Though we often forget, the current beauty landscape owes a lot to the YouTubers of the 2010s. Content creators like Jackie Aina, Patrick Starr, and Michelle Phan taught us how to carve the perfect cut crease, apply individual lashes, and find the best foundation matches for our skin tones. Only a few of those creators turned their affinity for finding high-performing products into successful businesses.
Huda Kattan was one of them—Huda Beauty launched in 2013. It’s best known for full-coverage complexion products, but Kattan hopes to usher in a new chapter with her latest launch. “In 2020, I started changing,” Kattan tells Allure. “I didn’t want to cover myself up so much…I wanted to show and embrace my skin.”
This inspired Kattan to create the Huda Beauty Easy Blur Natural Airbrush Foundation. The new formula, which comes in 29 shades, includes skin-care ingredients, namely 1.5% niacinamide, a form of vitamin B known to even out skin tone and texture.
The prospect of Huda Beauty’s first lightweight foundation caused buzz across social media—which got even louder when influencers began receiving samples a few weeks before launch. They noticed a gap in the shade range, leaving some people with deeper skin tones without a foundation match. Kattan quickly addressed the mishap in a video, explaining that this was due to an error during the code submission for her shades. (A foundation was incorrectly assigned a code, leaving a gap in the range.)
Cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos explained to us that assigning a product code to every specific formulation is part of good manufacturing practices: “It represents a singular recipe for creating a product… and ensures traceability.” It’s also used to ensure that the proper labels go on the products they are meant for. For color cosmetics, quality checks during the production run should include comparing each batch of, say, foundation to a physical color standard sample (created with its code) and possibly measurements made in a color computer. “[Beauty brands] have spectrophotometers that take color measurements and compare them to standard colors. It’s a more scientific method than just visually comparing the foundation to a physical standard sample.”
In Dobos’ experience, the first batch of any product is highly scrutinized by every team involved to make sure there are no mistakes before they ramp up production. “It’s surprising that no one caught this mix-up along the way,” she says. “But I’ve seen such a focus on speed to market today, and manufacturers with a growing number of products to manage, that I’m not totally surprised that mistakes might happen.”
“I should have quadruple-checked to ensure the shades were submitted correctly,” Kattan said in her video. The team promised to take back all of the current, miscoded “Lava Cake” shades and relabel them with the correct shade match, “Ganache.” Kattan also shared that the originally intended shade will be renamed “True Lava Cake” and released to retailers ASAP. “I hate that people don’t have that shade, so at this point, we’re hand-making them to make sure people can have them,” she told us in an interview last week.
After chatting with Kattan and hearing about everything that went into the new formula—it took 107 iterations to land on the one—I was ready to get it onto my face. As someone with oily, combination skin, I was intrigued by its claims of a skin-like finish and blurring effects that could keep the shininess in my T-zone at bay.
The brand also sent me the Easy Blur Primer—a gel-textured formula that creates a soft matte canvas for makeup—so I swept it onto my skin first with my fingers. Then, I lightly squeezed a drop of the foundation onto the right side of my face and blended it out with the Huda Beauty Base Brush, a soft, dense foundation brush.
I was happy with how well the shade Hot Fudge 550R matched my complexion. Initially, it looked a bit dark, but I tend to go a shade darker with my foundation to match my neck, so it was just right. The formula felt heavy as it was wet on my skin, but dried down to feel breathable. It’s not quite skin-tint light, but it’s certainly lighter than some foundations I’ve tried, which makes sense given this is a medium-coverage formula.
I finished my makeup with dots of concealer, a few sweeps of the Huda Beauty Blush Filter in Black Cherry, a spritz of setting spray, and a dab of powder. The result was a soft matte beat that still looked and felt natural and, well…easy.
About 15 minutes after finishing my face, my skin did start to feel a little tight—so much so I dabbed a little Vaseline on the corners of my nose because it felt like my skin was cracking. While I appreciate the blurring effect, this foundation does lean on the drier side—which explains why some of my dry-skinned colleagues had a different experience than I did. (More on that later.) I have a feeling super hydrating skin prep can offset that pretty easily.
Overall, I see myself reaching for this foundation often—especially when I'm on-the-go. The medium-size, one-ounce tube makes it great for travel.
More Allure reviews
The Easy Blur foundation from Huda Beauty was easy to apply and build up. It filled in and smoothed my pores, and added a brightening tone to my complexion. That said, I wouldn't reach for this if I was looking for serious coverage, or a reduction in the appearance of blemishes.
The beautifully luxe, not-too-liquidly texture of this foundation had me hopeful when I first squeeze it onto the back of my hand. I went with my usual application method, a dense kabuki brush, but made a game-time pivot to fingers and a Beautyblender when I noticed the product settling into the more undesirable areas of my face (fine lines, dry patches, and the like). I have chronically dry, super-reactive skin, so I'd made sure to douse it in moisturizer before applying the foundation. Unfortunately, the blur wasn't easy enough for my complexion, and this product won't claim a front-and-center spot on my vanity.
I don’t typically wear foundation due to how heavy most formulas feel on my skin, but I found the Easy Blur foundation lightweight and easy to apply—plus I noticed a glow immediately. I have a golden undertone, and the shade Gingerbread 430N matched my complexion pretty well. The hyperpigmentation, texture, and acne in my cheeks were concealed and I didn’t have to worry about leaks or messy spills on my makeup brush because the small tip applicator makes for mess-free drops. I can definitely see myself reaching for it during my everyday makeup routine.
.jpg)
The Huda Beauty Easy Blur Foundation is easy in the sense that I can smear it on and blend it with my fingers. It sets quickly, instantly blurring my red spots and evening out my complexion, though it was a little too heavy for my liking—it felt like it was sitting on top of my dry skin like a blanket. After trying four different medium shades (310G Amaretti, 330N Butter Pecan, 350G Dulce de Leche, and 420G Toffee), I also didn't find a match for my skin tone. The closest was 350G Dulce De Leche, which skews a little too yellow for me.
The verdict
While Huda Beauty markets this foundation as the brand’s “most lightweight, ultra-blurring foundation,” the Allure testers found it slightly heavier than some of our favorite lightweight foundations (like the Patrick Ta Major Skin Hydra Luxe Luminous Skin Perfecting Foundation, Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation, and Make Up For Ever HD Foundation). And some dry-skinned testers felt it could emphasize roughness.
According to Dobos, this might be due to this formula’s use of blurring powders, including silica, mica, and a silicone polymer powder that appears high on the product’s ingredient list. “The total amount of these might be responsible for a heavier feel,” she says. Those ingredients are probably also why our oily/combination skin testers were the biggest fans of the formula—silica and mica can both absorb oil.
The Huda Beauty Easy Blur Natural Airbrush Foundation retails for $37 and is available on Sephora.com and Hudabeauty.com.
More makeup products and trends we love:
Now, watch Ariana Greenblatt's 10-minute contour routine:
