Getting your foundation colour right?

[Chottie]

I would really welcome some advice from S&B experts.

I have had foundation advice from 3 separate beauty consultants and they all seem to give me a yellow /orange base foundation which is too dark for my skin. When I look at the foundation in the day light at home you can see the 'join' around my eyes, chin and lips. Surely foundation shouldn't look like that?

The foundations I tried were liquid Bare Essentials and Clinique. My skin type is medium to dry, I have some sun damage (freckles) I would like to cover. My ideal foundation would be a liquid, medium to full coverage which I could just use where needed. My skin colour is fair with some colour on the cheeks and my hair colour is fair and my eyes are blue-green.

giving this a desperate bump......... :)

If you are fair enough to have freckles, then you need the palest shades of foundation, usually called something like porcelain or ivory in almost every brand.
Just try it on in the shop, you can try it on your face, doesn't have to be your wrist.

Thank you - there is a MAC store opened locally, I will go there.

I went to estee lauder today and the sales assistant found the perfect match for me (1st time ever!). I am quite pale too.

I found No7 match to be very good

You need to go to Bobbi Brown counter- their shades Alabaster and Porcelain are very pale.

Also Lancome 050 or 070, Nars Siberia and Dior 010.

Boots No 7 Caliko is far too grey / pink for me ( their palest shade) and I've had to give up Clinique foundations because all except Perfectly Real are too dark now- they've discontinued a lot of pale shades.

The test is to try it on your face. They ought to try 2 or 3 shades in stripes on a clean face - along the jaw. The shade you can't see is the right one for you!

It sounds like they've been trying yellow tones foundations when you need neutral or pink

Try
Urban decay naked skin in 0.5
Revlon colour stay Ivory
Mac in NW 10/13/15 depending on the type
Illamasqua skin base in 02
Bobbi brown alabaster
NARS mont blanc

I also found No7 match to be very good

I recommend asking for samples so you can try the foundation in all kinds of light before you buy - the light inside a store can be different from daylight and can make the foundation look very different compared to in daylight.

Also, getting a sample means you can test how it wears during the day and if it oxidises or breaks you out.

Can you tell me what tone Bare Mineral Complexion Rescue Tinted Hydrating Gel Cream in Natural i please?

Bobby Brown are good- and it is possible to have pale skin with warm/golden undertones as I have it! I'm ivory with golden undertones. Still it sounds like the shades given to you are too dark. Stila has a good all-day medium coverage foundation that I like. I have heard wonderful things about Charlotte Tilbury as well, I am waiting to try it myself so I can't give a review yet.

I found the No7 Match Made service to be pants!

My cheeks have colour in them so they matched the colour to them, which is too dark for me!

Aaagh, I feel your pain Chottie! I have exactly the same skin problems as you..I've lost count of the number of times I've been given a foundation which I know will be too dark but the SA insists is right. Now I don't bother usually and match myself.

Anyway, after lots of practice, I've got to the point where I can do this pretty accurately - the best place to check for a match is on your jawline, just underneath your ear as this usually shows your 'true' skin colour.

The key is getting your undertone right. Your undertone will be cool (pink), neutral (balance of both) or warm (yellow). The easiest way to tell is to check the veins on your wrist - if blue/purple you are cool, if green you are warm - if in between you will be neutral. Confusingly, MAC do it the other way round to just about everyone else who makes foundation so for MAC cool = yellow undertone and warm = pink undertone.

Lots of brands do good pale shades now, if you tell me your budget I can recommend one to go for.

pupsiecola I think Natural is meant to be neutral undertone, for medium skin tones. Hope that's helpful.

Thank you everyone so much for all your advice.

I have samples of LE and No. 7 to try at the moment and will definitely be taking up some of the other recommendations.

I'm so glad to read it isn't just me!

I find that a lot of foundations oxidise and darken / change hue slightly as they dry. I often find its best to apply a test amount to the jawline and leave it for a few minutes to actually dry down before choosing which shade matches the best. Honestly, I think too many sales people are in a rush and I've had too many match me to the wrong shade, these days I always request to match myself and it's vastly improved my success rate.

The other thing to bear in mind is that brands will generally produce the fewest number of shades they think they can get away with. That number will vary a lot by brand. I can never find a good match in Chanel or Dior's ranges because they are just too limited. Again, sales people will happily match you to the "closest" shade even if it's not 100% right. In general you'll have a better chance of getting a good match from a brand with an extensive shade range (eg Bobbi Brown).

Violet - Talking of oxidising foundation, I found out by accident this year that when I wear a face moisturizer with a mineral sunscreen (known as a physical sunscreen) my foundation doesn't oxidise. I had previously been using moisturizers with chemical sunscreens for years. My completely unscientific theory about this is that because mineral sunscreens work by creating a physical barrier on your skin to protect from the sun, it stops your foundation from being absorbed into your skin and oxidising, whereas chemical sunscreens work by being absorbed into your skin and so your foundation also gets absorbed into your skin and oxidises.

Even with a mineral sunscreen I do find that my foundation will still oxidise slightly at the of a long day but nowhere near as much as when I used chemical sunscreens. I wonder if anyone else has ever noticed this?

That's interesting Rainbunny! I've never noticed this but then I always use the same type of sunscreen.

I love the boots No.7 intelligent foundation I think its called. It adapts to your own skin colour. They do different shades. I go for light. I've tried loads of foundations and always go back to this. Its the only foundation I've found that doesnt sit on the top of my skin if you know what I mean