Foundation: finding the perfect shade

Finding the perfect shade of foundation takes time and patience, and may even lead to frustration, irritability, and impulse buys. At some time or another we’ve all bought a foundation that wasn’t a perfect skin match, just to get the whole frustrating shopping experience over with.  The problem with impulse buys is that once you get home and try it in the comfort of your own home, you tend to find that the product looks completely different to how it did in the store.

Make shopping for foundation a little easier by following these simple steps:

Remove any existing foundation. Yes, this means going shopping with a naked face. Take a small hand-held mirror and a make-up remover wipe with you. Choose three shades of foundation that you feel match your natural skin tone best. Using a finger, apply a stripe of each – you need a fairly wide, but thin and even stripe – starting above the jawbone and going down onto the neck.  The stripe should be about 3cm long and a finger width or more wide. Place another set of stripes at the bottom of your neck, so that the strip falls over the base of the neck, collarbone and onto the upper chest. Lastly, place three stripes on a shoulder. This is particularly useful if you tan your body, or use a self-tan product, but don’t really tan your face. Foundation needs to match the rest of your skin, not just the face. There’s nothing worse than seeing a beautifully tanned body with a pale face.

Shop lighting can make foundation and natural skin appear lighter or darker. The best is to go outside, into the open parking lot if you have to, or stand near a window with your mirror – only if the window faces outside and not into the shopping mall, you need natural daylight for this. One of the colours that may have looked perfect in store could end up being completely wrong in natural daylight, and this is when make-up is seen most by others around you. Pick the shade that that almost ‘disappears’ and fades into your natural skin tone on all three points – jaw, collarbone, and shoulder if you tan, as this will be the right shade.

You may need to go back and try a lighter or darker shade until you find the perfect match, but the first three testers should give you a pretty good idea of what you’re looking for, and whether you need to go lighter or darker, or choose one with more of a pink or yellow undertone.

It’s best to wait a little while before making your final decision, so wipe off any incorrect foundation stripes, lightly blend the edges of the one you think best matches your skin, and go do some in-store shopping or browsing, or go have a coffee. Skin’s acidity can change the final colour of the foundation and it needs time to settle and blend with your skin’s natural oils before looking at it one last time.

If you’re not keen to do this final step in-store, feel free to ask the cosmetic counter if they have tester samples of the colour/s that you wish to try, and do this testing process in the comfort of your own home.

If you’ve already found your perfect shade in one brand but would like to try a different brand or different consistency, and aren’t sure where to start, online tools like findation.com are really useful. It’ll take what you’re currently using into consideration, and any other other foundation brands that you may have used in the past, and give you other brand options with similar colour matches.