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As the makeup industry continues to evolve in 2024, the role of brands has significantly shifted over the years.
Makeup has transcended beyond being just enhancement tools; now, brands themselves serve as statements of self-expression and empowerment.
From long-standing pioneers with decades of experience behind them to trailblazing newbies, many makeup brands in 2024 are committed to enhancing quality, promoting inclusivity, and practising greener, cleaner pursuits.
With so many incredible brands out there, it’s difficult to select just a few. However, our list of the top makeup brands of 2024 offers something for everyone, no matter where they are on their unique beauty journey.
Estée Lauder has been a visionary brand since the 1940s. Its founders, Estée Lauder and her husband Joseph Lauder, saw an opportunity to create and sell luxurious face creams to women at salons.
It was this idea of selling ‘aspiration’ while still being completely relatable that drove Estée Lauder to be successful in business.
She believed that women should express themselves through the power of beauty every day of their lives, rather than just saving their expensive potions and lotions for special occasions.
Over the decades that followed, the Estée Lauder Company grew exponentially, acquiring other major brands and continuing to develop the Estée Lauder brand in over 150 countries.
With luxury at its core, the brand ensures that their products make everyone feel special every day.
The Double Wear Stay-in-Place Liquid Foundation is a number 1 best-selling foundation for a reason!
Not only is this iconic foundation incredibly long-lasting, with up to 24-hour staying power, but it is also waterproof, humidity-proof, and sweat-resistant, ensuring you get the best out of your makeup, especially if you have oily skin and struggle with makeup longevity.
The cashmere-matte finish ensures that your makeup always stays in place and your skin looks velvety smooth for the most flawless results. With 60 shades available in the range, this foundation offers everyone a touch of luxury every day.
Estée Lauder masters foundation, and their Futurist Hydra Rescue Moisturising Foundation SPF 45 is an innovative product that infuses the goodness of skincare into a light daily foundation.
Formulated with probiotics, vitamins, and ion-charged water complex, this foundation cares for your skin, allowing it to breathe underneath your makeup and keep it glowing.
This is the perfect foundation for you if you are looking for extra hydration. Its buildable coverage gives a lightweight feel to the skin and flawless results, making it a solid choice of foundation for light to medium coverage for day-to-day wear.
Dior first made its mark on the world back in the late 1940s within the couture fashion world. Back then, it redefined fashion with the iconic “New Look,” which was seen as a true revolution in women’s fashion, ushering in a new era in a post-war world.
The brand’s first beauty line was introduced just a few short years later with the emergence of the iconic Miss Dior perfume. Since its inception, Dior has always been synonymous with luxury and elegance.
Today, the makeup range nods to its heritage with timeless products that were sought after by Hollywood stars and ordinary women alike in the 40s and 50s, updated with innovative ingredients and technology for 2024.
At its heart is always glamour, making everyone feel like a silver-screen star whenever they put on their makeup.
The Dior Forever Foundation is a skincare/makeup hybrid infused with floral extracts and long-lasting staying power, ensuring your makeup looks flawless and stays fresh for longer.
With a matte finish, this luxurious foundation is perfect for anyone with oily skin and those looking to prevent makeup transfer. It also features six undertones—Neutral, Warm, Warm Olive, Warm Peach, Cool, and Cool Rosy—adapting to your skin for a truly skin-like finish.
The Dior Lip Glow Oil is your go-to for high-gloss, high-intensity, and high-definition lip colour. This tinted lip gloss elevates your natural lip shade with an extra hint of glamour—truly the epitome of Dior!
Unlike some glosses that can feel sticky, this formula is delightfully smooth, keeping your lips hydrated and protected. You can even personalise your gloss by having it engraved with your initials, a thoughtful touch that highlights Dior’s status as one of the world’s leading beauty brands.
Hourglass was not Carissa Janes’ first venture into the world of makeup. As one of the masterminds behind Urban Decay, Carissa saw a space for a socially-conscious luxury makeup brand in 2004 when she founded Hourglass.
Drawing from her own struggles with problem skin, Carissa was determined to create a foundation that addressed these issues. Her vision for the perfect foundation included being fragrance-free and oil-free, yet containing SPF for skin protection.
