Jane Iredale Powder-Me SPF 30 Dry Sunscreen Refill (3 Pack)

Three refill canisters for the Powder-Me SPF 30 brush. Sunscreen only works while it is sitting on your skin, and most of us stop topping up once makeup is on. That is the argument for a powder. A brush over the face takes seconds, leaves your base alone, and it lives happily in a handbag or a car door.

Using it well

General sun sense first. Put your usual sunscreen on clean skin in the morning, let it settle, then do your makeup. The powder is what you go back to mid morning, and again after lunch.

The common mistake with any powder sunscreen is applying too little. Use more than feels natural: short overlapping passes, two or three times over the same area, until you can see a soft veil rather than nothing at all. Cover the bits that catch the sun, so forehead, nose, cheekbones, tops of the ears, the part in your hair and the back of the neck. Standard sun safety advice is to reapply roughly every two hours outdoors, and sooner if you have been sweating or wiping your face.

Who it suits, and who it does not

• Good fit. Makeup wearers, and oily or combination skin that goes shiny through an Auckland summer. Handy if you are out during the day and want to top up without starting your face again.
• Shades. We stock Translucent, Nude, Golden and Tanned. Translucent is the low risk pick over an existing base.
• Less good. Very dry or flaking skin. Any powder will cling to a dry patch and show it. Press in a moisturiser, wait a few minutes and see how it sits, or skip the powder that day.
• Heavy sweat and swimming. For a long stretch in the water or a hard workout, a cream you can reapply thickly is the easier thing to get right. Check the water resistance on whatever you use.

The honest limitations

It is easy to apply too little powder, so we would not lean on it as the only sunscreen of the day. Through the summer months, when UV levels here are high, the morning layer is the one doing most of the work and the powder keeps it topped up.

This is the refill pack as well, three canisters that go into a brush you already own. If you do not have one yet, start with the Powder-Me SPF 30 brush. And four shades is a narrow range. A mineral powder can read lighter than you want on deeper skin tones, so it is worth checking the shade in daylight before you commit to three of them. We are in Parnell if you would rather ask first.