Index / Giorgio Armani / Luminous Silk Foundation
Giorgio Armani

Luminous Silk Foundation.

Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation
Foundation

About this product

A lightweight foundation with sheer to medium coverage and a luminous, skin-like finish, designed to even out redness while maintaining a natural appearance.

Full ingredients

Guru Score

69%

Mixed

10 experts · Strong agreement
10Gurus
7Yay
2Mixed
1Nay
#18 in FoundationSee the ranking →

What they liked

  • Lightweight and hydrating without feeling oily
  • Blends seamlessly, wears all day without fading
  • Fragrant formula

What they flagged

  • Shade range skews orange and yellow
  • Too sheer on its own for medium coverage

What the gurus are saying

This foundation earns consistent praise for its lightweight feel, natural finish, and ability to blur imperfections without looking heavy, making it a go-to for wedding day makeup and everyday wear. However, it contains fragrance and isopropyl myristate (a comedogenic ingredient), which means people with acne-prone or very sensitive skin should patch-test first, and those with oily skin may need primer and powder to keep it stable. Shade matching skews warm across the range, so deeper skin tones should swatch carefully to avoid an orange cast.
Synthesized from 10 expert reviews · most recent take August 2026

What the gurus are saying.

Every take we've logged from this product's reviews across YouTube. Click any row to watch the moment they said it.

