Becca closed permanently last month, and many beauty fans – myself included – will miss it. The Australian-born makeup brand was the first to promote a pared-back, natural and cool-girl aesthetic to women of all skin tones and ages, and its quality was outstanding. Becca suffered an identity crisis at the dawn of Instagram, when lurid marketing and dubious collaborations jarred with its signature chic look and philosophy. When it finally returned to its roots, the pandemic meant even the brand’s best efforts couldn’t save Becca.
Last spring fans reacted to the news of its imminent closure like saloon patrons to prohibition. Remaining stock of Becca’s hero products vanished within days, leaving latecomers bereft. But dry your eyes: I have been researching alternatives.
The most faithful dupe of Becca’s deservedly famous Under Eye Brightening Corrector is Beauty Pie’s gratifyingly shameless Superluminous Undereye Genius (£7.24 to members, £20 to non-members, 0.14oz). Anyone mourning the original, or placing crippling bids on eBay dregs, can head straight to Beauty Pie and never look back. It’s available in the exact same two shades as Becca’s – pink (light/medium) for those with grey/blue circles, and peach (medium/deep) for those with brown, regardless of underlying skin tone – and the same dense, creamy, less-is-definitely-more texture, and one could barely slide a Rizla between the two products.
Fans of the equally prized Becca Backlight Priming Filter have a trickier job. I’ve searched for a replacement, but nothing is quite the same. The truest match is Nars Radiance Primer SPF35 (£29, 30ml), which has the same delicate, grownup pearlescence as the Becca, only it’s delivered via tube rather than pump (its SPF here is of little use, since you need apply much less primer than would be required for sun protection). The closest pump-out primer was Becca’s sister brand Smashbox’s new Photo Finish Vitamin Glow (£30, 30ml), ideal for oilier skins. Nearest in effect was Charlotte Tilbury’s Hollywood Flawless Filter (£34, 30ml, a staple in my own makeup bag), which imparts a uniform radiance and wears as well on its own as it does under foundation. It’s also the most suitable for dry skins.
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Finally, my much-loved Becca Sunlit Bronzer, the most subtle and foolproof of bronzing powders, is most closely replicated by Hourglass’s glowy, natural-looking Ambient Lighting Bronzer, a whopping £24 for the travel size, but worth every cent.
