Choosing the right foundation color is the hardest thing faced by beginners. It took me multiple tries for me to select the right foundation color and type for my skin.
Choosing the wrong foundation type and color can make your skin look terrible. I experienced it many times when I went to salons to do makeup. Usually, some makeup artists fail to identify my skin type and the foundation color for me. Now I know better.
Today, I brought you 6 easy tips to choose the foundation color for your skin. This beginner-friendly guide will never fail you when buying a foundation.
Why A Foundation?
We are not lucky enough to have an even skin tone throughout the body. Slightly, the skin color of our body, face, and hands are different due to many reasons.
Our faces may also have different skin colors. Some may have undereye darkness, patches, pimples, scars, and darkness around the mouth and nose.
When we do makeup, we need to even our skin tone, which means getting an even base. Foundation can create a base for makeup by covering darkness and other pigmentation.
So, for makeup, the foundation is unavoidable.
How To Choose The Foundation
There are many shades and types of foundations in makeup stores. You need to have a good understanding of your skin before you buy a foundation.
1. Know About Your Skin Type
Having an understanding of your skin type is very crucial when it comes to skincare and makeup.
Basically, there are 5 skin types.
Oily skin – Having large pores, blackheads, whiteheads, acne, and pimples. Also quickly gets oily all around the face. You may have seen that oily skin type people have shiny and greasy skin.
Normal skin – Fine pores. No blemishes or not feel too dry and too oily. Smooth texture. Not too sensitive.
Dry skin – Dull and rough skin. Peeling and feeling itchy. No elasticity in the skin.
Combination skin – Oily T zone and dry cheeks
Sensitive skin – Easily reacts when applied to a new product. Excess redness. Over sensitivity.
2. Check Your Skin Tone and Under Tone
Skin tone is the surface color of your skin. Skin tone can be changed due to many reasons such as sunburns, climatic changes, chemical products, etc.
There are 3 different skin tones.
- Light – very sensitive to the sun and easily burns.
- Medium – Tan easily.
- Dark – the deepest skin tone.
Also, the undertone is the natural color underneath the surface of the skin. Undertone does not change.
There are 3 different undertones. When you check your veins you can check your skin undertone.
- Warm – If you have greenish veins then you have a warm undertone.
- Cool – Those who have a warm undertone have blue or purple veins.
- Neutral – If you are not sure about the color of your veins, whether it is green, blue, or purple, then you have a neutral undertone.
There are different makeup brands that manufacture different types of foundation for all skin tones and undertone types. If you know about your skin tone and undertone, you can easily select a foundation.
If you have a warm undertone, you should not use a foundation for a cool undertone. It may look ashy on your face. Also, applying a warm foundation on a cool undertone person may bring a more unnatural look to your face.
This is the important point of choosing the right foundation color for your face.
3. Use Your Jawline To Test The Foundation Color
In the beginning, I also test the foundation color using my wrist. That is completely wrong.
You have noticed that the color of your wrist and your face is sometimes very different. Most of the time our wrist color is lighter than the skin color of the face. So if you choose a foundation color by applying it on your wrist, it may be lighter than your face color. When you apply it to your face, it may look very artificial and looks like applying tons of foundation.
The correct way to test a foundation color is to apply it to your jawline. Particularly apply a line from the cheek to the neck as a vertical line.
Then you can find the right foundation color that matches your face and neck as well.
4. Come To The Day Light And WAIT
I saw many girls who applied the foundation color (For testing) and at the same moment, they buy it. That is also a mistake that you do when you buy a foundation.
When you test a foundation color, you should wait until at least 10 minutes. Then your foundation is oxidizing with the oxygen and becomes dark. This may also help you to buy the right foundation color for your skin.
You should buy a foundation color that matches your skin even after the oxidizing. For example, if you take a foundation that is a little bit darker than your actual skin color when it oxidizes it becomes darker.
But if you take a little bit lighter shade than your skin color, it becomes your actual shade when it oxidizes.
So keep it in your mind before you purchase a foundation color.
Also, all the makeup stores are well-lighted and you face difficulty when you test a foundation. After you apply your test foundation, you need to check it in daylight. As I mentioned earlier, you can wait 10 minutes in daylight until it oxidized. After that, you can decide whether it is the right shade or not.
5. Choose The Right Foundation Type
There are many foundation types in stores. You need to find the perfect match for your skin type.
As I mentioned earlier, our skin type is very crucial to finding a foundation type. Here is how.
- Liquid foundation – Liquid foundations are well suited for dry to combination skin because it gives you additional moisture. Also, there are mattifying looked liquid foundations that can use for oily skin.
- Powder foundation – Powder foundations are well-matched with oily skin types because they can absorb the excess oil on your face.
- Stick foundation – Stick foundations are also can use for oily to normal skin types. If you have too much dry skin you should not use a stick foundation.
- Moose foundation – Can use for oily and combination skin types.
- Cream foundations (BB, CC cream, tinted foundation) – Suited for dry skin type
Conclusion
Choosing the right foundation color is the most important part of makeup. This guide will help you choose the right foundation color and type for your skin.
