Getting the perfect foundation for my skin has always been difficult. This is partly because finding the right formula for your skin type is tricky enough, never mind finding the right shade for your skin tone. And yet, none of your make up will look right or sit well if you don’t start off with the perfect base. So finding the right foundation is critical to looking naturally you and not luminous, tango-d, poorly, or just plain weird.
When I was at school there was a craze for girls to try and look more tanned by wearing a foundation shade that was too deep for their skin. As if the tide marks this caused weren’t awful enough, I can only imagine their parents would have had regular meltdowns at the colour of their collars by the end of the school day. (And yes, I realise that I sound like my mother making a statement of that kind, haha!).
I might not have fallen foul of foundation faux pas, but I do remember not having the money to buy makeup of any decent quality and therefore eventually resorting to using a concealer stick all over my face to try and cover my up my awful acne. The concealer might have been a relatively accurate shade, but the texture and technique did absolutely nothing to help my skin and probably contributed to making my acne worse!
I’m not sure whether girls had it worse when I was in my teens, or if they have it worse now. There was no social media in the 1990s, much less in the way of immediately accessible ‘perfect standards’ of beauty to be measured against. But I also think there was less support for girls growing up and wanting to explore and experiment with makeup. The only time I remember my mum talking to me about makeup was when she gave me a row when I came home from school one day wearing blue glittery eyeshadow behind my massive NHS glasses. She told me I looked like a clown, and I probably did. Cheap eyeshadow smudged on with a grubby finger in the mirror of the girls’ loos at lunchtime. Classy!
Foundation Shade Finding in Lockdown
Either way, I’m fascinated that in this day and age, with easy access to different brands, colours and formulas…with so many youtube videos and social media influencers to follow and ask…with so many department stores that have whole floors of space dedicated to selling beauty brands only…that so many women still struggle to find a foundation shade that suits them and who still walk around with faces an entirely different colour to their necks.
The lockdowns we have been subjected to, and the subsequent lack of access to the trained staff that work on beauty counters, have made makeup less accessible again. However, I don’t think choosing the right foundation shade has to be difficult. I wanted to share with you all where I go for foundation that is easy to match to your skin tone. Surprisingly, hardly enough brands have developed colour charts, web tools, or product ranges that really aim help you identify and choose the perfect product.
How to choose the perfect foundation shade
Choosing the right shade comes down to two fundamental decisions about the colour of your skin:
- The overall shade: Normally foundation shades will come with one of roughly 5 prefixes; fair, light, medium, dark, deep (or other such similar variants). Some brands offer more distinction that better reflects the uniqueness of each person’s skin tone like Urban Decay, which you will see if you read and click the relevant links in the next section of this post. The first task for you is to work out which skin shade category you fall in to. For reference, I fall into light.
- The undertone: Most brands will refer to this as warm, neutral or cool and the easiest way to identify which describes your skin best is to consider how easy your skin tans. If you tan easily without burning or sun lotion you are warm, if you burn easily you are cool, and if you can tan well but will eventually burn if you stay out in the sun for too long with no lotion, then you are neutral. The other thing you can do to check your undertone is turn your wrist over and look at the veins on the underside. Warm tones have green/olive veins, neutral have blue/green veins, and cool have blue/purple veins. For reference, I have a neutral undertone because I tan like crazy in the sun but I will burn if I am out all day with no lotion on.
Urban Decay
I would go to Urban Decay for amazing eyeshadows for amazing nights out when I was in my 20s, but I didn’t consider them for makeup bases until recently. I stumbled across Urban Decay again when searching for a brand with a good selection of lip liners for wearing with my matte lips to prevent bleeding.
Urban Decay have also made my day in recent years with the launch of their whole Naked range. It started off with an eyeshadow palette of beautiful neutral colours (click here for the Naked 3 palette), and was adored and raved about by so many dedicated fans that Naked became a sensational range of many products for use all over the face, and not least a Naked Foundation.
