Key Takeaways:
Tinted beauty products sit at one of the most commercially desirable yet scientifically demanding intersections in modern beauty. As consumers gravitate toward streamlined routines, hybrid formulas that promise skincare benefits alongside complexion correction have become a strategic priority for brands. However, delivering a tinted moisturizer, serum, or sunscreen that truly performs across undertones, skin tones, textures, and environments remains one of the industry’s most persistent challenges.
Unlike traditional color cosmetics, tinted skincare must serve as both a treatment and a tint, especially if it is designed to appeal to a wide range of consumers. That dual mandate places extraordinary pressure on formulation systems, pigment science, stability testing, and shade strategy, exposing why so many products still oxidize, flashback, shift in tone, or fall short on inclusivity.
The global hybrid makeup market—the category that encompasses tinted foundations, tinted moisturizers, and other hybrid complexion products—was estimated at around $19.61 billion in 2023. It is projected to grow to $29.43 billion by 2030 at a 6.1% CAGR. Also, while categories like the tinted moisturizer was valued at approximately $5.3 billion in 2023 and is expected to nearly double to about $10.2 billion by 2033 at a 6.8% CAGR, the tinted sunscreen market was valued at about $1.05 billion in 2024 and is expected to grow to approximately $1.42 billion by 2031.
Tinted Skincare Is More Technical Than Makeup
From a chemistry perspective, tinted skincare is not simply a lighter version of foundation. “Tinted skincare is mainly intended for skincare hybrid formulations, so this can be easily used in daily skincare routines,” Merve Samur, cosmetic chemist and founder of The INCI Lab, told BeautyMatter. Historically, the difficulty stemmed from the fact that “the pigment load needed better dispersion and emulsifier systems that could provide texture and stability at the same time.”
Most tinted skincare formulas are built on water-heavy emulsions. “So adding more oil or oil-soluble ingredients like pigments is challenging for the product's stability,” Samur said. Older water-in-oil systems could support pigment loads, but they were often “heavier in texture,” making them unsuitable for skincare-first positioning.
Anete Vabule, CEO and co-founder of Selfnamed, described tinted skincare as “one of the most challenging tasks in product formulation.” Unlike classic makeup, she explained, “the base in tinted skincare products is often light, highly water-based, and rich in actives. This limits the level of coverage and also impacts the stability of the pigments.”
Dr. Harry Sarkas, Chief Scientific Officer at Solésence, added that the difficulty is often structural. “Sometimes shade matching is difficult for tinted skincare because a skincare benefit may be at odds with a color cosmetic vehicle,” he said. Achieving success across hybrid products “requires a level of ingredient and formulation expertise” that goes beyond either category alone.
The biggest technical hurdle in tinted products is not shade, it’s ingredient coexistence. “Definitely the stability,” Samur said, noting that “some active ingredients do need a higher or lower pH, which might affect the stability of the pigments.” Viscosity, dispersing agents, and polarity all become critical variables when pigments and actives share a single system.
Vabule framed the challenge more bluntly. “One needs to not only mix the ingredients, but also manipulate their properties to get them to sit in one product formula,” she said, noting that actives are often water-soluble and pH-sensitive, while pigments are hydrophobic, insoluble, and require specific dispersion. The result is a narrower pH range, sensory compromises, and an increased risk of oxidation.
In tinted products such as sunscreens, constraints are even more stringent. Sarkas explained that high sunscreen active concentrations can “limit the available ‘space’ in a formula that a developer might need for color customization.” His team addresses this through patented delivery technologies that allow brands to “deliver the maximum benefit from a given amount of active,” freeing formulation room for aesthetic performance.
Oxidation, Flashback, and Shade Shifting
Despite advances in pigment technology, oxidation and shade shifting remain consumer pain points. According to Samur, oxidation may be caused by “the oil profile that is used or pH drift, while light sensitivity makes packaging a key component.” Exposure to air, particularly in non-airless packaging, accelerates degradation.
Vabule added that oxidation is often driven by “the oxidation of iron oxides, especially in contact with air and skin sebum.” Meanwhile, flashback, she said, is linked to “the particle size of titanium dioxide and zinc oxide and their light-reflecting properties.” Sarkas noted that these are fundamentally stabilization issues. Again, he and his team mitigates them through “patented and proprietary chemical approaches and processing strategies that mitigate unwanted interactions across the formula.”
Across all experts, pigment dispersion emerges as non-negotiable. “The quality of the pigment is really important,” Samur said. “The better-coated/treated pigment will enable better dispersion and better stability.” Temperature during pigment addition, premixing protocols, and emollient polarity all influence final performance, especially at scale.
Getting undertones right remains one of the most visible failures in tinted beauty. Vabule emphasized that shades must be tested “on real skin and on the specific skin tone the product is made for.” Testing deeper shades on lighter skin, she noted, “will not give reliable information.”
From a formulation standpoint, undertones are built deliberately. “We develop shades suitable for different undertones by working with white and black pigments, and with red or yellow pigments to adjust the undertone,” Vabule explained.
Samur relies heavily on swatching and hue adjustment. “My key way of developing different shades is color swatching with an ideal shade that my client picks and adjusting the hues/undertones afterwards,” she said, adding that predispersed pigments and encapsulation technologies have significantly improved precision.
At Solésence, Sarkas described a more technical route. “We achieve color quality by leveraging proprietary technologies that allow for complete customization through control of a product’s hue and color purity/saturation independently of the product’s luminance.”
What Inclusivity Actually Looks Like in the Lab
True inclusivity, the experts agreed, starts long before launch. “In the lab, everything starts with the brief,” Samur said. For start-ups, she acknowledged, “even 2-3 shades is hard to achieve,” while larger companies have more flexibility.
Vabule stressed that formulation without testing is meaningless. “There is no point in formulating products ‘on paper’ without ever testing them on real people.” Stability must match shade accuracy. “Even if one develops the perfect shade, it is useless if its stability is compromised one year after the bottle is filled.”
Sarkas described inclusivity as a multilayered process combining “technology innovation, state-of-the-art analytical tools, and real-time human feedback.” His team conducts shade-matching evaluations with diverse panels to assess real-world performance.
Mineral UV filters remain one of the hardest variables to reconcile with tint. “Mineral sunscreen is inevitable to have a white tint,” Samur said. “Adding pigments to this matrix is making it more and more complicated.” Vabule noted that zinc oxide and titanium dioxide often create an “ashy” effect, particularly on deeper skin tones. Coated minerals and precise pigment balancing can help but trade-offs remain. Sarkas points to innovation as the unlock. Solésence’s zinc oxide technology “reinvents zinc oxide to improve both its performance and aesthetics,” enabling mineral-based tinted products that work across skin tones.
Across this discourse, shade equity cannot be retrofitted. “This should start right in the beginning when discussing the brief,” Samur said. Late-stage shade expansion often compromises stability, performance, or brand trust. Sarkas warned that delays can impact repurchase rates and escalate quickly through social media dissatisfaction. Vabule agreed, saying that defining the lightest and darkest shades early allows brands to build coherent palettes and testing strategies.
That said, if there is one blind spot, it is real-world performance. “Packaging compatibility and the right storage conditions for the pigments” are often underestimated, Samur said. Vabule expanded this further, saying that “Often, a formula appears stable in the laboratory, but on the skin, optical changes occur that are much more significant to the consumer than classical stability parameters.”
Getting tinted beauty products right, then, is not about seeking a single breakthrough, but about precision, planning, and respect for complexity, both scientific and human. In a category where failure is instantly visible, the brands that succeed are the ones willing to invest early, test broadly, and formulate with humility.