powder puff

• powder-puff

powder puff (plural powder puffs)

1. A ball or pad of soft material used for the application of cosmetic powder to the face.
   • 1920, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Escape”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 273:

     The little bag, with its shiny, silvery jaws open, lay on her lap. He could see her powder-puff, her rouge stick, a bundle of letters, a phial of tiny black pills like seeds, a broken cigarette, a mirror, white ivory tablets with lists on them that had been heavily scored through. He thought: “In Egypt she would be buried with those things.”

   • 1925, Cosmopolitan, volume 78, page 194:

     Both the lipstick and the rouge are waterproof and frictionproof. They won't come off on your handkerchief or powder puff.

2. Any of certain species of genus Calliandra.

• powderpuff
• powder-puff plant