In 2014, the head of colour at one of ILIA's major retail partners told Sasha Plavsic something blunt: you are not a lip brand, you are a complexion brand. Plavsic had started ILIA in Vancouver in 2011 with a handful of lip tints. She listened. She discontinued nearly three quarters of her products and rebuilt the line around complexion and skincare actives, and the brand is now about 70% complexion, according to Daily Hive. One sentence, one pivot.

That is why ILIA foundation looks the way it does. Plavsic has a design background, with typography in London and branding work in New York and Los Angeles, and she began ILIA after re-creating a safe, natural lip balm when her mother urged her to read the ingredient list. Her brother Zac is now her business partner. The brand's own line, which I like, is that not every natural ingredient is good for the skin, nor is every synthetic one bad. That is a fair, sceptical read of clean makeup, and it explains why the bases lean on skincare actives.

The trick is to see the three bases as a ladder. The ILIA Skin Rewind Complexion Stick is the first rung for buildable medium coverage. The brand says it has a natural-matte finish, up to 12 hours of wear, ceramides, peptides and squalane, and 42 shades, and you can use it as foundation, concealer or contour. True Skin Serum Foundation is the medium-coverage liquid with niacinamide, and Super Serum Skin Tint SPF 40 is the lightest, with mineral SPF, niacinamide and hyaluronic acid, in 30 shades.

Then the helpers. Skin Blur Serum Concealer is the dab-on fix, Soft Focus Finishing Powder and Soft Focus Setting Powder calm shine, and Lightshift and Sunshift add a highlighter and a bronzer in cream form. A published edit centres the skin tint, so this one stays on the foundations and the stick.

Build the base first, then decide what else your face needs. Cream colour goes on after base and before powder, and most of it needs only a fingertip.

ILIA's colour side stays small. The Multi-Stick Cream Blush + Highlighter + Lip Tint is one stick for three jobs, which suits a bag or a desk drawer. Balmy Tint Hydrating Lip Balm brings back the lip roots of the brand. Overglaze is a hydrating gloss for when you want shine, and Limitless Lash is a clean lengthening mascara.

Then the skincare half of the routine. True Skin Radiant Priming Serum is the step before the serum foundation, for anyone who wants the glow to start under the makeup. I would use it only on the days I plan to wear the heavier bases. Then come the tools: the ILIA Complexion Brush, the Sculpting Brush and Perfecting Buff Brush. Use the Complexion Brush for liquids and the Buff Brush for stick, which is how I would divide them.

Here is a test I like. Put the stick on one side of your face and the serum foundation on the other and look in natural light after an hour. You will see which finish your skin prefers, and that is worth more than any swatch.

What I would skip: a priming serum and a stick on a morning when you are in a hurry. Pick the tint and go.

Swatch a foundation on your jaw and neck, not your wrist, and check it again after five minutes. Skin tints in particular change as they settle.

If you are comparing to ILIA, the pool is full of good options. Westman Atelier's Vital Skin Foundation Stick is the closest in format to the Skin Rewind stick. Its Suprême Bio-Complex Liquid Foundation is the liquid option from the same house. Kosas' Revealer Skin-Improving Foundation has SPF 25. Tower 28's Swipe Serum is a non-acnegenic foundation with medium buildable coverage, worth looking at if you break out easily.

Saie's Glowy Super Skin Tint has hyaluronic acid, and Summer Fridays' Sheer Skin Tint adds squalane as well as hyaluronic acid. NUDESTIX's Tinted Blur is another stick, and Ami Colé's Skin-Enhancing foundation stick is a lightweight, blurring one. Sticks are a nice fit for a travel pouch.

Next to ILIA, the real difference is in how each brand defines clean. ILIA's line is that not every natural ingredient is good and not every synthetic one is bad. Read each label and choose by skin, not by word.

What I would skip: a stick foundation applied dry over flaky skin. A little moisturizer first, and it will blend.

Wash a foundation brush every week. Old product builds up in the bristles, and it will make even a good base look patchy.

Westman Atelier's Clean Foundation Brush and Blender II are the two Westman Atelier tools here, the most considered pieces in the group. Saie's The Base Brush For Complexion is a good all-rounder, and Tower 28's Big Blender Brush is the larger blender. A brush puts product on the skin in thin layers, while a sponge presses it in, so pick by the finish you want.

For powder, talc-free seems to be the theme. LAWLESS' Skin-Smoothing Perfecting Powder is a talc-free powder for a smoother finish. bareMinerals' Original Mineral Veil is a talc-free loose setting powder. Saie's Slip Tint is a baked one with a bit of colour, and Makeup by Mario's SurrealSkin Soft Blur Setting Powder finishes the group. ILIA's own Soft Focus powders from the first grid belong in this shortlist too.

A pairing I like: a stick foundation with a dense brush to blend, then a light press of powder only on the T-zone. It keeps the skin looking like skin.

What I would skip: loose powder over a dry, dewy skin tint. It will flatten the glow you paid attention to.

For a first ILIA base, I would choose by mood. The Skin Rewind stick if you want one thing to carry, the serum foundation for more polish, and the skin tint for a day with SPF and not much else. I would match the shade in daylight and give it a week.

ILIA began with lip tints and a mother's warning about a label. Then one sentence turned it into a complexion brand. You do not need a meeting with a buyer to find your own version of that: just notice which product you reach for first each morning, and build the rest around it. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together L'Oréal Foundation and Versed Skin Tint, the Serum Tint Behind the Brand.