I Tried 16 Mattifying Foundations For Oily Skin So You Don't Have To

*dives into a Scrooge McDuck–sized vault of blotting papers*

Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed

Hi, I'm Claire and I'm a certified Oil Monster™. I've been greasy my whole life, and have never met a foundation that didn't make me look like a glazed donut .005 seconds after putting it on.

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Yet, my Instagram is filled with smooth-skinned, matte-faced goddesses and it makes me wonder, could I ever have that shine-free look?

@sandralambeck / Via instagram.com

I tested 16 different mattifying foundations that promised to make my face a grease-free wonderland, to see which ones actually kept their word.

Alice Mongkongllite / Claire de Louraille / BuzzFeed

1. Maybelline Fit Me! Foundation — $7.99.

2. La Roche-Posay Effaclar BB Blur — $29.99.

3. Kat Von D Lock-It Foundation — $35.

4. Sonia Kashuk Soft Focus Satin Matte Foundation — $12.99.

5. Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid Mousse Foundation — $4.99.

6. Urban Decay All Nighter Waterproof Longwear Liquid Foundation — $40.

7. Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Makeup — $39.50.

8. L'Oréal Infallible Pro-Matte 24 Hour Foundation — $12.99.

9. CoverGirl Clean Matte Liquid Foundation — $5.69.

10. Make Up For Ever Mat Velvet + Matifying Foundation — $39.

11. Tarte Amazonian Clay Full Coverage Foundation — $39.

12. Hourglass Immaculate Liquid Powder Foundation — $56.

13. Lancôme Teint Idol Ultra 24H Long Wear Foundation — $47.

14. Revlon Colorstay Makeup for Combination/Oily Skin — $9.69.

15. Stila Aqua Glow Serum Foundation — $45.

16. BareMinerals Complexion Rescue Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream — $29.50.

Disclaimer: I did get a bunch of these for free but I absolutely was not obligated to say anything positive about them, or write about them at all.

Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed

#1 Keep my skin routine the same every day/night.

#2 Do not use any lotions/primers because it's Me vs. The Foundations.

#3 I could not touch my face under any circumstances, in case I wiped away any grease and messed up my results. (Honestly, sitting in my own face juice was the worst part of this whole thing.)

Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed

I started by having a "control" day — a day without products on my face, just to see how oily my face naturally is. By the end of the day, my skin produced seven oil-blotting sheets' worth of grease.

Claire de Louraille / BuzzFeed

Oil-blotting sheets used: 7

Yummy.

Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed

Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed

Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed

Drugstore winner: Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid Mousse Foundation for $4.99.

Claire de Louraille / BuzzFeed

Oil-blotting sheets used: 4.75

Shades available: 8 (different kinds of beige. Step up your game, Rimmel!)

OK, this came out of the tube looking like a hamster turd and I set my expectations accordingly. No one wants to walk around with hamster turd makeup on their face. But I was surprised at how well it spread and blended, and I definitely noticed an instant matte-ness. I figured that since all the other drugstore brands were shit, Rimmel would be too, but by 2:53 p.m. it was outperforming many of the much more expensive brands. It didn't drip into my eyes, and I never felt a crazy grease buildup around commonly oily places. It loses a point for having so much makeup come off on the blotting sheets, and loses many points for coming in only eight marginally different shades of beige, but for how cheap this shit is, it's definitely a winner.

Drugstore loser: Sonia Kashuk Soft Focus Satin Matte Foundation for $12.99.

Claire de Louraille / BuzzFeed

Oil-blotting sheets used: 6

Shades available: 6 (And they're all white :/ )

First of all, why would anyone use the word SATIN to describe a mattifying foundation? Satin is literally the shiniest fabric in the world. Satin is also cheap and looks good on zero people, which is, actually, a fitting description for this foundation. It went on really nicely at first and tbh, I definitely thought this was gonna be a winner, but by 2 p.m. I could feel grease pooling around my nostrils and it only got worse from there. By 2:28 it started dripping into my eyes and by 4 p.m. I was practically in tears with how bad this stuff stung my peepers. Sonia Kashuk's foundation didn't use up as many oil-blotting sheets as I thought it would based on how greasy it made my face feel, but I couldn't wait to take this off my face and throw it in the garbage where it belongs.

Drugstore ULTIMATE LOSER: Maybelline Fit Me! Foundation for $7.99.

Claire de Louraille / BuzzFeed, Nina Mohan / BuzzFeed

Oil-blotting sheets used: 9!!!!!!!

