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When it comes to makeup, making it last, especially in the warmer climes of the Middle East, proves to be difficult sometimes.
There’s powder, of course, but more often than not, it leaves that telltale cakey line by mid-afternoon. So, naturally, it’s a step a lot tend to quietly skip.
As a makeup artist by trade herself, this is something Charlotte Tilbury took note of many years ago – and has since spent years trying to fix it. The result? As she herself describes it, a “reimagined loose powder” – or more formally a new addition to the famous Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush family.
Positioning the new launch as a corrective product to everything the loose powder category tends to get wrong, the Airbrush Flawless Blur Loose Powder has big shoes to fill. Alongside it is the Airbrush Flawless Blush Blur, her first attempt at translating that soft-focus “airbrushed” effect into colour.
It’s a big claim, for sure. But it’s nothing Charlotte Tilbury – as a brand and as an individual – is no stranger to. After all, nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed to find a woman without at least one of her products in their daily beauty routine – makeup, skincare or otherwise.
Ahead of the official launch of the new Airbrush Flawless Blur Loose Powder, GRAZIA sat down with the makeup mogul to talk about what actually frustrated her about loose powder, why blush took a different route entirely, and the backstage habits baked into how both are meant to be used.
You’ve said this is “loose powder reimagined” – what specifically frustrated you about the loose powders already on the market that pushed you to spend years developing this formula?
CT: Darling, loose powders needed to be revolutionised! Throughout my career as a makeup artist, I saw so many people avoid loose powder because formulas could be chalky, heavy, cakey and drying. They could sit in fine lines, exaggerate texture, cause flashback or make skin look flat and mask-like. Then there was the mess, the imprecise application and shades that could look too vibrant or chalky on the skin.
I wanted to solve all of that. I wanted to create a powder so micro-fine and light-as-air that it melted and diffused over the skin rather than sitting on top of it – one that could hyper-blur the look of pores, lines and texture while still letting your makeup live and breathe with you.
But I wouldn’t launch a loose powder until I knew it could live up to my Airbrush Flawless icons. I don’t release anything until the science has caught up with my vision! Now, after years of research, development and relentlessly pushing the boundaries of powder technology, I can finally reveal my new Airbrush Flawless Blur Loose Powder. You can bake without caking, build without heaviness and create that smooth, lifted, hyper-blurred Airbrush effect while skin still looks like skin. It feels like nothing but hyper-blurs everything!
AIRtech™ now spans pressed powder, setting spray, foundation, concealer, and now loose powder and blush. How do you keep innovating within one signature technology without repeating yourself?
CT: Darling, Airtech™ is the technology behind every product within my Airbrush Flawless franchise, designed to deliver that signature combination of longwear performance, light-as-air textures and skincare benefits. But the magic is that I evolve the technology for every product category and every customer need.
I never innovate for the sake of it, darling. Every product starts with a problem I want to solve, and then I work with my world-leading labs to develop the technologies, textures and ingredients that will deliver my signature Airbrush effect to everyone across different climates, skin tones, ages and beauty routines.
With my Airbrush Flawless Blur Loose Powder, Airtech™ combines Powder Blur Technology™ with Oil + Shine Control Microspheres and hydrating skincare like Magnolia Bark Extract and Botanical Emollients to give you hyper-blur, buildability, setting power and up to 24-hour oil and shine control. With Airbrush Flawless Blush Blur, Airtech™ combines Powder Blur Technology™, light-diffusing micro-fine pigments and hydrating Hyaluronic Acid to smooth, blur and bounce light while delivering that fresh, blushed-from-within colour.
The goal is always that flawless, poreless Airbrush effect, but every formula solves a different problem and delivers it in a different way. That is how I keep pushing Airtech™ forward with every innovation.
This is the first time blush has been “airbrushed.” Can you walk us through the moment you realised the Airbrush effect could translate into a blush formula?
CT: Darling, blush has always been one of my greatest backstage beauty secrets. It can instantly breathe life into the face and make you look fresher, healthier and more youthful in seconds.
I have always been fascinated by the way skin naturally blushes in moments of emotion – when you’re laughing, falling in love or feeling excited. That natural flush has this incredible freshness and dimension because it looks as though the colour is radiating from within.
