Choosing a Foundation

Excerpted from The Complete Beauty Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Smart Beauty (Rodale Inc., 2004) by Paula Begoun

Finding the Perfect Color

Whether you have red hair and fair skin or black hair and dark ebony skin, the foundation must match your underlying skin color exactly. Do not buy a foundation that will make your face look even a shade or two darker or lighter or change its underlying color in any manner. Find a foundation that matches your skin perfectly and goes on softly and smoothly.

Traditionally, skin color has been defined by the basic underlying tone, described as olive, when the skin appears ashen or green in color; sallow, when the skin has a yellow or golden shade; and ruddy, when the skin has overtones of pink or red. These categories hold true for all women, including women of color; your underlying skin color will always relate to one of those skin tones.

When you're purchasing a foundation, it is important to identify your overall, exact skin color and find a foundation that matches it, regardless of the underlying tone. For the most part, regardless of your race, nationality, or age, your foundation should be some shade of neutral ivory, neutral beige, tan, dark brown, bronze brown, or ebony, with a slight, and I mean very slight, undertone of yellow.

Why a slightly yellow undertone? Because skin color, more often than not, has a yellow undertone: That's just what the natural color of melanin (the pigment in the skin) tends to be. There are a few exceptions to this rule. Native North American or South American women, a tiny percentage of African-American women, and some Polynesian women do indeed have a red cast to their skin. They need to look for foundations that have a slightly reddish cast to them--but that's only a hint of brownish red, and not copper, orange, or peach.

Although you are attempting to exactly match the skin color of your face when you choose a foundation, in some cases it is more important to match the foundation to the color of your neck. If your face is darker than your neck and your foundation matches the face, it will look like a mask because of the difference in color. The opposite is also true. If your face is lighter than your neck and you put on a foundation that matches the face, it will still look like a mask because of the difference in color. In situations like this, match the foundation more to the neck color or to a color in between the color of the neck and the face.

Once you have selected a foundation color, there is only one way to be absolutely sure it is right for you: Apply the color all over your face and check it outside in the daylight. Check it from all angles and decide if it matches your skin exactly. If you applied it carefully but there are lines of demarcation at the jaw area; or if it looks too thick or too greasy, or gives the face an orange, pink, rose, or ashen tint; or if it looks heavy and opaque instead of sheer and light, go back to the testers. In fact, you may need to test several types before you find the right foundation.

One practical guideline to narrow down your choices is to test many different colors at once. Begin with several that look like good possibilities and place stripes of each one in a row over the cheek area. The best choice is the one that blends almost perfectly with your skin color. The wrong choices will stand out, with obvious edges that don't disappear into your skin.

This technique is a reliable way to eliminate some choices, but use it only as an elimination process. Still check out the color on your face in the daylight, and blend the foundation shade over a larger area of your face.

Keep trying on foundations until you find the best one. Once you've made a selection you feel good about, apply it all over your face, wait at least two hours, and check it again in the daylight.

If you prefer to wear a sheer, thin layer of foundation or don't want to wear foundation all over your face, then a moisturizer with sunscreen must be worn underneath. To ensure your foundation with sunscreen is protecting you all day, consider setting your makeup or touching up your makeup during the day with a makeup setting spray.

• Look at the natural color of your skin. Even if you dislike its shade, working with it by choosing a color that matches will look better than trying to lighten or darker it.
• Consider buying two shades, so that you can use a slightly darker color in the summertime if you tan easily.
• Choose a foundation with undertones in the shade that matches the undertones of your skin. For most people, this is either yellow or pink.
• Test the foundation on your forearm. The makeup should basically disappear, while working to cover slight blemishes.
• Choose a foundation and concealer from the same product line to make sure they match perfectly.
• Remember that liquid foundation usually looks darker in the bottle than on the skin.
• Test the foundation on your face at a makeup counter if possible.