How To Find The Perfect Foundation For Your Skin Type and Skin Tone
Finding the perfect foundation can be a daunting task. With an intimidating range of brands, shades and personalisation options available, it can be difficult and time-consuming to nail down a formula that works perfectly for your particular needs and addresses your concerns. While products like a great eyeliner pencil or mascara can be one-size-fits-all, the opposite is the case for foundation. Continue reading to discover how to find the perfect foundation that works for you.
Identify your skin type
The first (and most important) step to take when finding the perfect foundation is to figure out your skin type. It is important to think about your concern and figure out a way to work with it, not against it. You should try to tailor your foundation search around your specific skin concerns — whether it’s complementing acne, or simply wanting your skin to look more luminous.
Again, foundation isn’t one-size-fits-all - the influencer you trust with your life might recommend a particular brand, but only you can decide if it’s the right fit for your unique skin. The main skin types are dry, oily, and combination - of course, on top of that, you might be dealing with issues surrounding dullness, dehydration, breakouts, and sensitivity too. Think about your particular skin issues; one foundation might work like magic to cover up redness but may be comedogenic (which can cause acne flare-ups if you're prone to breakouts).
Determine your undertones
To determine your undertones, look at the exposed areas of the body first. If your chest and shoulders tend to be on the red and pink side, it’s safe to say you have pink undertones,
or if you’re golden, peach, and yellow, you have warmer undertones. Most importantly, your face needs to match your body. Keep in mind it has nothing to do with how light or dark your complexion is. Any skin colour can have cool, warm or neutral undertones. If none of the colours associated with undertones stands out as obvious, you have neutral undertones.
Another way to find the perfect foundation with your new-found knowledge of undertones is to be strategic about which issues you want to address the most. For example, if you have redness, foundations with yellow bases can offset that. The whole process can be incredibly time-consuming and you may have to physically test out foundations if you’re struggling. Shade-matching can be intimidating, but you can experiment with different shades along your jawline and see which one disappears.
Foundation-newbies also report finding success with shade matching tools like the Slapp App. The Slapp App matches you to the foundations, concealers and powders that are right for you. Download Slapp on iOS or Android, take a selfie in natural daylight and instantly shop in your shade, across the world’s best beauty brands.
Consider your coverage needs
When choosing your foundation coverage level, ask yourself how much you want your natural skin to show through. If the answer is lots, choose a light foundation or even a good tinted moisturiser.
If the answer is not a lot, choose a medium-coverage foundation you can ‘build’ to fuller-coverage. A tip to keep in mind when it comes to foundation coverage – you can make any foundation more sheer, by mixing the formula with your favourite moisturiser and/or applying the product with a damp beauty sponge.
Application is key
It’s not just about finding the right formula—the way your foundation looks depends heavily on how you apply it. Makeup application can make all the difference, and you can make one foundation look different simply by how you apply it.
Use a brush for more coverage and product, your fingers if you want the product to seamlessly blend into your skin, and a damp beauty sponge to add moisture and sheerness.
So once you find that perfect foundation and the formula works for you, remember to apply it accordingly to make sure the final look is exactly what you want.
RK