Buzz
Finding the perfect foundation can be challenging and even frustrating. No one wants to spend a fortune on a foundation that doesn’t match their unique skin tone. Fortunately, with insights from our shade-matching experts, we've compiled the best advice to help you color match your foundation perfectly.
Understand Your Skin Type
Before choosing the ideal foundation shade, it’s important to first understand your skin tone and texture. Skin tone refers to the natural color of your complexion, often categorized as fair, light, medium, or deep.
Check your jawline for a natural flush to help identify your skin tone. You can also observe how your skin reacts to sun exposure. If you tan easily, your skin tone is likely medium or dark, while those who burn easily most likely have a very fair skin tone.
Take Seasonal Changes into Account
As the seasons and weather change, so can your skin tone. For instance, during the warmer summer months, your skin may tan, while in colder winter months, it could lighten, especially if you spend a lot of time indoors. Adjust your foundation to match the seasons for a flawless look all year long.
Assess Your Skin Texture
It's important to consider your skin texture: oily, dry, or aging. Hydrating foundations are great for dry or aging skin, while those with oily skin might prefer powder-based foundations. For combination skin, look for a balanced formula that’s neither too moisturizing nor drying.
Discover Your Undertone
When choosing concealer or foundation, your undertone is a key factor in selecting the correct shade. However, it's important to clarify: while skin tone refers to the visible color of your skin, undertone is the hue beneath the surface.
Amanda Bell, Professional Makeup Artist
"Every shade you select will either enhance or clash with your skin's undertones. So, the first question to ask is: Does your skin have warm, neutral, or cool undertones?"
Identifying your skin's undertone requires a bit more effort than recognizing your skin tone. Here's a simple method: Examine the color of the veins on your face and neck to determine your undertone.
- Cool: If your veins appear blue, your undertones are cool.
- Warm: If your veins appear greenish (olive), you have warm undertones.
- Neutral: A blend of both warm and cool undertones results in a neutral undertone.
Explore Virtual Beauty Tools
Whether you're new to foundation and concealer or a seasoned pro, there are plenty of modern ways to get color-matched online. With the rise of virtual beauty tools, personalized color matching has become more accessible than ever. Leading brands like Charlotte Tilbury and Huda Beauty offer virtual consultations where you can connect with beauty experts for one-on-one advice to find your perfect match and address any other beauty questions.
Take a Foundation Matching Quiz
Brands like IL Makiage have impressively accurate foundation quizzes with rave reviews from hundreds of thousands of users. The quiz helps you match with one of their 50 shades of the Woke Up Like This Flawless Base Foundation. You'll answer a series of questions, such as choosing your undertone from a selection of photos and selecting your preferred foundation coverage.
They even provide a 60-day money-back guarantee for any product purchased through the shade-matching quiz that doesn't match your skin perfectly. Similar shade quizzes can be found at major beauty brands like Maybelline and Ulta Beauty, making it a great idea to explore the virtual assistant options available on the websites you shop from.
Discover Your Shade Across Multiple Brands
For the ultimate convenience, try Findation, a website that matches shades across 1,577 global brands and 68,000 makeup shades. As one of the leading databases for matching foundation and concealer shades online, Findation uses a sophisticated algorithm to help you find your perfect match across various beauty brands. This means if you know your shade from Maybelline, you can easily find your corresponding shade at Laura Mercier.
"Findation has experienced increased traffic since the beginning of the [COVID-19] pandemic, and we expect this trend to continue as more retailers enhance their online capabilities," says Kate Morris. "Our data is constantly evolving, and we're continuously collaborating with brands to improve the quality of our data, offering even more accurate matches."
Explore Inclusive Brands
Unfortunately, not every foundation brand is guaranteed to have the exact shade for your skin tone. For the best match, Nikki DeRoest recommends turning to inclusive beauty brands that offer a wide variety of shades on their websites.
"Some of the most popular brands known for their inclusivity include Fenty Beauty, Bobbi Brown, and Estee Lauder," says DeRoest. "Choosing a brand that truly considers your skin tone and undertones is crucial because it means you're not limited to just a few shades (or forced to mix two different ones)."
Conduct a Spot Test on Bare Skin
Before settling on a foundation, select about three shades that seem to match your complexion. Retailers like Ulta and Sephora typically offer test samples that allow you to try out multiple shades at once. (You can also ask sales associates for assistance.)
Next, perform a spot test on bare (makeup-free) skin. Apply the foundations along your jawline in parallel lines, from your cheek to your neck. The shade that seamlessly blends into both areas is your ideal match.
Test in Natural Light
When testing foundation, it's crucial to check it in natural light. Various lighting conditions can alter how the shade looks, so viewing it in natural light gives you the most accurate result. Inspect your face from different angles to see how the light interacts with the color.
Avoid indoor lighting, particularly the fluorescent lights often used in stores. If you're testing foundation in a shop, try moving near a window to get a better sense of how the shade appears in natural light.
