Determining your best foundation match for every season

You're not alone if you struggle to find your perfect foundation match!

Finding the perfect match is a challenging endeavor for most women. The choices are abundant, confusing, and you can’t sample most product lines. We wander the rows of makeup, completely overwhelmed, and end up buying the wrong thing, wasting time and money.

Moving “lighter” or “darker” in preparation for a season change isn’t as simple as it sounds, as we continue to struggle for the elusive perfect match.

Here are my best practices for foundation purchasing with ease in any season.

First, we need to understand our skin’s undertone. Once you determine undertone, move to shade depth, usually ranging from light to dark, indicated by adjectives like light, medium, dark, or numbers.

Determining undertone and shade depth:

Although consumers are unaware, most cosmetic companies follow this same matching protocol… Undertone first, shade second.

This is how I explain it to my clients. Which one best describes you?

The three types of skin undertones:

Which undertone are you?

PINK - I have pink or peach skin, freckles, and typically only burn when exposed to the sun, which causes me to avoid it. Some pinks can build up a tan, which typically brings out freckling and causes a ruddy deep-red complexion. Deeper-toned African American skin may also use a dark pink undertone foundation. Foundations that are pink will typically use words that indicate cool tones like beige, porcelain, rose, fair, blush, bisque, and cool.

YELLOW - I have olive or golden skin, not freckles, but prone to sun spots/damage, tan easily, and rarely burn. Most mid-toned African American skin types are a yellow/orange foundation. Foundations that are yellow will typically indicate warmth, using words like warm, golden, honey, sun kissed, sand etc.

NEUTRAL - I am an even mix of yellow/pink, I range from fair to slightly tan, but building a tan takes time, and I typically burn first or don’t attempt to get sun at all. Foundations that are neutral will use the word neutral, buff, ivory etc.

Need additional makeup help? Schedule a pop-in. Foundation matching sessions are completely complimentary!

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