2026's "Cloud Skin" Trend Puts This 2016-Era Foundation Front and Center
It's reviving a love-it-or-hate-it formula.
Allow me to take you back in time. The year is 2016. You were just introduced to The Crown after binge-watching the first season of Stranger Things. You're listening to Beyoncé's latest album, Lemonade, as you do your makeup. You reach for your favorite matte, full-coverage foundation, and apply it with abandon.
Fast forward to 2020, and dewy, light-reflecting foundations are in. Your goal is to achieve a glow—no matter if you call it glass, jello, dolphin, or glazed donut skin (or something else entirely...let's be honest, there were too many monikers).
Now, let's root ourselves firmly in the present. In 2026, "cloud skin" is one of the biggest beauty trends. This refers to a soft, blurred, and velvety complexin with a soft, emanating glow (think of how a fluffy cloud catches the light at golden hour). People are achieving the look via (gasp!) matte foundations...but these aren't the cakey, powdery ones of yesteryear. No, these are flawless, high-tech, and skin-loving formulas that make the skin look smooth and lit from within. Still, matte foundations are officially *back.* Ahead, learn how to achieve cloud skin, straight from professional makeup artists. Plus, shop the best soft-focus foundations.
What Is Cloud Skin?
If the thought of reviving your long-abandoned matte foundations fills you with fear, know that 2026's lineup is different. Take it from Kristen Fortier, Makeup Artist & Product Innovation Lead for Crunchi Cosmetics, "The goal is a no-filter-needed look." It's not about heavy, cakey-looking coverage. It's about something in between true matte and radiant. (Call it a conscious response to the super dewy trend of recent years...it just goes to show how cyclical beauty trends really are).
Celebrity Makeup Artist Emily Gray agrees. "'Cloud skin' is a trend that is basically a new way of describing a soft, matte complexion. Cloud skin is still a lighter foundation routine (as opposed to a full coverage matte foundation), however, it is like the matte version of the popular dewy skin finish. This is a popular trend right now because it still goes along the lines of minimal makeup, but it is better for people with oily skin and it is better for film and flash photography. The cloud skin effect gives your skin almost a filter quality."
How to Achieve Cloud Skin
Cloud skin starts with skin prep. "You still want to keep your skin very hydrated and glowy underneath the makeup, so prep your skin according to your skin type," Gray says. "For oily skin, I would choose a lighter moisturizer, maybe a gel moisturizer, and for drier skin, really concentrate on extra hydration, and choose a heavier moisturizer. I’m a little extra, so I like to mix in a bit of a liquid highlighter into the moisturizer to give the skin a lit-from-within effect."
Fortier recommends adding a primer to that line-up to minimize the appearance of fine lines, pores, and texture and help the makeup grip for all-day wear. She likes Crunchi's Smart Primer ($50).
Once the skin is smooth and hydrated, it's time to reach for the *right* foundation.
The Best Cloud-Skin Foundations
Hermès debuted its first-ever foundation, and it's as luxurious as you'd expect. While it's certainly pricey, the formula is incredibly elegant and is basically cloud skin, bottled. I know this because I was lucky enough to test it. Here's what I wrote after wearing it for two weeks straight. "It looked smooth, like a second skin, blurred my pores, and made my complexion look like it had a natural, lit-from-within luminosity." Enough said.
This iconic foundation was recently upgraded to be even more blendable and breathable. It has a new "full-of-life" matte finish and an impressive 36-hour wear.
Nars has nailed the "soft-focus" skin formula time and time again. This new foundation is no exception. It feels weightless, disguises pores, offers medium-to-full coverage, and features a 24-hour wear time. As if that's not enough, it features skin-loving ingredients like dipeptide and niacinamide, making it acne-friendly.
Leave it to Dior to create a natural-looking foundation that blurs pores, offers skincare benefits, and creates a cloud-skin complexion. This new formula is so luxe and has high "favorite foundation" potential.
As with the aforementioned Hermès foundation, this Gucci Beauty one is cloud skin, bottled. (I mean, "luminous matte" is basically a synonym for the 2026 trend.) The full-coverage formula looks soft, smooth, and flawless on the skin.
If you're sticking to a budget or you just don't want to pay an arm and a leg for a cloud-skin foundation, I get it, and I have recommendations. The first is Maybelline's Fit Me Matte + Poreless Oil Free Liquid Foundation. It's blurring, soft-focus, flawless, and budget-friendly.
My second drugstore recommendation is L'Oréal's True Match Super Blendable Foundation, which has a spot-on natural-matte finish. Each shade is formulated with up six pigments for a precise skin-tone match. As the brand puts it, it's so blendable that "you can’t tell where your foundation ends, and your skin begins."
Here's my third and final drugstore recommendation. This TikTok-viral foundation truly lives up to the hype. It delivers full coverage with a "lumi-matte" finish (again, it's basically cloud skin, bottled). I love that it's infused with amino acids and features a high-tech, flexible film technology that resists sweat, water, and transfer for up to 30 hours.
How We Chose
Beauty editor Kaitlyn McLintock has nearly a decade of experience testing and reviewing beauty products. She curated this list of the best cloud-skin foundations by consulting two professional makeup artists, personally putting products to the test, polling her fellow Who What Wear editors, and reading real-world reviews. At the end of it all, she had a robust, deeply researched list.
Why Trust Us
At Who What Wear, we know that beauty isn't one-size-fits-all. Over the years, our editors have tested thousands of products—including skincare, makeup, haircare, and nails—while also working closely with trusted experts, like renowned dermatologists, celebrity makeup artists, and other leading industry insiders. Together, this ensures every guide is well-researched, inclusive, and relevant to you.
We focus on formulas that deliver, whether they're affordable favorites or luxury investments. Our product selection is based on tangible results, ingredient know-how, and what we'd truly recommend to our closest friends and family members.
