Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Retailers
If your skin is dry, flaky, or dull, the right foundation can help restore color and vitality to your face. However, many foundations can be drying on the skin or end up emphasizing flaky patches, so choosing a foundation that will blur imperfections, smooth away texture, and even out discoloration — without sapping moisture — is crucial.
To give your skin some extra TLC, makeup artist Emma Elizabeth suggests looking for a foundation formulated with skin-care ingredients such as hyaluronic acid or glycerin, which “will take care of your skin a little more and provide a bit more oomph than just pigment,” she says. Below, we’ve rounded up a bevy of recommendations from makeup artists and beauty experts on the best foundations for dry skin.
What we’re looking for
Finish
“When your skin is dry, it can start to look dull, sallow, or almost gray,” Elizabeth says. She suggests trying a foundation with a dewy or radiant finish to give the skin the appearance of full, hydrated suppleness. However, there are plenty of foundations on this list with natural and matte finishes as well, and whichever finish you choose is entirely up to personal preference.
Base
Foundations can be either water-based or silicone-based. Water-based foundations generally tend to be more lightweight and breathable with a dewier finish, while silicone-based foundations tend to be more smoothing, filtering, and mattifying. Whichever one you choose, be mindful about what products you’re layering on top and below your foundation to ensure there’s no pilling or sliding; always try to pair similarly based products to avoid separation.
Shade range
Finding the right shade can be tricky as it depends on a variety of factors, including your general skin tone and your undertones, which can skew warm, cool, or neutral. But the greater shade range a foundation has, the more likely you are to find a perfect match. However, a more lightweight foundation or skin tint can get away with fewer shades, since it provides less coverage and allows more of your natural skin to peek through than a medium or full-coverage foundation. We’ve noted the number of shades each foundation offers below.
Best foundation for dry skin overall
New! You can now save this product for later.
Finish: Radiant | Base: Water | Shade range: 59 shades
M.A.C.’s Studio Radiance is “a really old-school foundation that’s been around forever,” says makeup artist Kiki Gifford, who is a fan of its sheer, buildable coverage and “extremely radiant, almost glossy finish.” It comes in a dropper bottle and has a thin, liquid consistency that sinks into the skin: “Depending on how you apply it, you can get really good coverage out of it. It almost feels like water, but it doesn’t settle into fine lines,” Gifford explains. It also doesn’t adhere to any dry spots, she adds — so if you’ve got flaky skin around your mouth or nose, it won’t cling to them — and is quite long-lasting, making it wearable year-round in both the summer and the winter months. Plus it’s available in 59 different shades, making it the foundation with the largest, most inclusive shade range on this list.
Best drugstore foundation for dry skin
New! You can now save this product for later.
CoverGirl Clean Fresh Skin Milk Foundation
$8
$14 now 43% off
$8
Finish: Dewy | Base: Water | Shade range: 9 shades
I tested Covergirl’s Clean Fresh Skin Milk foundation on the recommendation of Strategist beauty columnist Rio Viera-Newton, who, like me, is especially prone to dryness and flakiness in the winter. She found it to be “incredibly lightweight and very sheer,” similar to Glossier’s Perfecting Skin Tint. “It won’t cover up big pimples, but it’s perfect for everyday daytime wear when I just want to knock off a little redness and even out my skin a bit,” Viera-Newton writes. The formula also contains moisturizing ingredients like glycerin, aloe extract, and coconut milk to help keep skin dewy and hydrated. When I tried it, the foundation sank into my skin and blended out beautifully, helping to even out my skin tone without appearing cakey. And while Glossier’s skin tint basically disappears on my skin, as if I haven’t applied any product at all, the Covergirl provides a tad more coverage around red patches and dark spots.
Best luxe foundation for dry skin
New! You can now save this product for later.
Finish: Radiant | Base: Silicone | Shade range: 40 shades
For those willing to pay the hefty $69 price tag, Armani’s Luminous Silk foundation has a particularly smooth, silky texture and luminous finish. It’s makeup artist Shanzey Al-Amin’s personal go-to foundation: “It has an impactful amount of pigment without looking heavy or greasy,” she says, and “really creates that glow-from-within, second-skin effect.” Makeup artist Steve Kassajikian adds that almost every makeup artist has it in their kit because it glides on seamlessly and gives a “flawless, naturally dewy glow that doesn’t look like you’re wearing too much.” That’s thanks to the formula’s skin-care-centered ingredients such as glycerin for extra hydration and what the brand calls “micro-fil technology” to blur pores and imperfections.
