Best Beauty Buys 2024: Top Makeup Products

Best Beauty Buys is The Singapore Women’s Weekly’s annual awards to discover the most effective and game-changing skincare, haircare and makeup products for busy women and their families. The products were road-tested by a group of mums, and these are their picks.

We hear coffee, a few hours of sleep, and makeup are what mums need to get up and show up every morning. We’re not exaggerating the makeup part.

Of course, we don’t need makeup in the same way that we need air or a husband that pulls equal weight at home. But isn’t it amazing that a fave lippie or cheek colour can put an extra pep in our step?

So let’s rephrase this: mums don’t need makeup to “put their best foot forward” or “as armour to face the day”. But the right makeup products that do their job and then some, will certainly help us glow, grow, and go with the flow. 

1. Best Cushion Foundation For Dewy Skin: Sooryehan The Black Tension Fit Mesh Cushion SPF50+/PA+++

A face cushion that conditions and moisturises dry skin with essence as it covers pores and wrinkles and gives you a gorgeous glow? We like it very much. Korean traditional medicine powers this lightweight cushion, packing ingredients like black licorice to brighten and tighten, and black yeast to plump and hydrate.

$33.08 for a single cushion (13mg)

Shop at YesStyle

2. Best Cushion Foundation With Matte Finish: Dior Forever Cushion

Pat this luxurious cushion on in the morning to start your day aglow. with shades that favour Asian skin tones, it blends seamlessly with no pilling, and is smoothening, non-cakey, hydrating and long-lasting. Basically everything you need and want in a complexion-perfecting cushion foundation.

$120 for case + cushion

Shop at Dior Beauty | Sephora

3. Best Foundation With Matte Finish: MAC Cosmetics Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15

If you struggle to keep the greasy shine off your face throughout the day, try this oil-controlling liquid foundation that gives a soft matte finish. It offers very buildable medium-to-full coverage, as well as broad-spectrum SPF protection. The oil-free formula does not cake, crease, or settle into lines. It also contains algae extract and sodium hyaluronate to soothe and moisturise.

$73 for 30ml

Shop at Sephora | Lazada

4. Best Long-Wear Foundation With Matte Finish: Gucci Beauty Eternite De Beaute Foundation SPF 15 

Offering long-wearing, no-transfer matte finish with a natural-looking glow, this lightweight and breathable liquid foundation is for keeps. Hyaluronic acid and black rose oil provide hydration to the skin, while bamboo powder keeps shine under control.

$105 for 30ml

Shop at Sephora

5. Best Sheer Hydrating Foundation: Nars Light Reflecting Foundation

Here’s a wonderful multitasker that hydrates and smooths your skin all at once. This foundation features a photo-friendly powder that intuitively adjusts your complexion tone according to light conditions, so that your skin never looks washed out. AHAs, glycolic acid, and antioxidants make up more than 70% of the formula, which explains why your face still looks luminous long after removing the foundation.

$80 for 30ml

Shop at Lazada | Sephora

6. Best Blendable Concealer: Gucci Beauty Concentre De Beaute Liquid Concealer

Dark eye circles, acne flare-ups, hyperpigmentation, uneven skin tone… this super lightweight and stretchable concealer covers it all with aplomb. Use it either for spot concealing or all-over colour-correcting – it blends like a flawless second skin. Ingredients like hyaluronic acid, black rose oil, and acmella flower hydrate, smoothen and tone the skin for a comfortable wear.

$70 for 8ml

Shop at Sephora

7. Best Hydrating Matte Lipstick: Burberry Beauty Kisses Liquid Matte Lipstick

With a lot more talking since becoming a mum (how many times do you say “It’s time to pack up and go to sleep!”), you’ll understand why a smudge-proof lip colour is life. Burberry Beauty’s Kisses Liquid Matte Lipstick is highly pigmented, giving a luxe matte finish that lasts up to six hours. It’s also deeply hydrating thanks to the infusion of hyaluronic acid and vitamin E-rich safflower oil. We’re sold.

$60 for 6ml

Shop at Sephora

8. Best Long-Wear Matte Lipstick: Nars Powermatte Lipstick

There’s something sophisticated about a velvety matte lip colour. One decisive swipe of this ultra-pigmented matte lipstick is enough to take you through 10 hours of comfortable wear, with no cakiness or transfer to worry about. Its formula holds the key: a dynamic blend of pure pigments that’s suspended in nourishing emollient oils and colour-locking ingredients.