Urban Decay Foundation Shade Finder
The Urban Decay Stay Naked foundation is an absolute game-changer. I first purchased and tried this product from an online sale. I did not try it at the counter, nor did I rely on a staff member to help me choose a shade, I did it entirely with the help of their absolutely fantastic online video resource and proper foundation shade colour names. You won’t find ‘Alabaster’ or ‘Desert Sand’ here, just simple alphanumeric codes to describe each shade that, once you have watched the video to understand how those codes are built, makes it super easy to ID the right foundation shade for you.
Click this link to go to the Urban Decay shade finder video and see exactly what I mean. Also, I can’t recommend Look Fantastic enough for access to the best deals on Urban Decay, or any other beauty brand. At the time of writing this there is 20% Urban Decay at Look Fantastic plus an extra gift. Click here to shop Urban Decay Stay Naked.
NARS
I didn’t have a great experience with NARS until I tried their foundation and concealer. I found most of their blushers too glittery, their lipsticks didn’t wear well and their powders didn’t help my oiliness. However, similar to Urban Decay, their website offers good descriptions of the colour and tone of each of their foundations making it a much easier purchase.
The downside is that for some reason those descriptions are not used in the foundation shade name, and only seem to appear on the Nars website. If you try to buy Nars from an alternative retailer (where you might get access to a better price thanks to discounts or voucher codes) the colours you need to choose from are back to funny names that don’t actually help when you’re trying to choose. For example, my foundation shade name is Deauville, not that I would know that from buying it from Look Fantastic. But on the Nars site I can read a description saying ‘Light 3.5 – For Light skin with golden undertones’.
So, to explore your best option with Nars Naturally Radiant foundation click this link first to find your best NARS shade, and then shop the Naturally Radiant Foundation product here where you will be able to purchase it at a much better price point using a discount code or taking advantage of a live offer.
Bobbi Brown
Bobbi Brown make up has long been an everyday go to solution for me. I absolutely adore the Bobbi Brown ethos of being naturally you and naturally beautiful, and find that most products I have tried have been virtually faultless. I have a small collection of Bobbi Brown foundation now and love all of the Bobbi Brown Skin range for their lovely natural wear on the skin.
What makes Bobbi Brown and even more fantastic brand to buy from is that they always have such great deals on their products on their own website, so you never have to look far to take advantage of excellent products at excellent prices.
I use two foundation shades from Bobbi Brown, one for my paler winter skin, and one for my more golden summer skin. The shade names remain consistent between product types so that if you want to switch from powder to liquid to stick, you only need to look for the shade name you are already used to. Check out the Bobbi Brown links below to access their range and choose the right foundation shade for you. They make it so easy with their detailed description of shade types on their website.
Click here to shop Bobbi Brown Skin Liquid Foundation which is currently 20% off and which offers excellent product colour descriptions to help you choose (I am using Sand currently, Beige in summer). This link will take you to Bobbi Brown Skin Weightless Powder Foundation which is also 20% off at the time of writing. I have featured this foundation on a blog post before on my favourite fast face fixers, check it out here which is still one of my all-time favourite blog posts I have ever written because it was just such an honest representation of how I felt at the time and how different a bit of makeup can make you feel. And last but not least, the perfect solution for popping in your bag when out and about, the Bobbi Brown Skin Stick Foundation which, you guessed it, is also 20% just now.
Findation.com
Findation.com is quite possibly the best gift to make up lovers of all colours and tones. An online calculator that tells you the right shade to buy in your chosen new brand formula. All you need to do is enter the details of your foundations that you know colour match you perfectly, and voila! It churns out a plethora of new brands and shades to try with the same colour match as your current product.
The more products you can enter the better for a close match. And Findation.com doesn’t have every single brand ever invented on it. You won’t be able to find random drug store buys, but expect all the main reputable brands to be there.
I would love to know of any other brands you have purchased from that not only make a great quality foundation, but that make it easy to purchase the right shade? Let me know, and I hope this has been useful, Emma x