Foundation 101

In any project, you must first lay a good foundation to have a desirable outcome..and the same goes for makeup. We've all seen or been that girl..I know I have...whose foundation color was a little off whether it be the shade or the wrong undertone and you looked like an Oompa Loompa or a ghost, neither of which is a good look. 

It's a mystery for a lot of women trying to determine what shade and correct undertone is right for them. It's a constant cycle..as soon as I find my perfect shade for the summer with my nice tan..it starts to get cold and you lose that nice glow and you have to start from square one all over again. I want to share with you a few tips and tricks on how to find your perfect foundation. 

First, you need to figure out what undertones you have in your skin. You are either warm, cool, or neutral. In the picture below you can see the huge difference the undertones can make. All 3 of these foundations are the same shade but the first is warm with more yellowy tones in it, the middle one is neutral, and the last one is cool and you can see just how pink it looks when compared side by side to the others. 

If you have warmer undertones, the veins in your wrist appear more green than blue, you tan easily in the sun, or gold jewelry flatters your skin. The majority, not all, of women with darker eyes have warm undertones. The foundations that you are going to want to look for are more yellow than they are pink..you are going to want to stay away from all the really pink looking foundations. 

If you have cooler undertones then the veins in your wrists are going to appear more blue than green, you tend to burn a little easier in the sun, maybe be a little more freckled, and silver jewelry looks better on you versus gold. Foundations you want are going to be slightly pinker in color, shades with the words "biege" or "almond" are code words for pink. 

Now, if you have a neutral undertone, you can't really tell if the veins in your arm are more blue or more green, both gold and silver are flattering on you. This is kind of an ideal undertone because you can pull off almost anything as long as it's not too pink or too yellow. 

Once you've deciphered that, it's pretty simple as far as finding the right shade that is going to fit your skin. Until you get really comfortable in finding what shade you need I would highly recommend going into a Sephora or Ulta or a MAC so that you can actually swatch the foundations and not play the guessing game in the drugstore. Be wary of MAC counters though..I have warm undertones and my shade at MAC is NC25 you would think that means that I have cooler skin..MAC is the only cosmetic brand that for some reason unknown to me has flipped the system..so think of it this way, NC stands for Not Cool and NW stands for Not Warm.

When you are color matching make sure you match the foundation to your neck and chest and not your face, most people's faces are a completely different shade altogether and the whole reason for doing all this is so that you will match right? So make sure you match it to your neck and chest and then go outside in natural sunlight and look in a mirror..sunlight is the BEST lighting when it comes to makeup and it will be the true test as to whether or not it matches you correctly.