After Angelina Jolie used the Veil Fluid Makeup on the set of “Mr. And Mrs. Smith,” Hourglass began gaining a devoted following. The brand quickly became synonymous with sleek sophistication and high-performance, emphasising clean, active ingredients in its products.
Achieving high coverage that also has a lightweight feel can seem contradictory but is very real with the Vanish Airbrush Concealer.
This concealer offers long-lasting, crease-resistant wear for up to 16 hours while feeling incredibly lightweight on the skin, allowing it to breathe and delivering smooth results.
It effectively blurs imperfections, providing an airbrushed look in real life. This is what a true concealer should be!
Hourglass is always searching for ways to make makeup better, and their translucent setting powder is testament to that.
Unlike traditional talc-based powders, this ultra-fine powder has light-reflecting particles to give the skin a soft-focus and blur imperfections, while giving you an invisible veil on the skin.
Before Fenty Beauty, celebrity beauty ranges were often considered mere novelties. And then, singer Rihanna challenged this perception in 2017 by launching her very own brand.
The release of their inaugural product, the Pro Filt’r Foundation, initially in 40 shades (later expanded to 50), had the beauty industry buzzing with excitement over Rihanna’s venture into makeup.
It was at this point that Fenty Beauty became the IT celebrity brand, showing that celebrities taking on makeup can certainly be more than a passing fad.
Seven years later, Fenty Beauty has become one of the leading, trend-setting, and most in-demand makeup brands in the world.
Their focus on providing high-quality products and emphasizing the importance of diversity within the beauty industry has propelled Fenty Beauty to legendary status.
Some days are no-makeup makeup days and for that, you need the Eaze Drop Blurring Skin Tint. In just a few seconds, your complexion will be evened out and imperfections blurred for a smooth, radiant finish.
Whether you keep it light or build up on the coverage, this skin tint is exceptional at blurring and perfecting, while also keeping your skin hydrated.
The Gloss Bomb Cream Colour Drip Lip Gloss is the perfect lip gloss to wear on its own or layered over lipstick. It plumps the lip with just a swipe of the applicator and leaves behind a non-sticky feel.
Your lips will feel much more hydrated thanks to the fusion of Vitamin A, whenever you pop on your lip gloss and will look fuller at the same time. It really is the perfect lip gloss to add to your bag, put on and go about your day.
In 1994, makeup artist François Nars launched a beauty line at Barneys in New York, starting out with twelve lipsticks. Over the last 30 years, NARS has become a huge success among makeup pros and enthusiasts alike.
The “Orgasm” collection, particularly the Orgasm blush, has soared to iconic status as its most renowned product. Despite its minimalist branding—featuring sleek, stylish matte black packaging adorned with the white brand name—the products themselves are far from understated.
They boast high-quality formulas with intensely pigmented colours that enhance the wearer’s natural beauty.
The Radiant Creamy Concealer is one of the best out there as far as concealers go, thanks to the multi-purpose benefits of the product.
With light-diffusing technology, you can blur imperfections and smooth out the skin for up to 16 hours of long-lasting wear. But the capabilities of the concealer don’t just stop at concealing.
You can also use this product to contour and highlight. As it is perfect for all skin types, you can be assured that your skin will adapt to it. Dry skin is kept hydrated, and oily skin is kept at bay.
The Powder Blushes are a true makeup bag staple. They are the perfect blushes to wear day in and day out. Whether you want a subtle flush of colour to the cheeks or a more pigmented, intense colour payoff, you can have it all.
And the best thing is, your makeup will look incredibly fresh and well put-together, even hours after application.
Orgasm was the original shade, and since then, the range has expanded to 20, coming in shimmer, matte, and satin finishes. There’s a NARS Blush for everyone; we’re convinced.
Makeup Artist to the stars, Charlotte Tilbury brought the magic of Hollywood Glamour to the public in 2013 when she launched her first collection of red-carpet-ready products at Selfridges in London.
Over the last decade, Charlotte Tilbury has become a standout, critically acclaimed brand that has inspired legions of people to embrace their glamorous side.
