Best drugstore foundation and concealer dupes
Base is where the money goes and where the gap closes fastest: Maybelline Instant Age Rewind does what the $32 NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer does in the same 6ml for about a sixth of the price, and Coty Airspun holds 65g, more than twice Laura Mercier's 29g, for about a fifth of its $43.
What are the best drugstore dupes for luxury foundation, concealer and setting powder?
L'Oréal Paris True Match Radiant Serum Concealer, about $13.97 ($42.16 / fl oz), against the $45 Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat Radiant Touch, 92% less.
Best for dark circles and fine lines
1. L'Oréal Paris True Match Radiant Serum Concealer
for Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat Radiant Touch
$13.97 $16.99vs $45−92% per oz
#45 in Concealers & Neutralizing Makeup on Amazon
Both brighten the under-eye with light-reflecting pigment rather than heavy coverage, and both come out of L'Oréal, which owns YSL Beauté.
What it does worse: This one is also a real concealer (1.5% hyaluronic acid, caffeine and enough pigment to cover), which is why it can crease on dry skin where the sheerer pen does not.
2. Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Concealer
for Yves Saint Laurent Touche Éclat Radiant Touch
$9.98 $12.99vs $45−91% per oz
#2 in Concealers & Neutralizing Makeup on Amazon
Built like Touche Éclat, a water-in-silicone fluid: water and cyclopentasiloxane lead both labels, with glycerin, dimethicone, a PEG-9 polydimethylsiloxyethyl dimethicone emulsifier, nylon-12 and disteardimonium hectorite in both.
What it does worse: Maybelline's is a fuller-coverage concealer on a sponge tip, with isododecane, goji berry extract and peptides, where YSL's is a sheerer brightening pen with talc, mineral oil and a fluorescent brightener.
3. wet n wild Bare Focus Skin Tint
for Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Hydrating Gel Skin Tint
$3.79 $8.99vs $38−89% per oz
A silicone-free water-in-oil tint in both, held by polyglyceryl emulsifiers (polyglyceryl-3 diisostearate in each), with glycerin, propanediol, niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, squalane and lecithin.
What it does worse: wet n wild's oils are light hydrocarbons, C13-14 alkane and hydrogenated polydecene, where Milk's are esters, and silica and glass beads leave it a little more satin than Milk's dewy finish; Milk adds agave for grip.
Best for blurring pores
4. Maybelline Baby Skin Instant Pore Eraser Primer
for Benefit Cosmetics The POREfessional Pore Primer
$3.91 $6.99vs $36−88% per oz
#14 in Foundation Primers on Amazon
Same silicone blur: dimethicone leads both lists, and dimethicone crosspolymer and silica (silica silylate in Maybelline's) fill in pores and take the shine off.
What it does worse: POREfessional thins its silicones with isododecane and two light alkanes that evaporate, so it spreads thinner and sets faster, and it adds vitamin E and fragrance. Baby Skin has no evaporating solvent, so it stays a thicker, pinkish balm, and it lists no fragrance.
Best for a satin finish on dry, oily or combination skin
5. e.l.f. Cosmetics Soft Glam Satin Foundation
for Giorgio Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Foundation
$8vs $69−88% per oz
#7 in Foundation Makeup on Amazon
Built the same way: a water-in-silicone emulsion of water, dimethicone, isododecane and glycerin, held by the same emulsifier (cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 dimethicone), clay thickener and magnesium sulfate, for a satin glow at medium, buildable coverage.
What it does worse: Armani adds alcohol, sorbitol, niacinamide and fragrance and makes 44 shades, while e.l.f. adds emollient esters, boron nitride for slip and a 1% hibiscus complex, leaves out fragrance and makes 36.
Best for a dewy finish
6. Mario Badescu Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs and Rosewater
for MAC Cosmetics Prep + Prime Fix+ Original
$9.80 $14vs $33−87% per oz
#10 in Face Mists on Amazon
The same kind of mist: water, a glycol humectant and plant extracts with no film former, so both hydrate and melt powder into the skin and neither locks makeup in place.
