12 Brands Like Rare Beauty to Try in 2026

If you love Rare Beauty, the closest brands are Half Magic for expressive colour, Tower 28 for sensitive skin, Glossier for a softer blush, and e.l.f. for the lowest price. The trick is knowing which part of Rare Beauty you are actually replacing: the sub-$30 price, the playful product design, or the founder mission behind it.

Most "brands like Rare Beauty" lists send you straight to $50 clean-luxury makeup, which is not remotely the same shopping experience as a $23 liquid blush. So this one is sorted differently. Every brand below is grouped by the specific reason people buy Rare Beauty in the first place, with an honest price band attached, and each one sells direct so you can see the full shade range instead of a retailer's edit.

Why people look for Rare Beauty alternatives

Rare Beauty launched in September 2020 and pulls three levers at once. It is cheap enough to impulse-buy, the packaging and formulas are fun rather than clinical, and one percent of every sale goes to the Rare Impact Fund, which Selena Gomez launched in July 2020 with a ten-year, $100 million goal for youth mental health access.

Very few brands do all three. Most alternatives are strong on one of them. The common reason people go looking, judging by shopper threads, is simpler than any of that: Soft Pinch Liquid Blush is so pigmented that a single pump can be too much, and they want a formula with more room for error. If you want the wider category view first, our best makeup brands roundup covers the field beyond the Rare-adjacent set.

How we picked these brands

• Shares a real pull. Every brand here matches Rare Beauty on price, on expressive design, or on founder mission. Vague "dewy and clean" was not enough.
• A hero product you can name. Each brand has one product people actually seek out, not a catalogue of interchangeable tubes.
• Honest pricing. We flag the price band up front so nothing on this list is a surprise at checkout.
• Shade range or skin testing that holds up. Especially for deeper tones and reactive skin, where the category still underdelivers.
• Sells direct. All twelve run their own store, so you get the full range rather than a curated shelf.

At a glance

1. Half Magic Beauty

Half Magic Beauty was founded by Donni Davy, the makeup artist behind the looks on HBO's Euphoria, and it is the closest thing on this list to Rare Beauty's playful side. The line is vegan and cruelty free, and cult items like Glitterpuck and the Blushing Lizard shades are built for makeup you notice rather than makeup that disappears.

Best for expression-first shoppers who bought Rare Beauty because it felt fun, not because it looked natural. Prices sit in accessible territory and the range is stocked at Ulta, so it is easy to swatch in person before committing online.

2. Tower 28 Beauty

Tower 28 Beauty was started in 2019 by Amy Liu after her daughter's eczema made most makeup unusable. Its SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray carries the National Eczema Association Seal of Acceptance, which is a genuine clinical marker rather than a marketing word.

Best for sensitive, reactive or eczema-prone skin. If Rare Beauty works for you but your skin gets angry at everything else you try, this is the safest place to start. Pricing is mid range and the colour products, including the ShineOn lip jellies, follow the same low-irritation rules as the skincare.

3. Glossier

Glossier is the brand most often named by shoppers who find Soft Pinch too strong. Cloud Paint is a gel-cream blush that builds slowly instead of landing all at once, and Boy Brow is still the reference product for fluffy brows.

Best for anyone who wants the same fresh-skin result with more room for error. It sits in the same mid price band as Rare Beauty, so you are swapping formula rather than trading down. Worth noting: Glossier leans quieter overall, so if you want colour payoff, look further down this list.

4. e.l.f. Cosmetics

e.l.f. Cosmetics is the answer for anyone whose real question is "can I get this cheaper". The whole line is vegan and cruelty free, and Halo Glow Liquid Filter is the complexion product that keeps selling out.

Best for price-first shoppers. e.l.f. is the only budget brand on this list and the gap is large, so it is the obvious place to test a finish before spending more on it elsewhere. The trade-off is that shade ranges on some individual products are narrower than Fenty's.

5. Live Tinted

Live Tinted grew out of a colour-correcting video by founder Deepica Mutyala that reached millions of views. Her community kept raising the same problem, hyperpigmentation and dark circles, so the first product, the Huestick, was built to solve exactly that, and it launched with a waitlist in the tens of thousands.

Best for shoppers dealing with dark spots, uneven tone or deeper undertones that most blush ranges ignore. Mid price, founder-run, and one of the clearest examples on this list of a brand built from a specific unmet need rather than a trend.

6. Kulfi Beauty

Kulfi Beauty was launched in 2021 by Priyanka Ganjoo, who had worked at Estee Lauder and Ipsy before deciding South Asian shoppers deserved better than being an afterthought. The Nazar No More Kajal Eyeliner is the signature, a reworked take on a product with real cultural history.

Best for mission-first shoppers, and for anyone who basically lives in eyeliner. The formulas are vegan and cruelty free and pricing stays in reach. If the Rare Impact Fund is part of why you buy Rare Beauty, this is the same kind of brand with a different cause behind it.

7. about-face

about-face launched in January 2021 as Halsey's makeup line, developed with Dineh Mohajer and Jeanne Chavez, the founders behind Hard Candy and Smith & Cult. The whole idea is makeup without rules, which in practice means a lot of shimmer, pigment and colour you would not find in a minimalist range.

