Beauty Is Life Balina 03C Multi-Touch Powder

Beauty Is Life is a German makeup brand that was created by stage makeup artist Beatrix Isabel Lied (I'd go out on a limb and say she used her initials to come up with the name of her line). Beauty Is Life made its first appearance at Barneys nearly two years ago, offering a full range of color products, as well as brushes. The display always looks bright and inviting, so I've been playing with the items at every visit to Barneys, but kept coming back to one product: Multi-Touch Powder in Balina (03C). No matter who mans the counter at any given time, they always give my face the finishing touch of Balina. I can take a hint.

This Multi-Touch Powder from Beauty Is Life is somewhere between a finishing powder and a light bronzer. It's a similar idea to Smashbox Soft Lights, but with less glow. Balina adds life to my face, gives a finished and polished look and appears more natural than many colors in this category. It's a golden beige shade with a healthy rosiness that keeps the color from being too warm. You're supposed to apply it all over or to the high points of the face using a fluffy brush. Beauty Is Life have a huge fan brush for this purpose ($70), but I played with it enough to know that I prefer its equivalent Louise Young Super Fan brush (LY20) (around $42). I also tried several powder and bronzer brushes, but the fan is ideal for this purpose.

I swatched Balina very heavily, just to give you a better idea of the color. The correct application is lighter and  you can adjust it to look either more like a flush or like a soft tan. This  Multi-Touch Powder comes in several other shades from porcelain (Pale 01C) to the golden brown of Sable d’Or (02W), but Balina was the only one that suited me. It's interesting to note that according to Beauty Is Life's 9R Typology color system, my skin tone falls closer to the cool color range. It explains a lot about my weird coloring (it's not easy being green).

Bottom Line: Balina found a permanent place in my heart and color arsenal.

Beauty Is Life Multi-Touch Powder ($50) is exclusive to Barneys, in store and online.