When buying a foundation, these are the four things to ask yourself

When buying a foundation, these are the four things you want to ask yourself:

1. What is my correct shade?
2. What is my skin type?

And depending on that answer:

3. What kind of finish am I looking for?
4. What kind of coverage am I looking for?

Finding the Correct Shade

The best area to match your foundation to is your neck. Often, the neck is a slightly different shade than the face because the face is more exposed to the sun, and we always want to make sure that our face matches our neck. Otherwise, the entire makeup will look inconsistent and unnatural.

The first step to finding the perfect shade match is to determine your skin’s overall tone. You can either be fair, light, medium, or dark. Once you’ve determined which skin tone you are, you need to find your undertone. Your undertone is the color hue that comes from beneath your skin’s surface. The three most typical undertones are warm, cool, and neutral.

There are a few ways to find your undertone. The first trick is to look at the color of the veins on your wrist. If you have a warm undertone, your veins will look greenish, if you have a cool undertone, it will look blue/purple, and if you have a neutral undertone, the veins will look blueish greenish or it will be hard to determine the color that it is.

The next test to find your undertone would be the jewelry test. If you find that you look better in gold jewelry, you’re most likely warm-toned, if you look better in silver jewelry, you’re most likely cool-toned, and if both look great on you, you’re most likely neutral.

The third test is the sun test. If you usually tan easily from the sun, you’re probably a warm tone, if you burn easily, you’re probably cool-toned, and if you burn and then tan, you’re likely neutral-toned.

Now that you know your undertone, when you go shopping, you want to look out for those key words: warm, cool, and neutral. Lots of foundations these days are marked with a W, a C, or an N.

If you’re having a hard time finding your shade, try the three foundations that look closest to your skin tone. Spread the foundation down your jawline to your neck and lightly blend it, then look in the mirror and see which one blends into your skin best. You can do this online by buying the three shades that look like they would match you best. These days, most stores will let you return items, but find that out before making your purchase. If you go to a makeup store, you can ask a salesperson to help you out.

Finding Your Skin Type

Choosing a foundation that’s right for you will depend a lot on your skin type.

A good way to find your skin type is to wash your face with a gentle cleanser and pat it dry. Wait 30 minutes and then evaluate how your skin feels.

If it feels dry and tight, you probably have dry skin. If it feels slippery, you probably have oily skin, and if it feels dry around your face and oily in your T-zone, you have combination skin. If it doesn’t feel any specific way, then you probably have a normal skin type.

Choosing Your Foundation Finish

Now that you know your skin type, you can decide which finish you want to go for. Someone with a dry skin type might want to go for something more glowy. Glowy foundations tend to be more hydrating and natural looking and make the skin look more alive.

Someone with an oily skin type might want to go for something more matte. Matte foundations will give a more matte airbrushed look (which is usually not as natural-looking) to the skin and will help control the oils.

If you have combination skin, there’s something called a satin finish which is somewhere in between glowy and matte. If you have normal skin, you can choose any type of foundation.

Choosing Coverage

Choosing which kind of coverage you want will depend on a few different things. There’s sheer coverage, which will just even out your skin tone but won’t cover up your blemishes. Light coverage will give a bit more coverage, and so on until full coverage, which will be fully opaque and will cover up almost all blemishes.

Choosing coverage will also depend on what kind of look you’re going for. If you want an everyday look, sheer to medium coverage will do the trick. If you want the glam look or you have acne or blemishes you want to cover, then you want to go medium or full coverage. Lots of medium-coverage foundations can be built up with more product to be full coverage. Matte foundations tend to have fuller coverage and last longer. Glowy foundations will usually have lower coverage and won’t last quite as long.

There are so many great foundation options on the market these days, both high end and drugstore brands. You can shop within your budget. Splurging on foundations isn’t always necessary.

(Originally featured in Family First, Issue 934)