Many of us fall victim to this. Finding the right foundation shade at a drug store can seem like a nightmare. There is no professional their to help match your skin like at high end makeup counters. The shade will look like the right one for you or you'll read the shade name that sounds right, but when you get home and try it on it is either too dark, too light, too yellow, or too pink for your skin tone. So what is a girl to do? Here are some tips on finding the right foundation shade for your skin.
Use one of your old foundations as a reference color. Now you can do this two ways. You can actually bring the bottle of foundation in to the store or swatch some of your old foundation on your hand and go into the store with that. Unfortunately if your bringing your old foundation into the store with you this will only work if the bottle is glass or your able to see the actual product through the container. Then all you have to do is simply start picking up different colors and holding them next to each other. You will be able to tell what is too dark or too light or too pink or too yellow for you. And if you feel a little weird bringing in a whole container into the store like me, just swatch some of your old foundation on the back of your hand. Make sure it is a good amount so that you can actually see the color. When you get to the store you can simply do one of two things. Either just hold up the bottle next to your swatch on your hand or just take the actual product and swatch that color on your hand next to your old foundation shade. This will probably only work if the container isn't sealed. Now some people may say, why don't you just swatch the foundation to your hand color? The reason I do not suggest this is because your hands are often a different color then your face.
What girl doesn't like going to the store to look at makeup? So just bring a friend with you. All you have to do is have your friend pick up bottles and match it to your face. When your matching colors make sure to use your jaw line as a reference. This is because your jaw line shows you the most accurate color of your face. You could also just bring a small hand mirror with you to the store if all your friends are busy. Just hold up the foundation to your jaw line while looking in the mirror. This might be more difficult but it will still work.
If your just starting out and don't have a foundation then you should take a trip down to the mall and stop at a makeup counter. Who said you have to buy something when going to a counter. Just simply ask the person at the counter to match yourself to a foundation shade. They will be more then glad to help you. When they find your shade ask if you can bring home a sample of the foundation. Most counters will give you a little container of foundation to bring home with you if you ask because they know how expensive their products are to just buy on the spot.
I hope you found this helpful and are now ready to face drug store foundations. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
xoxo
Victoria
