The ease of buying a whole heap of make up in my pyjamas speaks to my soul and is more often than not what I do. Although, as with everything, shopping online has it's draw backs and one of which being picking foundations that match your skin tone. Heres a few tips I've discovered to picking your perfect shade.
Know Your Undertone
Let's talk about how to tell what undertone you have. There are 3 options, pink, yellow or neutral. The easiest way to tell is by looking at the veins on the underside of you wrist (it's best to do this in natural day light). If they're blue you have a warm or pink undertone, if they're green in colour then you are a cool or yellow undertone and if they look both green and blue you have a neutral undertone - pretty much equal balances of warm and cool/pink and yellow. Other ways to tell is when you get a tan warm undertones usually turn pink first, or red depending on the shade of your skin, in the sun and then tan later or are very prone to burning. Cool undertones tend to tan easily in the sun and rarely burn.
What to look for in a foundation shade name if you have warm tones: pink, salmon, blush, rose, warm and any abbreviation (e.g W). *Usually most shades titled 'fair' have pink undertones.
What to look for in a foundation shade if you have cool tones: yellow, golden, cool and any abbreviation (e.g C). *Usually shades titled 'sand' have yellow undertones.
*Of course the synonyms and descriptions above are not true for all foundations but I've found it to be the case for a lot of different shade names etc.
Look Up Swatches
Once you know what undertone you have this is the best way to find your match. Whether it be the flat image swatches on the website or a quick google image search of the foundation of your choice followed by the word swatches. Most of the time you can tell what shades are warm, cool and neutral from a swatch but if you can't decide then have a look at the brand's website and check if they have a description of each shade of the foundation you want. They don't always tell you the degree of pink and yellow for every shade but they will most likely tell you if they are warm in tone or cool.
Foundation Match Websites
findation - matchmymakeup - foundation matrix
All 3 are great if you're looking for a specific foundation match or just want to check your shade in a lot of foundations. They work by you inputting your current foundation shades and then they'll calculate what shades you are in other foundation. Findation is a little outdated and doesn't have newer releases like the Charlotte Tilbury Magic Foundation, Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation etc but still has a lot of choices. Matchmymakeup is the best one in my opinon, it has pretty much every foundation and you can choose a specific foundation, select a whole bunch or look at them all. It also tells you the closest match if they don't have the exact shade in the foundation you want and they tell how it's different which is super helpful. The foundation matrix is probably the most accurate but has a pretty awful system in terms of looking for specific products.
And there you have it - my tips for picking your shade online.
Do you normally shop for make up online or do you prefer going to a store?
F I N D & F O L L O W M E O N
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