Conversely there are also plain C’s and plain N’s. These have a stronger yellow or pink undertone than their NC/NW counterparts. Very few of the foundations in the range now have these strong undertones, it’s mostly the old school formulas like Face and Body, or Studio Fix Powder.” My personal preference We achieved more even coverage when using a foundation brush, but it still blended nicely with our beauty blender. However, getting this foundation out of the bottle can be a pain. Department stores often have bright or yellow artificial lighting that will change the appearance of your foundation. Below is a chart that also reveals the different shades across the wider MAC foundation and concealer range, including the new MAC Studio Radiance foundation. The shade I wear myself is NC15. This is much more flattering to my skin tone and helps to cancel out any unwanted redness over my cheek area.

If you’re unsure which MAC foundation shade is best for you, you can read more about the MAC shade finder in our foundation match guide. We were also disappointed because it says it controls oil and shine, yet within a few hours our nose looked greasy. This resulted in us applying even more. Our fine lines looked like full-blown wrinkles by the end of the day, and our skin was crying out for cleanser. The number that follows each NC, NW, N or C is simply the colour of each foundation. Sharon, from Sharonthemakeupartist.com explains this perfectly: For each foundation, we tested how well it went on and how well it lasted using both The Ordinary Silicone primer, and the Bobbi Brown Face Base cream. We also applied each using a foundation brush, or a damp beauty blender to see which gave the best finish.

This means if you have a foundation in the shade NC35, you have neutral-cool undertones in a medium shade. Each of the shades also come with descriptions. NC35 is described as: “Light to medium beige with peachy golden undertone for medium skin.” You can see the full list of what is in the MAC Advent Calendar 2023 here, or a summary of the details is below: Choosing a foundation can be really daunting, but it’s often a key part to our makeup and can make or break a flawless face. Many of my clients ask me about the labelling of foundations, particularly when it comes to MAC! I hope that today’s post will help you in understanding NC, NW, C and N in MAC foundations.* The very basics of Colour Theory We found that the built-in sponge gave a more smoother application than the brush, or beauty blender, and it really did give us a flawless, poreless look to our skin. It also provided full coverage. By comparison, using a brush to apply it reduced the amount of coverage provided, which saw us piling on more to get the desired finish. The size and shape of the nozzle stop you from using too much and, despite its medium consistency, this MAC foundation creates light coverage. It also feels light on the skin and is buildable too.

This caused it to look cakey and this cakiness just got worse during the day as it settled in our creases and pores. A flaw that was exacerbated when we added our powder bronzer. While the powder works well with cream products, it doesn’t seem to like being combined with other powder makeup products and it was hard to blend our bronzer out. FURTHER READING: We’ve reviewed and ranked the best Charlotte Tilbury foundations and the best No7 foundations However, not all shades are available in all foundation finishes. The Studio Fix foundation has 67 shades, the Studio Fix Powder has 53. The letter is determined by your skin tone and the number represents how light, or dark, the shade is ranging from 3 to 60.I love MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC15 (if I’ve got a slight hint of light fake tan) or N5 (if my skin is at its natural colour). It gives me flawless coverage without feeling cakey How to colour match your foundation Since we published this guide, MAC released the MAC Studio Radiance Serum Powered foundation. Designed to “fuse the science of skincare with the power of makeup,” the new medium-to-full coverage MAC foundation comes in 56 shades. We’ve bought the new MAC foundation and will update this best MAC foundation list as soon as we’ve had time to put it properly to the test. We recently ranked the best No7 foundations as well as the best Benefit mascaras, if you’re after more group tests! The most important thing when colour matching a foundation is to make sure that the foundation matches with your chest and looks natural. You can get a good match in three simple steps. Our skin type is combination so we tested all of the best MAC foundations with both the Laura Mercier Transparent Setting powder, and the Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish powder.

UPDATE: If you love MAC, the MAC Advent Calendar 2023 is on sale now and it contains 24 day’s worth of MAC products at a third of the price than if you were to buy them all separately. Perfect if you prefer a powder compact, and amazing for on-the-go touch-ups. This non-cakey powder helps to absorb excess oils to eliminate shine throughout the dat without drying out the skin. It gives medium coverage and helps to reduce the appearance of pores and blemishes. Sometimes foundations can oxidize, which means they can appear darker once they’ve settled into your skin and mixed with your natural oils. Give your foundation 10-20 minutes to settle to get a true feel for the colour. The Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 foundation is a firm favourite for many and we can see why. The consistency is medium, coverage is medium but if you want to, you can build this foundation to make it full coverage.

Extremely lightweight, the foundation gives a satin finish with buildable coverage. Once it’s set, it’ll stay put for up to eight hours. With conditioning agents, emollients and antioxidants, it helps to prevent drying or caking, and can be used all over the face and body. In second place is a MAC classic – Studio Fix Fluid. It lost out on the top spot because of the fact you have to buy a separate pump if you want any sort of control over the application. It also didn’t last as long on the skin as the Pro Longwear. However, it is the best all-rounder and will suit multiple skin types. Its coverage also makes it the best MAC foundation for large pores.

Nina has warm undertones (reds in MAC terms) with cool under eye circles (yellow). I used MAC Studio Fix in NC20 over her face to even out and correct the redness and NW10 concealer to correct the dark circles What do the numbers on MAC foundations mean? Before we dive into our full list of the best MAC foundations, we also wanted to explain more about MAC foundation shades. MAC Studio Face and Body has been around for many years and has long been adored by professional makeup artists.None of these MAC foundations were gifted. We bought them all from Lookfantastic using our own money. These are honest, real-world results and the photos have not been edited in any way. That aside, this foundation worked great with both of our primers, along with our beauty blender and foundation brush. When used with a beauty blender, it covered the pores more than the foundation brush but the difference was minimal. We love the finished look it gave us, it didn’t look cakey and instead of making our face look flat, it gave dimension. The thing we were most impressed with this foundation is how well it held. We even ventured out in the rain to see how it would perform. It left our nose slightly oily by the end of the day and it did start to sit in our dry patches around the nose but this was leagues ahead of other entries in this best MAC foundation list. It’s the kind of foundation you could wear to work and a night out without worrying too much about it melting or transferring. Even on oily skin. Buy now from MAC To help you finally discover which is the best MAC foundation, whether you’ve got oily skin or large pores, we’ve spent the past month putting every bestselling MAC foundation to the test to bring you a definitive guide on how they perform and which is the best MAC foundation in the UK.