11 Best Setting Powders For Acne Prone Skin

Not having to reapply powder halfway through the day is the whole point, especially if you have never been the type to carry a compact around with you.

Oily skin makes that harder than it sounds. This pressed pact from THESAEM is built for that exact problem, absorbing sebum as it sets so the shine that usually turns up around your nose and forehead by mid-afternoon takes a lot longer to arrive.

It is a pressed powder, so it stays lightweight and buildable, and the finish reads soft rather than chalky. A thin layer over your problem areas keeps them matte without flattening out the rest of your face.

The formula leans on fine mineral powders and botanical extracts instead of heavy oils, which is what you want sitting on top of an active breakout. It holds a 4.3-star average across 826 reviews.

ETUDE is a Korean skincare brand renowned for its sensitive-skin-friendly products, focusing on formulating products that are truly beneficial for your skin and working to improve it with continued use.

This Zero Sebum Powder isn’t just affordable; it’s also very indicative of the quality of the products the brand releases.

It’s a loose powder, but so finely milled that it sits extremely lightweight on the skin.

It also comes with a powder puff for easy application!

This powder can be used both immediately after skincare and as a setting powder for your makeup.

Controlling oil production on your face and keeping your cosmetics from drawing too much attention to texture or redness.

As for the formula, you’ll be impressed to hear that this powder wasn’t made with any talc, mineral oils, or artificial ingredients.

It’s also vegan, making it environmentally friendly!

NYX is a trusted makeup brand, known for offering high-performing products at affordable drugstore prices.

What we love about the brand is its accessibility.

This pressed setting powder is perfect for acne-prone skin types with all levels of oil production.

It boasts a vegan formula with a minty green tint that helps neutralize the appearance of acne and any accompanying redness or irritation.

Although the tint may look intimidating, it’s actually quite sheer powder, so it can work on all skin types when applied lightly.

In addition to correcting any redness, the powder also boasts a fantastic blurring property, making it perfect for those with fine lines, wrinkles, or under-the-skin spots caused by clogged pores.

There’s nothing wrong with keeping it clean!

This matte pressed powder from the highly revered drugstore makeup brand CoverGirl is a miracle worker for acne-prone skin.

One of our favorite things about this formula is that it wasn’t formulated with any oils during production.

So it’s compatible with all skin types (including those with super shine-prone skin).

Mattifying during initial application, this powder also knocks out oil production throughout the day!

It lasts 8 hours, making it great for the work or school day, and can be reapplied without looking cakey.

There is a slight skin-toned tint to this powder, so you may be able to get away with using it as a foundation alternative.

It even comes with multiple formulas (even for those with super sensitive skin)!

One note on the link: the shade listing we point to here holds 4.6 stars across 425 reviews, a smaller review count than most picks on this list, though it is the same powder in a different shade.

You may have heard how deeply loved the Dermablend brand is, but if you haven’t yet tried anything from it.

We highly recommend this loose setting powder as your first purchase!

This is a loose setting powder, and one of the longest-wearing ones on the market.

From application, you can expect this product to keep you matte (and your makeup in place) for 16 hours, which is almost unheard of for a setting powder!

This product comes in a variety of shades, but all deliver the same high-quality you would expect from Dermablend.

They’re all noncomedogenic as well as phthalate- and sulfate-free.

However, if the clean ingredient list isn’t proof enough that they’re a great choice for acne-prone skin, surely learning that they’re dermatologist-tested and allergy-safe will have you adding this cosmetic staple to your cart!

For those who deal with a lot of redness (from acne worsened by rosacea or irritation, especially).

You’ll be big fans of this tinted setting powder from Kokie Cosmetics.

Not only is it color correcting, but since it’s a loose powder, it can cover redness that spreads across the whole face rather than in one area!

Kokie formulated this powder due to a major concern in the skincare world: cream color correctors just don’t work well with textured, acne skin.

Thankfully, they were able to remedy this problem by designing a product that not only addresses redness but also blurs texture, controls shine, and mimics the appearance of natural skin.

It has a matte finish and can be worn both over cosmetics and after you’ve freshly cleansed your face to keep redness and irritation at bay.

Redness is the part of a breakout that concealer alone almost never fixes.

This pressed mineral powder from Clinique does one job and does it well. The pigment is green-toned, so it cancels red areas rather than burying them under another layer of product, and the mineral base keeps everything matte instead of dewy.

It is fragrance-free and made for reactive skin, which matters if your redness comes from rosacea or general irritation rather than from active acne. That also makes it wearable on the days you are not covering anything in particular.

It sits at 4.4 stars across 985 reviews, and it is the one we would hand to someone whose main complaint is color rather than shine.

Acne usually shows up red. But anyone with cystic breakouts knows the other version, the blue and purple spots that sit under the skin.

Green will not help you there. Green cancels red, and on a purple mark it just leaves things looking grey. Yellow is what you want.

This loose banana powder from Bellapierre is the one we keep reaching for. The tint is soft enough to brighten rather than turn you sallow, and it is milled finely enough to set over texture without going cakey.

It is talc-free, it holds up through heat and humidity, and it doubles as a baking powder under the eyes if that is part of your routine. 4.5 stars across 1,672 reviews.

Perhaps one of the worst aspects of applying powder on top of acne-prone skin is that it keeps your makeup and concealer in place.

It can make textured areas even more apparent.

Thankfully, in addition to being oil-controlling, this pressed powder from Jolie works like real-life Photoshop on textured skin.

Blurring, lightweight, and translucent, you will be blown away by the fact that this powder still keeps your skin looking like skin, which is almost unheard of for a powder of this quality!

Best of all, you can wear this either on its own or over foundation for a filtered look, regardless of the effort you’ve put into your look.

If you love Neutrogena products but prefer prevention over color correction.

Then we definitely have a great alternative to their previous product on this list!

This mineral powder comes in a variety of shades, but they all share an incredible formula that keeps acne-prone customers coming back for more.

Not only is this powder compact, non-comedogenic, and oil-controlling, but it is also formulated with salicylic acid and other acne-fighting ingredients, allowing your skin to continuously heal with every application.

This skincare cocktail, known as “Microclear Technology,” is patented by Neutrogena as an effective way to fight breakouts while healing existing acne.

Coming in at under $10, this incredible face powder from Revlon is proof that fantastic things do come in unassuming packages!

This powder is mattifying, oil-controlling, and blurring — it effectively disguises acne, fine lines, pores, and other skin concerns for up to 16 hours.

In addition to shielding your skin from bacteria, germs, and environmental aggressors, this face powder was also formulated with the purest, cleanest ingredients.

This face powder boasts an incredible combination of superfoods (including broccoli, aloe, and citrus juice) that your skin will yearn for again and again!