Best for expression-first shoppers who want graphic looks and are not chasing your-skin-but-better. Prices are accessible and the celebrity founder is genuinely involved in the product direction, which is the difference between this and a licensing deal.

8. Fenty Beauty

Fenty Beauty reset the industry in 2017 when Rihanna launched with 40 foundation shades and made every competitor's range look lazy overnight. Gloss Bomb is the product most people own, and the complexion range is still the benchmark.

Best for shoppers who want the broadest possible shade match from a founder-led brand. Pricing runs from mid to premium, so it is a step up from Rare Beauty on some items, but the shade coverage is unmatched here. For more brands in this founder-led direct-to-consumer lane, see our DTC beauty picks.

9. Milk Makeup

Milk Makeup is vegan, cruelty free, and built around sticks and multi-use formats you can apply with your fingers on a train. Hydro Grip Primer is the runaway hero and the format other brands have spent years copying.

Best for minimal-effort shoppers who want two or three products to cover everything. Mid price. If your Rare Beauty routine is really just blush, a skin tint and a lip product, this is the shortest path to replacing all three at once.

10. Danessa Myricks Beauty

Danessa Myricks Beauty comes from a working makeup artist, and it shows in the pigment load. Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder won an Allure Best of Beauty Breakthrough award and uses Upsalite, an unusual ingredient for a balm-to-powder texture.

Best for shoppers who want artist-grade colour that performs on deeper skin tones, where thin formulas tend to disappear. Mid price for what you get, and the multi-use Colorfix products stretch further than their price suggests. It is less beginner-friendly than Rare Beauty, so expect a short learning curve.

11. Makeup by Mario

Makeup by Mario is the line from Mario Dedivanovic, whose tutorials are the brand's main marketing. Products like the Ethereal Eyes palettes are designed around technique, with shade placement built into the layout rather than left to you.

Best for shoppers who want to get better at makeup, not just buy more of it. This is the premium end of the list, so treat it as an upgrade rather than a swap. If you want that same considered feel at a calmer price, our Kosas alternatives cover the complexion-led side of that world.

12. Refy

Refy launched in 2020 from Jess Hunt and Jenna Meek, and Brow Sculpt turned fluffy brows into a global look, selling out with a waitlist in the six figures. The range has since grown into complexion and sculpting products.

Best for shoppers who care more about structure than colour: brows, bronzer and definition. Mid price, and it pairs well with almost everything else here since it barely overlaps with a blush-led routine.

How to choose a Rare Beauty alternative

Start by naming which pull you are replacing.

If it is price, go to e.l.f. first and only spend more once you know a finish suits you. If it is expressive design, Half Magic and about-face are the two closest matches, and neither asks you to spend luxury money to play. If it is founder mission, Live Tinted, Kulfi Beauty and Fenty Beauty are all run by founders who built the brand around a gap they personally hit.

If your skin is the constraint, Tower 28 is the safest starting point on this list. If the blush itself was the problem, Glossier's Cloud Paint is the softer version of the same idea. If you want to cut your routine down, Milk Makeup does the most with the fewest products.

And if what you actually want is the quieter, clean-luxury end of makeup rather than a Rare Beauty match, that is a different shortlist. Our ILIA alternatives cover skin-first tinted formulas, and our Merit alternatives cover the five-minute minimalist approach. Both sit at higher price points than anything Rare-adjacent, so go in expecting that.

Frequently asked questions

What brand is most similar to Rare Beauty?

There is no single answer because Rare Beauty is doing three things at once. Half Magic is closest on playful, expressive product design, Glossier is closest on the everyday dewy finish, and e.l.f. is closest on price.

Is there a cheaper version of Rare Beauty blush?

e.l.f. Cosmetics is the clearest budget route, with a fully vegan and cruelty-free line at drugstore pricing. Glossier's Cloud Paint sits at a similar price to Rare Beauty rather than below it, but it is more forgiving to blend.

Is Rare Beauty makeup vegan and cruelty free?

Yes, Rare Beauty is a vegan and cruelty-free line. Several brands on this list hold the same standard, including e.l.f., Kulfi Beauty and Milk Makeup.

What is the best Rare Beauty alternative for deeper skin tones?

Fenty Beauty has the broadest complexion shade range of any brand here. Danessa Myricks Beauty and Live Tinted are both strong on pigment and undertone accuracy, and both were built by founders who found the existing options lacking.

Are any of these good for sensitive skin?

Tower 28 Beauty is the standout. Its SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray carries the National Eczema Association Seal of Acceptance, and the brand formulates its colour products under the same low-irritation rules.

Do any of these brands give back like Rare Beauty does?

Rare Beauty's one percent to the Rare Impact Fund is unusual in its scale and specificity. Live Tinted and Kulfi Beauty are the closest in spirit here, both founder-led brands built around representation for shoppers the category had ignored.

Where can I buy these brands?

All twelve sell direct on their own sites, which is where you will find the complete shade range. Most are also stocked at Sephora or Ulta, though retailer shelves usually carry an edited selection rather than the full line.