Finding Your best foundation match is essential to making your makeup look natural and continuous from face- body!
Colour Matching 101
#1 Find out what undertone you are.
Are you Warm, Cool or Neutral?
I don't know, what is an undertone and how can I find mine? Good question! When Makeup Artists talks about 'undertones', we are talking about the colour that is underneath the surface of your skin. For instance, the colour red has different undertones. Cherry red has blue undertones shining through, which puts it into the "Cool" undertone category. Reds' with orange tones peaky through is known as being a "Warm" undertone red. There are also Reds that have a mix of both, that's where "Neutral" undertones come in (think of shade like crimson and scarlet).
Cheat Sheet: Warm undertones:
Think o range, gold, yellow, bronze
Cool undertones:
Think barbie pink, cool blue, pastel peach
Neutral undertones:
Think of cool and warm colours mixed to make a balanced amount of both
#2 Get 3 shades that look similar to your skin tone.
These should also align with your undertone. But if you're not sure what undertone works. Focus on which 3 are closest to your skin tone.
#3 Swatch It
Swatch a shade of each foundation from your cheek to jaw line.
Blend out the bottom half with a different finger for each swatch- careful the shades don't mix!
#4 It's time to narrow down!
Ask yourself: Which one is the most obvious? Which one stands out from the rest?
This shade could look too yellow, too peach, too ashy. Swipe that one off 1st!
Firstly, take yourself into natural lighting. If that's not possible, find an area that has a balance of warm and cool light, not too bright and no shadow castes over your face.
FYI Bathrooms are normally the prime spot.
Secondly, pick the shade that simply disappears on your skin.
The bottom half of that foundation swatch looks so identical to your skin tone, it just vanishes- it's magical!
Take note.
If it's the beginning of summer, you might want to go one shade warmer/ darker in foundation shade.
Why? so that it matches your body, and you look continuous. Not just a lighter face, not cool in photos!
In Winter, you might want to match your foundation exactly to your face.
There are also other ways of warming or lighting up your foundation without changing up your foundation shade! Yes, my friend there are such ways to make that possible, I'll spill the beans on my up-coming article- so keep watch!
As a side note...
Our face tends to be fairer since we use sunscreen, wear hats and sunnies. Keep in mind our faces are not the only part to our body so we need to take into consideration the bigger picture- our whole body skin tone.
Remember good things take time. If you don't get it right the first time, keep trying!