While glamour and glitz are central to Charlotte Tilbury’s identity, there’s more to the brand than its iconic rose-gold packaging.
Behind the scenes, innovative and ground-breaking formulas are at work, showcasing that makeup is not just about enhancing beauty but also encompasses elements of self-care and skincare.
We’d be here for a while if we were to list every single product in Charlotte’s Magic Cream, but let’s just say that there is a ton of goodness in this product, such as vitamins C & E, Hyaluronic Acid, Lift Mesh Technology, Plump-effect peptide complex, and floral extracts.
Intertwined together, these ingredients work to plump and firm the skin, keeping it hydrated and supple. It’s a quick skin revival that leaves your skin feeling incredibly smooth and primed for makeup application.
The Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray is incredibly lightweight and comfortable on the skin and is exceptionally good at locking your makeup into place for up to 16 hours.
Unlike heavier alternatives, it creates an invisible veil on the skin that ensures your makeup remains waterproof without melting, transferring, or settling into fine lines.
It also supports skin health with its blend of aloe vera and vitamins/extracts to calm skin sensitivities.
Maybelline is the oldest makeup brand on our list with over 100 years of experience in budget-friendly makeup for the everyday makeup bag.
With the passing of time, Maybelline has aged like fine wine, continuing to move with the times and create products that reflect the world around it. In the 90s, arguably the most famous era for Maybelline, a new slogan was introduced: “Maybe she’s born with it.
Maybe it’s Maybelline.” This slogan has since become one of the most memorable and widely quoted in advertising history, solidifying Maybelline’s place as a trusted brand in the beauty industry.
The Maybelline Sky High Mascara has had somewhat of a cult following on social media over the last couple of years. With a volumizing and lengthening formula, this mascara makes an impact whether you have short or long lashes.
Now coming in a range of colours, you can also make an even bolder impact with your makeup. The mascara is also Infused with bamboo extracts to ensure your lashes stay lifted and volumized without weighing them down, resulting in longer, fuller lashes that last.
The Express Brow Ultra Slim pencil is perfect for achieving precision, especially if you have sparse brows. Its ultra-fine 1.5mm tip provides total control to fill in any gaps, resulting in instantly fuller brows.
Whether you prefer a natural, subtle look or something more bold, you can create defined brows quickly. Once applied, you can confidently go about your day knowing your brows will stay flawless without needing touch-ups.
NYX Professional Makeup has always stood for self-expression and individualism. With a diverse range of products from bold lip colours to versatile eyeshadow palettes, NYX promotes experimentation with makeup, whether you’re a makeup enthusiast, pro, or newbie.
It is their mission to make makeup accessible to everyone, encouraging their makeup to be used as a tool to not only enhance your beauty but also to reflect the essence of who you are.
NYX often embraces trends and creativity through their line of products but also shows that you can be anyone you want to be and define your own story.
Break free from traditional black and brown eyeliners with NYX Epic Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner, where you become the artist of your makeup canvas.
This versatile range of high-impact coloured liners allows you to create a myriad of looks, from striking graphic eyes in vibrant purples and blues to festival-ready styles in shimmering shades.
Once applied, this eyeliner stays put throughout the day, ensuring you can enjoy your makeup without worry. With this Liquid Eyeliner, the possibilities for expressing your creativity are endless.
We’re firm believers that lip makeup should always feel like velvet or suede on the lips, and the NYX Suede Matte Lip Liner delivers just that.
Effortlessly glide the pencil over your lips with minimal skipping, creating a smooth canvas for the rest of your lip makeup.
This lip liner not only enhances precision but also helps prevent lipstick from bleeding or feathering, acting as a barrier to keep your makeup in place throughout the day.
One thing that links these brands together is that they embody a commitment to quality, inclusivity, and sustainability.
Brands like Estée Lauder and their hero product, the Double Wear Stay-in-Place Foundation, have earned their reputation thanks to their high-performing formulas and the ability to make people feel their best selves whenever they put their makeup on.
Alongside Estee Lauder, all of these brands have redefined makeup as more than mere enhancement tools, but also as a means to celebrate individuality and creativity.
In 2024, these brands continue to inspire and empower, setting new standards and reshaping the future of makeup.
