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A few months ago, I placed an order with Purely Cosmetics, mostly to see what they sold. They typically don't make the boldest coloured eyeshadows (although still pretty, as you can see in my FOTD) and up until this point, I never even looked at anything other than eyeshadows on a make-up website.

I saw a listing for mystery colours - a concept used by a lot of MMU companies, a one-of-a-kind colour which won't be recreated, either to lack of recipe, being too similar to one they already sell, or some other reason - and at $2 each, I placed an order for a whole bunch of them. I had a little problem with shipping - the cart sometimes screws up and only offers international shoppers priority shipping (ouch, expensive) instead of the normal, cheaper kind. So I dropped Robyn, the company's owner, a line on Twitter, and she got right back to me. (What they do when that happens, so you don't panic if you have the same issue, is pay for it priority, put a note in and they'll change it to regular and refund the difference.)

My full Purely Cosmetics face, using almost exclusively their stuff.

During my Twitter back-and-forth with Robyn, though, we ascertained that really, I just wanted to see what they had without picking colours myself. Since I know nothing about neutrals, I'd rather leave that up to fate. Robyn, in the best display of amazing customer service I have ever seen from any company, picked my entire order for me. I mean eyeshadow samples and colours, face product samples, foundation in a shade to match me (since she reads my blog, she knows roughly what shade I am), even a new product or two that she thought I'd like. She included more than just what I'd paid for, so this was a joint I-bought-this/free-stuff venture.

When it arrived, it came in a little gold organza bag, with business cards, a couple of Werther's Original (which I hadn't had since I was a kid, weedling them out of my grandparents), a glossy print-out explaining how to apply and use their mineral foundation and other face products, and, incredibly, and couple-page-long letter Robyn wrote to me, explaining what everything was, why she'd included it and how to use it.

Not pictured: Tons of eyeshadow samples, which are tucked away in my sample binder.
Yes, my Diamond Perfect Finish jar is almost empty.

I was, and still am, pretty astounded at the amount of effort she put into that. She took the time to put together a perfect little Ana-package for me, the contents of which was:

• A whole bunch of eyeshadow samples.
• Some cream-to-powder eyeshadow samples.
• Full-size cream-to-powder eyeshadow in Jaded.
• Mystery eyeshadow in a pretty pale foresty green.
• Foundation sample in Fair Maiden.
• Silk & Pearl Powder Primer sample.
• Pearlescent Blush samples in Blushing (NARS Orgasm dupe) and Coral.
• Diamond Perfect Finish powder sample.

I'll blab on about it all at some point, but right now my immediate focus is the Diamond Perfect Finish powder.

They Have the Whatnow?

The clue is in the name - it's a finishing powder made with diamonds, and it's more or less perfect. Okay, so it doesn't do my ironing for me or make me look like Agyness Deyn, but it's doing the best it can. It's made from long-sounding things-

Ingredients: Polymethylsilsesquioxane/benzimidazole diamond copolymer, diamond powder.

-And $18.50 will net you a 6g jar of this stuff, which contains almost half a carat of diamond. Granted, that might not be a lot in, y'know, a ring, but it's a pretty respectable amount to be spread on your face. Here's what they say about it:

Diamond Perfect Finish is a unique product made with real diamonds and a patented diamond complex to create a flawless finish. Your face will have an airbrushed look. This fine powder will settle into your lines and pores translucently, and the photoluminescence subtly illuminates a blue glow invisible to the naked eye which decreases the appearance of wrinkles...The diamond powder bends and refracts light to reduce the visibility of those imperfections...It is so finely milled that it does not give off a shimmer...Works perfectly for photography and high definition, Diamond Perfect Finish is superior in performance to products such as Makeup Forever's High Definition Finishing Powder.

It might sound bizarre, like creams with platinum in, but it's not a gimmick - there's real science behind it.

"A'right mate, wanna buy a box?"

The key bits in this are the blue glow and the way diamond refracts light. When we age, our skin loses the ability to fluoresce blue and green light, which can lead to skin looking prematurely-aged and unhealthy. When incident light hits the powder's particles, the UV light is converted to blue light (photoluminscence) and blue and green light is scattered, instead, emulating the blue and green fluorescence skin is lacking.

Source: Grantinc.com

The powder's particles will settle in wrinkles and emit a blue glow (invisible to the naked eye, because the particles are only 7 microns in diameter - a micron being one millionth of a metre) which diminishes the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, blemishes and discolouration because it emulates the blue green fluorescence our skin is lacking, and creates a soft-focus effect. It's worth mentioning that the Purely Cosmetics Diamond Perfect Finish of course, contains real diamond powder in addition to the patented complex PSQ, to make it even more effective and luxurious.

All clear? Point being, this does something beyond simply making your pores look smaller because you covered them in the silica powder everyone seems to sell.

I Have Run Out of Packaging-Related Puns

Hot-stamping on the lid - pretty, and won't peel off.

One of the things I really like about Purely is their packaging. They're not the cheapest mineral make-up company around, and that's all right with me, since I think their products are more complex. They tend to contain more ingredients (the eyeshadows have different bases and formulas depending on the colour, not mica blended onto a generic base, like a lot of companies), including some unusual, expensive ones (diamond powder, for example) and the packaging isn't the cheapest, most basic packaging available.
It fits the company image - all black-lidded jars are hot-stamped with the company's logo in gold, which looks like their lovely script engraved on the lid (different process, though) rather than just a paper sticker or super-cheap plastic clam-shells. All jars also come shrink-wrap sealed, which as I've mentioned before, I love. It means that you don't open your package to discover the contents of one eyeshadow is now coating everything else.

Packaging for DPF, this is the tinted variation.

