Best Foundation: The 2024 Glam Beauty Awards
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Before you can worry about concealer, bronzer, or blush, you have to find the perfect foundation, and luckily for you, we at Glam have put in the time to find five brands and products that are actually worth your time and money. Okay, let's rewind: For our 2024 Beauty Awards, we tested 10 popular foundations from 10 different beauty brands to see how well they actually applied and stayed, and the following list is our top five, including one standout winner and four foundations that blew us away for specific reasons. This year's winning brand might even sound familiar if you read last year's awards.
Without further ado, let's get into the foundations that we believe can make a great base for just about any makeup look — or stand on their own with a light dusting of setting powder, as they're just that good. (Then, don't forget to read our easy application tips for flawless foundation — you can thank us later.)
Best Overall: Fenty Beauty Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint
Fenty Beauty's Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Longwear Liquid Foundation won the title of best foundation during 2023's Glam Beauty Awards, and I'm honestly not surprised that Fenty won yet again — but with its Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint this time. Fenty is notoriously one of the makeup brands with the widest foundation shade ranges, and it certainly proved true here. The shade I chose, 2, blended beautifully onto my skin, and it didn't ever crease or look cakey. It became a second skin, and though it's a lighter formula, I found it to be quite buildable. For that reason, I could easily see someone only buying this foundation and not inventing a separate full-coverage foundation — you can wear this one as light or full-coverage as you want. This foundation also blended perfectly with concealer and bronzer, creating a perfect summer-ready look.
This foundation's price point is perhaps higher than one might expect for a winning foundation, but every penny seemed to be worth it in our testing. Some of the foundations' shades didn't look the same once applied to the skin, and others formulas' simply didn't blend well. Here, you have a peace of mind that can't be fully obtained by many other products.
Purchase the Fenty Beauty Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint at Sephora for $36.
Best sheer foundation: Make Up For Ever HD Skin Undetectable Longwear Foundation
Sheer foundation is perfect for spring and summer when you want to let your skin breathe, but the Make Up For Ever HD Skin Undetectable Longwear Foundation (which I tested in the shade 1R902) went on smoothly that I've potentially been converted to a sheer-year-round girlie. This formula is light and silky and doesn't leave any gaps. Some sheer foundations can spread so thinly and look so sheer that they don't actually cover anything. That wasn't a problem here. Enough skin peaked through to prove that I wasn't lost in the sauce — er, foundation — but the coverage downplayed a couple of zits that had started to form on my forehead.
Many sheer foundations don't blend super well with other products; they simply brush away or get completely overtaken. Make Up For Ever once again blew others out of the water in that regard. I was able to blend blush into this foundation easily, which is one of my main criteria as a bonafide blush lover. Ultimately, if you're looking for a sheer foundation, this one is worth its steep price tag. We said it's the best — not the most affordable!
Purchase the Make Up For Ever HD Skin Undetectable Longwear Foundation at Sephora for $47.
Best full-coverage foundation: MagicMinerals AirBrush Foundation
Sure, the MagicMinerals Airbrush Foundation (which I tested in Light Medium) has some novelty to it — how many other foundations do you literally spray onto your brush (which it came with btw)? — but its formula is what actually sold me. I was skeptical when I read in the instructions that I should only spritz the foundation once or twice before applying the foundation to my face. Thinking I knew better, I spritzed it three to four times and then began buffing out the foundation on my right cheek. Reader, I did not know better. I applied too much, but the beauty of this product is that it blended out beautifully and was able to spread all the way over to my other cheek. No product was wasted.
This product stayed wet long enough to work with, but I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly it dried down, especially since it started in spray form. At its price point, I honestly consider this a steal and will be incorporating it into my regular foundation rotation.
Purchase the MagicMinerals Airbrush Foundation on Amazon for $19.99.
Best drugstore foundation: Maybelline Dream Urban Cover Flawless Coverage Foundation
I tried a few different drugstore foundations, and while all of them were solid (more solid than many more expensive ones, honestly), the Maybelline Dream Urban Cover Flawless Coverage Foundation outpaced the rest. This foundation (tested in Natual Ivory) gripped onto the skin effortlessly and didn't budge, even when I applied more pressure to test its staying power. It also blended seamlessly with my concealer, so I had virtually zero complaints with it.
Now, I know that breaching $15 might be a lot for a drugstore foundation, but if a few extra dollars can be spared for this one, I genuinely believe it can take your everyday makeup to the next level. No one wants their foundation to flake, crease, or get cakey, but that shouldn't be a problem with this one. Plus, its packaging is very portable, so you can slip it into your bag and do your look on the go and do touch-ups as needed (even though I don't think you'll need to).
Purchase the Maybelline Dream Urban Cover Flawless Coverage Foundation on Amazon for $17.49.
Best luxury foundation: Haus Labs Triclone Skin Tech Medium Coverage Foundation
When you think of luxury foundations, you might think of ones costing $60 or more. However, I'd like to welcome Haus Labs to the chat. Its Triclone Skin Tech Medium Coverage Foundation, which I tested in the shade Fair Cool, is a luxurious product that feels indulgent without the sky-high price tag of other luxury brands. In many ways, it was very similar to the Fenty Beauty foundation. It glided on with precision and staying power, and it's simply a perfect example of foundation done well. However, its price being about $10 more than Fenty's meant the latter earned the overall win. Still, if you're interested in trying a pricier foundation, I wholeheartedly recommend this Haus Labs creation.
A final reason this Haus Labs foundation knocked our socks off is its shade selection. With about 50 shades, there's a solid match for everyone, meaning anyone can treat themselves to this cloud-like dream of a product.
Purchase the Haus Labs Triclone Skin Tech Medium Coverage Foundation at Sephora for $45.