Wednesday 22 October 2014

Finding your Foundations


Who remembers being sixteen and finding the makeup aisle full to bursting point with so many different foundations you ended up with a patchwork on your hands of testers. Normally leaving with a shade far too dark for your skin tone and spending the day at school with the dreaded tide mark! …..Oh the horror…. I know I do. Still, I can’t be too hard on myself as the Foundation Game is a tricky one to master. Unless you have the flawless skin of a Victoria Secrets model were a BB cream is enough, without the knowledge of finding your perfect match, it could all get a little messy.

So today is going to be a quick post on how to find the undertone of your skin and what would be the best base for you. 




First off, lets figure out the best place to test your foundation. If you are brave enough to go it alone and match yourself, stay away from applying it on your hand! Pop a match stick line of foundation down your jaw line, this is the area that matches up best with the rest of your neck and decalletage. Some make the mistake of matching up to their cheeks, but that area has a lot of colour to it, seeing as we flush up rosy whenever we are hot, embarrassed or had one too many vinos!

Once you’ve applied your foundation, take a step back and take a look in the mirror, if the colour of your forehead, chin and chest all have uniformity you’re on to a winner! Right, now we have that sorted let me explain something that 12 years ago I originally thought was nonsense…. Undertones…

Pink Undertones 

Pink undertones are usually found in light and fair skins, your hair or eye colour doesn’t really make a difference, but usually blondes with blue eyes will no doubt have pink undertones. One way you can tell if you have pink undertone is whether you are able to tan easily, if you find that you burn quickly and don’t hold a deep colour for long then you my friend, are a pink! One little tip I’ve learnt to find out quickly is to look on the inside of your wrist at your veins, blue visible veins mean pink undertone.

For me, matching people with pink undertones can be a little more tricky than someone who has a yellow undertone. Pink doesn’t take any prisoners, you have to get it 100% right or you end up looking like you’re wearing an orange mask. Pink undertone foundations are lighter in colour and normally have names like “ivory” or “porcelain”

I’ll be honest, fair skinned people are my second favourite skin to work on (black skin is my first for all you nosey bunch out there) Fair skin, a lot of the time, means freckles and I personally think freckles are so beautiful, they are like little dots of youth you will have on your face forever. So to all you freckled wonders out there, don’t cake on that foundation to such a degree they disappear!


Yellow Undertones

Yellow undertones are found in medium or olive skins, basically, the easiest way to think of it is if you have some hint of Mediterranean in your family history you will have a yellow undertone. Yellow undertone skins tan quickly and with ease, another little trick is to place some gold jewellery round your neck, if it sits there looking quite striking on your bare skin it’s because the warm, yellow tones compliment it well. Of course don’t forget the wrist test, for all you yellows you will notice green visible veins.

The tricky part of having a yellow undertone is making the mistake of using foundation too light and with a pink tone. It has the ability to wash you out and strip away all the natural warmth in your skin. So next time you have someone say “oh, you look tired” when in fact you had a good 8 hours sleep the night before, have a little peek in the mirror, remember, uniformity is key so if your forehead, chin and chest don’t match, and you’re looking a little pale, means you’ve gone over to the pink side!

Never panic, grab that bronzer and dust it over the high points of your face, where the sun naturally hits you. This will add the warmth back and you’ll be a match again!

Neutral Undertones

Neutral undertones can be found in any skin type, doesn’t even matter about your ethnic background, this means you are a mix of pink and yellow undertones. To find out if you are a neutral you would have a mixture of blue and green veins on your inner wrist. Be wary though you neutrals, although you will have the easiest time finding foundations to match, it can go terribly wrong. I’m speaking from experience here, yes I have the dark hair, the olive skin, the Mediterranean background, all signs that point to a yellow undertone, but no in the winter months I am literally a ghost with a thick pair of black eyebrows…. Slap on some foundation with a yellow undertone, and I am literally a ghost with a thick pair of black eyebrows and an tangoed face. Now that’s not even a look found in TOWIE anymore… My advice for you fellow neutrals is have a winter foundation shade and summer shade. You will find the more you tan, the more yellow your undertone becomes. It may feel like you’ve drawn the short, rather expensive, straw but really you have the best of both worlds… you have the ability to keep hold of a tan and possibly have a set of gorgeous freckles! Plus, if you are anything like me, you can use the excuse of being neutral to have makeup spending sprees!

























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Images from today's post found on Google. 

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