Setting powder for dry skin

Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder has the best record for dry skin at 34 of 37, and it is also the best pick sold on Amazon. Reviewers who list dry skin were equally positive, 14 of 14. bareMinerals Original Mineral Veil Powder follows at 15 of 19, though 28% of its reviews say it is too drying.

  • 291 store reviews counted
  • Ulta and Sephora shoppers
  • Feb 2018 to Sep 2026

Updated . How we count

Does it look dry? What buyers said
  1. Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder 37 said either way
  2. bareMinerals Original Mineral Veil Powder 19 said either way
  3. Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder 28 said either way
  4. Laura Mercier Translucent Powder Ultra-Blur 33 said either way
  5. Fenty Beauty Invisimatte Setting Powder 20 said either way
  6. Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder 29 said either way
  7. KVD Beauty Lock-It Setting Powder 26 said either way

Share of reviewers who stated an outcome for dryness. Ranked by the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval, so a product needs both a good share and enough reports to rank high.

Best record Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder 34 of 37 say it works on dry skin Check price on Amazon
What stands out

Drying is the complaint to watch. It shows up in 31% of KVD Beauty Lock-It Setting Powder reviews, 28% of bareMinerals Original Mineral Veil Powder reviews and 26% of Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder reviews, against 5% for Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder.

The ranking, product by product

Praise and complaints are the points buyers repeat most, shown as a share of each product's counted store reviews.

1

Hourglass

Veil Translucent Setting Powder

Best for dry and combination skin

34/37 say it works on dry skin

83% say it's fine on dry skin, and 14% say it blurs pores and texture. Complaints are small: 10% mention the price and 5% say it's too drying.

What buyers praise

  • Blurs pores and texture 14%
  • Keeps makeup in place 14%
  • Good value 12%
  • Natural finish 10%
  • Stops concealer creasing 10%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 10%
  • Shine comes back fast 5%
  • Messy packaging 5%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 7 of 9
  • Sephora 27 of 28
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry14 of 14
  • Combination6 of 6
  • Normal3 of 3
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light12 of 12
  • Light-medium to medium8 of 8
2

bareMinerals

Original Mineral Veil Powder

15/19 say it works on dry skin

50% say it's fine on dry skin, but 28% say it's too drying and 16% say shine comes back fast. On bareMinerals' own site, 8 of 10 say it works, which we show but don't count.

What buyers praise

  • Keeps makeup in place 19%
  • Blurs pores and texture 13%
  • Doesn't look cakey 13%
  • Controls oil and shine 6%
  • Natural finish 6%

What buyers complain about

  • Shine comes back fast 16%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 1 of 2
  • Sephora 14 of 17
  • Brand site 8 of 10 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry8 of 11
  • Combination4 of 4
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light10 of 11
  • Light-medium to medium4 of 5
Acne-prone reviewers
  • Said it worked5 of 5
3

Laura Mercier

Secret Brightening Powder

21/28 say it works on dry skin

It's an under-eye powder: 57% say it's fine on dry skin, but 17% say it emphasizes texture or lines and 17% say it's too drying. Reviewers who list dry skin liked it, 13 of 17.

What buyers praise

  • Keeps makeup in place 10%
  • Doesn't look cakey 10%
  • Stops concealer creasing 7%
  • Blurs pores and texture 7%

What buyers complain about

  • Emphasizes texture or lines 17%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 21 of 28
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry13 of 17
  • Combination5 of 7
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light11 of 13
  • Light-medium to medium7 of 10
4

Laura Mercier

Translucent Powder Ultra-Blur

Best for blurring pores and texture

22/33 say it works on dry skin

38% praise how it blurs pores and texture, but 18% say it's too drying and 10% find it too expensive. On Laura Mercier's own site, 13 of 14 say it works, which we show but don't count.

What buyers praise

  • Blurs pores and texture 38%
  • Keeps makeup in place 15%
  • Good value 10%
  • Doesn't look cakey 8%
  • Controls oil and shine 8%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 10%
  • Emphasizes texture or lines 8%
  • Shine comes back fast 5%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 9 of 11
  • Sephora 13 of 22
  • Brand site 13 of 14 shown, not counted
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry5 of 8
  • Combination3 of 3
5

Fenty Beauty

Invisimatte Setting Powder

14/20 say it works on dry skin

Reviewers who list dry skin were happier with it, 7 of 7, than those who list combination skin, 4 of 7. 39% also praise how it controls oil and shine, and 17% say it's too drying.

What buyers praise

  • Controls oil and shine 39%
  • Doesn't look cakey 26%
  • Keeps makeup in place 17%
  • Natural finish 9%

What buyers complain about

No repeated complaints yet.

Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 1 of 3
  • Sephora 13 of 17
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry7 of 7
  • Combination4 of 7
  • Normal2 of 3
See it at Ulta

Share of 23 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

6

Laura Mercier

Translucent Loose Setting Powder

19/29 say it works on dry skin

54% say it's fine on dry skin and 26% say it keeps makeup in place. The catch is that 26% say it's too drying and 11% find it too expensive.

