Double duty: The flawless face

François Nars created 65 completely different looks for the Marc Jacobs fall/winter 2009 collection, but there was one common element: a flawless face. “Makeup is 50-percent skin,” he said on-set at a recent photo shoot. It’s true that even the best foundation can’t fix a problem complexion, but Nars was also acknowledging a modern beauty trend: foundation pulling double duty as skin care. The latest crop of cover-ups features high-tech formulas with everything from a higher SPF to anti-aging ingredients, like those found in Nars’ new foundation collection, Immaculate Complexion. Both the matte and illuminating versions offer a smooth, sheer finish, but the brand has also focused on what happens after the makeup comes off. Thanks to an ingredient list that reads like the back of your moisturizer — a blend of vitamin C, amino acids and peptides — the line’s off-duty benefits include improving the skin’s texture and boosting radiance.

“Foundation is becoming like skin care,” says Jackie Shawn, a Toronto-based makeup artist. “The formulas are really refined, so they can offer something more than just coverage.” Take Chanel’s Lift Lumière foundation-and-concealer range. Formulated for age-conscious women who also want full coverage, the foundation is packed with botanicals hand-picked for their ability to fend off free rad­icals that damage collagen production, while a tetrapeptide in the concealer promises to minimize puffiness under the eyes and lighten dark circles.

But Dr. Sandy Skotnicki-Grant, a Toronto-based dermatologist and the owner and medical director of the Bay Dermatology Centre, isn’t convinced that these skin-care add-ons deliver anything more than satis­faction from thinking that we’re getting more bang for our beauty buck. “The amount that you’re going to get [in a foundation] of any kind of pharmaceutical — whether it’s for anti-aging, brightening or acne — is a small percentage,” she explains. “If you want to treat aging, acne or other skin concerns, treat them sep­arately and use your foundation as a makeup, not a moisturizer.” As for the higher SPF levels present in new foundations, Skotnicki-Grant maintains that a sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher is still a must. “If you’re going to be in the sun for any length of time, the amount of sunscreen in your foundation is not adequate.”

Even with a heavy dose of proposed extra benefits, foundation textures haven’t been weighed down by their new job as skin-care multi-taskers. Instead, many are more lightweight than ever. Yannick Vaudry, inter­national makeup artist at Yves Saint Laurent for more than two decades, has seen the thick, dull formulas of the past make way for a new generation of “second-skin” foundations and likens the transformation to the evolution of com­puters. (Think the wafer-thin MacBook Air vs. the clunky Commodore 64.) “Each formula is becoming lighter and longer-lasting,” says Vaudry.

Check out the latest in foundations that are great for your skin in this gallery

Pick the best type of foundation for your skin on the next page ...