Oil Control Week: Ellana Sheer Velvet Powder Primer

According to a top makeup artist, the best way to conceal pores is to mattify them. Piling on primers and makeup will only make them more obvious to the eye; it's best to mattify the offending area to make the craters of those pores recede! So yes, if you have big pores, avoid products with any shimmer or sparkle in them. Go for matte and mattifying makeup.

Anyway, let's continue with my last post for Oil Control Week! Here I have the Ellana Sheer Velvet Powder Primer (P460) an ultra-fine, zero coverage powder with the sole purpose of smoothing out skin and absorbing oil. It is marketed both as a primer and finishing powder (I'll explain why later) but personally I prefer to use it as the last step in my makeup routine.

Primer, what? I know it can be confusing to claim a powder to be a primer, but this is a primer in the sense that it can absorb oil under your makeup. It can also make your powder base go on more evenly since this powder fills in pores and lines, thus smoothing out such imperfections even before you wear foundation.

Texture. But, you say, can't any other translucent powder do that? Not really. This powder is so cushy and fine that I advise you not to inhale while applying it or your throat will feel weird. It's so cushy and fine, Ellana can't make a pressed version because it will fall apart. It's just one of those things you need to touch first to understand!

The fine powder can get into those hard to fill areas on your face, thus creating an ultra smooth canvas.

Ingredients: silicon dioxide, nylon-12, mica, Polymethylsilsesquioxane

Staying power. I guess you're wondering: will this make my makeup last longer? Honestly, it won't. You'll defer shine by an hour or two at most, but since it's sheer and you can't use a lot of it, your makeup wear time will be the same. What it excels at though is creating a poreless complexion, as well as absorbing oil and mattifying skin in a jiffy. I mean, just look at my face here:

Finish and coverage. Love the poreless, crazy smooth finish! My face looks light in the pics because I'm wearing the wrong shade of foundation; the Sheer Velvet powder is certainly not the cause. It has no coverage at all! It might leave a white cast if you use too much though. 

Packaging. It's not advisable to bring the whole jar since this'll get on everything, so just depot a small amount (like maybe half a gram) in a smaller jar. You can get one of those in Watsons for 40 bucks. Oh, I also suggest that you only remove the sticker from half of the sifter hole to get better control when tapping out powder.

Ellana also sells a full-sized refill of this for P330/ 6 grams. No need to buy the jar next time you run out! Actually, you don't need to buy the jar at all.

Verdict. I enjoy using the Ellana Sheer Velvet Powder Primer for days when I want to stay shine free for a little while longer. It's also great with those too-wet or too-shiny BB creams or liquid foundations, since this can cancel the dewiness of such product. Use it as a retouch powder if you don't mind the hassle of depotting and dealing with a loose powder.

I highly recommend this to anyone who has pores and fine lines since it's pretty effective in filling such imperfections. ;) Use it as a primer after your moisturizer and before your foundation, or use it as a finishing powder to get that HD television-worthy finish.

I suppose the only cons are you really have to be careful about inhaling the particles, and you'll need to deal with the mess. If you don't mind, then this is a powder worth trying.

So there you go. Hope that helps! You can purchase it online here or find Ellana in their La Fuerza Plaza, Makati showroom and inside The Ramp Trinoma, Glorietta, and EDSA Shang.

Disclaimer: Purchasing from these links will get you a 5% discount, and earn me a small commission from the sale. Kindly note that the review is as detailed and honest as any other review I write at Project Vanity. Affiliate links are common in beauty blogs internationally, which is how bloggers are able to earn a sales-based income from their sites. Examples are Temptalia and Makeup and Beauty Blog.