#DamnGood Foundations Guide! Why Armani, NARS & Estée Lauder Re-Formulated (and Our New Faves to Buy ASAP)

Breaking Beauty Podcast

Dear Media, Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins

Style541811, Arts, Society & Culture, Magazineeditors, Fashion & Beauty, Jilldunn, Carlenehiggins, Beautyeditors, Fashion, Beautyexpert, Beauty

4.7 • 996 Ratings

🗓️ 22 April 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s 2026 and everyone’s asking: why has my Holy Grail foundation been reformulated?! We’re explaining the reason behind the industry-wide shakeup this week. From a $16.99 drugstore dupe to a luxury splurge at $145 — we’re uncovering what’s #DamnGood now in the next-gen foundation landscape.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

Why major foundation brands — including Armani, Estée Lauder and NARS — have been forced to reformulate their most iconic products
How the removal of cyclopentasiloxane has changed the texture, wear and shade ranges of cult classics
What the serum foundation trend means for your skin — and which new ones break through with their performance
Which nouveau matte formulas are worth trying if you're oily-skinned — and which ones to skip
Whether luxury foundations justify their price tags (including one at $145 US)

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*Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, all products reviewed are gratis media samples submitted for editorial consideration.*

Hosts: Carlene Higgins and Jill Dunn

Theme song, used with permission: Cherry Bomb by Saya 

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast is a Dear Media production.
0:08.1	Welcome to Breaking Beauty, the podcast all about the breakthrough people, products, and moments in beauty.
0:13.8	We're your host, Jill Dunn and Carleen Higgins.
0:24.9	Welcome back to Breaking Beauty Podcast, everyone.
0:25.9	Happy Wednesday.
0:28.4	I'm one of your co-hosts Jill Dunn.
0:31.5	I'm here with Carleen Higgins, like we are every single week.
0:32.0	Hey, Carlene.
0:32.8	Hi, everyone.
0:56.6	And, of course, we are two longtime magazine beauty editors turned beauty podcasters. And maybe some of you are new to the show because last week we had an epic guest who has a lot of fans, Erica Taylor. And we teased in that episode last week, Carleen, that we were going to be doing a hashtag damn good review episode. Yes. So if you're not familiar every month, we do one episode where we review all of the products on the market. It could be seasonal, like best of spring or best
1:02.0	of fall, or we just choose a theme. And so those are called our damn good episodes. We test
1:07.7	drive everything, give you our honest reviews. And that's what we have in store
1:11.7	today on the hot, hot topic of foundations. That's right. We did our best of spring. That was in March.
1:19.2	And we were going to talk about all the new foundation launches at the time. But frankly,
1:23.7	there was just too much ground to cover. Without question in our years of doing this as podcasters and as beauty editors,
1:31.2	there's never been more foundation news than there has been this year.
1:35.7	So that's the topic of the hour.
1:38.3	And we have a lot to talk about everything from, you know, the standouts to the flops, comparing, contrasting, really putting
1:46.9	our editor hats on it, and explaining the why behind why a lot of this is happening.
1:52.5	Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest headline of the season, and I'm sure a lot of you've
1:56.1	been personally impacted if your foundation, are the reformulations.
2:01.2	Yes.
	...

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