At the same time, I knew some powder blushes could look dry, cakey, patchy or sit on top of texture. So I thought, what if I could take that smoothing, blurring Airbrush effect everyone loves and transform it into a blush? That was the starting point for my new Airbrush Flawless Blush Blur. I wanted a silky, buildable, blendable veil of colour that didn’t just add pigment, but smoothed, blurred and bounced light at the same time. Powered by Airtech™, my longwear, light-as-air formula melts seamlessly into the complexion and gives you that beautiful, blushed-from-within effect. Darling, you’ve never blushed like this before!
With seven shades in the loose powder and eleven in the blush, how do you approach shade development to ensure true inclusivity rather than just a wide range?
CT: For me, inclusivity isn’t just about creating the biggest number of shades – it’s about understanding how colour actually behaves on real skin. Throughout my career, I’ve developed a forensic understanding of undertones and overtones, and I test my complexion products on real people, across different skin tones and under different lighting conditions.
With Airbrush Flawless Blur Loose Powder, neutralising was incredibly important. I had seen powders that looked too pink, yellow or peachy, or became chalky and overly pigmented on the skin. We tested the formula from the fairest to the deepest complexions to make sure the shades stretch and adapt, creating seven easy-to-choose shades that work across the full spectrum of skin tones, including Brightening Pink and Brightening Peach to softly colour-correct and brighten the complexion’s appearance.
With Airbrush Flawless Blush Blur, the approach was different because I wanted to recreate the way skin naturally flushes. I studied tones found in real skin to develop 11 expertly nuanced shades that mimic that blushed-from-within effect and flatter every complexion.
You often talk about “backstage secrets” – what’s a technique from your years on fashion sets that directly shaped how this powder or blush is meant to be applied?
CT: One of the biggest lessons from decades of working backstage is that powder should be applied strategically. You don’t need to cover your entire face in it – as an artist, I use powder almost like a digital retoucher, targeting exactly where I want to smooth, blur, brighten or minimise shine while keeping glow everywhere else.
That thinking has shaped how I use my Airbrush Flawless Blur Loose Powder. For my Soft Airbake technique, I press a light veil into the inner corner of the under-eye and lift towards the outer corner, then add a little around the mouth. It optically lifts and hyper-blurs areas where texture can become more visible, while keeping the rest of the complexion fresh and dimensional.
And blush has always been one of my favourite ways to sculpt without contour. For my cheek lift technique, I sweep my Airbrush Flawless Blush Blur high on the cheekbones and diffuse it upwards and outwards towards the temples. It cheats the look of a fresher, more youthful, lifted complexion in seconds.
Looking at the full Airbrush Flawless franchise now, what do you consider the throughline that ties it all together as a system, rather than a collection of separate products?
CT: Darling, every Airbrush Flawless product is designed with the same purpose: to give everyone that smooth, blurred, flawless, poreless Airbrush effect while empowering you to look and feel like your most beautiful, confident selves.
They are all powered by my signature Airtech™ and engineered around the same gold standard – longwear, light-as-air and hydrates like skincare – but each product has a different role within the system. You can conceal, perfect, blur, set, sculpt, brighten, add colour and lock everything in, while the formulas layer seamlessly and skin still looks like skin.
That science of layering is incredibly important to me. I develop my products to work in harmony, rather than competing with what you’ve already applied. My loose and pressed powders are a perfect example: each has its own technology and purpose, but use them together and you get double the Airbrush, double the blur!
But the real throughline goes beyond technology, darling – it’s confidence. I always say Airbrush Flawless is victory for your skin, because when you look like the best version of yourself, it transforms the way you feel. That’s why the wings in my Airbrush logo were inspired by Nike, the goddess of victory – they symbolise triumph, excellence and empowerment.
My world-famous Airbrush Flawless icons are trusted by everyone from celebrities on the red carpet, performers on stadium tours and athletes at the top of their game to customers who would’ve never worn complexion products before. It has grown into an entire system designed to make expert artistry speedy, easy and mistake-proof, so that anyone can use them as a tool for confidence. As I always say, flawless is a feeling!
