5 Solid Complexion Balms That Deliver Buildable Coverage With a Skinlike Finish

A complexion makeup category is gaining popularity—just don’t call it foundation. Or BB cream. Or tinted moisturizer. New solid complexion balms come in easy-to-apply formats like sticks and compacts, blurring perceived imperfections with a filter-like veil that allows signature freckles or a postgym flush to come through. Neither radiant nor fully matte, these all-in-one balms sound like makeup enigmas, leaving skin fresh and even without calling attention. They also come with added skin-care ingredients.

Our Top PicksThe Pro Favorite: Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder, $36The Best for Details: Merit The Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Stick, $38The Editor Favorite: Fara Homidi Essential Face Compact, $88The Best Skin Boosters: ILIA Skin Rewind Complexion Stick, $48The Creamiest: Anastasia Beverly Hills Beauty Balm Serum-Boosted Skin Tint, $42“One thing I learned from teaching all over the world is that there’s one texture people are never afraid of and it is a balm,” says makeup artist Danessa Myricks, whose 2022 launch of Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder ignited a fervor among makeup artists and influencers. “I think through the pandemic, people became more aware of their face and appreciated their skin more. Balms appeal to them because they are so easy and skinlike.”

The benefit to a 38-year-old like myself—the sleepy, dehydrated mother of an eight-month-old—is sheer simplicity. The baked-in skin-care ingredients give extra hydration and soft, blendable application, so once you’ve got the right shade, it’s just dot, dot, dot and pat, pat, pat—no brushes required. And the travel-friendly solid format makes it perfect for a purse.

While other formulas in the category vary in application, staying power, and skin-care benefits, solid complexion balms share a common goal: to impart a skinlike, natural matte finish, which I attribute to a pendulum swing away from the hyper-radiant formulas that took over the market the past 5 to 10 years. You may, like me, find this refreshing. With light-medium to medium-full coverage, the pigments are suspended within the balmy base for a translucency that allows light through yet diffuses discoloration—like looking through multiple layers of mesh. If you want full, opaque coverage, these won’t be your bag, and as a heads up, know that you’ll typically need to touch up if you’re going out after work.

“This is really great for someone who doesn’t want to look like they have makeup on,” says makeup artist Daniel Martin. “It’s sort of an upgrade from the sponge compacts in Asia—the ease and convenience.”

Over a few weeks, I tested five of these formulas through distracted morning grooming, long workdays, sweaty day-care pickups, and the occasional date. I asked a few top makeup artists for their notes, too. Read on to see what we loved.

The Pro Favorite: Danessa Myricks Yummy Skin Balm PowderDanessa Myricks

Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder

Why We Love It: Myricks created Yummy Skin Blurring Balm as a single-step product to imitate her advanced technique of applying powder before foundation. While the formula originally went viral in 2022 after a Peloton instructor went on a nearly three-minute ode and the product sold out, it continues to receive high praise among top makeup artists like Martin and Katie Jane Hughes. “I love it because it’s a unique revolutionary texture and for the big size,” says Hughes, who likes to apply it with a large fluffy brush. “I use it when I want a natural skin look and only want to supplement with a little bit of concealer.” Martin likes to use Yummy Skin Balm Powder as a skinlike finisher (instead of pressed powder, which can be too matte) and also on men, including himself, for TV appearances. In fact, Myricks used Yummy Skin Balm Powder on Usher for the Super Bowl 2024 halftime show.Key Ingredients: Upsalite, which is a highly porous ingredient for powder-like benefits of blurring and oil absorption, and olive-derived squalane and hyaluronic acid for hydration.Shades: 13 tinted shades, plus a clear translucent shade called Universal.Finish: Slightly matte. While it applies somewhat slippery, the balm dries and settles into a velvety texture. It’s buildable, but it won’t build all the way to full coverage.Editor’s Note: Myricks says if you use brushes, the more dense the brush, the heavier the coverage. You can also use a powder puff. For me, the beauty of this product shines best when applied in ultralight layers with a finger precisely where needed. As for the clear Universal shade, if you’re the kind of person who finds that lip balm alone is your signature lip look, you will love its allover blurring effect.The Best for Details: Merit The Minimalist Perfecting Complexion StickMerit Beauty

The Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Stick

Why We Love It: I have been a beauty editor for more than 15 years, and there are only a few products that have become so popular my friends from all walks of life ask me about them—this makeup stick, which launched in 2021, is one of them. The small rounded bullet is about the size and shape of a finger, which allows you to draw on coverage like you’re using a skin-perfecting stylus. The cream-to-powder formula builds easily if you want to disguise specific spots, and it doesn’t settle into pores and lines or cling to dry patches and small facial hairs. Draw under the eyes, over redness around the nose, on top of brown spots or pimples, and then blend with your finger or a dense brush. The semi-matte finish becomes undetectable right away. The tube is slim and light, and the lid clicks on firmly, making this ideal for on-the-go.Key Ingredients: Glycerin for hydration, sea daffodil to help treat hyperpigmentation.Shades: 20 fairly flexible shades—three different shades worked for me.Finish: A hydrated, semi-matte finish with buildable light to medium coverage.Editor’s Note: I wouldn’t use this as a full-face product, as the formula tends to lock in where you put it without much glide. It’s better for selective spot application. I also recommend using two shades as skin on the jawline is usually slightly different than one’s under-eye color, so finding the closest match for each area of the face makes the effect even more natural. A third darker shade also acts as a brilliant quick contour.The Editor Favorite: Fara Homidi Essential Face CompactFara Homidi

