These are the best-ever French makeup products to add to your makeup bag! French women are known for their effortless approach to beauty. Makeup is minimal, discrete, and mainly used to enhance one’s natural features rather than cover them up. French women like to use multi-purpose makeup products with blendable textures and buildable coverage, which can be easily applied with fingertips. Think serum foundations, water tints, cream eyeshadows, bronzer powders, highlighter blush, and hydrating lipsticks.
So, if you are looking to update your makeup bag, look no further! Being French, I’ve compiled a list of the best makeup products —from the best French makeup brands— to help you achieve a fresh and radiant look. These are cult-favorite and are regular best-sellers in France.
I independently select all products featured on Leonce Chenal. If you buy something through my links, I may earn an affiliate commission, at no cost to you. I only recommend products I genuinely love.
1. Best Foundation: Sisley Phyto-Teint Nude
Sisley Paris Phyto-Teint Nude is one of my absolute favorite tinted moisturizers! This second-skin oil-free skincare foundation blends perfectly with the skin, providing a bare-skin feel, an undetectable finish, and very light coverage. Skin is hydrated, plump, and smooth, and small imperfections are blurred.
2. Best Eyeshadow: Chanel Ombre Première
I absolutely love the Chanel Ombre Première! This cream eyeshadow boasts a long-lasting formula with a smooth texture that effortlessly glides on, leaving a luminous satin finish. You can easily apply it with your fingertips or using the accompanying brush applicators. You can wear it alone or mix and match to create your own shades.
If you’re looking for a palette, I highly recommend The Diorshow 5 Couleurs. It’s an iconic eyeshadow palette that delivers long-wearing colors with a creamy, comfortable texture.
3. Best Powder: Hermès Radiant Glow Powder
The Hermès Plein Air Radiant Glow Powder will bring out the natural radiance of your skin with a delicate, silky powder. This universal golden-pink shade is perfect for any complexion. The formula is enriched with emollients for all-day softness and comfort.
4. Best Bronzer: Guerlain Terracotta Light
Guerlain Terracotta Light Healthy Glow Bronzer is one of my favorite bronzer powders! It offers the perfect blend of blush, bronzer, and highlight tones for a healthy, natural-looking, sunkissed glow all year round. This powder is very easy to use and never leaves behind orange coloring, lines, or marks. Start by sweeping across the forehead, down and around the cheekbones, then down along the jawline to the chin.
5. Best Mascara: Chanel Le Volume
Chanel Le Volume is one of the best mascaras that I’ve tried! This mascara is designed to provide instant volume and rich color to your lashes with just one stroke. Its advanced formula expands and plumps up your lashes, while the unique Snowflakes brush features a combination of long and short bristles to create a dramatic and eye-catching effect.
6. Best Lipstick: Le Balm Aime x La Bouche Rouge
Le Balm Aime x La Bouche Rouge is a hybrid product that combines the benefits of balm and lipstick. Its beautiful pink and brown pigments complement your natural lip color, giving you a healthy and radiant glow. The Balm comes with a handcrafted leather case that is refillable and features Aime’s signature color.
Enriched with jojoba oil, squalene, and shea butter, Le Balm deeply hydrates, comforts, and plumps lips. Additionally, hyaluronic acid restores moisture, while vitamin E acts as a potent antioxidant. It’s the perfect everyday lipstick!
7. Best Nail Polish: Chanel Le Vernis
Chanel Le Vernis 111 Ballerina is one of my all-time favorite nail polishes. This nail polish not only adds a glossy sheen to your nails but also provides long-lasting protection. Its formula is enriched with a high concentration of pigments and naturally derived camellia eco-ceramides to ensure an even result with unparalleled hold.
8. Best Highlighter: YSL Touche Éclat Pen
YSL Touche Éclat Pen is one of the best French makeup products you need in your beauty bag! This shimmer and glitter-free liquid concealer is infused with light pigments that blend seamlessly to provide radiant makeup with a natural glow. Enriched with hyaluronic acid and vitamin E, its formula brings light to the face while smoothing fine lines and wrinkles and lifting your features.
9. Best Concealer: Sisley Stylo Correct Concealer Pen
Sisley’s Stylo Correct Concealer Pen is a luminous matte concealer that caters to different skin tones due to its neutral undertone. I absolutely love this product! This concealer provides a flawless complexion and a luminous matte finish that lasts all day. It effectively conceals blemishes, smoothens out imperfections, and diminishes pigment flaws.
10. Best Blush: Sisley L’Orchidée
Sisley L’Ochidée Highlighter Blush is my ultimate favorite blush! I love the idea of glowing, radiant skin displayed through highlighters and plenty of blush for flushed cheeks. I use the Sisley L’Orchidée in color 3 L’Orchidee Corail that I apply slightly higher on my cheekbones and across the bridge of my nose to fake a sun-kissed look. Then, I blend upward at an angle for a soft, lifting effect. Et voilà!
