The 9 Best Full-Coverage Foundations Worth Investing In

Best Overall

Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Foundation

$49 at Sephora $49 at Nordstrom $49 at Bloomingdales

Finish: Matte | Number of shades: 40 | Cruelty-Free: Yes

This is, without a doubt, one of the most popular full-coverage foundations on the market, and for good reason. Despite having a pretty thick texture which often makes for a cakey finish, it blends out beautifully on the face and can create a natural-looking base—if used properly. It can cling to dry patches, which is pretty common with full-coverage, matte foundations—but if you properly exfoliate and moisturize before using it, you’ll be able to yield a smooth, full-coverage result that appears skin-like and most importantly, lasts. 

In addition to revering its long-wearing ability, we appreciated that it passed the transfer test with perfect scores—this is especially important if you have oily skin and struggle with your foundation migrating or breaking apart. It also comes in a pretty extensive shade range that's well dispersed across the skin tones, which is especially important for foundations that offer lots of coverage and won't be forgiving if your shade doesn't match your skin color.

Best Luxe

Chantecaille Future Skin Cushion Skincare Foundation

$145 at Dermstore View on Nordstrom View on Chantecaille.com

Finish: Natural | Number of shades: 6 | Cruelty-Free: Yes

It’s not often that cushion foundations provide significant coverage, but this one can be layered and built up to go from fairly light coverage to offering enough coverage to completely even out your complexion. Aside from experiencing a bit of transfer, our experience with this foundation was overwhelmingly positive. We loved the natural, glowy finish, how easily it blended into the skin, and how weightless and comfortable it felt when applied. It completely covered redness while maintaining a skin-like appearance and didn’t settle into pores or fine lines.

One thing we're not impressed by is the shade range—it's very limited. While the colors are fairly flexible because it doesn't offer full-on coverage right off the bat, we would still like to see the brand expand the range significantly.

Best Drugstore

Milani Conceal + Perfect 2-in-1

$11 at Amazon $12 at Ulta $11 at Target

Finish: Natural matte | Number of shades: 45 | Cruelty-Free: Yes

With a unique mousse-like consistency and incredible buildability, this budget-friendly foundation quickly became a favorite during testing. With one pump, we were able to blend out the formula seamlessly with a brush and a sponge to yield medium coverage that nicely canceled out redness in the skin. A second layer allowed us to achieve completely full coverage that totally blurred the appearance of dark spots and blemishes.

We love that the Milani Conceal + Perfect foundation sets down to a natural matte finish that doesn’t look dry or radiant—it’s truly somewhere in the middle. The mousse-y texture is easy to blend, though it is slightly thick and can look heavy if you have obvious dry patches on your skin. To avoid this, we recommend gently exfoliating and moisturizing prior to application. It’s also worth noting that it can start to look a bit greasy on oily skin throughout the day, so we recommend setting it in place with powder if you tend to get oily in your T-zone. And did we mention it comes 45 shades that range from fair to dark in a variety of undertones?

Best Long-Wearing

Lancôme Teint Idole Ultra 24H Long Wear Matte Foundation

$46 at Amazon $57 at Sephora $57 at Ulta

Finish: Matte | Number of shades: 50 | Cruelty-Free: No

Another incredibly popular full-coverage foundation, this one stands out for its long-wearing capabilities. Sweat-proof and waterproof, it’s not going anywhere. So, it’s no surprise that it performed beautifully in our transfer test and resisted creasing and fading as we wore it.

As for coverage and finish, the coverage is full and can be built up or sheered out depending on your preferences, and the finish is matte but not flat. Though it can cover pretty much anything, it manages to maintain a true skin-like appearance. We also love that it layers nicely with the makeup you apply on top of it. And if you've tried this foundation in the past and found it to be a bit heavy, we recommend giving it another go—it was recently reformulated and now offers the same coverage and longevity with a much more lightweight and breathable texture.

