Soap & Glory Instant Retouch Kick Ass Powder, God what is it with these companies and their long a** product names?!? It's like they're all competing with one another...like who can introduce the longest name? Long names aside I'm gonna dive right in to this review and declare my love for this stuff right here, right now! I love this stuff! LOVE! EL OH VEE EEE. LOVE!
I've never been a powder girl, like ever. It never has looked good on me. So I've stayed right away from it, avoided it like the plague I have. Having combination dehydrated skin with uneven texture and definite yellow undertones, certain powders have just stuck to my skin in an unflattering manner, they just looked cakey, sitting on the surface of my skin and defining any dry skin I had or didn't even know I had? They've distorted the yellow colour of my skin and turned it pinky grey and ruddy. I like my base to look as smooth and as natural as possible so all of the above mentioned negatives are a big NO NO!
Being fairly new to the makeup/skincare/beauty world I've learnt a lot in the past 3-4 years, invested in some amazing products and have equally wasted a lot of money simply trying to find my way around. Powders have been one of them. I first had the bareMinerals Mineral Veil which was okay but was quite pink, it just didn't sit right with me. Then I tried the infamous Ben Nye Banana Powder, but I found that quite drying and cakey. Then I bought the Rimmel Stay Matte in Transparent, I was impressed by how fine it was but again the colour wasn't right, regardless of whether it claimed to be transparent or not, it did distort the colour of my skin and also was a little drying.
Then enter Instagram, the magical wonderful portal to the world of beauty, where beauty lovers all around the world connected and shared the one thing that people around me just didn't understand and that was my love and obsession for makeup! I finally found an outlet to let out all the built up makeup and beauty tension that I had haha! People on there were actually on my level of obsession and addiction! I met amazingly beautiful people on there, who have literally become my #instasisters, you know who you are my loves ;).
I first came across Kick Ass on Onika Khatuns blog, then @UmmBaby recommended it and then @PoofiePeej reviewed it sooo well I was sold there and then. Now as of....26 weeks ago (had to check my feed for that) I can honestly say that I am a true Kick Ass devout and a definite powder convert!
Okay enough with the long emotional backstory, onto the specifics. Kick Ass comes in a cutely packaged (as is the usual with all Soap & Glory products) black compact case. It also has a mirror inside of the lid, the mirror is quite magnified and clear so be prepared to react similarly to when you unexpectedly open the front camera.
The powder looks like a pale yellow in the pan and has had the words "KICK ASS" embossed on the surface. When swatched it feels really light and silky soft between my fingers. I once tried doing a swatch of this on Insta ages ago and it was really really difficult trying to get the powder to show up, it just kept melting in and disappearing into my skin! You'll see in the pictures later.
I've used a few different techniques and brushes with this to see which works best for me, from large fluffy powder brushes to powder puffs, but THE most successful method I've had so far is using my ELF Blush Brush, it's a small-medium sized head, tapered and flat-ish. This works wonderfully for me because it doesn't pick up tons of product, it fits nicely into the contours of my face and it makes sure I don't overdo it. It's soft and swishy enough to gently place product on my skin yet has the right amount of firmness to push the powder securely into my skin and properly set my makeup in place. Because I'm prone to cakiness I have to be very careful with how much force and pressure I use when using brushes on my textured skin to avoid micro exfoliation and I have to be especially careful with the amount of product or powder that I use as well so this brush has now become a must have staple for me now.
So to use, I press the flat side of the brush into the pan, because it's tapered it evenly picks up a light layer of product on the flat side, then I gently but firmly press the brush into my skin, I can also go back into the pan and apply some more in my chosen areas, I also do swift single strokes in one direction and I happily watch the magic happen...! I advise to apply little at a time and build up where you feel necessary to avoid cakiness.
The amazing thing about Kick Ass is that it literally disappears into my skin! I adore this stuff so much! It's super lightweight. I use it all the time now to set my foundations or concealer and it "perfects" my foundation perfectly, it takes away the unnecessary unwanted shine, it sets my makeup in place, it fills in any pores and lines, it smoothens the uneven surface of my skin beautifully and gives off a soft focus type effect, it makes my foundation look better, like skin, airbrushed and perfected. All of this without looking cakey or flat. It lets the skins natural radiance show through and it doesn't change the colour of my foundation. Some people have said that it's brightening but on my tanned yellow olive skintone this disappears into nothingness, no pink, no grey, it's literally seamless. I also use this on my no makeup days when I want to smoothen the surface of my skin and fill in pores etc. and it works a treat!
