Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Matte Foundation - Full Coverage

Why it's worth it

Charlotte Tilbury's Airbrush Flawless Matte blurs pores and fine lines instead of settling into them, and it stays put in heat. It's the most expensive bottle here, and the reason to pay is the finish: full coverage that still looks soft up close.

Most full-coverage foundations make texture worse. Pigment collects in the crease beside your nose, in the lines under your eyes, in every enlarged pore across your cheeks, and by mid-afternoon the coverage has drawn a map of your face. That's the specific problem this one solves, which is why it comes up so often for mature and dry skin.

It's the best of these for skin with fine lines. In a Byrdie panel that compared it against twelve other prestige formulas, testers rated it the top foundation for reducing the appearance of fine lines under coverage. Charlotte Tilbury builds it with 2% REPLEXIUM peptide and describes it as smoothing texture over several weeks, so there's a skin-care argument sitting alongside the makeup one.

From our review of 8 full-coverage foundations, by Sarah Wright, Editorial Associate

What we like

• +Most full-coverage foundations make texture worse
• +It's the best of these for skin with fine lines
• +Wear is better than a foundation this comfortable usually manages

What to know

• –It's the most expensive bottle here by a wide margin, and the shade range doesn't approach Fenty's or MAC's
• –It also wants hydrated skin underneath to look its best