Can Makeup Really Be Skin Care, Too? (And Vice Versa)

Whether it’s a foundation made with aloe or an eye shadow bolstered with hyaluronic acid, most makeup today—especially in the clean space—is made with some skin-care ingredients. But certain formulas go far beyond simply adding an ingredient here or there, swirling pigments into what are essentially multitasking skin-care products in their own right. And at the same time, some of our favorite skin essentials manage to work as makeup.

The best of the best are true skin-care-makeup hybrids, where you get the benefits of both powerful skin-care ingredients at active levels and gorgeous colors and textures that really make you look better. This was the idea we kept coming back to as we were creating our now-famous tinted Glow Balms, which mix skin-flattering pigments in a moisturizing cream made with nourishing vitamin E, vitamin C–rich sea buckthorn oil, and skin-barrier-supporting safflower oil. “It’s true skin care, but it works as makeup,” says Gwyneth. “And it’s great on lips as well as cheeks.”

Similarly, the cult-favorite brow gel from San Francisco’s reigning brow queen, Michele Holmes, is fortified with biotin, soothing green tea, rye seed, and castor oil to treat brows as it shapes them. “It’s the perfect amount of hold,” says April Gargiulo, founder of Vintner’s Daughter. “My brows look healthier after I use it.”

Legendary New York makeup artist Rose-Marie Swift bases much of her makeup line in skin-care ingredients: “You’ve got to treat the skin as much as you can,” she says. Her new lipstick is made with a special treatment serum that mixes hydrating bitter cherry water with antioxidant-rich kakadu plum extract and a host of adaptogens; while you might expect such a skin-care-heavy formula to be light on pigment, the velvet-matte formula is super saturated for major color that really lasts.

And the National Eczema Association actually gave the sheer foundation from Tower 28 its Seal of Acceptance (it’s the only makeup product the NEA’s ever given it to). The zinc oxide in the medium-coverage formula helps soothe skin as it helps protect against broad spectrum UVA and UVB damage, prickly pear extract moisturizes, and antioxidants help fight free radicals.

Working from the opposite direction are powerful skin-care treatments that happen to deliver makeup effects at the same time. Our favorite is this silky eye cream, which depuffs, firms, lifts, smooths the look of wrinkles, brightens, and moisturizes with vitamin C, phytomimetic vitamin A, niacinamide, amino acids, colorless carotenoids, and more. Pat it on and you’ll see that it’s also an amazing color corrector for dark circles.

Skin Food, the OG clean moisturizer from Weleda (it’s almost 100 years old), feels incredible on skin, smells fantastic, and moisturizes like crazy, but you’d never expect the subtle (yet noticeable) improvements it makes instantly on skin: You look glowier, smoother, and allover healthier in seconds.

Skin expert Dr. Barbara Sturm blended her signature ultracalming purslane extract with bistorta root, rose, and sweet almond oil into a hydrating gel-serum for skin; the subtle mineral pigments inside the formula reflect light in a way that leaves any skin tone absolutely luminous and delicately dewy.

And when top NYC makeup artist Gucci Westman decided to make her first-ever skin-care product—a firming, brightening, barrier-supporting, wrinkle-smoothing, ultrahydrating serum—it was perhaps unsurprising that it doubled as the best-ever primer we’d tried. The finish it leaves on skin is fresh, refined, and subtly radiant.