How to choose the right foundation shade? A makeup artist gives all her tips

For makeup beginners who don’t know how to choose their foundation color, makeup artist @frenchtouchofmakeup shared a complete guide on her Tik Tok account. Aware that it is sometimes complicated to find your way around, in her video she gives her best tips for finding the perfect shade in 3 steps.

1) Define your skin tone

Rather light, medium, dark or very dark skin? Finding which of these categories your skin falls into is the first step in choosing your foundation. To do this, all you have to do is look in the mirror or ask a friend. Normally, recognizing which family you belong to is pretty obvious!

2) Determine your undertone

Then it’s time to determine your undertone. Rather yellow with warm undertones, pink with cooler undertones or neutral? The real question is: how do we know? Just look at the color of your veins on your forearm. In her video the makeup expert explains: “If the veins are more green, you are yellow, if they are purple, a little blue, you are more pink and if they are both you are neutral or olive.”

Another indicator that could help you is the way you tan. If you color easily in the sun, that means you tend to have warm undertones. Conversely, if you are prone to sunburn, you probably have cool undertones.

3) Test several different products to find the best

Now that you know your family and your undertone, the final step is to select three colors that you think are closest to your skin tone.

Time for the swatch! The makeup artist explains how to test products effectively: “the best place to swatch foundation is the middle of the face”. In fact, you should avoid doing it on a red area like the nose, on a scar, a stain or on hair. So, the ideal area to perform the test is “the middle of the cheek from below the eye”reveals the expert.

Little additional tip to compare colors objectively: apply the three colors vertically, next to each other. “At that moment, we directly notice a color that is too white or too orange”confides the influencer. She advises removing makeup that doesn’t match your skin and fading the one that looks best suited to your skin, preferably “with a sponge or brush”.

Last detail to take into account according to the expert: “You shouldn’t just look at the face. The foundation must also match the neck and the whole body”.

Despite this advice, are you still hesitating between two shades? When in doubt, it is recommended to opt for the lightest shade. This will give a more natural result and avoid a possible too orange effect. Up to you !