12 Best Full Coverage Foundations on the Market (2024)

This GH Beauty Award-winning customizable foundation offers coverage of all levels, including full. Via Lancôme's beauty adviser service, create your perfect foundation thanks to a skin scanning advice. They make the formula right in front of you and you walk away with a truly perfectly matched shade. In GH Beauty Lab evaluations, it matched all skin tones and 100% of testers continued using the product.

• Number of shades: Customized shade options
• SPF: No
• Formula: Liquid

Get a natural, buildable finish with CoverGirl's full coverage long-wearing foundation. With added SPF, get both sun protection and full coverage all day long. The "formula feels very hydrating to skin," says GH Lab Assistant Nikolas Greenwald. However, testers warn this formula can be streaky when applied in a hurry, so be sure to take care when blending,

• Number of shades: 18
• SPF: SPF 18
• Formula: Liquid

If you're looking for a full coverage foundation with a weightless feel, look no further than this L'Oréal Paris formula. Though it hasn't been tested in the Beauty Lab, it has more than 3,500 five-star reviews on Amazon and was our pick for best full coverage drugstore foundation. Users found it lasts all day and doesn't budge. "You don't even need concealer and I have hereditary dark circles and acne scars," one reviewer raves. "Goes on quickly. When it is time to take it off it comes right off but only when you want it to."

• Number of shades: 11
• SPF: No
• Formula: Liquid

This GH seal-holding and former GH Beauty Award-winning foundation does triple duty as a 3-in-1 primer, foundation and concealer for the perfect trifecta of coverage, blendability and lasting power. Our Lab results showed that this blendable formula didn't look heavy or cakey and felt light on skin all day long.

• Number of shades: 13
• SPF: No
• Formula: Liquid

This full coverage tinted moisturizer ranked highest in GH Beauty Lab tests for mature, dry and sensitive skin. Thanks to a hydrating formula that includes niacinamide, glycerin and SPF, it protects and moisturizes while also providing full coverage. The dewy formula received perfect scores for providing smooth, even coverage on skin. "Spreads easily," writes one tester. "Dispenses a nice amount of product," another adds.

• Number of shades: 12
• SPF: SPF 50
• Formula: Liquid

Erase shine with this long-lasting matte velvet full coverage foundation. In GH Beauty Lab testing, it ranked highest for ease of use among liquid foundations and earned a perfect score for dispensing the right amount of product. The Beauty Lab recommends this matte foundation for oily and combination skin types. To give its namesake velvet look, "It doesn’t really blend into the skin, it sits on top," one tester reported. "It’s going to cover and look smooth from far away," another said.

• Number of shades: 40
• SPF: No
• Formula: Liquid

The cult-favorite Tarte Face Tape Concealer inspired this foundation that includes snow mushroom to up hydration and reduce inflammation; apple fruit extract which claims to protect against free radicals; and hyaluronic acid to increase skin's moisture. One Lab tester found it mattifies with smooth, even coverage and provides "extremely full coverage that's great for TV or photos." The formula is "smooth and buildable for my combination skin."

• Number of shades: 49
• SPF: No
• Formula: Liquid

Achieve hydrated, natural-looking skin with this foundation stick from Mented. The formula includes sensitive skin-friendly ingredients like hyaluronic acid, aloe leaf extract and grapeseed oil. You can customize your coverage level with the buildable formula that blends evenly and smoothly. Reviewers with oily skin claim it's great for mattifying and smoothing without triggering breakouts, though one Lab tester noted it "may be too heavy for dry skin."

• Number of shades: 16
• SPF: No
• Formula: Stick

Dior's long-wearing foundation offers full coverage yet feels lightweight thanks to its liquid, water-based formula. It gives a natural matte finish that feels like your skin, but better. In GH Beauty Lab testing, it earned high scores for its smooth texture and buildability, though one tester recommends setting it with a face powder to prevent transfer.

• Number of shades: 25
• SPF: No
• Formula: Liquid

Just because you want full coverage doesn't mean you can't get a glowy complexion as well. Anastasia Beverly Hills' radiant foundation offers a natural finish with medium to full coverage that blends easily and is easy to dispense. An editor and tester favorite, it "blends very easily for a high coverage formula," says one tester.

• Number of shades: 50
• SPF: No
• Formula: Liquid

Though this Armani Beauty foundation is matte and longwear, it doesn't dry out skin. We haven't tested it in the Beauty Lab, but we love that it includes broad-spectrum SPF and one beauty editor says it creates a seamless, flawless complexion. "This foundation stays in place all day long, even in hot and humid weather," she says. "I didn't even have to touch it up throughout the day."

• Number of shades: 30
• SPF: SPF 25
• Formula: Liquid

Offered in a groundbreaking 51 shades, Uoma Beauty's foundation offers full coverage that doesn't look cakey or heavy thanks to hydrating ingredients to keep skin radiant while still maintaining a satiny finish. Though this isn't a Lab-tested pick, it's our GH Beauty Assistant's go-to foundation for a little extra coverage. "I always get compliments on my skin when I wear this foundation," she shares. "It gives me a hydrated glow, and my skin still looks healthy by the end of the day."

• Number of shades: 51
• SPF: No
• Formula: Liquid

By nature, full-coverage foundations are "long-wearing, have good pigment adhesion and maintain color stability," says Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab Senior Chemist Sabina Wizemann. "They are usually quick-drying, water-resistant and buildable."

Though some full coverage foundations risk looking cakey and unnatural if not evenly applied, you can avoid creasing by "applying thin layers of your foundation and letting it absorb and dry in between applications," adds Wizemann.

Good Housekeeping Beauty Assistant Catharine Malzahn wrote this article; she works closely with the GH Beauty Lab to help deliver fact-based, science-backed beauty editorial coverage. Over the years, she has interviewed experts, written product reviews and tested hundreds of makeup products including liquid, stick and powder foundations.

For this article, she worked with GH Beauty Lab Senior Chemist Sabina Wizemann, who has coordinated makeup products tests, including the latest foundation test, by collaborating with professional makeup artists, Lab testing and performing large consumer studies. Wizemann also worked with GH Lab Assistant Nikolas Greenwald to test several full coverage foundations to add our top recommendations.