There is one rule that half the beauty industry quietly keeps to itself: too much moisturiser before foundation can bring out your fine lines instead of hiding them. Not because the cream is bad - but because more does not mean better. Makeup artist Xabier Rodrigues explains the mechanism that few people understand.

“If the skin is very dry, a rich moisturiser can help us work the foundation better,” he says. On dry skin that excess really does help the foundation glide on more easily. The problem starts when the skin gets overloaded. Over the course of the day the face moves - you smile, talk, frown - and the foundation shifts and gathers right in those fine lines. “When the skin is over-hydrated, all the pigments end up piled up in those lines,” Rodrigues says. Those tiny dots you sometimes see up close are simply makeup piled into the pores.

Why cream emphasises the lines

Skin is alive - it has pores, texture, folds and movement. That is why makeup changes throughout the day. Too rich a cream, an overloaded serum or several layers of treatment create a surface the foundation slides over and breaks up on more easily. On oily skin the effect is even more visible: the sebum mixes with the cream, the foundation, the concealer and the powder and “all of it creates a kind of paste,” Rodrigues says. And that paste emphasises the lines and pores exactly where you were after lightness.

Neither too much, nor too little

Skin wants balance. Overdo it, and you shift the makeup. Put too little, and the foundation cracks. In both cases the lines become more visible. Dry skin wants comfort, oily skin wants lighter textures, and dehydrated skin may want water but not a heavy cream. The key is to watch how your skin behaves that day - not to follow a universal rule from an advert.

The simplest trick

Let the skin breathe. Rodrigues advises applying cream and waiting “a few minutes” before you start with the foundation. That time lets the skin absorb the treatment and meet the foundation with a more stable texture. A practical tip: while you wait, moisturise your hands or body. By the time you return to the face, the skin is ready but without any excess on the surface. And one more thing - don't demonise powder. A well-chosen powder, applied where it belongs, sets and softens the texture. The fear that powder ages you is more myth than fact.