Best light-coverage foundation for dry skin
New! You can now save this product for later.
Finish: Dewy | Base: Water | Shade range: 40 shades
“The NARS Light Reflecting foundation is going to be for those folks who don’t like heavier makeup,” says makeup artist Marquis Ward. Because it has a very subtle, “second skin” finish, it’s going to give you “a lit-from-within feel, but you don’t have to do anything extra,” Ward says, adding that you can use your fingers to apply the product. Former Strategist writer Rachael Griffiths counts it among her go-to foundations; as she got older, the less she felt the need for a foundation with full coverage, so she made the switch from the NARS Sheer Glow to the Light Reflecting foundation. “Unless you really layer it up, it looks remarkably close to real skin. It’s also easy to get a dewy finish to your makeup, and it overall just gives that even, healthy glow that I want from a foundation,” she writes.
Best medium-coverage foundation for dry skin
New! You can now save this product for later.
Finish: Natural | Base: Silicone | Shade range: 37 shades
Strategist writer Brenley Goertzen has taken Accutane in the past and is currently on prescription tretinoin, so her skin is doubly dry; she likes the fact that she’s able to layer quite a bit of moisturizer underneath this Make Up For Ever Skin HD Foundation, which she first heard about from a Sephora employee who shared that it’s a serviceable dupe for the Armani Luminous Silk, above. “It blurs my pores and breakouts very nicely since it’s medium to full coverage, but it never feels dry or cakey and still has a skinlike texture,” Goertzen says. Al-Amin also recommends this one for its natural finish that isn’t overly matte or overly dewy and likes that the product is buildable: “If you apply more than one layer, you can definitely get that higher-impact coverage,” she says.
Best full-coverage foundation for dry skin
New! You can now save this product for later.
IT Cosmetics CC+ Cream Illumination SPF 50+
$40
$47 now 15% off
$40
Finish: Natural | Base: Silicone | Shade range: 30 shades
Our top CC cream pick, IT Cosmetics’ CC cream, is a full-coverage, SPF-infused foundation that also has skin-care and color-correcting elements (that’s what the CC stands for, after all). “It covers all your bases — you get everything you’d want in just one product,” Kassajikian says. The formula includes skin-nourishing ingredients like hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, and Vitamin E, which help soothe and hydrate dehydrated skin, as well as SPF 50 for sun protection and anti-aging benefits. “You’re getting flawless coverage, but at the same time, it’s hydrating and illuminating the skin. If someone who tends to be on the dry side also has uneven skin tone or redness, this can help address that as well as provide coverage,” Kassajikian says.
Best stick foundation for dry skin
New! You can now save this product for later.
Finish: Natural | Base: Silicone | Shade range: 43 shades
Gifford recommends this Bobbi Brown stick foundation because “you only need to use a very, very small amount, and you just buff it into the skin,” she explains. “It’s very emollient and dewy, so you can really play with it.” Unlike many stick foundations, which tend to feel thicker, Gifford notes: “It has such a nice texture and finish, and won’t ever dry you out.” It’s very easy to blend, in part due to the presence of shea butter in the formula, which gives it a rich, creamy feel. It comes in 43 shades, the second-largest range on this list. And because the stick format is less likely than a liquid foundation to make a mess in your bag, it’s very convenient for touch-ups on the go.
Our experts
• Shanzey Al-Amin, makeup artist and Sephora Beauty Educator
• Emma Elizabeth, makeup artist
• Kiki Gifford, makeup artist
• Brenley Goertzen, Strategist writer
• Rachael Griffiths, former Strategist writer
• Steve Kassajikian, makeup artist and Urban Decay’s head of global artistry
• Rio Viera-Newton, Strategist beauty columnist
• Marquis Ward, lead makeup artist and educator at LYS Beauty
More From The Strategist
I Own 20 Pairs of Loafers. These Are the Ones Worth Buying.
I’m Extremely Picky About My Pens. After Years of Testing, I Have 10 Favorites.
So You’re Looking to Outfit Your Kitchen From Scratch …
The Strategist Fall 100
See All
The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
The Very Best Foundations for Dry Skin