Essential Face Compact

Why We Love It: Among beauty pros in the fashion world, this was the launch of the season after it was teased backstage at Collina Strada in New York and Victoria Beckham in Paris. Homidi, who has been an editorial and backstage makeup artist for nearly 20 years, calls her complexion product “runway skin in a compact.” “I love, love, love this product,” says Hughes. “I love that it’s a makeup artist brand and that it’s a texture and formula pairing that we don’t see very much—I think it’s genius.” The refillable product pan has two sections: The larger section is the Smooth Veil Soft Matte complexion coverage, which has a velvety finish, and the smaller section is the Shine Baume, which can be used as a highlighter or luminous primer. “I would use this if I’m going to an event where I want to look very polished and radiant, like I’ve had an amazing facial,” says Hughes. The instantly iconic, refillable tomato red compact (which follows the viral launch of her baby blue lip compact) is practically an accessory in and of itself, making tableside touch-ups something to get excited about.Key Ingredients (for Smooth Veil Soft Matte): Rice powder and kaolin clay offer blurring and mattifying, while Amazonian capuaçu butter hydrates and ginger root extract smooths and soothes skin.Shades: 15; I found the shades were translucent enough that two of them worked well for me.Finish: The two formulas in the pan let you create a matte, shiny, or in-between finish. This is the only customizable product I tested. The coverage is very light, but buildable to medium coverage.Editor’s Note: I am a huge fan of the asymmetrical brush that Homidi created to go with the Essential Face Compact, but if you find a brush with a similar shape, it will work as well. I spot apply in very light layers, adding more as needed. You can even apply it over the eyelids without creasing.The Best Skin Boosters: Ilia Skin Rewind Complexion StickIlia Beauty

Skin Rewind Complexion Stick

Why We Love It: The coverage of this large stick makes it easy to apply as a full face of cover-up or to apply with your fingers or a brush like you would with a pan format. “I would apply it with a small finger-size application brush,” says Hughes, who recommends the #8 brush from her collaboration collection with Spectrum brushes. “I would use this when I want to create a medium-to-full coverage complexion look but with a precise application—just around the eyes, nose, and mouth.” Hughes also loves the packaging itself, which features a finger-size indent that makes this tube uniquely easy to wield. I found this coverage lasted a bit longer than the other solid complexion balms I tested, so I still had some coverage by the time I left work, without buildup in my fine lines. Speaking of which, the anti-aging ingredients added to this formula are promising enough that if I have to quickly apply it on unprepped skin, I won’t be annoyed that I missed my a.m. routine.Key Ingredients: Ceramides for barrier strengthening, peptides for long-term firming, winged kelp extract for long-term luminosity, butterfly lavender extract for long-term reduction of fine lines and wrinkles.Shades: 42 shades; the largest range of the products reviewed.Finish: Natural matte finish with medium coverage that builds up to near full coverage.Editor’s Note: If you like to apply the stick directly onto your skin, I recommend scrolling it up high and using the edge of the bullet to get into small places under the eyes and around the nose. Like Merit, this stick is also excellent for creating contour if you get a shade slightly darker than your skin tone.The Creamiest: Anastasia Beverly Hills Beauty Balm Serum-Boosted Skin TintAnastasia Beverly Hills

Beauty Balm Serum-Boosted Skin Tint

Why We Love It: This melty, translucent formula practically blends itself. That means that during mornings when the 30 seconds it takes to wet and bounce my Beautyblender disappear thanks to the hungry warble of my eight-month-old, I am no longer looking at a surprised and striped face when I catch my reflection hours later. You can easily blend mirror-free. “After you’ve done your skin prep, use this directly on your face and then blend with your finger,” says Martin. “This is great for someone who is very active and needs something after the gym, or if you’re just heading out for an errand. If you want more coverage, add liquid concealer on top.” Something I love in particular is the rounded rectangle shape—almost like a tiny deodorant—which is great for the solid complexion balm format because it makes it easy to swipe all over with the long edge and easy to spot apply with the corners. The formula itself is extremely hydrating.Key Ingredients: Hyaluronic acid, peptides for anti-aging, collagen-stabilizer for smoothing, three botanical oils, fatty acids, and shea butter.Shades: 16; while very sheer, I still needed to find the exact right shade to match my complexion.Finish: With a slight radiance thanks to those hydrating oils, this finish is the glowiest of those reviewed. The formula has light-to-medium coverage.Editor’s Note: These formulas glide so easily, which makes it easy to get really sheer coverage—almost like skin care with a dusting of color. It does take a little longer for this formula to set, and I would recommend doing so before building on any additional layers.Meet the ExpertsDaniel Martin is a celebrity makeup artist who counts Meghan Markle, Nicola Coughlan, and Michelle Yeoh as clients.Danessa Myricks is a pro makeup artist and founder of Danessa Myricks Beauty.Katie Jane Hughes is an editorial and celebrity makeup artist who has worked with Dua Lipa, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Elsa Hosk.