Which brand is best for mature skin?

A baked powder foundation that goes on creamy and sets demi-matte, with buildable light-to-medium coverage.

Laura Geller earns the top slot on the strength of one format decision. A baked powder foundation that goes on creamy and sets demi-matte is one of the few bases that suits textured mature skin without either sinking into lines or needing a liquid-and-powder stack, and the color-correcting element does real work on uneven tone. The packaging settles it: a pan in a compact with nothing to pump, no cap to twist and nothing to spill is the most usable complexion container on this page.

A fluid serum-foundation with light-to-medium buildable coverage, a luminous finish and SPF 50.

L'Oreal is the brand to buy if you want the most useful mature-skin product per dollar, and this is it: a fluid serum foundation with light-to-medium buildable coverage, a luminous finish and SPF 50 — a combination that premium brands charge four times as much for and often without the sun protection. The pump dispenses with one press from either hand, with no twisting and no shaking.

A balm-textured stick that buffs out to light-to-medium coverage with a satin finish, built around not dragging on skin.

Westman Atelier is the answer if your complaint is that foundation drags, pulls and catches. The balm-textured stick is built specifically around not dragging on skin, it buffs out to light-to-medium coverage with a satin finish, and the wide barrel can be held in a fist rather than a pinch — so it suits a sore hand as well as a lined cheek. On this site it is the most-recommended single base for exactly those reasons.

A tinted serum with sheer coverage and a blurring, hydrating finish.

Trinny London is unusual in stating that it formulates and tests on mature skin rather than extending a line sideways, and the products reflect it: thin tinted serums with blurring hydrating finishes rather than high-coverage bases, in wide stackable pots that are easy to grip and hard to knock over. If you want a brand whose default assumptions are about your skin rather than a twenty-five-year-old's, this is the clearest candidate.

An all-in-one brow gel that fills, shapes and sets in a single pass.

GUIDE Beauty is on this list because it is the only brand here designed from the ground up around reduced dexterity, and that design intent is documented rather than implied. The all-in-one brow gel fills, shapes and sets in a single pass with a supported grip rather than a pinch — which for anyone with arthritis, tremor or weakness in the hands makes it the most important brand on the page regardless of what the rest of the market is doing.

A hydrating medium-coverage concealer with a satin finish and an unusually large doe-foot applicator.

e.l.f. is the brand that makes a complete routine affordable, and this concealer is the best argument for it: a hydrating medium-coverage formula with a satin finish and an unusually large doe-foot that covers more ground per stroke, so there is less blending to do. For a few dollars it outperforms concealers at ten times the price on the one criterion that matters over 50, which is not drying out and cracking in a crease.