All takes Yay takes Nay takes Mixed takes Hide sponsored
~Nay
"I was traumatized after I read the ingredients list on this because I've been using it for years, and it's actually very bad for aging skin as well. It's got isopropyl myristate, comedogenic four or five out of five, so very high up. They've added fragrance. It's got a stunning finish, but clinically it's problematic. The final verdict is it's high risk for breakouts and PIH in acne-prone skin of color. Avoid."
~Mixed
"Even the recent reformulation with Armani Luminous Silk, the lighter shades, though they did start to include a little bit more of the olive and ultramarine tones into their foundation, the pigments into their foundations were still quite orange. [...] The shade Mont Blanc [...] is a little bit too on the orange, yellowy orange side. [...] The formula does feel quite nice, I have to say, like hydrating for a matte foundation."
All 7 takes from Alexandra Anele
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"Even the recent reformulation with Armani Luminous Silk, the lighter shades, though they did start to include a little bit more of the olive and ultramarine tones into their foundation, the pigments into their foundations were still quite orange. [...] The shade Mont Blanc [...] is a little bit too on the orange, yellowy orange side. [...] The formula does feel quite nice, I have to say, like hydrating for a matte foundation."
I'm here to teach you how I make my makeup look like skinnn
"I'm gonna mix it with a pump of Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk now the reason for that is mostly just because the color I want I want to get as close to my like actual color as possible."
I swatched ALL my foundations to find the most olive shades
"Lots of yellow in this foundation and when I compare it to my actual skin where you can see like the green and stuff it's definitely like it doesn't contain that green content. It slightly leans more towards the orange. Also scented, just saying. Beautiful formula, love, but it's perfumed, just so you know."
Are yall ready for a bridal makeup challenge??
"I'm an oily girl but [...] I just like bake the hell out of it. [...] I have matte foundations that I like but I don't know if they would necessarily be considered matte. [...] I just will use really really small amounts of it. [...] I kind of gravitate towards like every type of foundation. I like all of them except for like the extremely dewy ones because they'll just make me like a serum. A serum foundation just makes me like so oily I can't. [...] Sometimes it's just in the amount."
Let’s see if these are REALLY Olive
"When I look in the mirror, you can see that I have a lot more of this yellowy green color in my hand than is actually on my face, so the color has neutralized the tone of my face a bit. [...] It's definitely not a perfect match, but that's not the end of the world, I'm just waiting for it to oxidize a little more. Personally, because I'm just very yellow looking, [...] I think I prefer the old color, because it [...] has a little more brightness to it. [...] When I compare it to this, the Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation is definitely more on the slightly red side than the yellow side, and [...] if there's a little too much red in a foundation, that can make the olive in my skin look kind of drab. It really just removes the saturation and the color from my skin. That being said, the coverage is fine, it looks pretty. It's definitely not meant to be a heavy coverage or even really medium coverage foundation in my opinion, it's more [...] like a very natural coverage. I went over this area three times and didn't really build up coverage, but I was using a sponge, so if you do want to build up more coverage with this type of foundation, a brush is probably best."
You'll love these
"This is the Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. This is an OG for many people for a reason. It's a beautiful formula. Now if you're someone who's ridiculously oily you probably aren't going to like it. But I will say that it's gorgeous. This is a gorgeous like I would say medium coverage foundation. It is extremely hydrating without being like oily for me at least. As someone who does tend to lean a little bit more oily, I love this foundation for so many reasons. It has like a serum feel and kind of a satiny feel. Like as you blend it out it gives a little bit of this like moussey satin kind of feel. You can build it up a little bit but it's definitely not a full coverage foundation. It's more like somewhere between medium coverage."
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"I did try to go in with the Armani foundation on its own but it's very very light. I typically use that shade when I mix it with other things, so I ended up mixing it with the MAC and it was fine."
~Yay
"It does have fragrance though. It is pretty fragranced. So, if you can't do that, you will most likely want to pass on this. [...] But I'm actually quite impressed with this. This is actually really nice. I actually quite like it and it's very lightweight."
~Yay
"This is a beautiful foundation. I love it. But I did not want that on my wedding day. [...] It's very sheer. It literally just takes out redness. It's basically like your skin, but better without redness because I have rosacea. [...] Obviously, it needs to be blended out with a Beauty Blender, but that is like, that's full coverage."
~Mixed
"The one thing I have learned though [...] with foundation you definitely don't need nearly as much as you need when you put on like a BB cream. You need a lot with the BB cream, but with the foundation it's just a very tiny amount."
~Yay
"This is the Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. [...] I feel like one of the world's most favorite foundations and I've heard such good things about it for so many years. It's what people wear on their wedding day, it feels like skin and looks like skin all day long, it never fails them. No matter how much texture your skin has, this foundation lays over top and doesn't emphasize it. It makes skin look smooth and glowy. It's one of the things I always look for in a product: would you wear it on a wedding day, would it look good on a wedding day on somebody else. I know so many people that say it's their Holy Grail Foundation forever and ever."
All 2 takes from Allie Glines
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"The Armani Luminous Silk is one of those iconic formulas that I feel like will never go away. These are things that will last a lifetime and beyond, products that will never be discontinued. I actually personally don't get as much use out of the Luminous Silk on its own, but I saw a makeup artist combine it with another foundation and I was like, that's actually brilliant because I love how the Luminous Silk can shear out the coverage when mixed with a more matte formula."
