The internet is a beautiful, chaotic place. Every week there’s a new beauty hack that promises flawless skin, blurred pores, and a complexion so radiant you supposedly won’t need a filter ever again. 

I’ve seen everything from people applying foundation with a frozen spoon to mixing concealer with lip gloss because “trust the process.” Spoiler: sometimes we should absolutely not trust the process.

But lately, TikTok has been obsessed with mixing foundation with other products to create completely new textures and finishes. These three hacks are at least somewhat reasonable. 

People are mixing their foundation with moisturizer, with sunscreen, and with liquid highlighter. Some swear it’s life-changing. Some say it’s terrible. And because my curiosity is stronger than my self-preservation instincts, I decided to try all three in one week.

Let me walk you through exactly what happened. The good, the weird, the greasy, the surprisingly successful, and the moments where I questioned why I do this to myself.

Hack #1: Mixing Foundation With Moisturizer (AKA the Tinted Moisturizer DIY)

This one is the least chaotic of the three. It actually makes sense. People have been doing this for years, but TikTok recently resurrected it like it discovered something brand-new. 

The idea is simple: thin out your foundation with a bit of moisturizer to create your own skin tint. Cheaper, customizable, and supposedly more natural-looking than most actual tinted moisturizers on the market.

I went into this hack with high hopes, mostly because my dry skin loves anything that adds hydration. When I mixed them together on the back of my hand, the blend felt promising. It’s smoother, creamier, and very much like something I would actually want on my face.

The application was surprisingly easy. It spread across my skin the way a dream spreads across a cloud. It gave me this even, natural finish that somehow made me look awake even though I was running on four hours of sleep.

The coverage was light but believable. I looked like myself, just with fewer regrets. It blurred things enough to feel like makeup, but not so much that I looked overly done. It gave me that subtle glow of someone who drinks water regularly, which is absolutely not true.

The real test, though, was the wear time. Around hour five, the finish still looked soft and comfortable. Around hour eight, it was dewier in a “healthy skin” way. My forehead, which usually loves to betray me, stayed surprisingly calm. 

If this hack were a person, it would be the reliable friend who reminds you to drink water and never judges your life choices. Would I do it again? Absolutely. It’s basically a way to make your foundation last longer while looking more natural. Zero chaos. Almost boring. But good.

Hack #2: Mixing Foundation With Sunscreen (AKA the Lazy Girl SPF Shortcut)

Now this one had me nervous. I’ve seen creators mix foundation with high-SPF sunscreen and claim they invented the perfect morning routine shortcut. 

A single step that hydrates, protects, brightens, and perfects your skin. It sounds convenient. It sounds genius. It sounds too good to be true. And usually, when something sounds like that, it means something is hiding in the shadows waiting to cause chaos.

I mixed a pea-sized amount of sunscreen with my foundation, and immediately the texture changed. It got thinner and more slippery, almost like a serum. 

When I applied it to my face, it spread easily but felt strangely off. The finish was more radiant than I expected. In fact, I looked borderline shiny, but in a summer-glowy, beach-vacation kind of way. I didn’t hate it.

But then the real test began: the wear time. At first, everything seemed fine. My skin felt soft and slightly tacky, which isn’t unusual for sunscreen-based products. But around hour three, I noticed my T-zone becoming extremely dewy like “I may have just finished a cardio class.” 

By hour five, the foundation started slipping in small patches around my nose and chin. And by hour seven, the shine had escalated into a situation I can only describe as reflective. My forehead could have signaled planes.

Some parts of my face looked nice and radiant. Other parts looked like the makeup was actively separating. It wasn’t a patchy mess, but it wasn’t stable either. And the strangest part? My skin felt slightly itchy, which is my body’s way of telling me it is deeply confused by my choices.

In theory, this hack works. In practice, you need the right sunscreen, the right foundation, the right ratio, and the right skin type. And even then, it’s a little unpredictable. Would I do it again? Only if I planned to be on camera for thirty minutes and then immediately wash my face.

Hack #3: Mixing Foundation With Liquid Highlighter (AKA the Instant Glow Filter Skin)

This one felt like the prettiest hack, and also the riskiest. Mixing foundation with liquid highlighter is supposed to give you ultra-radiant, luminous, lit-from-within skin that looks like you were born on a cloud. 

People who do this often look incredible in their videos. But videos lie. Lighting lies. Ring lights are basically legal cheats. And I wanted to know what it looked like in real-life, unfiltered, unforgiving bathroom lighting.

I mixed a small drop of highlighter into my foundation. The blend immediately shimmered like fairy dust. When I applied it to my skin, I almost gasped because it really did make everything look glowy and flattering. My cheeks had a beautiful sheen, my forehead looked healthy, and even my under-eyes seemed a little brighter.

But here’s the thing about glow: it has an expiration date. Around hour four, it crossed into borderline greasy territory. And by hour six, my entire face looked like I had dunked myself into a vat of body oil. 

The worst part? The shimmer settled into textures I didn’t even know I had. Pores, fine lines, tiny bumps, they all got highlighted like they were auditioning for a close-up.

However, in photos and videos, the look remained stunning. If you want to look unbelievably glowy for selfies, Zoom calls, or short-lived social situations, this hack is a win. If you want something long-lasting and reliable, proceed with caution.

Final Thoughts

After a full week of testing these foundation-mixing hacks, I learned a few things. The moisturizer hack is genuinely good and realistically something I’ll keep doing because it makes my skin look soft, natural, and reliably hydrated. 

The sunscreen hack is convenient but unpredictable, which means it might work in certain situations but absolutely not in others. And the highlighter hack is one of those things that looks gorgeous for an hour and then slowly unravels into a shiny mystery.

If you want me to test more viral makeup experiments, just say the word. My face is apparently committed to this journey.