What color of foundation is your best one? Judging the color and intensity of a foundation is a bit like buying a can of olives. Who really knows the true difference between an olive that is labeled large, big, jumbo, huge, or colossal? Like olives, descriptions for foundations can make your head literally, spin. You have to consider neutral, warm, cool natural, light, light/medium/, medium, medium/deep, and buffs, beiges, tans, and sands. And that’s not including deep, tan, dark, and bronze, As the seasons change, so can the tone and intensity of the color foundation you need. So what’s good for now, might not work for always.
Finding the right foundation color could make you feel a bit dizzy, but you needn’t end up in a dither about it either. The best way to find the right foundation is to try it on your skin. You can’t always get it right from packaging, sight, or photos, because one person’s idea of color, isn’t another’s. Even if you know you’re mostly a neutral medium, for example, that doesn’t mean all of the shades and intensities marked neutral medium will be the same. One company’s ivory may look very similar to another brand’s porcelain.
Industry-experienced makeup artists at Make-up Designory (MUD) have offered some suggestions to get you to your perfect shades.
Foundation Basics:
Let’s start with the basics; your skin’s shade and undertone. The shade is the color that you can see on the surface of your skin, often described as light, medium, tan, or dark. The undertone is the color underneath the surface tones generally categorized as cool (pink, red, or bluish undertones), warm (yellow or golden undertones) or neutral (a mix of warm and cool undertones). You can fairly easily narrow down the potential “rights” by completely eliminating the total “wrongs,” first. If something is too light, too dark, too olive, or too pink you will see it immediately and can narrow down the choices.
Once you have narrowed your choices to a couple of potentially good shades, blend a small amount into your jaw-line. Look into the mirror. If you can still see the foundation, it’s not the right color. If the shade blends fully with your skin, you have the right shade and undertone. A common mistake is trying the product on your arm or hand. If you aren’t wearing it there, why match that part of the body? Hold your hand or arm up to your face, do the two skin tones match? If so you can try it on those body parts since it is sometimes difficult to see your jawline properly, even with a mirror.
MUD Designory
Since we asked MUD for the tips above, I’ll tell you a bit about MUD’s line of foundations. Each shade is named for what it is. The line is broken down into an easy to navigate series with each part of the name representing undertone and shade, making it simple to navigate your way to the perfect shade. I got a chance to try the ones above. This cream foundation can be blended out for a sheer look, or layered for more full coverage.
It blends easily and quickly, without shine break-through. I used a sponge, but you can use a foundation brush or even your fingertips if you prefer. MUD foundations retail from $17- $28 and are available on www.mudshop.com. The photo above shows you some of the more than 16 colors shades of the Cream Foundation ($28.00).
For me, CB2 was the winner!
Makeup Tips:
Here are some additional things to consider (tips from me, Advice Sister Alison, based on my own experience) when purchasing foundation:
Try makeup on in good lighting. If you’re trying on the foundation in the dark or in too yellow or bright light, you know it’s not going to look the same as in natural daylight.
Consider the formula. If you have large pores, for example, try somewhere you know those pores are prominent. No matter how great the color, if the formula settles noticeably into your pores, or if it sticks on fine lines and wrinkles, that’s not the product for you.
Check the ingredients and benefits. Some foundations are multi-tasking wonders, offering sun protection and treatment ingredients. But not every person needs the same things.
Thanks to Google…
February 2017 – editor’s note. While this is a very popular archived post from advicesisters.com our website was penalized for using the word “n–e“) .to refer to a popular foundation color. It is also the color of crayons, fabric, and many other things. Google apparently, in an effort to save us all from adult terms, decided that we shouldn’t use it for makeup colors.
Google, we couldn’t have cleaned up our makeup review without you (we are being snarky about this as we think it’s ridiculous). But thanks to you a small child can read this and feel “safe.” Wioth regrets, we removed “that color” term. Alas in an overly “PC” world we felt we had no choice.