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"This is the Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. [...] I feel like one of the world's most favorite foundations and I've heard such good things about it for so many years. It's what people wear on their wedding day, it feels like skin and looks like skin all day long, it never fails them. No matter how much texture your skin has, this foundation lays over top and doesn't emphasize it. It makes skin look smooth and glowy. It's one of the things I always look for in a product: would you wear it on a wedding day, would it look good on a wedding day on somebody else. I know so many people that say it's their Holy Grail Foundation forever and ever."
~Yay
"I use Armani foundations which I just absolutely love."
All 2 takes from Caroline Hirons
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"I use Armani foundations which I just absolutely love."
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"I used to do Armani Cosmetics. Luminous Silk. Is it the hype everyone says? Oh, it's amazing. And I know it sounds like it, but do you know what I mean when I say this? A bit gritty. A bit gritty. I don't mean actual grit. I just mean like it wasn't smooth. I don't know if it was my face, clearly, because it's one of the best-selling foundations of all time. It's iconic. But I never found it to be as smooth as I expected. Maybe it could have been me or maybe I just had a dodgy batch."
~Yay
"It's the perfect foundation for a light to medium coverage for someone with normal to dry skin. It's not great for super oily skin, but it has a beautiful finish to it. It's very skin-like but it's very very radiant and it just wears like a dream the whole entire day. You will look flawless. It feels very high-end. You can see through it, it doesn't look like makeup. It's lovely."
All 2 takes from HotandFlashy
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"It's the perfect foundation for a light to medium coverage for someone with normal to dry skin. It's not great for super oily skin, but it has a beautiful finish to it. It's very skin-like but it's very very radiant and it just wears like a dream the whole entire day. You will look flawless. It feels very high-end. You can see through it, it doesn't look like makeup. It's lovely."
I HATED The Original Armani Luminous Silk - Did They FIX IT? Mature Skin Review
"I hated the original Armani Luminous Silk when I reviewed it back in 2016, it was a perfectly average foundation for sixty four dollars, it had lots of skin flakes, looked spotty, settled into the wrinkles on my forehead, felt drying to wear, and looked oilier from a distance. I was hoping the reformulation would be better, but on my skin it settled into wrinkles right away, including places where foundation never usually settles for me, it doesn't look one hundred percent natural and skin like, it's a little uneven and splotchy, it has a strong fragrance, and by five hours in it was already breaking up on the surface and wearing off on my chin and forehead even though it claims twenty four hour wear. By ten hours it wasn't terrible, but there was nothing really right with it either, it got a little shinier and dry and scaly around my nose, and my chin was completely worn off. I didn't like how it looked all day. It's certainly not going to be a holy grail for me, it's more like a solid medium."
~Yay
"This has been probably our top foundation for so long, so many years. I've used this on everyone because I know exactly what I'm getting with this foundation. I know what it's going to look like on camera, I know how it's going to wear, I know how it's going to interact with most skin types. [...] Even people with more oily skin, I'll put a little bit of primer with it, I'll set it with powder and it still performs beautifully. Don't let the fact that it has luminous in the title deter you if you have more oily skin. I think this is like just one of the best foundations it's ever been formulated and put on the market. [...] I personally think the Armani Foundation really straddles the line of being a skin tint and a foundation. That's what makes it so beautiful. [...] It gives you that actual coverage but it's so sheer in some ways, it's so light."
All 2 takes from Mixed Makeup
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"This has been probably our top foundation for so long, so many years. I've used this on everyone because I know exactly what I'm getting with this foundation. I know what it's going to look like on camera, I know how it's going to wear, I know how it's going to interact with most skin types. [...] Even people with more oily skin, I'll put a little bit of primer with it, I'll set it with powder and it still performs beautifully. Don't let the fact that it has luminous in the title deter you if you have more oily skin. I think this is like just one of the best foundations it's ever been formulated and put on the market. [...] I personally think the Armani Foundation really straddles the line of being a skin tint and a foundation. That's what makes it so beautiful. [...] It gives you that actual coverage but it's so sheer in some ways, it's so light."
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"I use Luminous Silk by Armani and I absolutely love how this feels on my skin."
~Yay
"Something very light and sheer, then I like Armani. [...] It's so great and I think the color matches are beautiful."

What the evidence says.

Independent of what the gurus think, this is what the published research supports about the main active ingredients here.

Sunscreen filters

Sun protection is the best evidenced way to slow visible ageing, and the filters are what does the work. Mineral and chemical filters both protect when a product is applied thickly enough and often enough, which is where most people fall short rather than on the choice of filter.

Source: DermNet

Frequently asked.

What is Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation?

A lightweight foundation with sheer to medium coverage and a luminous, skin-like finish, designed to even out redness while maintaining a natural appearance.

Is Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation worth it?

The gurus mostly approve it, but with enough reservations to keep it in the middle at a Guru Score of 69%.

What is Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation's Guru Score?

Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation holds a Guru Score of 69%. That is our read on how warmly the experts talk about it, based on the verdicts of 10 expert reviewers we have collected.

Who is Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation best for?

Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation is generally suited to sensitive skin.

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