Eleanor Vousden
Here at Who What Wear, we're all for embracing our skin's natural ageing process. Every fine line should, in truth, be considered an achievement. At the same time, however, we're fervently of the belief that every individual has the right to take indisputable ownership of their own feelings towards their complexion, which is why we don't feel crazy about the term anti-ageing.
Let me use my own skin-ageing journey to explain. As a beauty editor, I have access to all of the very best "anti-ageing" products around. And yet, when the fine lines on my forehead started becoming more prominent at age 27, I decided to seek professional advice and get Botox. For years, I have considered myself fundamentally against the term "anti-ageing" because I don't believe that we should feel obliged or encouraged to reverse the natural proceedings of life. What I do believe in, however, is the right to want to feel better in your own skin.
It's safe to say that I have spent a big chunk of my career measuring the real-life results of beauty products against their anti-ageing promises. Most notably, I have become somewhat infatuated with the concept of an anti-ageing foundation. If you're asking me, few beauty products have the ability to make or break the overall appearance of your complexion quite like a foundation.
While I know that active ingredients like retinol that we typically associate with anti-ageing moisturisers can't be formulated in foundations, what I have discovered is that the formulas that deliver the most youthful-looking finish don't dull the skin. They don't turn the skin matte and lacklustre. Rather, they blend seamlessly for a glowing and radiant result.
Such foundations don't aim to reverse the signs of ageing (nothing can, mind you), but they do have a wonderful way of making fine lines and texture look healthy and as though they belong. So if you're looking for a foundation that creates a natural-looking, youthful glow and makes you feel more comfortable in your skin, keep scrolling for the best 'anti-ageing' foundations out there.
The Best Anti-Ageing Foundations
1. Beauty Pie Sheer Tinted Oil-Free SPF 20
Price shown is member price.
This ultra-light tinted SPF doubles up as a great lightweight foundation if you find anything too heavy settles into fine lines and wrinkles. It gives skin a beautiful soft-focus blur without any cakiness. Plus, the additional SPF helps to shield skin from environmental damage.
2. Ilia Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 30
This has become one of my favourite lightweight serum foundations. It offers good coverage and melts into the skin to lend a healthy radiance. It's also packed with skincare ingredients like hydrating squalene and brightening niacinamide to boost skin as you wear it.
3. Clinique Even Better Clinical Serum Foundation SPF 20
With a satin-matte finish, this foundation really does look like your skin but better. It's formulated with vitamin C for glow-boosting antioxidant protection and hyaluronic acid to deliver moisture and plump—foundations don't get much better than this.
4. Nars Natural Radiant Longwear Foundation
If you like a full-to-medium-coverage foundation that leaves skin glowing and dewy, this one is for you.
5. Clé de Peau Beauté Radiant Cream Foundation
Trust me. I despise including this £108 (yes, you read that correctly) foundation in this round-up. I don't believe that any foundation is worth £108. However, if any foundation can justify it, it's this one. It is, hands down, the best foundation I have ever used. It looks almost impossibly natural but melts into skin to leave a seamlessly blurred complexion that radiates health and wellness.
6. Shiseido Synchro Skin Self-Refreshing Tint
This light-coverage skin tint is made up of 70% skincare ingredients to really treat skin at a deeper level. With a bunch of hydrating ingredients, it delivers a skincare-level glow and disguises any textural discrepancies while it's at it. It stays put and doesn't settle in fine lines, either.
7. It Cosmetics Your Skin But Better Foundation and Skincare
This stuff really lives up to its name. Formulated with hydrating hyaluronic acid, gently exfoliating HEPES to boost natural glow and vitamins E and B5 to nourish, it really does it all.
8. Charlotte Tilbury Light Wonder Foundation
The ultimate everyday skin tint, this sheer, lightweight foundation doesn't deliver major coverage, but it does make skin look smoother, brighter and more radiant.
9. Estée Lauder Futurist Hydra Rescue Moisturising Makeup
This is one of those rare foundations that delivers a high-coverage finish without sacrificing your skin's natural glow. Plus, it contains impressive SPF 45 protection, which is a great way to prolong the protective effects of your morning SPF application.
10. Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Foundation
This cult foundation has an extensive fan base for good reason. The skin-blurring, soft-as-silk formula disguises dry patches, pigmentation and blemishes unlike any other.
11. Dior Forever Skin Glow Foundation
If you like a matte finish to your foundation but don't like how it can dull the skin and cause the product to settle in fine lines, this foundation is for you. It's long-wearing, doesn't leave a dewy finish, disguises pores and leaves everything looking natural.
12. Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat Le Teint Foundation
YSL's Touche Éclat foundation is considered to be one of beauty's greats. Le Teint feels weightless on the skin and just leaves you feeling that much better and more alive.
13. Nars Light Reflecting Foundation
Another exceptional option from Nars, Lift Reflecting Foundation gives a youthful glow that is truly convincing. The formula itself is lightweight but possesses impressive coverage credentials. Containing biomimetic oat, milk thistle and cacao peptides, it helps to defend the skin against ageing aggressors and leaves your complexion looking lit from within.
14. Laura Mercier Flawless Lumière Radiance-Perfecting Foundation
If you often find that your skin looks dull, lacklustre and as though it needs an injection of radiance, listen up. This medium-coverage foundation is formulated with vitamin C for an out-of-this-world glow and delivers a hefty hit of hydration for thirsty complexions.
15. Bobbi Brown Intensive Skin Serum Foundation
This is as close to "anti-ageing" as a foundation can get. A plethora of fruit and botanical extracts leave skin looking almost unbelievably refreshed and youthful.
16. Givenchy Prisme Libre Skin-Caring Glow Foundation
This stuff promises an impressive 24-hour stint of hydration, meaning it doesn't turn matte, dull or drying after a few hours of wear.
17. Fenty Beauty Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint
Fenty Beauty might not be a brand that typically appeals to those with more mature skin, but I assure you this skin tint delivers. It subtly blurs skin but has a real no-makeup-makeup finish and doesn't settle in creases in the slightest.
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