Laying the Foundations for Picking the Right Foundation
According to many women, foundation is the number one confidence booster. Regardless of how well we take care of our skin or however many beauty tips we follow, putting on foundation simply makes us feel refreshed, radiant, and confident.
Since foundation is extremely important in our life, it can be stressful trying to find the perfect one. You have to understand your own skin and become very intimate with how it changes. Before buying a new foundation, check out these types to determine what kind is right for you.
Determine Your Skin Type
The first step to choosing the right foundation is to get to know your skin. The most common types are oily, dry, combination, and sensitive. However, these types can change throughout your lifetime so you should re-evaluate your skin tone every couple of years to ensure you’re using the right type of foundation.
- Oily Skin: If your skin generally feels greasy and looks shiny when you look in the mirror, you probably have oily skin. People with oily skin have large pores that can sometimes be clogged by excess oils. To counteract these oils, you should look for matte-finish liquid foundations. These are lightweight and help hold in oils.
- Dry Skin: People with dry skin general have small pores and tight skin that can sometimes become flaky or cracked. This is particularly true during wintery cold months and may require a lot of moisturizer. Therefore, you should use a moisturizing liquid foundation to hydrate your skin and create a natural glow.
- Combination Skin: This skin type mixes both oily and dry skin. Usually, you will feel oily in your T-zone – particularly around the nose – and dry everywhere else. If you have different types of skin in different places, you will want to use pressed or loose powder as they are lightweight and work well for a mixture of skin types.
- Sensitive Skin: If your skin tends to be itchy, patchy, dry, or painful at times, you may have sensitive skin. People with sensitive skin also tend to have normal to large size pores that can change if you have a reaction. You will probably want to use oil-free foundations with a vegan or dermatologist approved formula.
Identify Your Skin Tone
After you determine your skin type, you need to figure out your skin tone. There are two types of colors you will want to consider: surface tone and undertone.
Your surface tone is the first thing you see when you look at yourself in the mirror. You can generally figure out this tone by selecting different foundations and matching it to your skin. However, your surface tone can change depending on the season and sometimes during breakouts and acne. When trying to find a match, look at your jawline as this tends to be less affected by color changes than the rest of your face.
The undertone is the muted color underneath your skin, which never changes regardless of what happens to your surface tone. There are generally three different undertone categories: warm, cool, and neutral. Warm is more of a peachy golden, cool is redish pink, and neutral is an olive or mixture of the other two. When determining your undertone, consider these factors:
- Veins: Take a look at your wrists and note the color of your veins. If they are bluish-purple then you’re a cool tone, if they’re green than you’re a warm tone and if they’re blueish-green then you have a neutral tone.
- Blushing and Tanning: If you tend to blush easily, you may be a cool tone. When you go to the beach if you tan easily than you might be a warm tone. However, if you burn easily, you are more likely a cool tone.
- The Colors You Wear: Have you been told you look good in certain colors? This can help you determine your undertone. Warm tones tend to look better in reds, peaches, oranges, and yellows; cool tones look good in blues, emeralds, and purples; and neutral tones tend to choose colors like jade green, lagoon blue, black, and gray.
Many beauticians say that you should use your undertone rather than your surface tone to determine the color of your foundation. This can help you match throughout the seasons, regardless of skin tone changes.
Once you determine your skin type and your tone, you will be able to figure out exactly what type of foundation and shade is perfect for your skin. Make sure that your foundation helps you stay beautiful and confident.
