BAZAAR Beauty Awards 2021: Best Face Makeup That Help Create A Flawless Complexion
It'a all about that base
The primer, foundation, powders, and blushers that topped their class with innovative textures, exceptional staying powder, and flattering tones.
Related article: The 12 Best Foundations For Mature Skin
Best Hydrating Makeup Primer: Unlimited Block:Booster Protective Moisture Primer SPF 50+ PA+++, $67, Shu Uemura
Developed for Asian skin, this hydrating primer creates a smooth canvas to which foundation can better adhere, helping it last longer throughout the day. It has antioxidant-rich sunflower seed oil to help skin retain moisture, ensuring it stays soft while controlling shine.
Best Mattifying Makeup Primer: Invisible UV Flawless Poreless Primer SPF 50 PA++++, $86, Charlotte Tilbury
This weightless primer gives skin a flawless finish by filling in fine lines and pores. Hyaluronic acid (HA) and a blend of oils and peptides plump skin for up to 24 hours while keeping it looking matte and shine-free. Airbrush polymers further act like an IRL filter for skin, giving it a smoother look.
A cushion that’s part makeup, part skincare, this boasts the brand’s precious Red Treasure, a key ingredient in the luxurious anti-ageing TImetreasure skincare line that is extracted from red pine trees. So expect a brightening, firming and hydrating effect alongside lightweight medium coverage.
With encapsulated pigments that burst upon contact with skin, this cream blends in seamlessly with your natural shade for a more even tone overall. It provides lightweight coverage that is sheer but buildable, and can be worn alone or underfoundation.
Best Foundation with Sheer/Natural Coverage: Radiant Fluid Foundation Natural, $190, Clé de Peau Beauté
This glides on smoothly thanks to its serum-like texture. Along with moisturising agents and skincare ingredients, there are light-reflecting pigments that impart a radiant finish. Its Lasting Control Function technology helps prolong wear for natural-looking coverage that lasts all day.
A hydrating complex with glycol and glycerin imbues skin with moisture, while black rose oil, lipochroman and butterfl y bush extract help protect it from external aggressors. A blend of rich lipids and mineral powders enhances skin’s luminosity to give it a lit-from-within glow.
Developed to address the modern woman’s needs, this foundation boasts what the brand calls a “Skincare Hybrid Formula”, which has a blend of plum blossom extract, beta glucan and its proprietary JAUM Activator to hydrate and help strengthen skin while providing flawless coverage.
Don’t be fooled by its lightweight finish—this is a foundation that can go 24 hours without oxidising or caking. This third iteration comes with mint green pearl pigments to neutralise redness.
Thanks to the brand’s new Humid Defense Technology, this cushion stands firm against perspiration and sebum for up to 24 hours, keeping your complexion shine-free all day. Ultra-light powders provide medium to full buildable coverage that instantly minimises the look of enlarged pores.
Promising to last up to 24 hours without creasing, this foundation boasts a Magnefit Powder technology that improves coverage and overall fit to the skin, blending well no matter what tools you use—brush, sponge, fingers. It leaves a matte finish that doesn’t feel drying on the skin and comes in 12shades to suit a variety of Asian skintones.
Best Medium- To Full-Coverage Foundation: Even Better Clinical Serum Foundation Broad Spectrum SPF 25, $66, Clinique
More than just a foundation that provides beautiful buildable medium to full coverage with a satin matte finish that doesn’t oxidise, the Even Better Clinical Serum Foundation has skincare ingredients that help reduce the look of dark spots and even out overall skin tone.
For those who love natural finishes, buff on this finely milled mineral foundation to help minimise the appearance of blemishes and imperfections. It gives buildable coverage and has SPF 15 to protect skin from UV damage, all while being water-resistant as well.
Best Radiance-Boosting BB Cushion: My Armani To Go Cushion, $120, Giorgio Armani Beauty
Boosted with lychee extract, glycerin and HA, this delivers instant moisture for a natural glow. The formula, which has an optimum water-to-oil ratio to ensure it doesn’t dry out or cake, also reduces the look of pores, fine lines and wrinkles, creating a smoother canvas that better reflects light.
Skincare meets makeup in this serum foundation. With signature ingredients from the SUBLIMAGE line, this lightweight tint delivers buildable coverage while imparting a lit-from-within radiance to the skin, courtesy of light-reflecting pigments.
Best Tinted Moisturiser: Millennialskin On-The-Glow Tinted Moisturizer, $69, Dolce&Gabbana Beauty
This tinted moisturiser provides lightweight coverage and lends skin the most natural-looking glow without fuss. It comes with the brand’s proprietary Mediterranean Glow Complex to plump, soften and hydrate skin, as well as light reflectors that bestow a lovely radiance.
Best Concealer for Dark Spots: Magic Touch Concealer, $47, Anastasia Beverly Hills
Enhanced with plant extracts to hydrate and soothe, this creamy concealer fully masks flaws for complexion perfection. Amino acid-coated pigments help the product adhere easily to skin and stay put for a soft-focus finish that lasts.
Best Under-Eye Concealer: Secret Camouflage Brighten & Correct Duo, $49, Laura Mercier
This two-in-one concealer stick comes with two shades: One that corrects and one that brightens. A high pigment load and blurring powders on the “correction” end ensure maximum coverage. The “brightening” end, meanwhile, has pigments that illuminate and colour-correct, along with plant extracts and oils that help keep the skin hydrated and plump.
A quartet of carefully selected shades combine to help colour-correct, while ultra-fi ne powders wrap the skin like a layer of silk to blur out fl aws, impart radiance, and keep makeup looking matte and fresh.
This universal pressed powder blends effortlessly with your foundation to help extend its wear. It has a weightless finish, and comes with microfine powders loaded with hydrating glycerin and antioxidant vitamin E to guard against dryness and free-radical damage.
This has a texture and formula like no other. Encapsulated pigments are suspended in a light gel and burst upon application to lend skin a natural flush. Meanwhile, tamarind seed extract helps maintain the skin’s moisture balance, leaving skin comfortably hydrated and gloriously radiant.
Inspired by the tones that are iconic to the fashion house’s creations, this love letter to pink wraps the skin like silk, much like the Hermès scarves. Finely milled pigments graze the skin for natural-looking radiance, with vitamin E helping to protect it from free radicals.
In a universally flattering hue, this delivers a multi-dimensional glow with a single sweep. Use it dry for a lit-from-within radiance or spritz some facial mist on your brush before application to create a high-impact, ultra-reflective strobe light effect.
Best Makeup-Setting Spray: All Nighter Long Lasting Makeup Setting Spray, $50, Urban Decay
This OG makeup setting spray promises 16 hours of wear and is designed to prevent makeup meltdowns. A microfine mist forms a protective veil over skin while lowering its temperature to “recharge” and refresh it.