8 best foundation sticks for a flawless finish

When first applied, this product looks very ‘foundationy’ but, once it melts in, it literally looks like you’re wearing nothing but flawless skin. If you want glow without a blinding radiance, this is for you. The shades have such beautiful undertones and really bring out the best in your complexion. Pores, fine lines and scarring were all blurred away, with light to medium coverage. The tube was a little hard to use, as the lid has a strong magnetic close, which will keep your product safe but does make it tricky to open without smooshing the stick a little. If it weren’t for that and the small 6.5g size, this foundation stick would have scored full marks.

At a quarter of the price of most other foundation sticks on the market, this offering from No7 does a fair job for its price. It wasn’t too hard to blend but it did sit on the skin a little, so, make sure to buff it in, to avoid unwanted texture.

Marketed as semi-matte, it gives an almost powder-like look on the skin and has impressive coverage. The brand used Skin Expert tech, analysing 1.9 million skin tones to create the shade range. While we found it to be a great shade match, looking at the swatch photos online, the shade range seems to stop at medium deep, which really lets it down in 2024.

Forget everything you thought you knew about foundation sticks, and listen up if you’re into no-make-up-make-up. Upon first swipe, this formula looks almost like a highlighter, and we were a little worried it would be too shimmery but it’s so easy to blend and the glow melts into the most beautiful light-reflecting radiance. Micro-fine pearlescent filters are to thank for this, combined with hydrating vitamin E and hyaluronic acid, melting away imperfections and resulting in skin that looks naturally flawless. Offering sheer to light coverage, this one would need to be paired with a good concealer if you’re looking to completely cover blemishes or scarring. Anything this lightweight isn’t going to last 12 hours, so, after-work top-ups may be needed.

We love the sound of a hydrating serum BB cream in stick form, making it easy to swipe on and go. This product certainly has skincare credentials, coming packed with a peptide complex, fatty acids, collagen stabiliser coconut oil, shea butter and more. Alas, we fell between two shades, with one firmly too light, leaving us looking ashy, and the next too dark, giving us a muddy look. Seeing the product used on people who did have a colour match, it did really even out complexion, without too much coverage, offering a healthy glowy finish. More shades definitely need to be added to the range, however, especially at the deep end.

This buildable, medium to full coverage option really covers everything for a totally flawless look that is still light on the skin and doesn’t look like you’re wearing heavy make-up. It promises a skin-like finish, which we were sceptical of when first applying but, after it settled and had some time to warm up and melt into the skin, it did look pretty natural for full coverage. As the formula a bit thicker, we found we needed to blend with a brush, which made it easier to spread the product over the face, compared with using our fingers. The wear was excellent and it really didn’t budge for hours.

Due to a slight dragging effect, this product was a little harder to apply directly onto the skin than some of the others we tested. The less-supple formula makes sense, though, given it offers a natural matte coverage. We found this product easier to initially buff and blend with a brush, paying attention to areas such as around the mouth, eyes and nose, where foundations tend to crease. Then the product really benefitted from being worked into the skin with warm fingers. It took a little more work than some of the others but the result was top-tier coverage.

Covering pores, redness and imperfections, this option steers clear of glow, providing more of a softly lit look that doesn’t budge all day. It makes skin look so smooth and soft, too. Looking at shade match videos online, the 42 shade offering has really knocked it out of the park, creating true-to-life skin tones across all complexions.

If you’re looking for a full-coverage base for your full-glam looks, this is for you. The innovative triangle-shaped bullet made precision application so easy – using lighter and deeper shades would be great for contouring. A little of this goes a very long way, too, which makes up for it being on the pricier side for the size. Buffing in with a brush, this formula literally hides everything on the skin, which is great if you’re looking for a flawless start, but does mean it needs to be matched with more of a full-glam look, to balance and bring back dimension. It lasts all day without going patchy or sweating off. Points were lost due to the fact deeper complexions are not well catered for.

This bad boy is pricey. What you’re paying for is the super luxurious packaging and the clean formula – it has antioxidants and calming actives, to soothe redness, as well as camellia oil for glow. It’s a foundation and concealer in one and that’s reflected in the medium to full coverage. It’s recommended to blend in with fingers, after swiping directly onto the skin, but we struggled to get an even application without first using a brush and then using fingers to really pat in the foundation. The formula is creamy and buildable, but we did find it settled into fine lines and pores, so it’s really important to moisturise prior to use and use a good primer, if you have areas that need extra-smoothing.