Man, MAC sure seems to love their Shell Pearl beauty powder. Not that I'm complaining, but this is scheduled to be repromoted for the bajillionth time (that's an estimate) with Give Me Liberty of London this coming spring. I thought I'd offer my thoughts (and swatch action!) of this powder for anyone who hasn't yet seen it, and may be wondering about it given its pending repromote.

First off, what does one do with a beauty powder? Here's this large compact of powder and... what's the deal? A beauty powder serves different functions depending on the skintone and the pigmentation of the particular beauty powder in question. With less pigmented beauty powders, the lightest of skintones can use them as a soft blush, without any worry that there will be too much colour if the application is haphazard. On skintones for which it is too pale to be a blush, it can be used all over the face to brighten the complexion or buffed over a blush shade to soften it and diffuse the colour. The effect is really very pretty. If the beauty powder happens to be shimmery (some are, some aren't), it can also be used as a highlighter. More pigmented beauty powders can be used for a very natural flush of colour on many skintones, and can again be used to buff out blushes on those who actually have plenty of melanin in their skin.

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