The best cream foundations combine moisturising benefits with a flawless, natural finish – making them a godsend for dry and mature skin. They may feel less familiar than traditional liquid foundations, but these rich and creamy bases carry plenty of perks.
If you’re looking for the best foundation to suit your skin’s seasonal needs or ageing skin, cream foundations offer additional skin-loving ingredients that will treat and cover. “Cream foundations can be a beautiful choice for someone looking for great coverage with a natural, balmy, skin-like finish,” explains Jessica Kohn, Lead Artist and Events Manager at Laura Mercier. “Because of the cream-wax base, cream foundation looks beautiful on dry skin types, skimming over any texture issues and nourishing skin."
All this means you can expect a cream foundation to melt into the skin without caking or pilling and to blend seamlessly with the best cream blushers and best cream bronzers, too. Another perk is its immaculate coverage. “The high pigment load within a cream foundation means that you can use a small amount of product to cover a variety of skin concerns,” Kohn says.
That said, they aren't all created equal. “Remember that the specific benefits of a cream foundation may vary depending on the brand and formulation,” adds pro makeup artist Lan Nguyen-Grealis. “It’s essential to choose a product that suits your skin type and desired makeup look for the best results.” So, whether you prefer the ease of foundation sticks, the no-spill advantages of a solid cream-balm or a squeezy tube, our tried and tested guide will help you find the best cream foundation for your skin.
The best cream foundations, reviewed by our beauty team
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RRP: £42 | Coverage: Light/medium | Finish: Glossy
The brainchild of makeup artist Bobbi Brown, Jones Road has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2020 – and What The Foundation has quickly become a cult buy thanks to its fresh-faced finish. Part foundation, part moisture balm, it has a slightly oily consistency. In fact, initially we could see where the jojoba oil had separated from the formula in our jar, and we needed a bit of a mix to blend it back with the pigment before we first used it. That oil content is why it glides so beautifully and seamlessly onto the skin – and dry skin will lap it up.
If you're someone with a complexion that feels ever rough and thirsty, then you'll love the way it suddenly brings life, vibrancy and a bucket-load of glow to your skin. It offers a glossy, almost shiny finish, and the skin is left feeling damp, which will be a turn-off for anyone whose skin is already oily. You can apply it with your fingers, but because it's a pot, we found that got messy quite quickly, so a brush or sponge is your best bet to avoid ruining your favourite white shirt in the process.
Reasons to buy: Feels nourishing on the skin
Reasons to avoid: If you have oily skin, this is not for you
RRP: £28 | Coverage: Light | Finish: Creamy
We found Fenty Eaze Drop Smooth Blur Foundation Stick joyous and easy to apply. Swipe across your forehead, down your nose, on each cheek and your chin and we found that's comfortably enough coverage for your entire face. You can use a brush to blend things out, but the quickest way is definitely with your fingers. The texture of this cream foundation is so light that it melts into the skin instantly, so there's no cakiness to contend with. It's creamy, not at all oily and builds nicely too. On one exhausted morning, we added a couple of extra sweeps beneath each eye, and it worked like magic to banish our giveaway dark rings.
There's also the benefit of added skincare ingredients with murumuru butter to nourish the skin and sodium hyaluronate (the technical name for hyaluronic acid) for hydration. Plus, the packaging is 100% recyclable. Once you've used your last swipe of the stick, it can go directly into your plastic recycling and shouldn't need any rinsing or scraping first.
Reasons to buy: Leaves a creamy finish on the skin
Reasons to avoid: Won't be enough coverage for some
RRP: £35 | Coverage: Sheer | Finish: Glowy
Described by the brand as a 3-in-1 tinted complexion balm, this product focuses on making skin look and feel healthy. It almost feels like a stretch to describe it as foundation as the consistency is so light, but it still manages to deliver the benefits you'd want from one, like smoothing, tinting and adding glow to the skin. Mario Dedivanovic (the makeup artist behind the brand, best known for working with Kim Kardashian) recommends applying with a brush for enhanced results. Either way, the initial coverage is super sheer.
