That gives an useful keyword to search for, "Aerosil". Finds among other stuff this document, which describes various uses of this silica stuff: https://glenncorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Aerosil_Sip...

Very fascinating peek to behind the curtain of cosmetics industry. The "dry water" stuff is in the last pages. Apparently their advertised "powder to cream" cosmetics are popping up in the market. They have a demo video of the stuff, but in that it doesn't seem to work all that well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmQTOU1KBkw

The commercial products using it (or similar stuff) seem to work fine though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QURu28QTlMU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Bcyo4GmrY

(and now youtubes algorithms will be confused why I'm suddenly looking at makeup videos at the middle of night)