Water-based setting powders are the newest makeup innovation stumping TikTok. Powders are synonymous with matte, oil-controlled skin that comes at the price of chalkiness, flashback, and dryness. But hydro setting powdersas we prefer to call them, are full of perplexing contradictions: They seem in jars as fine-milled dust like several other setting powder but they’re confusingly also a liquid. They mattify but hydrate and provides skin a dewy yet blurred finish.

Nearly half 1,000,000 people have watched Houston-based makeup artist Rose Siard test out the preferred water-based setting powder available on the market at once: Uoma Beauty’s Hydroblast Ending Powder. It appears wet to the touch, melts into skin like a liquid, after which, someway still mattifies and blurs her skin. One in every of the viral video’s top comments reads, “My brain can’t comprehend this.” Truthfully, mine couldn’t either.

Setting powders are the bane of my makeup routine’s existence because they make my oily skin feel drier than on an old, neglected sponge. Additionally they leave my face looking like I just competed in a very messy round of The Great British Bake Off. I accepted setting spray as my sole makeup-locking alternative in favor of dreaming of a more hydrating option. And it seems hydro setting powders are exactly that.

Here, cosmetic chemists demystify the sorcery behind them.

Meet the Experts:

• Rose Siard is a makeup educator and content creator based in Houston, Texas.
• Lauren Jin is the founding father of CLE Cosmetics.
• Rachel Johnson is a cosmetic chemist based in Recent York City.
• Ron Robinson is a cosmetic chemist based in Recent York City and founding father of the Better of Beauty-winning skin-care brand BeautyStat.

What are hydro setting powders?

My first query to cosmetic chemists was “How is a setting powder formulated to be each a powder and water-based?” Seems, there’s a reasonably easy explanation for the magic behind the formulation: microencapsulation.