What it does worse: MAC's extracts are cucumber, chamomile and green tea, with caffeine, panthenol and vitamin E in glycerin and butylene glycol, while Mario Badescu's are aloe, rose, thyme, bladderwrack and gardenia in propylene glycol, with fragrance and two dyes.
7. L'Oréal Paris True Match Super-Blendable Foundation
for Giorgio Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Foundation
$9.97 $13.99vs $69−86% per oz
#6 in Foundation Makeup on Amazon
The same build from the same company (L'Oréal makes Armani's beauty line): a water-in-silicone emulsion with isododecane and glycerin, held by cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 dimethicone, PEG-10 dimethicone and polyglyceryl-4 isostearate, with hexyl laurate, disteardimonium hectorite and disodium stearoyl glutamate, 12 of Luminous Silk's 30 listed ingredients in all, and both give medium, buildable coverage.
What it does worse: Luminous Silk's silicone is cyclopentasiloxane, with nylon-12 and a starch powder for its soft focus, where True Match uses dimethicone and cyclohexasiloxane with a methyl methacrylate crosspolymer and synthetic fluorphlogopite; Luminous Silk also lists denatured alcohol and fragrance, and True Match neither.
Best for oil and shine
8. Coty Airspun Loose Face Powder – Translucent Extra Coverage
for Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder
$8.59 $9.99vs $43−83% per oz
#61 in Face Powder on Amazon
A drugstore classic that makeup artists use for baking.
What it does worse: Slightly more coverage and a heavier feel.
Best for light coverage
9. Makeup Revolution Skin Silk Serum Foundation
for Giorgio Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Foundation
$10.50 $15vs $69−80% per oz
Same serum-fluid texture and the same satin, skin-like finish that Luminous Silk is bought for, in a comparable medium coverage.
What it does worse: Less shade depth at the extremes of the range and a shorter wear time on oily skin, around eight hours before it needs powder.
Best for blurring fine lines
10. e.l.f. Cosmetics Halo Glow Soft Focus Setting Powder
for Hourglass Ambient Lighting Finishing Powder
$8vs $58−80% per oz
#5 in Face Powder on Amazon
Both are finishing powders meant to soften texture while leaving the skin lit rather than matte.
What it does worse: e.l.f.'s is loose and lightly luminous, so it blurs less firmly than a pressed powder and travels worse in a bag.
11. L'Oréal Paris Infallible Full Wear Waterproof Concealer
for Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Concealer
$12.98 $15.99vs $39−80% per oz
#19 in Concealers & Neutralizing Makeup on Amazon
Both are waterproof, full-coverage liquid concealers held in a silicone emulsion with the same emulsifier, cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 dimethicone, and hectorite to keep the pigment suspended.
What it does worse: Hourglass sets softer and more skin-like, with green tea and centella extracts, while L'Oréal dries to a flat matte and comes with an oversized applicator made to cover dark circles and scars in one stroke.
12. MCoBeauty Miracle Flawless Pressed Powder – Translucent
for Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Setting Powder
$9.99vs $50−80% per oz
#18 in Face Powder on Amazon
Built like Airbrush Flawless Finish: talc and mica first, soft-focus methacrylate spheres, corn starch, silica and dimethicone, with sweet almond oil and a rose ingredient in both, nine ingredients in common.
What it does worse: Charlotte Tilbury binds its powder with esters and zinc stearate, where MCoBeauty uses nylon-12, magnesium stearate and lauroyl lysine, and comes in a translucent and tinted shades.
How this list was made
What the cheap end still loses is shade range and wear on oily skin: Shape Tape's 30-odd shades against e.l.f. Camo's, and setting sprays that flash-dry rather than lock. Each comparison says which of the two you're trading away.