Best Shade Range

Pat McGrath Labs Sublime Perfection Foundation

$69 at Sephora $69 at Ulta $69 at Nordstrom

Finish: Natural | Number of shades: 36 | Cruelty-Free: No

Pat McGrath Labs nailed the shade selection of this foundation. In addition to creating shades that vary in depth, there's also a vast range of undertones to cater to a large spectrum of skin tones. Even better? The formula looks stunning on the skin and performs beautifully. While it’s not marketed as a full-coverage foundation, it’s extremely buildable and can be layered on to create a pretty full-coverage look. After applying just one coat, it worked beautifully to even out the complexion while maintaining a natural appearance that didn’t lean overly matte or dewy. While we did notice a bit of creasing in the smile lines, it wasn’t significant and could likely be avoided by setting the area with powder.

Best Lightweight

Estée Lauder Double Wear Powder Foundation

$52 at Ulta $52 at Dermstore $38 at Walmart

Finish: Matte | Number of shades: 31 | Cruelty-Free: No

One layer of this full-coverage powder foundation will provide light coverage, while additional layers will build up the pigmentation to offer much more covering ability. We loved how well it evened out the complexion, but we would have liked to see just a bit more coverage on top of the discoloration. If you want to opt for powder foundation but need additional coverage, you can always conceal blemishes first and then apply the powder.

In terms of the finish on the skin, it looks completely matte without appearing dry or cakey. It layered nicely on top of moisturizer and didn’t crease or fade as we wore it. Keep in mind that it did rub off quite a bit onto the blotting paper during the transfer test, so we recommend setting it in place with a setting spray.

Best for Oily Skin

Fenty Beauty Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Foundation

$18 at Sephora $40 at Ulta View on Fentybeauty.com

Finish: Matte | Number of shades: 59 | Cruelty-Free: Yes

We’d be surprised if you're not already familiar with this iconic foundation from Fenty Beauty. Aside from helping to set the industry standard for shade range inclusivity, this one also has a loyal fan base who praise it for its formula. We can see why it’s so well-loved, thanks to how blendable it is, how comfortable it is on the skin, and how it's almost completely transfer-proof. The Fenty Beauty Soft Matte foundation didn’t crease or fade and we loved how skin-like it looked.

If we could change one thing about it, it would be the level of coverage. Despite being marketed as a full-coverage foundation, one tester struggled to get it to fully cover her melasma. The good news is it builds well and can be layered with concealer, so this isn’t a dealbreaker for us. 

Best for Dry Skin

KVD Beauty Good Apple Skin-Perfecting Hydrating Foundation Balm

$43 at Sephora $41 at Ulta $43 at Target

Finish: Matte | Number of shades: 40 | Cruelty-Free: Yes

After going viral on TikTok a while back, we were curious to see if this foundation balm lives up to the hype—and it does. It provides complete coverage in just one layer, a little bit of product goes a very long way, and it can be applied using your fingertips, a brush, or a sponge, without the mess that liquid and powder formulas can create. Despite having a matte finish, we found that our skin looked and felt more hydrated after applying it, and we appreciated that it set in place and didn’t crease as we wore it. While we didn't dislike texture, some online reviewers claim that it feels a bit thick and heavy on the skin. If you’re sensitive to that, we recommend applying it in light layers using a damp sponge. 

Best with SPF

Kosas Revealer Foundation SPF 25

$42 at Sephora $42 at Nordstrom $42 at Kohls.com

Finish: Natural | Number of shades: 36 | Cruelty-Free: Yes

Finding a great full-coverage foundation that includes SPF can be tricky, but the Kosas Revealer Skin-Improving Foundation is fantastic. It’s formulated with zinc oxide as well as niacinamide and squalane for hydration benefits. The texture is lightweight, creamy, and easy to blend, and the finish on the skin is absolutely stunning. It’s the perfect midpoint between matte and dewy, and it creates a gorgeous veil of coverage on the face. We were impressed by how well it covered minor redness and discoloration, though we noticed that we would need additional concealer to fully cover under-eye circles. We also appreciated that it didn't settle into fine lines or emphasize texture. Though it did transfer a bit, we think this would be mitigated by lightly setting it with powder.