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 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. 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 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.

In terms of longevity, this MAC foundation lasted well throughout the day. We only had to top up the nose area when that area got oily around midday. The number that follows each NC, NW, N or C is simply the colour of each foundation. Sharon, from Sharonthemakeupartist.com explains this perfectly: 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.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. We thought this foundation would be runny, due to the fact it says it’s sheer, but we were pleasantly surprised by the medium consistency. It’s frustrating that the shade range is relatively small in comparison to other MAC foundations and you can’t get it in the same NC or NW colours.

Before we dive into our full list of the best MAC foundations, we also wanted to explain more about MAC foundation shades. There are more than 65 MAC foundation shades, which makes it one of the most inclusive beauty brands on the market. The letter is determined by your skin tone and the number represents how light, or dark, the shade is ranging from 3 to 60. there are some odd numbers peppered along the way in some of the foundations. For example there is an NC27 or an NW18 in Studio Fix Fluid . These colours don’t have quite as strong an undertone as those that end in 5 or 0. These odd numbers have more of a neutral undertone. So an NC27 is not as yellow as an NC25 but it is a little bit darker.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.

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. 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. 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. However, not all shades are available in all foundation finishes. The Studio Fix foundation has 67 shades, the Studio Fix Powder has 53. 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.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 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. 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.” MAC has said this foundation will last 24 hours but again our oily nose did peek through. Although not as bad as others on this list. We also loved that the foundation didn’t sit on any dry patches on the skin.