Goodness. If there’s a fresher-feeling foundation out there with the same amount of coverage and glow and real-skin finish then I want to know about it. Becca’s Aqua Luminous foundation ticks so many boxes when it comes to a summertime face base that it’s almost perfect. I say almost, because the whole “teat pipette” dispensary system gets on my nerves (same sort as the Bobbi Brown serum foundation, though the Becca one is admittedly far neater – the Bobbi pipette is, quite frankly, inept) but as I’ve said in many a video – I can overlook that flaw. The Aqua Luminous finish is just so lovely, I don’t mind having to drip-drip the product onto the back of my hand before brushing it on.

I’ve been using the shade “Fair” which, considering it’s supposed to be the lightest (actually just spotted “Porcelain”, so perhaps that’s new) is not that light at all. It’s just right for me, and I’m definitely not the fairest of them all.

It’s worth noting, though, that this foundation does seem to end up lighter in tone than it looks when first swiped on the skin – it’s sort of like reverse oxidation! Definitely worth applying it properly, to a large area of your cheek and jaw, rather than just striping it onto your face to find a colour match. It’s gorgeously sheer and blends out really well, so getting an exact-to-the-nearest-fraction-of-a-shade match isn’t quite so important as it would be if you were going for a heavy-duty pan-stick sort of base.

See how it seems slightly fairer than you’d imagine from the swatch in the first photograph? But it definitely lives up to its name – so luminous and so fresh to apply. I’ve done some skin close-ups so that you can see coverage (good) and propensity to sit in fine lines (none). Here they are:

Note that we are really zoomed in here and things look a bit weird (nobody is ever going to see your face this close up unless they wear binoculars to bed), but you can definitely see that the redness is knocked back, blemishes nearly entirely covered and darkness beneath the eye reduced. I actually think that I could probably go a shade darker (“light”) and warm things up for summer, now that I examine my photographs! And look at that glow – radiant but not shimmery, dewy but not sweaty or waxy.

Aqua Luminous does not give full coverage by any stretch of the imagination, but it has a fabulous, juicy sheen and it sits well on the skin, whether it’s the dry, flaky patches around my nose or the oilier parts of my cheeks. I’d say that this is a dream foundation for those with normal to dry skin, any oiler then perhaps use with a little more caution. You can get away with using just a few drops of Aqua Luminous, sheered out with fingertips (this looks utterly beautiful if you’re having a good skin day and just want to even things out a bit) or apply it with a brush for better coverage.

This is definitely one to look into if you’re after that dewy, healthy finish from your foundation but require a bit more coverage than a tinted moisturiser. If you want to see it “in action” then take a look at my Top 5 Most-Used Foundations video.

Aqua Luminous is £34 at Cult Beauty here. There are nine shades.