I don't know how they've done it but this simply works really well with my skin. It's everything I've ever wanted from a foundation setting powder and more. People I've hit pan! What more is there to say? The girl who hates powder has hit pan! Can you imagine the joy and excitement I felt when I first noticed the silver glint beneath the pale yellow? I was so ecstatic I had to share it with everyone on Insta!
Gosh I really know how to sing praises for products don't I? Have I sold you yet :D? I joke! I'm just passionate, if I truly love something I'm passionate about it, I'll dig deep into the depths of my viable vocabulary and I'll try and express myself and my feelings as accurately as possible and you know for sure it's done in all honesty too. But that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else will feel the same way, we are all too different in this world and too varied to have the same things work for us all, so as much as I recommend and rave about this I can't guarantee this'll work wonders for you too, if you can afford to, experiment and find out.
Now Soap & Glory also have another face powder which goes by the name One Heck Of A Blot, this is a blotting/setting powder for oiler skin types. I used this around a year ago from my sister and wasn't too impressed by how flat it made my skin look. Fast forward to now and now that I've got my powder game going strong and steady with the right tools, I wanted to give it another chance and see how I felt about it! So after nicking (borrowing) it from my sister, using the same careful techniques I tested the One Heck Of A Blot (OHOAB) powder and used it a good few times. Now I can give you my thoughts and how it compares to my beloved Kick Ass.
Similarly packaged to Kick Ass, it's a pale soft beige coloured powder and has the word "Powder" embossed on it. When swatched this picks up quite a bit of product and looks off white in tone and is opaque. I pressed my finger into this alongside Kick Ass with the same pressure and duration and where Kick Ass dissappeared into the fingerprint lines of my finger OHOAB had picked up quite a lot of product and stayed on the surface of my finger, it's definitely a denser powder. Then I swatched them both onto the back of my hand again with the same pressure and duration and Kick Ass dissappeared and OHOAB left a definite thick layer of powder. This is visible in the pictures I've added. This told me you don't need a lot of OHOAB at all and that there could be some "colour" distortions on the skin with OHOAB.
I went on to use this on one half of my face with Kick Ass on the other to test it for the day. Going in carefully after realising you didn't need a lot I proceeded to set my face, it was very finely milled, velvety soft but had this definite stiffness about it, like it was ready to suck up oil and stay in place. It does fill in pores but I noticed that it didn't have the soft focus softening effect that Kick Ass has. I also noticed that it was leaving a slight whitish cast on my skin in comparison to the Kick Ass on the other side which just looked normal. When I built it up I could see it was making my skin look paler and flatter as I applied more, where Kick Ass disappeared and smoothened. Because of my first experience with OHOAB where I was left looking quite flat, I made sure I didn't apply too much to avoid that, but I could see that it didn't give off a natural skin like radiance and finish that Kick Ass did. And I couldn't go back to apply more with OHOAB as I could do with Kick Ass. Throughout the day I kept tabs on it, where Kick Ass was keeping my skin looking natural and emitting some ever so slight shine, OHOAB was really holding up the shine but I noticed it was drying my skin out in certain parts of my face which was making those areas look aged, grey and slightly cakey.
I have used OHOAB on its own many times after this and I can say that it's definitely made for oilier skin types, it's not as forgiving as Kick Ass is on my skin as OHOAB is more prone to picking up texture. I'm also not too keen on the pale cast it can leave because I would want to build up in certain areas of my face without compromising colour. I wouldn't use this near my eyes, on my nose, around my mouth or on my forehead because it dehydrates those areas and makes it look cakey and grey by the end of the day, it also started to sit in my fine lines where Kick Ass usually fills them in and keeps them "filled". This does make my makeup last very long and it's definitely mattefying but I much prefer the Kick Ass over the OHOAB. I do think the OHOAB is a quality oil controlling powder and oilier skins will definitely adore this but my heart lies with Kick Ass, well until something else as wonderful crosses my path!
So there you have it guys, my two pence on the Soap & Glory Face Powders, as usual I can't guarantee you'll have the same results and opinions as mine but I do adore the Kick Ass powder, it has changed my (makeup) life and I've used up so much in 26 weeks. The next powder I want to get my hands on is the YSL Soufflé thingymabob, the Laura Mercier one and perhaps the Urban Decay powder as well. It's quite hypocritical of me to complain about long product names when my reviews go on for miles and miles (eeeek!) though I hope this was useful and if you do get your hands on the Soap & Glory Instant Retouch Kick Ass Powder, then I wish you a very happy Kick-Assing!
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