The Ordinary’s Colours concealers will be on sale until the end of January, while the foundations will be discontinued in June
The Ordinary is one of our favourite beauty brands and while it’s renowned for its ingredient-led skincare lines, it also sells a collection of makeup under its Colours range.
This includes concealers as well as its Serum, and Coverage foundations. Both of which feature highly in our best foundation list.
Citing high costs and a complex production process, The Ordinary has now said that it can’t afford to keep making the Colours products and will be discontinuing the concealers on 30 January 2023. The foundations will then remain on sale until June this year because being taken off the shelves for good.
In an Instagram post announcing the news, The Ordinary wrote: “Despite many people loving the formulas, we didn’t manage to reach enough of you with our Colours range and the products have not been profitable since their launch. Although we really strongly believe in both products, their popularity simply was not strong enough to make their production sustainable.”
The post did add that “Colour may return in our more distant future” but for now, The Ordinary want to concentrate on its skincare line.
If you haven’t tried the foundations or concealers before, or simply want to stock up before they go off sale, you can buy them from Boots and Lookfantastic. Obviously don’t get too attached to them…
Or, if you’re looking for alternatives you can check out our best high-street foundation UK guide. We’ve also put a couple of options below.
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These alternatives are based on real-world tests and come from our best foundation spreadsheet.
£14 | Buy now
e.l.f The e.l.f Camo CC cream is more expensive than The Ordinary foundation but it performs just as well.
In fact, the scores on our foundation group test are almost identical.
This means that its coverage was better than expected on the orange and strawberry test, and released the same amount of oil onto the blotting paper.
Both products are fully vegan and cruelty-free, yet the e.l.f Camo CC cream contains SPF 30. By comparison, The Ordinary foundation contains SPF 15.
The extra money you spend on this e.l.f version goes towards the higher SPF but also the inclusion of collagen, niacinamide and peptides.
This not only helps boost the complexion and helps repair the skin barrier, but it also helps control oil production making this a great full-coverage foundation for all skin types, but particularly oily.
Buy now
£6.99 | Buy now
SheGlam If you’re not fussed about having SPF in your foundation, then a great alternative to The Ordinary Colours range is the Skinfluencer Balm from SheGlam.
In our foundation group test, its full coverage was better than expected on the orange and strawberry test, as was the case with The Ordinary.
It released far less oil onto the blotting paper and is also vegan and cruelty-free.
Buy now
Victoria is founder and editor-in-chief of mamabella, freelance journalist and Mum. She has a passion for empowering people to feel beautiful whatever their age, size, skin type and budget
