Guide to Finding the Perfect Foundation
- Zorayda Burlaza
- Oct 23, 2016
- 4 min read
Shopping the right foundation is not easy as some think it is. I know many of you have one time in your life have bought the wrong shade of foundation. That includes guilty me.
Before heading to your makeup counter near you:
Determine your skin type
Oily : Prone to acne and shine all over the face.
Combination : Oily at the T-Zone (chin, nose, centre of the forehead)
Normal: Non Problematic Skin
Dry : Prone to flaking and dry bits.
To help you determine your skin type, click here.
Choosing the right formulation
There are foundations that are formulated for individual skin needs. Therefore look for that perfect foundation that well suit you. Ask your counter if you are not sure or head to the links below for guidance.
Coverage
Foundations have different coverage and consistency. For problematic skin, you may want to look for a full coverage and medium coverage for moderate blemishes and to even out skin tone or just to brighten the face a little bit, you need to look for light coverage.
Light Coverage: BB Cream; Tinted Moisturiser
Medium Coverage: MAC Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation
Full Coverage: MAC Full Coverage Foundation
Normally, the coverage is written on the bottle of the foundation or at its website like shown below.
You may have also heard about buildable foundations. Normally, for a good quality foundation, it should always be builddable. This means that you can put multiple layer of application over the skin to achieve more coverage, without disturbing the former layer. So, sometimes full coverage foundation are better if you want a lighter feel of foundation as you only need a small amount to apply for the whole face. Unlike the light coverage, you need to build it or layer up to achieve the desired effect of cover.
Choosing the Right Shade
There are 3 undertone shades available in the market:
Warm (Yellow),
Neutral, and
Cool (Pink or Red) undertone.
To determine your undertone, try to determine the shade of your veins at the back of your wrist, if it:
GREEN, you are a WARM Tone. If the veins is
PURPLE, you have COOL Undertone. And
NEUTRAL is when you see both colors (green and purple).
Generally, Asian skin has warm undertone and Caucasian have cooler undertone. However, there are exceptions so it is better to rely on the back of your wrist.
Now that you know that you are a warm or cool or of neutral tone, time to
look for your shade very light, fair, medium, or dark. If you are: . There are shades in between so be patient in searching for your shade. Do not rush. It is very important to find that exact shade of yours, otherwise you won't look natural on daylight if you pick the wrong shade.
Some MakeUp Companies use color coding, so that is what you are looking for, the codes.
L'oreal use Golden (G) for Warm, Neutral (N) for neutral.
MAC is different. They use opposing codes. NC or C for Warm and NW or W for Cool. So be careful.
Do not try at the back of your hands as it differs from the color of your face. Since many of us have mismatch neck and face due to redness or sun damaged, it is better to follow the color of your neck, so that it blends well together and you will not worry on putting as many on that part.
Please try at least 3 to 4 shades swipe side by side on your neck. Do not rely on the person at the counter if she insist that the single color is your color. Try it first, please. I have encountered a lot of beauty rep insisting a shade that did not match me. Now I have a drawer full of mismatch foundation. And I don't like you to get into that trap, to commit the same mistake just because I trusted the sales rep thinking that they knew better, especially here in the Philippines where we don't allow return of opened makeup products unless otherwise defective or expired. Just make sure it is your match and if you can, don't buy just yet, let it sit for at least an hour and see it it does not oxidise on your skin, otherwise you'll end up buying the wrong shade again. Try to bring home that applied foundation if you can and see outside under the natural light which matches you well.
If you failed in one shade bottle, try mixing different shades, in this way you can personalised your exact match. You can even use a lighter shade as highlight or where you want a lighter color on some parts like under eye area, tip of your nose and centre of your face. And if you bought a deeper shade you can use it as bronzer or tanner or as contour.
I hope that this will help you in finding your perfect foundation which I know many are still in search of.
Stay positive and be beautiful.
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