The deal on translucent

The purpose of this post is to clear up the confusion people seem to be having about the meaning of translucent. It could tip into rant territory, but I'll try to keep calm. But I've heard several gurus and beauty reviewer bashing on translucent powders saying, "I think it will show up on darker skin or if you apply it too heavily." "It's not invisible!" Wah, wah, wah. All I hear is WAH. Haha, whoops. Did I already start to slip into a rant? Let's get back on track.

Waaaay back in seventh grade, I learned the scale of opacity. It appears that many people were either sleeping during that lesson or skipped class. If you were one of those, or your school simply neglected to inform you, read on!

1. Opaque

The most extreme ends of the spectrum are opaque and transparent. The picture below looks solid pink, but there's actually a black butterfly underneath it. You can't see the butterfly because the pink is so opaque. Opaque materials block your vision. The majority of materials we use in our day-to-day lives are opaque.

2. Translucent

This is where a lot of confusion occurs. Technically, if something isn't completely opaque or transparent, it's translucent. Looking at the picture below, you can see the butterfly, but not perfectly. The pink makes the image look a little fuzzy, and that's a common characteristic of translucent materials. My favorite example is frosted glass. Sheer fabrics are also translucent. You can kind of see what's behind or beneath them, but it's not completely clear.

3. Transparent

Transparent is where you can see everything beneath the material. Think windows and glasses. If there was obstruction to your view, they would be pointless! Below, you can see the butterfly crystal clear.

Comparison

Let's see those levels next to each other.

Okay, now it's really clear what the difference is. But unfortunately, there aren't only three levels in the scale. In real life, it looks more like this:

And that's why there's so much confusion and frustration. Translucence takes up most of the scale. And where do you draw the line to say that something is opaque or transparent? It's really difficult. If something isn't 100% opaque or  transparent, usually people will say that it's pretty opaque, or it's high on the opacity scale, or pretty much transparent. You get the gist.

The word "translucent" encompasses so much of the scale, and that's why the makeup companies use it. They just slap that word in the title so if you think something is too opaque or not opaque enough, they can throw up their hands and say, "Hey, don't yell at us! We warned you and put translucent in the title."

What I'm really trying to get at is that there is no such thing as an invisible powder. If you can see it in the packaging, you'll be able to see it with enough building up on your face. So be careful. Also, there isn't just one shade of translucent powder. I've seen many translucent powders in many shades, so if you're worried about the standard, light-colored translucent powder showing up on your darker skin, get a little bit darker translucent powder that will blend in with your skin better. When buying a powder, it's better to go for a slightly lighter shade than darker. Leave it to bronzer to warm up your skin.

If you're still scared of powder making you look cakey, I've heard that Mally has a clear gel-like product that is supposed to mattify you. It's called the Evercolor Poreless Face Defender. I haven't personally used it, but emilynoel83 has talked about it a bit and seems to really like it. Just keep in mind that it's more expensive than drugstore products. You can watch this video to see what she says about it. The link will take you to the part of the video where she talks about the product, so don't freak out when it doesn't take you to the very beginning of the video.

I hope this was more informative than it was rant-y. Have a nice day!

~Stacie