$48 for 1.5g

Shop at Lazada | Sephora

9. Best Hydrating Lip Balm: Dior Addict Lip Glow Balm

Providing six hours of luminous colour and long-lasting hydration, this is the lip balm to get your hands on if you struggle with dry lips. And you can look forward to an ethereal glow: the ingredients react with the moisture level of your lips to reveal a colour that’s yours and yours alone.

$61 for 3.2g

Shop at Sephora | Amazon

10. Best Multitasking Eyeshadow Stick: Rare Beauty All of The Above Weightless Eyeshadow Stick

If carefully blending eyeshadow on your lids feels like way too much work, you’re not alone. Thank goodness for multipurpose eyeshadow sticks that can be used to line, shade, smoke out, and highlight your eyes. Rare Beauty’s eyeshadow stick is a real joy to use, with pretty pearlescent shades that go on your lids with a precision tip. We particularly love how fuss-free this is, and how weightless the product feels on the lids. It’s truly one-and-done.

$37 for 1.3g

Shop at Sephora

11. Best Travel-Friendly Eyeshadow Palette: Anastasia Beverly Hills Mini Sultry Eyeshadow Palette

Anastasia Beverly Hills’ eyeshadows are known to be extremely smooth and buttery, richly pigmented, and wonderfully blendable. This mini palette of nine neutral, cool-toned mattes and metallic shades certainly live up to the reputation. While it works as a daily palette, we’d totally pack it along a holiday, to give our eyelids a wash of beautiful colour when the time and vibe are right.

$50

Shop at Sephora

12. Best Long-Wear Highlighter: Rare Beauty Positive Light Silky Touch Highlighter

This Rare Beauty pressed semi-sheer highlighter is easy and quick to use. Smooth, airy, talc-free, and packed with pretty micro-shimmers; a few swift strokes is all it takes to achieve enviable glassy skin – even with four hours of broken sleep.

$42 for 2.8g

Shop at Sephora

13. Best Versatile Palette: Make Up For Ever HD Skin All-In-One Palette

Concealing, contouring, and colouring all in one? We know you’ll love it already. This nifty palette consists of 12 complementary cream shades for the face, including three cream foundations, four concealers, two blushes, two contouring options and one highlighter.

$137

Shop at Sephora

14. Best Primer: Benefit Cosmetics The Porefessional Lite Primer

What’s lightweight, undetectable, and has amazing pore-blurring powers? Benefit’s Porefessional primer, that’s what. This cloud-like primer goes on skin like a cooling breath of air, hiding pores and helping makeup stay on for the whole day. 

$61 for 22ml

Shop at Lazada | Sephora

15. Best Setting Powder: Laura Mercier Translucent Loose Setting Powder

Please don’t skip the final step of setting your makeup – you don’t want the time spent doing makeup to go down the drain. This Laura Mercier setting powder creates an old-Hollywood soft-focus effect when it’s dusted on your face, and also ensures that you photograph like a star. No creasing or setting into those fine lines either.

$70 for 29g

Shop at Amazon | Sephora

16. Best Brow Pencil: Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz

Brows can make or break your look. This pencil not only defines and shapes your brows with precision, it also creates ultra-fine lines to mimic the look and movement of brow hair. With a high colour payoff and a blendable finish, this pencil produces some of the most natural brows we’ve seen. 

$40

Shop at Sephora | Amazon

17. Best Long-Wear Blush: Rare Beauty Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush

Rare Beauty’s Soft Pinch Liquid Blush is a firm favourite among celebrities and everyday folks alike, for good reason. One little dab of the highly pigmented blush is all it takes to create a gorgeous, glowy cheek flush that lasts for hours.

$39 for 7.5ml

Shop at Sephora

18. Best Brightening Sunscreen: Jung Beauty Probiotics Tinted Sun Serum

If you have time for only one step in your makeup routine, make it your sunscreen. A tinted sunscreen like this one by Jung Beauty provides a sheer wash of colour along with SPF 50+/PA+++ protection and skincare benefits. The addition of probiotics makes this sunscreen particularly good for dull and ageing skin.

$45 for 50ml

Shop at Ksisters

Prices are accurate at time of publication.

All the items are independently selected by our editorial team. If you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. But we only recommend products we love. Promise.