What buyers praise

  • Keeps makeup in place 26%
  • Doesn't look cakey 17%
  • Blurs pores and texture 11%
  • Controls oil and shine 9%
  • Good value 6%

What buyers complain about

  • Too expensive 11%
Where buyers said it
  • Ulta 2 of 4
  • Sephora 17 of 25
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry6 of 10
  • Combination3 of 5
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light6 of 10
  • Light-medium to medium3 of 5
7

KVD Beauty

Lock-It Setting Powder

16/26 say it works on dry skin

It has the weakest record here at 16 of 26, with 31% calling it too drying and 14% saying shine comes back fast. 52% still say it's fine on dry skin.

What buyers praise

  • Keeps makeup in place 24%
  • Controls oil and shine 14%
  • Natural finish 10%
  • Doesn't look cakey 10%
  • Good value 7%

What buyers complain about

  • Shine comes back fast 14%
  • Flashback or white cast 10%
Where buyers said it
  • Sephora 16 of 26
By skin type (Sephora reviewers)
  • Dry10 of 15
  • Combination4 of 8
By skin tone (Sephora reviewers)
  • Fair to light11 of 18
  • Light-medium to medium3 of 5
  • Medium-tan to tan2 of 3
Acne-prone reviewers
  • Said it worked6 of 8
See it at Sephora

Share of 29 store reviews that mention each point. A full bar is 50%.

Where these numbers come from

The 7 products ranked here carry 43,386 reviews at Ulta and Sephora. We searched them for dryness and read the newest matching reviews, up to 30 per product and store, posted between Feb 2018 and Sep 2026.

A review counts only when the reviewer used the product themselves. We drop reviews written in exchange for a free product or a sweepstakes entry (0 on this page), and products that are no longer sold.

Ulta also shows reviews first posted on brands' own websites. They run much more positive than store reviews of the same products (across 19 products with both, 76% of brand-site reviewers said the product solved the problem, against 55% of Ulta shoppers), so we show them on product cards but never count them.

Because we searched for the problem, people who had it are overrepresented. Compare products with each other rather than reading a share as your own odds.

Skin type, skin tone and age splits use what reviewers chose on Sephora's review form (and age on Ulta's when given). We only show a split when enough reviewers fall on each side.

Amazon buttons appear only on products that Amazon sells from the brand and that most reviewers here say fix the problem (at least 60%, with enough reviews to trust it). Everything else links to the store page, unpaid.

An AI model labels each review against a fixed list of points, and we spot-check the labels before publishing. We publish counts and link to the product pages, never the reviews themselves.

Read the full method

Product pages we read

  1. Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder Ulta, Sephora (42 reviews counted)
  2. bareMinerals Original Mineral Veil Powder Ulta, Sephora (32 reviews counted)
  3. Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder Ulta, Sephora (30 reviews counted)
  4. Laura Mercier Translucent Powder Ultra-Blur Ulta, Sephora (40 reviews counted)
  5. Fenty Beauty Invisimatte Setting Powder Ulta, Sephora (23 reviews counted)
  6. Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder Ulta, Sephora (35 reviews counted)
  7. KVD Beauty Lock-It Setting Powder Sephora (29 reviews counted)

People asking about it on Reddit

  1. ISO the perfect setting powder (dry skin) r/drugstoreMUA, Mar 2026, 92 comments
  2. Best setting powder for dry skin? r/Sephora, Jan 2026, 64 comments
  3. Which powder would be good for dry skin? r/Sephora, Oct 2025, 59 comments

Questions buyers ask

Which setting powder is good for dry skin?

Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder has the best record at 34 of 37, and 14 of 14 among reviewers who list dry skin. bareMinerals Original Mineral Veil Powder follows at 15 of 19, then Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder at 21 of 28.

Will setting powder make dry skin look drier?

It can, depending on the powder. Reviewers call a powder too drying in 31% of KVD Beauty Lock-It Setting Powder reviews, 28% of bareMinerals Original Mineral Veil Powder reviews and 26% of Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder reviews, against 5% for Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder.

Is there a setting powder for dry skin on Amazon?

Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder is the best pick sold on Amazon, at 34 of 37. bareMinerals Original Mineral Veil Powder at 15 of 19 and Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder at 21 of 28 are sold there by the brand too.

Is Laura Mercier translucent powder good for dry skin?

It depends on which one. Laura Mercier Translucent Powder Ultra-Blur is at 22 of 33, Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder at 21 of 28 and Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder at 19 of 29, and 26% of reviews for the last one say it's too drying.

Related problems

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HiveTried earns a commission when you buy through "Check price on Amazon" buttons. It never changes the ranking: the order comes from buyer reports only, and a product gets an Amazon button only when buyers here say it works.