It is possible to build a little, but we wouldn't say this is the best cream foundation for mega coverage. Similar to What The Foundation, we'd only use this if we were having quite a good skin day to begin with, or if we were enjoying a chilled Sunday – at this, it excels. Just keep in mind that, as it's designed to warm your complexion, the shades will deepen (rather than match) your skin tone, giving you a bronzed effect. If you're not keen on that, consider dropping a shade for a closer match.
Reasons to buy: Feels like silk on the skin
Reasons to avoid: Bronzed tint may not be for everyone
RRP: £68 | Coverage: Medium | Finish: Radiant
Great coverage and radiance don’t always go hand in hand but this buy prioritises both. You can expect SUUQU’s cutting-edge tech and a luxurious-feeling formula, infused with 13 Japanese extracts, including silk protein and green tea, a powerful antioxidant. We found its jar made application kind of messy, but having to scoop out the foundation did emphasise its sensorial, silky texture. A few sweeps and our skin tone looked more uniform and our dark circles were no longer visible.
The real USP for us is the sunlit luminosity. SUQQU calls it a "self-renewing glow," meaning it gets better the longer you wear it. There are three stages. When the foundation is first applied, the immediate freshness comes from the moisturising reflection oils. As these sink into the skin, pearlescent pigments come into play, reflecting light. Then later, your natural sebum mixes with the foundation for more natural skin show-through. It’s probably not as suitable for blemish-prone and oily skin, but it’s a tonic for dry, dull skin.
Reasons to buy: Shades available in different undertones
Reasons to avoid: Pot can be messy
RRP: £113 | Coverage: Medium to full | Finish: Luminous
The idea of foundation isn’t to pad out wrinkles like Polyfilla, but to simply even out the complexion. This one is our pick for mature skin for several reasons. Firstly, rather than being a foundation with added skincare, it feels more like a skin cream with pigment (and exceptional payoff). It marries Japanese tech with precious ingredients like platinum golden silk essence, plus it boosts skin repair and improves its natural brilliance over time.
Secondly, the radiant, lit-from-within finish acts as a kind of airbrushed filter, reflecting light and making everything look smoother. Because of all these lovely nourishing ingredients, the foundation bends with lines and creases rather than sitting in them conspicuously. The result is radiant, healthy-looking and natural – in fact, it’s hard to tell where your skin and makeup meet. Throw in a bit of sun protection, making this one of the best foundations with SPF on our list, and it’s a home run.
Reasons to buy: Improves skin over time
Reasons to avoid: Very expensive
RRP: £32 | Coverage: Medium | Finish: Naturally radiant
Milk’s Flex Stick is one of our favourite foundations ever. The twist-up stick fits perfectly in our handbags and it’s just easy. We like to dapple it across our complexions and then use a brush to buff it in, but if you’re in a bind and brushless, it blends easily with fingers, too.
As well as boasting a pleasingly broad shade range (making it one of the best foundations for dark skin on this list) the stick is creamy but not too slippery, nor does it completely dissolve upon contact with the face. Marshmallow root extract adds enough bend and flex to prevent creasing and caking. Elsewhere, there’s blue lotus and chamomile, a calming combination that helps to calm reactive and/or redness-prone skin from the inside. Coverage is buildable and sufficient for evening out patchiness and/or a hint of redness. We’re sold on its glowy and radiant finish, but if your skin is on the oily side things could slip southwards.
Reasons to buy: Suitable for sensitive and/or redness-prone skin
Reasons to avoid: Not the best for oily, spot-prone skin
RRP: £38 | Coverage: Full | Finish: Natural luminous
If great coverage and a flawless canvas are your goals, this is a fantastic choice of cream foundation. Without feeling heavy, the pigment-packed cream can cover blemishes and visibly even out skin tone with just one light layer.
“I like using the Silk Crème Foundation to create a moisturised, even and perfected complexion that still looks like skin,” raves Kohn. “My aim is always to have someone compliment a client on their skin, rather than their makeup, and this cream foundation allows for just that. It is also particularly beautiful on brides, as the texture photographs beautifully.” We tested this theory and took a series of selfies wearing this foundation versus our regular glowy foundation of choice. Our Beauty Editor always thinks her naturally dry, dull-looking complexion needs maximum sheen to appear healthy, but in photos, this looked loads better. It leaves the skin even and spotless. It’s not dewy but still manages to make skin look bright and alive.
Reasons to buy: Long-wearing
Reasons to avoid: Watery if not shaken properly first
RRP: £59 | Coverage: Medium to full | Finish: Luminous
If your skin is crying out for a big dose of hydration, this foundation from RMS Beauty will help to pump it with moisture. Enriched with organic coconut oil and wild-crafted buriti oil, it feels immediately quenching upon contact with the skin, like your loveliest, richest night cream. Except here, you’ve also got phenomenal colour payoff that immediately quashes dark spots and redness.
We enjoyed this foundation's dewy, light-reflecting finish, which made our skin look like we had just checked out of a five-star spa. We can’t say whether or not it would have a soothing effect on reactive skin, as ours is fairly hardy. But what we can say is that it's a fantastic foundation for particularly dry or mature skin types.
Reasons to buy: Deeply moisturising
Reasons to avoid: Not suitable for oily skin
RRP: £16 | Coverage: Full | Finish: Natural matte
It was bafflingly difficult to find cheaper options for the best cream foundations, but Max Factor’s compact is fairly affordable and performs well. The case is sturdy and the foundation solid,meaning you can chuck it in your handbag without worrying about any spillages. There’s a satisfyingly squidgy sponge nestled neatly in the top section, while the cream-to-liquid base is housed underneath. The sponge worked well enough for us and got right into the nooks and crannies of our faces. This also applied nicely with fingers, especially when targeting areas that needed extra concealment. It also diffused nicely with a foundation brush, so you can go with your preferred method of application.
Though it's enriched with moisture-magnet hyaluronic acid, which keeps everything nice and bouncy, this is the most "solid" of any of the creams on our list, so we worried it could go flaky on our winter-battered skin. But it skimmed over dry patches without caking, blurred the look of pores and seemed to flex with our facial creases. The online description was a bit misleading, using words like "radiance" and "glow", as we found the finish was definitely demi-matte (velvety, rather than dewy).
Reasons to buy: Enriched with hyaluronic acid
Reasons to avoid: Sponge gets messy
RRP: £80 | Coverage: Medium to full | Finish: Naturally radiant
Even the best cream foundations don’t always play so well with oily skin. That’s why we’ve included Chantecaille’s award-winning base in our round-up. The oil-free formula and gel-cream texture work well for those with oily and combination skin types. This was also one of the longer-lasting foundations we tried – it still looked pretty even and uniform by the end of the day, which impressed us.
Again, the jar packaging, with its additional internal plastic lid that is inevitably always covered in foundation when you open it (you know what we're talking about, right?) was a bit messy. But once applied, it was easy to blend and melted into skin. This can probably be attributed to the 60% water formula, boosted by a raft of natural botanicals including aloe and arnica.
Reasons to buy: Provides immense coverage
Reasons to avoid: Expensive
RRP: £40 | Coverage: Light to medium | Finish: Naturally radiant
Merit has amassed a legion of unwavering fans since its launch in 2021. The formulas are powered by vegan ingredients that work to improve the skin. Every product plays into that clean, glowy, no-makeup-makeup aesthetic. This is one of their most popular products, offering mess-free application in a travel-friendly format and combining the benefits of foundation and concealer in one twist-up stick. It’s also got some great skin-loving credentials, enriched with plant-based squalane, vitamin B5 and antioxidants to keep skin soft and smooth, plus sea daffodil to brighten up dark spots.
The coverage is less than some others on our shortlist, enhancing rather than plastering over your natural skin. However, the stick format makes it possible to build coverage on precise areas to somewhat disguise any "imperfections". The stick itself is more "solid" than Milk's, so we found it easier to blend out with a brush than fingers. But if you thought stick foundations were heavy and cakey, this one will surprise you.
