Having trouble finding the perfect shade of foundation for your skin?
To be honest it's difficult to find a single foundation, that will match your skin perfectly. In most cases, every foundation needs mixing with another shade or colour correcting slightly to match the skin and neck.. but unless you're not overly fussed, that's only something Makeup Artists need to worry about.
When buying a single foundation, it's crucial to learn about undertones in the skin if you want a good match.
Undertones break up into 3-4 types: WARM, COOL, OLIVE (olive is a tricky one but I associate it with the warm type) and NEUTRAL.
To find your undertone, stand in a place where there is natural light and hold a mirror in front of your face. Study the colours of the face, does your skin have a golden, yellow, pink, greenish/olive or peachy tone to it? Your undertones will help you pick the right foundation. For example:
If you have yellow/golden tones in your face, you have a WARM complexion and you want to choose a foundation that will match the warmth of your skin so perhaps a yellow-based foundation.
If you have pink/peach tones, your skin is COOL and you want to choose a foundation with peachy undertones because it will adhere to your cool tones. (This often applies to fairer skin although not always!). There can also be cool undertones of blue-red in darker skin, which is why there are hints of red in cool foundations.
To be honest it's difficult to find a single foundation, that will match your skin perfectly. In most cases, every foundation needs mixing with another shade or colour correcting slightly to match the skin and neck.. but unless you're not overly fussed, that's only something Makeup Artists need to worry about.
When buying a single foundation, it's crucial to learn about undertones in the skin if you want a good match.
Undertones break up into 3-4 types: WARM, COOL, OLIVE (olive is a tricky one but I associate it with the warm type) and NEUTRAL.
To find your undertone, stand in a place where there is natural light and hold a mirror in front of your face. Study the colours of the face, does your skin have a golden, yellow, pink, greenish/olive or peachy tone to it? Your undertones will help you pick the right foundation. For example:
If you have yellow/golden tones in your face, you have a WARM complexion and you want to choose a foundation that will match the warmth of your skin so perhaps a yellow-based foundation.
If you have pink/peach tones, your skin is COOL and you want to choose a foundation with peachy undertones because it will adhere to your cool tones. (This often applies to fairer skin although not always!). There can also be cool undertones of blue-red in darker skin, which is why there are hints of red in cool foundations.
MAC label their foundations as NC (neutral cool) and NW (neutral warm). Go to a counter, find the right shade and ask for samples of NC and NW in that shade and test them on your face to see which one looks better. If you're NEUTRAL then your skin is a blend of WARM and COOL tones so you may have to mix both for the perfect match.
PLEASE NOTE that MAC loves to confuse people and they do things opposite to what colour theory tells us.
NC has undertones of: yellow/gold. (colours that are usually warm, are cool at mac)
NW has undertones of: pink/peach and red. (colours that are usually cool, are warm at mac)
PLEASE NOTE that MAC loves to confuse people and they do things opposite to what colour theory tells us.
NC has undertones of: yellow/gold. (colours that are usually warm, are cool at mac)
NW has undertones of: pink/peach and red. (colours that are usually cool, are warm at mac)
You can clearly see the yellow tones in this foundation NC shade 25. (left)
Compared to this foundation there are obvious tones of red and pink NW shade 25. (left)
Same shades, different undertones!
Remember skin TONE refers to undertones in the skin and skin SHADE refers to the colour of the skin, the lightness or darkness of the skin. For example, My skin is a fair-light shade but my undertones are a warm/olive. Everyone is different!
It can be difficult detecting your undertone and it's not always obvious but try different tests. A great one is to hold gold and silver jewellery against your skin, which suits you better? If gold looks naturally good, then you're likely to be WARM and vice versa.
Once you've nailed your undertone this can influence your overall makeup when it comes to choosing the right shade of lipstick, eyeshadows and blushes.
Use this image as a guide to help you study your skin tone.
Thanks for reading,
Charlotte Louise
xx
