Foundation + Base Makeup Hub

Every article + ranking + guide.

Base makeup, priced honestly

Foundation is where makeup budgets blow out fastest, and where the assumption that expensive means better falls over most often. This hub gathers every base ranking on Glow, from full-coverage foundation through skin tint and tinted moisturiser to primer and concealer, all scored on the same rubric.

The headline result says it plainly. Mecca Max's Future Skin Foundation is our best overall foundation with a Glow score of 8.6 at $26, tested against six products in the category. Charlotte Tilbury's Hollywood Flawless Filter actually scores higher, 9.3 at $72, but it wins as a luminous complexion product rather than an everyday foundation, which is why the two sit in different lanes of the same ranking. Around those poles the hub keeps dedicated rankings for oily skin, skin tints, tinted moisturisers, primers and concealers, plus guides on shade matching, skin prep and rescuing a patchy application.

• Match your shade at the jawline in daylight, not on the back of your hand under shop lighting. Our shade guide walks through it.
• Get the undertone right before the depth. A perfect depth match in the wrong undertone still reads grey or orange.
• Oily skin changes the equation, so use the oily-skin ranking rather than the general list if shine is the main battle.
• Coverage is a ladder: skin tint, tinted moisturiser, then foundation. Buy the lowest rung that does the job and your skin will look more like skin.
• Patchiness is usually prep, not product. Read the prep guide before replacing a foundation you otherwise like.

Start with the best foundation in Australia ranking, then use how to choose a foundation shade before you spend.