Reasons to buy: Foundation and concealer in one
Reasons to avoid: Coverage might not be enough for some
RRP: £40 | Coverage: Full | Finish: Matte
If you want full, uncompromising coverage, this could be The One. The long-wearing, waterproof formula, coupled with a matte finish, makes this a great option for the warmer months. Not all of us have the confidence to switch to a sheer tinted moisturiser, but this one will mask any skin niggles without melting off or clogging pores. Speaking of which, this probably offers the best concealment of any foundation on this list, camoflauging the appearance of acne scars, redness, dark spots and even varicose veins. It is, quite simply, a confidence boost in a tube.
With such coverage, expect this to feel a little heavier. We learned that a little goes a long way and it looks best applied with a makeup sponge and on skin that is well moisturised.
Reasons to buy: Waterproof, 12-hour wear
Reasons to avoid: Feels heavy if over-applied
How we tested the best cream foundations
We wore each of these foundations for at least one full day, some two to three days in a row, and others even more. We were keen to ensure that all budget levels were catered to, but we found that the caveat to rich, indulgent cream foundations loaded with skincare-inspired ingredients is that there are very few buget options to choose from. Most of the offerings came from mid-range and luxury designer names. When testing, we took the following factors into account to whittle down a list of the very best buys.
- Packaging
- Number of shades available
- Coverage
- Finish and how it looked on the skin
- How it wore through the day
Jessica Kohn works as Lead Artist as part of the Laura Mercier team. She has loved beauty from a young age and has developed a signature look that involves glowing skin with a touch of lip colour.
With more than 20 years of experience, Lan is a well-established makeup artist who has worked with the likes of Beverly Knight, Paloma Faith and Nicole Scherzinger.
Rose-Marie Swift is a makeup artist with more than 30 years of experience and the founder of brand RMS Beauty, the name behind one of the cream foundations in our guide.
Your cream foundation questions, answered
Is cream foundation better than liquid?
Liquid foundations are certainly more familiar to most of us than their lesser-mentioned cream counterparts. So what’s the difference between the two? “As its name implies, cream foundation has a thicker consistency than liquid foundation,” explains Rose-Marie Swift, makeup artist and founder of RMS Beauty. “This usually means the ingredients are more hydrating than some liquid formulas.”
The other difference is coverage. “Cream foundation often contains a higher pigment load than a liquid foundation or even a powder,” explains Kohn. “Liquid foundations often have a more water-like base and therefore are thinner in texture and can vary in coverage from sheer to medium-buildable.” Because of this, creams tend to lend themselves better to evening out skin tone.
How should you apply a cream foundation?
The difference in texture between liquid vs cream foundation means that the best method of application can vary slightly. "Since cream foundations are slightly thicker, they may require more work to apply so if you aren’t particularly good with blending, it’s best to use a foundation brush or beauty sponge to apply these to your skin," says Swift.
Kohn likes to apply Laura Mercier's Silk Crème Foundation with her fingers. “This allows the warmth from your fingers to melt the product into the skin and means you use the smallest amount of product to get your desired result," she explains. "This is important to prevent product overload and possible creasing throughout the day. I then take a damp sponge, pressed over the top to make sure the product is diffused and blended to perfection.”
Is cream foundation good for older skin?
“Cream foundation is often recommended for mature skin for several reasons,” confirms Nguyen-Grealis. "Mature skin tends to be drier and cream foundations are typically more hydrating than, say, powder. They can help nourish the skin and prevent a cakey or dry appearance.”
Secondly, “they also provide buildable coverage, allowing you to conceal age spots, fine lines and imperfections without looking heavy or settling into creases,” she continues. “They’re also easy to blend, which gives a smoother appearance.”
“Finally, cream foundations are comfortable to wear, feel more lightweight and are less noticeable on the skin than other types of foundation.” What's more, if you choose the right formula for your skin type, they can last well throughout the day, meaning you're less likely to feel the need to reapply.
“Remember, the key to flawless makeup application on mature skin is proper skincare and preparation,” Nguyen-Grealis adds. “Ensure your skin is well-hydrated and use a good primer before applying foundation for best results.”
From our extensive testing, what we've found is that unfortunately, you do need to pay a premium for the best cream foundations, but that extra investment does pay off by leaving the skin with a comfortable, glowing finish that looks natural and wears well through the day.
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