Shades available: 24

FUCK. THIS. FOUNDATION. I was really excited to try it since commenters go nuts for it whenever I do an oily skin product post. Like most of the foundations that turned out to be awful, the Fit Me! foundation went on nicely at first. I truly thought this was going to be a favorite...FOR ALL OF 25 MINUTES until my face became a minefield for oil. I was so oily i was surprised our government didn't hit me up. (Badum-tiss.) Oh my god, the oil: It was everywhere, even in places that don't normally get that oily, like my upper lip. And I wore this on my birthday, which was one of my worst decisions because I actually had to walk in public while looking like a glazed donut. I hated everything about this foundation.

Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed

Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed

Luxury winner: Hourglass Immaculate Liquid Powder Foundation for $56.

Claire de Louraille / Via BuzzFeed

Oil-blotting sheets used: 3.5

Shades available: 16

Honestly, I sort of hate that this won because it's the most expensive foundation and I hate it when expensive things actually work better than the cheaper versions. But guys, this Hourglass Immaculate foundation is the real deal. It cut my face oil production in half. IN HALF!!! I didn't even know that was a thing that could happen. When the first bit splooped out of the pump I thought the texture felt weird, almost thin and not quite watery (but also sort of watery), yet as soon as it touched my face it felt like a powder. IT'S MAGIC, GUYS! By 4:45 I was feeling a wee bit greasy, but nothing too bad.

PS: YES I KNOW THE FOUNDATION DOESN'T MATCH ME! I wish it did so then I could keep it and use it for the rest of my life.

Luxury winner #2: Kat Von D Lock-It Foundation for $35.

Claire de Louraille / BuzzFeed

Oil-blotting sheets used: 5

Shades available: 31

Oh my god the Lock-It foundation is GREAT. It's an excellent option if you want a fuller-coverage foundation, but you definitely NEED a beauty blender of some kind to make this foundation work. (Most people already have beauty blenders but I'm talking to the lazy girls like me.) You only need a teeny tiny amount to get solid coverage over your entire face (so the bottle will last forever), and it'll stay looking amazing all day.

If you're anti Kat Von D for whatever reason, you could use the Urban Decay All Nighter foundation for $40, which was pretty similar to the Lock-It foundation except waaaay more foundation came off on the oil-blotting sheets at the end of the day.

Luxury loser: Stila Aqua Glow Serum Foundation for $45.

Claire de Louraille / BuzzFeed, April Salud / Claire de Louraille / BuzzFeed

Oil-blotting sheets used: 7

Shades available: 10

Before we even get to how horrible this foundation was on my face, we need to talk about the strange af applicator. As you untwist the bottle, a button on the top of the lip pops up, but then you have to pull the serum wand all the way out of the bottle, and then push the button to have an inordinate amount of foundation squelch out onto whatever makeup applicator you're using. IMPRACTICAL AS HELL. I get that serums are ~in~ now, but I don't need my foundation to also be a serum.

While the Aqua Glow foundation gave me the skin texture of Data from Star Trek, it gets a half point for not dripping into my eyes until around 5:15 p.m. But when it did get in my eyes, holy COW did it burn. This foundation made me feel like I was wearing a mask made of oil all day, and I swear Michael Phelps could have swum laps in the grease pools around my nose. To be fair, this isn't ~technically~ a foundation for oily skin, but no foundation should be this difficult or this horrible.

Alice Mongkongllite / BuzzFeed

1. I know this is gonna sound stupid, but I didn't realize there were so many things to look for in a foundation for oily skin. I just figured that the least shiny I was, the better. Yet some foundations made me very shiny, but didn't make me feel oily. While others didn't make me look crazy shiny but made my face feel gross.

2. POC get waaaay left out in the drugstore makeup world. It truly can't be that hard to make foundations in colors different than 50-shades-of-white, get it together makeup companies!

3. If I was made of money, I would spend the $91 and use the Hourglass Immaculate for work/day and the Lock-It foundation for nights out. But since I'm not made of money, I'll probably just end up using the $4 Rimmel.

4. My skin is my skin, meaning it's different from your skin, so what worked for me may not work for you. #deepthoughts

Wanna know more about the other foundations I didn't talk about? Did I skip your favorite foundation for oily skin? Want me to try other makeup for oily skin? Just lmk in the comments — who knows, your suggestion could be used in a future BuzzFeed post!