Braces-clad and acne-mottled, 13-year-old me lovingly referred to MAC’s Studio Fix Powder Plus as my favorite magic trick—if nothing else, it was a clear sign I’d be a beauty writer. I’d swirl the oversize brush into the compact and stamp it emphatically on my face. For problem areas, I’d turn to a puff. Then came the rabbit-out-of-the-hat reveal: my oily forehead suddenly mattified; the tamer zits were effectively disguised. Sure, it wasn’t exactly the right shade—to be fair, it belonged to my mother—and, yes, it clung to the flakes of pimples’ past, but boy, did I feel like a woman.
As dumplings and doughnuts became beauty inspirations, my beloved pressed powders took a back seat, all but forgotten for dewier offerings. Now, after years of glazing our faces with everything creamy, makeup artists are picking up their compacts again and encouraging us to follow suit. According to Spate, a data-research firm that analyzes consumer behavior, Google searches for “pressed powder” grew by 68 percent in the last year, with a 196 percent growth on TikTok.
