Choosing The Right Shade (What Foundation Are You Part 2)

Choosing the right shade of makeup foundation can be daunting for us ladies right? If we picked the wrong one, we would end up like a clown or a ghost! We don’t wanna scare the person who sees us. I admit I’ve been in a situation wherein I had a photo where my face looks so white compared to my skin color. I bet you don’t want that to happen to you. That was before when I still don’t know the “what nots and “what tos” about cosmetics.

Now that we have a better understanding on how to choose what kind of foundation suits our skin type, the crucial part of picking the perfect shade is our next step. With this said, understanding our skintone and undertone will lead us into choosing the right shade. This will also be a helpful guide in choosing the best color of eyeshadow, lipstick, blush on or in choosing the color of our clothes that will best compliment our color if we have a better understanding of these 2.

Skin tone is the actual color of our skin. We Filipinos ranges from fair to medium dark brown skin tone. Our skin tone changes depending on our sun exposure. Take me for example, my usual color is lightly tanned but during summer especially if I spend sometime in the beach my skin tone turns into a medium dark shade.

Undertone is the color beneath our skin. It is the color that casts like shadow beneath our skin. This never changes no matter how many times our skin tone changes. Undertones can be yellow, orange, red, pink, blue, brown, or olive. It’s also divided into 3 categories: warm, cool and neutral.

How do we determine if we fall under warm, cool or neutral undertone? From what I’ve learned the easiest way is to look at your wrist or the underside of your arm. Take a look at the color of your veins. If it appears to be purplish blue then you are under the cool category. On the other hand if it appears to be greenish blue, you’re under the warm category. With the neutral undertones the color of the vein is less obvious and cannot be easily recognized.

Now that we are armed with this enlightenment we can now look for the perfect shade of foundation for our skin tone. Cool toned skin are best suited with pinkish colors or bluish colors while yellow, peach or golden shades are for the warm toned skin. We Asians usually have yellow undertone, so when scouting for your make up foundation look for a yellow based ones.

Tips tips tips

choose 3 shades closest to your skincolor
swab each of them on your jawline

• Choose the shade that matches the depth of the skin on your jawline/neckline.

• Be sure to test to color on your face (not your wrist or hand!)

• We often have oily skin, which can cause the foundation to oxidize and appear darker when it mixes with oil, so try a foundation that is slightly lighter than your complexion.

*blend each of the shade but be careful
not to mix with the other shades
*choose which shade disappears on your
skin
*for this photo I picked #1 as the shade of
foundation closest to my skin color

• From my personal experience, when I look for the right shade I ask the SA to apply 3 shades closest to my skin color at my jawline. I wouldn't buy right away, I’ll tell the SA that I’ll come back after I do whatever errands I need to do at the mall. The reason for this is that I had the mistake of buying right away of what I thought is already the right shade for me, when I got home it turned out the shade is a bit darker since the color oxidized already after sometime. The thing is, in our country it’s very hard to return and exchange products.

• The reason why I have different foundations, my skin color changes quickly when under the exposure from sun. During summer I get a shade darker than usual. I also prefer to use Shisheido waterproof with a high SPF (SPF 43). Since my family loves going to the beach at summertime I opt for a waterproof liquid foundation. I usually use this alone, I don’t put on a powder to set it and just use a cheek stain for my blush for a light and natural look.

• (I’ll also add how to choose a concealer since this is related to the topic.)

According to famous makeup artist Bobbie Brown, Orange-based tones blend best into dark or black skin. I have also read into one article that is best to choose a peachy or salmon color when you wanna hide the the dark circle of your undereye. Use a light pat of concealer under your eyes then blend.

Are you overwhelmed already? This is why I don’t believe that being beautiful should be effortless. If we wanna look at our best we should have a conscious effort in doing it. Enhancing the beauty within us will help us stand out. It’s fun to be a girl! (Expensive too!--- as uttered by "H")

***( The content of this post is basing from my personal experiences, tips I got from make up artists, SA from make up counters everytime I try different brands of make ups and also acquired through reading over the years.)