The Diamond Perfect Finish powder comes in gold-rimmed jars, with transparent stickers on the lids, to make it look a little more 'luxe'. My sample came in a 5gram jar with sifter, and everything, sample or full-size, comes labelled with the full ingredients list on it. Purely also adds nice touches, like Werther's Original (yummy nostalgia!), organza bags, informative glossy print-outs about how best to use their products, business cards, and the invoice. Sometimes you may also get a cosmetic bag (a proper, zip-up one, with the company logo embroidered), or a freebie - these are completely random, unpredictable fun, and not based on order size.

I Will Not Make a "Girl's Best Friend" Joke.

No, not a "Diamonds are Forever" one, either.

Onto the actual thing itself. DPF doesn't feel powdery, it's the softest, silkiest powder I've ever felt. You can tell it's different, just by the way it falls through the holes in the sifter, there's never any clogging or difficulty in getting it out, because it's so incredibly fine. It's one of those products that actually feels nice to apply, more creamy than gritty (although it's a powder, not cream. Obviously.)

I can't speak as to whether it lightens your skintone or not (others have suggested it does, so Purely now make a tinted version for darker skintones) because I'm already uber-pale. When I apply it, I tip a little out into the jar lid, swirl my MAC 187 in it, tap it off, then just buff it all over my face. You can use it over your foundation as a finishing powder, and under your primer/foundation (not over primer) too, on areas with massive pores, etc. I tend to use it over my moisturiser around my nose, then my primer, then my foundation, and then buff it all over to finish.

I'm wearing it here (sneak-peak of future EOTD) in normal light - usually I use incredibly bright light to hide my horrific skin, but it looks so much better with DPF I don't need to. (Check it out, you can see my nose!)

I hate looking shiny, I'm not a fan of the 'dewy' look, I prefer matte skin and this mattifies my face without making it look powdery, cakey or chalky, I suspect because it's so fine, and rather than being opaque, it has that blue photoluminscence. As previously mentioned, however, it doesn't look blue or green on. They could use some of this on the set of the Twaddle Twilight movies to fix their chalk-faces. It actually blurs my pores and makes them less noticeable, and covers up discolouration, redness, etc. It's great for touch-ups, too, on the rare occasion that I'm completely gross and nap in my make-up, or just after a (rarer) busy day, I can revive my fading foundation by buffing this over and it gets rid of the shine, and hides anywhere my make-up was starting to fade or rub off.

I've tried MAC's mineralized skin finishes, both in coloured varieties, their natural variety, and their sheer loose powder, I've tried an Estée Lauder powder, Benefit Get Even, Aromaleigh Metamorphosis Parfait powder (which would be my second choice, because I love the anti-redness), Make Up For Ever HD Microfinish Powder, pure silica powder (same thing!), Fyrinnae's Fluff finishing powder, Sassy's mineral finishing powder, and various other mineral veils which were usually a combination of silica, mica and titanium dioxide, and none of them gave me such dramatic improvement without cakiness/powderyness.

Another thing I love about it is that it photographs really well. The product description says it's great for HD photography, and I know nothing about photography, except that everytime you see my face on my blog, I probably took 20-30 photographs to get one I liked enough to use it. With this on, I notice a dramatic reduction in that number!

Positive Reviews Are No Fun.

I've tried to think of things I don't like about it, and I'm coming up empty. I guess it isn't cheap, at $18.50 for a jar, but MUFE HD powder (which is just silica, and comparing it to this is like comparing granulated sugar to icing sugar) is only 8 cents per gram cheaper, and this works better and goes further, since you don't fucking spill it everywhere as soon as you open the jar. Plus, y'know, it actually has more than one ingredient and can't simply poured from one giant wholesale bag into a jar and sold for over 20x more. (Note: I'm not accusing MUFE of 're-packaging' or even knowing who TKB are, my point is that silica powder can be very cheaply obtained at wholesalers, and is not a finished face product.)

The only other downside is that, like with Aromaleigh, I got whacked with customs charges when I ordered. Once again, that isn't Purely's fault and they'd be breaking the law if they declared their packages as gifts or with lower values to try and skirt customs fees. It's random, so if you order and that happens, you can always refuse fees & send it back, or send it to an American friend and get them to forward it on to you.

Arbitrary Numerical Values.

The skippable-to bit if you don't care about context, or you just don't like reading. Out of all the finishing powders I've tried, this is my favourite. Back in my Troubleshooting post, I was still testing out a whole bunch of new ones, but after trying them all pretty thoroughly this is certainly my favourite.

I'll definitely be buying it again, in fact, I may stockpile it and start hiding it in hollowed-out books just in case of discontinuation/natural disaster/Armageddon.

Price: $18.50 for 6g or $5 for a 1g sample (just select 'diamond perfect finish' from the dropdown box)
Where?: Purely Cosmetics website.
Look & Feel: 4/5 - I like that it isn't just paper-stickers, and well-labelled, but the packaging is getting an upgrade soon to a nicer lid & better sifter, so I'm looking forward to that.
Quality: 5/5 - It's actually enjoyable to use because it feels wonderful and I love the results.
Value: 4.5/5 - It isn't cheap, but honestly, I feel that if Estée Lauder or Lancome or someone made this, they'd charge a hell of a lot more for it considering it contains diamond.

Overall: 5/5 - It performs spectacularly; it does everything I could possibly ask of a finishing powder, and it feels smooth and weightless on. It out-performs every other finishing powder I've tried, and I can't imagine finding something better anytime soon. It even earns rare 1337 status as one of my beauty staples.

5/5 Internets for fixing my face.

Diamond Perfect Finish joins the elusive 1337 list.