31/07/2019
We get clients that come to us and say they struggle with foundation matching. Here’s a helpful read to make things easier
Choosing YOUR perfect foundation!
Part 1: Color Theory & Undertones
Oh oh! This is honestly one of the toughest things to nail and I completely understand why anyone can be so overwhelmed by this. Ever find a shade that looks just about right but doesn’t quite match other parts of your face? Swipe on a shade it looks perfect and next minute it oxidizes and totally mismatches? Ever walked around like your face doesn’t belong to your body? 👻 I know you know what I’m talking about and I’ve been there too. Well, fear not I’m about to share my tips on finding your perfect shade.
Naturally you’ll gravitate to a shade range of your ethnicity but there’s so much more to selecting your foundation than just picking shades from lightest to darkest. You need to know your skin tone as well. There’s a few things you might want to educate yourself on. The skin has 2 tones being, Surface tones and Undertones.
Surface tones are the shades you see immediately when you look at yourself. The shades you think is your actual skin tone but really isn’t. These tones are affected by external factors like change in the weather (tan, sunburn, sun spots) , skin conditions (hyper pigmentation, rosacea, freckles, birthmarks, acne scars etc). These are factors that discolor and disguise your true tone and quite frankly the reason we are never even toned. Using these tones can lead you to choose a foundation shade that doesn’t compliment your skin. However, Undertones are your true skin tone. It’s the skin tone found under the surface tones. Think of your skin in layers, surface tones are the tones found on the very top layer and undertones are the tones on the next layer beneath that. This is what you should be matching your foundation to. Now if you’re not too familiar with identifying your True Tone it can be tricky and very frustrating. I’ll keep it short and easy to navigate through. Undertones can be warm, cool and neutral.
Here’s how to figure out your undertone.
Warm Undertone: When you look at your skin in the sun, it appears to be yellow, gold, beige or peach tinge then your undertone is warm. Like I mentioned with surface tones so prominent, it’s not always easy to identify your undertone. So here’s how, turn your forearm out and look at your veins located on the inside of your forearm against a white background. If your veins are green or olive then you have a warm undertone.
Here are a few more warm undertone characteristics just to make sure. You have a warm undertone;
1. If gold jewelry looks much flattering on you than silver
2. White clothing suit you and bring out your yellow hue
3. When you’re exposed to the sun without SPF, you tan very easily.
4. When you have spots/undereye circles they are more brown,red or yellow.
5. When your eye color is honey, hazel or brown or your hair is red, brown or brunette.
Cool Undertone: When you look at your skin in the sun, it appears to be pink, red or blue tinge. Turn your forearm out and look at your veins located on the inside of your forearm against a white background. If your veins are blue or purple then you have a cool undertone.
You have a cool undertone;
1. If silver jewelry looks much flattering on you than gold
2. White clothing don’t suit you, they make you look pale, tired or grey/ashy.
3. When you’re exposed to the sun without SPF, you get sunburnt very fast.
4. When you have spots/undereye circles they are more purple, blue or grey.
5. When your eye color is blue, green or grey or your hair is blonde/lighter, grey or black with ashy tones.
Neutral Undertone: When you look at your skin in the sun, it appears to be a mix of warm and cool tones. Your skin may also appear to be olive. Turn your forearm out and look at your veins located on the inside of your forearm against a white background. If your veins are blue-green then you have a neutral undertone.
You have a neutral undertone;
1. If both gold and silver jewelry flatter you
2. White clothing suit you but you can’t recognize a hue
3. When you’re exposed to the sun without SPF, you tan but also can get sunburnt.
4. When you have spots/undereye circles they don’t have a recognizable hue or are not present.
5. You can have any eye or hair color
Foundations are mainly categorized in Warm (W), Neutral ( N ) and Cool (C) although a person can be a mixture of tones, particularly those in the neutral undertones some brands cater to Neutral Warm (NW) or Neutral Cool (NC).
Your heritage can also contribute to your undertone. If you have an Asian parent and a Caucasian parent you might have pink and yellow undertones. If you have a black parent and an Asian parent you might be brown with a yellow undertone. If you have Caucasian parents you might be pale with yellow undertones or pale with pink undertones. If you have black parents you might be deep dark with red undertones or brown with yellow undertones.
Within the categories of undertones there are shades of foundations that run lightest to darkest and it’s up to you to match yourself to one that suits you perfectly. Although most brands still lack in shade ranges and don’t necessarily provide a wide variety of undertones you can still mix foundations that are close to your undertone and mix to match.
If you want to save money rather than spending on a hit or miss game then you can seek professional help for skin analysis.
Stay tuned for part 2 on foundation matching.
If this was helpful let me know in the comment section. What’s your undertone?
