Find Your Perfect Foundation Shade: A Comprehensive Guide

Many women have a bad time trying to find the right shade of foundation to match their skin tone. It can seem like a scary task when given the large choice of colours available. However, knowing a number of key pieces of information before going shopping for make up will help you with properly matching the perfect foundation colour for your face.

Identifying Skin Intensity

Before selecting a foundation, it's vital to understand about skin intensities. This merely suggests that identifying the overall colour of the skin. There are four categories of skin intensity: fair (pale to light), medium (light to moderately tanned), tanned (deeply tanned), and dark (naturally dark).

 

Identifying Skin Undertones

Every complexion (no matter the intensity) has undertones. These are the secondary colours of the skin. Before attempting to identify them, it's vital to first cleanse all make-up and continuously use natural light when checking in the mirror. Artificial light will make the skin seem a different color than it truly is. There are 3 totally different skin undertones: warm (yellow, olive, gold), cool (pink, beige, brown), and neutral (a balanced combination of heat and cool). Another way to spot undertones is to look at the inner side of your wrist and check if the skin tone is pink, yellow, or a shade in between. There are colour charts accessible to easily identify matching tones, they can be found at a beauty counter and on-line.

Identifying Skin type

Knowing concerning skin types is very important because it determines what texture of foundation is required (powder, cream, or liquid). There are four skin types: dry, normal to dry, normal to oily, and oily. For dry skin, cream foundations and liquid foundations are suggested as powder based foundations will enhance dryness. For greasy skin, foundations with a mineral base (powder) that are oil free are suggested (avoid cream foundations and liquid foundations as that can make your skin oilier).

Testing Foundation Colour

Once the 3 elements of the skin are known, testing foundation can be done. Make-up brands have colour codes that determine complexion intensity and undertones, every brand will do this differently (some use letters, some use numbers, some use both), therefore it's very helpful to look into how the brand has systematised. Testing in natural light can avoid any colour distortion that may occur beneath artificial light. Most beauty counters have sample size foundations specifically created for colour testing. These are sometimes kept behind the counter and might be obtained by simply asking a beauty consultant for them.