap open accidently in your purse or gym bag.

The top compartment is where the mirror and brush are stored. The bottom compartment is where the refill pan of either the Silk Face Powder Refill or Silk Bronzer Refill can be dropped in. The refill pan is held down by two magnets on the bottom. Since the compact does not come with a refill pan, I was hoping I could put the brush in the bottom compartment and just flip open the top section and use the mirror. Unfortunately the bottom compartment is thinner than the flat brush, so I couldn’t stash the brush below. Since I don’t care for the Physicians Formula flat brushes, I’ll probably just leave it out. However, I don’t think putting the brush and mirror in the same compartment was a good idea, since after usage, the residue powder from the brush would fall onto the mirror making it dusty. Then again this is a problem for all compacts.

I like the idea of a refillable compact. How many times have you finished a press powder compact and thought, “What a waste, the mirror is still good,” before chucking it into the garbage bin?  Unfortunately, the Silk Face Powder in this collection only has colors that ranges from light, lighter, to translucent though I may consider the Silk Bronzers in this collection.

Overall, the compact has a nice natural Eastern look and feel to the design. It gets a plus for being refillable and recyclable even though it can be a bit bulky.

There are “how to fix broken makeup” tutorials all over the internet with tips for fixing various beloved pressed powder makeups that have been dropped on the floor and transformed from pressed to loose powder in the blink of an eye and probably a gasp. Since there are so many out there already, I’m going to add one more.

Last week I managed to drop a pressed mineral powder, and just two days ago, I dropped my eyebrow shadow. Needless to say both were decimated on impact with my hardwood floors. I couldn’t save my mineral powder since it decided to pop open and coat my floors with a nice beige color, but my eyebrow shadow remained safe within its container. Since I used this brow powder quite often, I couldn’t ignore its present state. So on with getting it fixed!

Exhibit A - "The Victim"

There is more than one method in fixing pressed makeup, but this is the method I’ve tried before and found it to work quite well.

Things you’ll need:

1. One broken pressed powder makeup
2. Toothpick
3. Small plastic sandwich bag
4. Scissors
5. Rubbing alcohol or perfume
6. Small spray bottle
7. Tissue or toilet paper
8. Quarter or any coin

Take the small plastic sandwich bag and open it up to a corner. Then take “the Victim” and pour the broken powder contents into the bag and make sure they settle into one corner.

If there is some excess powder clinging to the pan, just take the toothpick to scrap off the powder and pour it into the bag.

I usually like to clean the pan with water then dry it off, but if this is part of a palette I would use a small moist paper towel to wipe it down instead.

Now back to the baggie with the powder. Use your fingers or, if you prefer, the base of a brush and mash all the larger chunks into powder. When you feel that you’ve gotten most of the chunks out, shake all the powder down to one corner of the baggie.

Take the scissors and cut the corner tip of the bag. Make sure the hole you cut isn’t too small or you’ll have a hard time shaking the contents out and it can get messier than necessary.  Usually I shake the pan lightly to make sure the powder is distributed evenly. When shaking is not enough, I use the toothpick and try to flatten the powder mound. I recommend doing this part over a tissue. As you can see, it can be quite a mess if there is a lot of powder.

After you manage to squeeze or shake all the powder from the bag, it is time to take the small spray bottle filled with rubbing alcohol, in my case, a small bottle of sample perfume, and spray it on the powder. I usually spray a pretty generous amount, some sites even tell you to spray enough to make it into a paste, but I prefer to spray enough just to moisten the powder.

Right after spraying the powder with your choice of nondrinking alcohol, take the tissue or toilet paper and place it over the powder. Take the quarter and place it on the tissue over the powder. Apply pressure on the coin and move it around in a circular motion. As you can see in the picture, I am tracing the inside of the pan with the coin. Note: I usually fold the tissue in half to absorb more of the alcohol, but it is not necessary depending on the thickness of the tissue used.

Feel free to spray more alcohol onto the powder and repeat the process with the coin until you get the desired smoothness. After you clean up the excess powder around the container, your done! Unless you’re a “closeted perfectionist” like me. This next part is optional.

Because unclean edges make me twitch, I took the toothpick and carefully cleaned off the outer edges of the pan and tapped off the trimmings. Now I’m done!

In a short time, the alcohol will evaporate and your loose powder is back to its original form of being a pressed powder. Also if you used perfume instead of regular rubbing alcohol, your newly pressed makeup now has a light fragrance. So I recommend using a fragrance you actually like because you will smell this when you apply your makeup.

And just for kicks here’s the “Before and After” comparison.

Exhibit A - "The Victim"