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Whether you're considering switching your winter foundation to something sheer for the summer or you simply can't stand the feeling of heavy coverage, there's a lightweight foundation makeup for you.
Glossier Perfecting Skin Tint is our favorite lightweight foundation for sheer coverage that won't cake up or clog your pores - even when it's 90-plus degrees outside.
I am picky about base makeup. While I love the smooth, even complexion you get from foundation, concealer, and powder, I can't stand the feeling or look of heavy makeup. If a product doesn't sink into the skin and, instead, cakes and pills up, it's bound to languish in my collection.
On the other hand, there's a fine line between "lightweight" and "totally useless." You don't want to waste your money on a foundation or tint that is so thin, it disappears into your pores without giving you the desired coverage. How your foundation blends will rely on several factors, like what skincare you applied before and whether you used a primer first. But first and foremost is the formula.
Foundation can also be considered "lightweight" and have a decent amount of coverage. Whether you prefer barely-there or something more substantial, you can find a foundation that's comfortable to wear and won't leave skin-tone-colored stains on the shoulders of everyone you hug throughout the day.
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From one finicky foundation-wearer to another, here are the top five lightweight, comfortable base products your money can buy.
The best lightweight foundations you can buy in 2019:
Why you'll love it: Glossier Perfecting Skin Tint is known for sheer coverage and a natural dewy finish that will have you checking your face out in every store window you pass.
Most days I don't want to look or feel like I'm wearing face makeup; I just want my skin to be somehow intangibly better. Glossier Perfecting Skin Tint is the only product that comes close to capturing that essence in a bottle. It's a sheer fluid that blends into your skin so well people will compliment your complexion, not your foundation.
Perfecting Skin Tint doesn't have much coverage, but it's enough to even out the redness on my cheeks and make me look like I got my eight hours, even if I was tossing and turning half the night. According to Glossier, the product is formulated with brightening diamond powder and moisturizing glycerin; all I know is that the product leaves behind a dewy, natural finish.
Because the formula so thin, I experience no creasing or pilling whatsoever, even if I rub it in with my hands. It doesn't sink into fine lines or pores, making this a great pick for mature skin types as well. The Skin Tint has over 900 reviews and a 4.1-star rating on the Glossier website. Refinery29 called it "even lighter than a tinted moisturizer."
Why you'll love it: For lighter coverage that erases imperfections, try the Benefit Hello Happy Soft Blur Foundation. The packaging will also bring a smile to your face.
The Benefit Hello Happy Soft Blur Foundation caught my attention because it was delivered to my house in a press mailer reminiscent of a giant McDonald's Happy Meal. Considering I've been a vegetarian for 12 years, it's the closest I've come to reliving that particular joy in a while.
But beneath the super cute outer packaging (the list of ingredients even looks like nutritional information) lies a truly great foundation. It's weightless and very liquidy — seriously, make sure you shake the bottle really well before you dispense it out of the nozzle to avoid spilling everywhere — and sinks into the skin like a dream.
Hello Happy is light-to-medium coverage, which means you can build it up quite a bit without it ever looking heavy. One layer easily covers up my redness. It also diminishes the look of pores, fine lines, and other imperfections. This, the brand claims, is largely thanks to the shea extract in the formula. The effect is like an Instagram filter on your face, no photo-editing apps necessary.
"I have a few light acne scars and this foundation masks them completely," Allure's Jesa Calaor wrote. The editors at Byrdie, New Beauty, and PopSugar also love this foundation, and it has a 4.1 rating on Sephora based on more than reviews.
Pros: Lightweight, blurs pores and imperfections, buildable up to medium coverage
Cons: Easy to spill out too much, limited options for darker shades
Have you ever applied way too much foundation to your face? It's one way to take your look from "seamless" to "streaky mess" real fast. The Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick is actually difficult to over-apply, despite the intense pigmentation. It comes in triangular stick form that allows you to tailor the coverage exactly where you need it most.
This is one of the only full-coverage foundations I've ever enjoyed wearing. I smear one triangle of foundation on each cheek and on my forehead and chin. After blending out with a sponge or flat-top foundation brush I'll go back and add a little more on areas where redness or blemishes show through. The effect is comfortable, fairly weightless, and long-wearing (it's waterproof).
Hourglass Vanish Seamless Finish Foundation Stick has a 4.4 rating on makeup review community Influenster (based on more than 7,800 reviews) and comes recommended by publications like Allure, Glamour, and Refinery29. Revelist said the foundation "contains double the amount of pigment versus traditional foundations" and "adjusts to your body temperature to effortlessly blend," although I personally found it a bit stickier than more liquidy foundations.
Pros: Buildable up to full coverage, easy to control application, 34 shades, waterproof
Why you'll love it: Packed with hyaluronic acid, Neutrogena Hydro Boost Hydrating Tint is a nondrying foundation that plumps and perfects your complexion.
The foundation offerings at drugstores are getting better by the day, and Neutrogena Hydro Boost Hydrating Tint is my personal favorite. It's billed as a tint but it offers coverage that's a bit higher than the Glossier Perfecting Skin Tint, though still comfortable to wear and natural-looking.
The formula contains moisturizing, skin-plumping hyaluronic acid. Although this product is hydrating, it's also oil-free and noncomedogenic, which means it shouldn't clog your pores. The applicator is a huge doe-foot that makes it easy to apply more product to the areas that need it and keep things light in other spots.
That said, this form of applicator is probably not the most hygienic since it cannot be cleaned and isn't as air-tight as pump bottles. For that reason, it might not be an ideal pick for the acne-prone. But, it is a great pick for dry skin thanks to the moisturizing ingredients. The finish is dewy but not toomuch.
"The hyaluronic acid [in the formula] instantly binds the product to your skin and creates a more realistic, skin-like finish," makeup artist Neil Scibelli told Real Simple. Editors at InStyle, Total Beauty, and Allure, where the product was a Best of Beauty winner in 2017, also sing its praises.
Why You'll Love It: The Nudestix Nudies Tinted Blur Stick employs "soft-focus mineral technology" to blur imperfections and even out skin tone with minimal coverage.
Stick foundations tend to be drier than liquid formulas, but the Nudestix Nudies Tinted Blur Stick goes on super creamy and blends into a lightweight matte finish. The product uses what Nudestix calls "soft-focus mineral technology" to even out skin tone and blur the appearance of pores and blemishes.
I love the portable, compact tube packaging. The small size of the tube makes it easy to spot-conceal zits or under-eye circles, or you can blend all over the face for a wash of light coverage. It literally feels like there's nothing on your face — I usually forget I'm even wearing it. The Tinted Blur Stick is about as sheer as Glossier Skin Tint but is matte instead of dewy.
The product has a 3.8 star rating at Sephora, based on 227 reviews. "It blurs pores and skin and offers what I'd call very light, but slightly buildable coverage. It essentially makes your skin look like skin, but better. The finish is natural/matte, but not drying at all," wrote one shopper.
Pros: Very lightweight, easy to apply, 10 shades, vegan, oil free
