Meghan Markle’s Wedding Foundation Is Exactly as Good as It Looked
The royal wedding was just under a month ago, and news around the day’s events is somehow still coming out. But this is no minor detail we bring to you. This is big news about the most interesting part of Meghan Markle’s wedding day beauty routine: the barely-there foundation that inspired tweets and freckle-envy around the world.
Details have been hard to come by on the products that celebrity makeup artist Daniel Martin used for Meghan’s wedding makeup, which was to be expected. Buckingham Palace is notoriously tight-lipped about the royals’ beauty routines, and unlike their outfits, there’s usually no way to ID a product from afar. Yet the beauty world’s whisper network has come through. Nothing is officially confirmed, but rumor has it that Meghan’s foundation was Dior’s newest formula, the Backstage Face & Body Foundation. With the line hitting shelves today, here’s everything to know about how the $40 foundation plays.
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The release comes to us as part of the brand’s new—and more affordable—sister line, Dior Backstage. Peter Phillips, the creative director of Dior Makeup, had full reign over the new line, and came up with a slate of products intended to be both high-performing and intuitive to use. These are familiar claims in the beauty world, and they’re joined by a number you’ll also recognize: The Face & Body Foundation comes in a total of 40 shades, which has become the go-to benchmark for foundation lines. Those 40 are divided between six skin undertones, including cool, cool rosy, neutral, warm, warm olive, and warm peach. The foundation is joined by two eye palettes, two brow palettes, a highlighter palette, contour palette, and lip palette, along with 14 brushes.
In case anyone’s forgotten, Meghan’s skin was the stuff that dreams and dermatological aspirations are made of. Contending with late spring weather couldn’t have been easy, but the hundreds of thousands of photos prove what everyone saw that day: Meghan’s skin was fresh, dewy, and glowing, with her freckles in full view by personal request. Incredible photo opps and gentle lighting could only do so much, and after testing the Face & Body, I feel comfortable saying this foundation must have taken her the rest of the way.
Dior describes the foundation’s finish as luminous, but it doesn’t get there in the usual hydration-packed way. Which is a good thing, because where those formulas can stay moist and slip and slide throughout the day (and glom onto your phone in the grossest way), the Face & Body has a thin, watercolor quality to it that sinks into your skin. Phillips describes it to Glamour as a film-like texture, which lends itself to layering for adjustable coverage. After moisturizing, Phillips says that he applies it with a flat brush all over, and then uses a sponge or his fingers to blend. Thin layers were crucial for avoiding a melt-down situation at the royal wedding, he says, which is solid advice; Sir John said he used a similar layering technique to create Beyoncé’s Teflon face at Coachella, and between the two of them, no greater endorsement can exist.
After testing the foundation for a week on my combination skin, I can report that I won’t be putting it down anytime soon. Going by the name and squeeze-bottle packaging, the Face & Body will likely attract comparisons to MAC’s Studio Face and Body Foundation. They’re somewhat similar, but MAC’s has a much wetter formula, where the Dior dries down quickly. My skin leans dry, and if I bring a mirror an inch away from my face, the Dior can read a little powdery. But from a conversational distance away, it has a light, evening-out effect that looks like a second skin. From Meghan’s face to my own—because why stop at copying her mouth massage, when her foundation is up for grabs?
Dior Backstage Face & Body Foundation, $40, sephora.com
Related Stories:
–Meghan Markle’s Wedding Makeup Let Her Natural Beauty (and Her Freckles) Show Through
–The Internet Finally Figured Out Meghan Markle’s Favorite Lipstick
–Meghan Markle’s Makeup Artist Shares Every Detail of Her Royal Wedding Look
Watch a Glamour Staffer Try the Mouth Massage Meghan Markle Swears By: