diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 7cca0e5..7294893 100755
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -57,9 +57,13 @@ async function buildCliConfig() {
 }
 
 let configFile
+let argvConfigSet = false
 
 if (argv.env) process.env.NODE_ENV = argv.env
-if (argv.config) argv.config = path.resolve(argv.config)
+if (argv.config) {
+  argvConfigSet = true
+  argv.config = path.resolve(argv.config)
+}
 
 let { isTTY } = process.stdin
 
@@ -178,7 +182,10 @@ function rc(ctx, path) {
       return rc
     })
     .catch((err) => {
-      if (!err.message.includes('No PostCSS Config found')) throw err
+      // if a config path is passed explicitly in CLI do not ignore the error
+      if (!err.message.includes('No PostCSS Config found') || argvConfigSet) {
+        throw err
+      }
     })
 }
 
diff --git a/test/error.js b/test/error.js
index 5ff67ef..8c76a47 100644
--- a/test/error.js
+++ b/test/error.js
@@ -63,3 +63,17 @@ test('CssSyntaxError', (t) => {
     },
   )
 })
+
+test('fails on invalid explicit config', async (t) => {
+  const output = tmp('output-ignore.css')
+
+  const { stderr, code } = await cli([
+    'test/fixtures/a.css',
+    '-o',
+    output,
+    '--config',
+    '/foo/bar',
+  ])
+  t.is(code, 1, 'expected non-zero error code')
+  t.regex(stderr, /No PostCSS Config found/)
+})