18 Best Powder Foundations for an Oil-Free Finish
All of the coverage, without suffocating your pores.
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If you’re anything like us, you have a product for every time and place. Off to the beach? Grab your BB cream. Hitting the gym? Just a little dab of concealer will do. For special occasions, reach for the heavy-duty stuff with higher coverage. But if heavy creams or liquid foundations are not your vibe, you might be a good candidate for a quality powder foundation.
The Best Powder Foundations
- Best Drugstore: Neutrogena Mineral Sheers Powder Foundation
- Full Coverage: KVD Vegan Beauty Lock-It Powder Foundation
- Red-Carpet Finish: MAKE UP FOR EVER Matte Velvet Skin Compact
- Fan Favorite: Fenty Beauty Pro Filt'r Soft Matte Powder Foundation
- The Pore Minimizer: Wander Beauty Wanderlust Powder Foundation
- For Glam on a Budget: Sephora Collection Matte Perfection Powder Foundation
- Best Luxury: Chanel Le Teint Ultra Tenue Ultrawear Flawless Compact Foundation
- Most Shades to Choose From: MAC Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation
- Buildable Coverage: Laura Mercier Smooth Finish Foundation Powder
- Best for Drier Skin Types: Laura Geller New York Baked Balance-N-Brighten Foundation
Are powder foundations good?
To help you decide if powder foundation fits your beauty needs, we put together a quick list of its general pros and cons.
Powder Foundation Pros:
- Skin types: Powder foundations are great for oily, combination, and normal skin types.
- Buildable coverage: Powder foundation is perfect for everyday wear, and you can use a wet sponge or dense brush to increase coverage. Most options on this list offer sheer-to-medium or medium-to-full coverage.
- Setting powder alternative: When you’re being photographed or have a special event on your calendar, grab a powder brush and dust it across your face to set your makeup, all while depositing a natural amount of coverage.
Powder Foundation Cons:
Although many powder foundations have been formulated to work on a variety of skin types, dry and mature skin have overall slim pickings.
- If you have dry skin, powder foundation can cling to your dry patches.
- Mature skin might not love powder foundations because they can enhance your fine lines and wrinkles, according to makeup artist Laura Geller.
If you still want to use a powder foundation and have dry or mature skin, be sure to exfoliate, apply an intensely hydrating face cream, and use a moisturizing face primer. Also, be sure to use a powder foundation that contains moisturizing ingredients, suggests Geller.
How to Use Powder Foundation
The level of coverage you desire is a key factor in deciding which beauty tool to use.
- Sheer-to-medium coverage: As a general rule, opt for a full, fluffy brush that offers a lighter veil of coverage.
- Medium-to-full coverage: On the other hand, a denser brush — meaning the bristles are packed closely together — provides more coverage. You can also wet your makeup sponge to achieve this level of coverage.
Check out our guides to foundation brushes, eyebrow brushes, and affordable makeup brushes while you're at it.
Powder Foundation Tips Based on Your Skin Type
To help you learn how to make the most of powder foundation, we tapped Amanda Bell, a makeup artist and director of education and artistry for Pixi, for her expert guidance.
- Oily skin: Use a water-based face primer, ideally in a mist form, to help leave your skin matte and balanced. We suggest the popular Too Faced HangoverRX 3-in-1 spray, which works as a face primer, setting spray, and refresher in one.
- Combination skin: It’s all about ensuring your skin is well-balanced and prepped, so your oily and dry patches are less pronounced. Bell suggests using a mattifying primer containing moisturizing ingredients, so your skin is “the perfect texture and superbly easy to blend the foundation into.” We recommend the creamy Shiseido Synchro Skin Soft Blurring Primer.
- Normal skin: You can use either a face moisturizer or primer that contains ceramides, which gives your skin “a cashmere touch with its finish, and will elevate the finish of the powder foundation,” notes Bell. When it comes to ceramide-enriched face moisturizers, our minds instantly go to the extremely popular CeraVe lotion.
- Dry skin: From your face moisturizer and primer to your setting spray, it’s all about incorporating hydrating products. For a “beautifully prepped canvas,” opt for a face primer infused with humectants and emollients, advises Bell. We recommend using a rich face cream like the Versed Skin Soak and Hourglass No. 28 Primer Serum, which is infused with 28 botanicals and hydrating ingredients. “Instead of a traditional makeup fixing mist, saturate the skin with a mist that has nourishing properties and leaves skin with a beautiful glow, like Pixi Glow Mist,” says Bell.
How We Chose
We know investing your pretty pennies in a makeup product that fails is never fun, so we hand-selected only the best of the top-setting powders on the market. We've tested out each and every one of these products throughout the years, and these are the best bang for your buck because they provide amazing coverage that will suit a variety of needs. Plus, most of these formulas have a no-budge hold without being harsh on your precious pores.
But don't just take our word for it: Many of these powder foundations have been highly praised by reviewers over at Amazon, Sephora, Ulta, and more. Find the best powder foundation for you with our top 18 picks.
Nicole Saunders is the beauty editor at Best Products with over seven years of experience researching, writing, and editing lifestyle content. She specializes in breaking down complicated topics, like high-frequency wands and microcurrent devices, into easy-to-understand guides. She takes great pride in heavily researching and testing featured beauty products, — such as hairdryers and foundations — on our site, and spotlights her all-time seasonal favorites in her quarterly column Best New Beauty. And she tests quite literally thousands of launches for our Beauty Awards package.
Jennifer is the former beauty editor for BestProducts.com, where she’s testing out everything from the latest lip gloss to the craziest skincare trend sweeping the online beauty-verse. Her work has been featured in Allure, Byrdie, HelloGiggles, and more. When she’s not swatching eyeshadow all over her arms, you can find the NYC-based editor scouring for hours on end for vintage finds, eating pad thai, and hanging out with her cat, Chunks.
Ashley is the beauty and style editor at BestProducts.com, and her work has been featured on Cosmopolitan and Town and Country. She has an obsession with designer handbags, Liberty prints, 1960s fashion, and owns more shoes than she’s willing to admit. She's been using her learnings from owning a boutique and her shopping addiction for good since 2015. She’ll never accept that black isn’t a color. Away from the computer, you’ll likely find the Texas native binging on a British period drama or theorizing over Game of Thrones. She has yet to find a real cup of queso in NYC.
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