Hi so I want to buy a new foundation but my problem is I hate leaving the house with no makeup on so how can I swatch the foundations? I have anxiety and the thought of it scares me. I don’t know how else to find the right shade as I’ve guessed in the past and sometimes they matched sometimes they didn’t, hit or miss.
There are a few different ways to do it, if you already have a match either buy it again haha or as it’s getting colder but a shade lighter to mix in.
Or to try a new one look at whether it is sandy yellow golden tones or pinky toned. Of course this only works if it’s the right shade for you. If it’s not use your skin to look at instead. No warm interior or bright lighting. If neither it’s probably neutral. Some ranges will have silver/gold/warm/cool/peach and then some, so always look up images of swatches in different skin types before choosing. Once you can find your shade range eg from very fair to very dark, and go through those in your shade range until you spot the matching undertone in it.
Never get the one that matches your skin tone online if you are a skin type 1 to 2, especially when winter is coming, but instead get the one a touch lighter if it’s not a huge difference. They always look darker on skin than online.
For darker skins, there are sometimes two shades required as not always quite most often presents with a lighter forehead and cheeks and slightly darker below ears around mouth and chin. They can be used interchangeably as contour and highlight if needed as not everyone uses this style of applying makeup anymore.
Overall, if you find you are regularly choosing the wrong ones you might be best to buy the one you think you are and the one a shade lighter and mix them together. You can also experiment with buying yellow/red/white/brown foundation additives. Then you can get a neutral and work from there.
If you ever had a foundation shade that was perfect it doesn’t mean it still would be perfect so going fairer and adding bronzer or Matt Contour powder better than being agent orange.
The foundations I find easiest to mix affordably is The Ordinary. They have a good range of those difficult to find shades.
For example my skin is not the fairest but generally I find everything looks orangey on me unless I mix. My skin isn’t quite olive, but as it tans easily rather than burns and that often means there’s a golden tone to be seen. I buy the 1.2Y (yellow tones) as it’s the lightest they do yellow tones in, then mix it with a 1.1 N (Neutral). Because it’s not olive olive, but I have enough that it is noticeable I’m not neutral and definitely not pink tones.
Have a good research and try looking at the foundation finder on Charlotte tilbury as it will get you thinking about those skin types and the tones each type can have.
It’s never quick or easy unless you have a palette of everything to just whip up your shade, but if you like to buy high end have £100 to spare, RCMA palettes come in a variety of shades and tones. It really helped me when I was new to makeup artistry to have everything out in front of me to compare. I actually use almsot every shade throughout the year as even the lightest and darker can be mixed in some way for a highlight or contour. Foundation matching was a chore without it. In a store when someone checks your shade they will apply them all to you to compare in the same way as they are in bottles and not out in front of them.
And don’t stress too much, as long as it looks right against your skin it shouldn’t create the ole orange face ring. A lot of people worry about that but even if it wasn’t exact a good blending brush would work to hide it.
Even the pros don’t always get it right as lighting is different everyday and everywhere so don’t put too much pressure on yourself to find the exact one, chances are it doesn’t exist and something close will work perfectly
Hope this helps!
