When Pan-Cake foundation (its actual name!) launched in 1935, there were just five shades — not nearly enough. Ninety years and thousands upon thousands of shades, brands, and options later, it can still feel impossible to find a perfect color and formula match. I know this entirely too well: I’ve spent the past two decades on a quest to find my own holy-grail foundation, and for the past four months, that quest dovetailed beautifully with writing this guide.With the help of makeup artists, a cosmetic chemist, and a dermatologist, I sorted through 91 foundations. Then I rigorously tested 34 with my Wirecutter colleagues and arrived at four standouts in a variety of formulations: a luxe medium-coverage foundation, a silky-sheer liquid, a drugstore sleeper hit in stick form, and a powder classic.