Wearing the wrong shade of foundation for your skin is a serious beauty no-no. Too light, and you’ll look like a clown; too dark, and you’ll look like a tangerine. We all want to get that flawless look for our skin, so avoid those pesky base bothers with these tips:
Make-Up Counter
In your mission to discover the perfect base for you, your first point-of-call should be a make-up counter. With the professional advice provided by sales assistants, you’ll be in a much better position to go it alone and choose your foundation for yourself.
Don’t go at the busiest times: lunch and weekends. You may find that you don’t have the full concentration of your attendant because it’s so busy, but this is your face! You want their undivided attention. You also don’t want to be rushed through the make-up process. Beauty counter attendants have worked with all kinds of skin tones, so they may open your eyes up to a product that’ll revolutionise your make-up habits.
Forget Your Hands
Many girls make the mistake of testing foundation on your hands. You need to test the make-up directly on your face. It needs to blend in seamlessly and match the colour of your neck too. Hands and faces differentiate in tone, so don’t make this mistake.
Warm Or Cool?
Determining whether you have a warm or cool complexion, is something you might be able to work out for yourself. Warm complexions usually look at their best with oranges, bronzes, golds, peaches, deep reds, greens, browns, and ivory. Cool complexions are more suited to emerald greens, royal or ice blues, rosy pinks, silvers, plums, and pure whites. If your skin lights up against gold, you’re warm. If you look fantastic against silver, you’re cool.
Still unsure? Another test is to stand in natural light and look at the veins on your inner wrist. Blue veins are a sign of coolness, but veins with a green hue indicate a warm skin tone.
Big brands will help you out by labelling their products either ‘warm’ or ‘cool,’ so you can match a base perfectly. Make-up isn’t cheap, and if you’re finding your product purchases too expensive, you can buy beauty supplies wholesale to save some pennies in the long-run.
Take It Outside
Taking your foundation outside to try on is the best way to determine whether it suits your skin tone or not. The natural light will show how well the base works, but shop floor lighting can give you a false impression. Obviously, you don’t want to be seen in public, staring at a mirror and applying a bunch of different foundation shades to your face, but it’s completely worth the awkwardness. One minute of looking silly for months of looking fabulous? No-brainer.
Let It Stand
By leaving your foundation on your skin for at least two minutes, you’ll be able to see how it would look when it reacts to your body heat. A lighter foundation may blend in and sit naturally. It’ll also indicate if a darker base will become painfully orange or pink.
Written and contributed by Zoe, a beauty geek from the UK.
