Finding the right shade of foundation
The best foundation shade is the one you can’t see on your face. It completely blends in and looks natural. Most people have a hard time finding that shade. Foundation is so frustrating because all skin have undertone colors. For Ivory and beige shades these undertones are yellow, olive, or pink. For bronze shades the undertones are yellow, pink, orange, and brown. Most people do not know what pigment undertones they have in their skin so they just pick a foundation shade based on lightness or darkness. That can become disastrous when you apply a pink shade to yellow undertones and end up looking orange for example. It just doesn’t look natural.
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Spend some time looking at your face and neck in the mirror and try to decide if you see untertones of yellow, olive, or pink. Once you know what undertone you have you can look for darker or lighter shades in that color. Some people have multiple undertones and this gets harder because they need to mix their foundations or use one foundation for their chin and cheeks and another one for their forehead.
A lot of people will go to a store and try a sample color the back of their hand. This is deceiving because your hand is often darker than your face and you will end up with foundation that is a shade or two too dark for your skin.
The best way to find your true match is to rub a streak of foundation vertically down the side of your jawbone to your neck. A lot of people forget to match their neck as well and end up with their face a different color than their neck. Try out as many as you need until you find one that seems to disappear. This is shown in the pictures below. I put three shades in my arm to show the yellow, olive, and pink undertones in the foundation. Then I rubbed in three streaks from my jawbone to my neck. The last one, the pink one is my shade because it seems to blend in and disappear.
One last thing to consider, your skin tone changes throughout the year. Most people need a different shade for the winter months than the summer months.
If anyone needs help finding their perfect match or have any other makeup questions, please message this page. I help people find their perfect make up all the time and I love doing it! I have plenty of free samples to try either in person or through the mail. The only way to know if something works is to try it!
Todays tip comes from Nikki Priebe, Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant
