How to find the right foundation shade for your skin tone

We all know the sign of a good foundation is when you can’t tell you’re wearing it. Your perfect match should blend seamlessly into your natural skin, bringing out your natural beauty and setting you up with a flawless canvas for the rest of your makeup. However, sometimes it can be difficult finding the right shade; we’ve put together all of our top match-making tips to help you find your one true match.

Step 1 – Identify your skin tone

To decide your skin tone, you have to identify whether you have warm or cool undertones. Relating to warm and cool colours as on the colour wheel, your skin undertone is the colour that comes though from under the skin.

You are likely to have a warmer skin tone if

You suit gold Jewellery better than silver
You have brown eyes
You have warmer red tones in your hair
You have green veins on your wrist rather than blue

You are likely to have a cooler skin tone if

You suit silver Jewellery better than gold
You have blue or green eyes
You have blonde, brown or black hair with cooler tones
You have blue veins on your wrist rather than green

Step 2 – Identify your skin type

Just like choosing your moisturiser, you need to pick the best foundation that works with your skin type, won’t cause irritation and will hold. If you have quite dry skin, opt for a hydrating foundation with nourishing ingredients such as the Shiseido Synchro Skin Self Refreshing Foundation. If you have acne-prone or oily skin, chose an oil-free foundation that won’t clog the pores like the Clinique Anti Blemish Solutions Liquid Makeup.

Step 3 – Try a sample

Once you’ve narrowed it down to a few shades that match your undertones and skin type it’s time to swatch. Though it’s more convenient to try it out on your hand, this can lead to a less accurate match as our skin can be different on different areas of our body. To get the most precise colour match, try each sample on your jawline to see if it blends in well to both your face and neck. Your winner will be the one that can’t be identified from your natural skin.

Step 4 – Adjust your lighting

Like taking a good selfie, you’ve got to find the right lighting. Make sure that you check your foundation in natural daylight and bright indoor lighting to see whether it still looks like a good match; the last thing you want is to perfect your look to find that your skin tone on your face doesn’t blend into your body.

Shop all foundation on LOOKFANTASTIC here.

Enjoy this? Try our best water based foundation or best dewy foundation guides.

Holly James

Beauty Writer

Working with brands at LOOKFANTASTIC for over two years I have developed my knowledge of all things beauty from key skincare concerns to niche makeup tricks and haircare hacks. I have a major passion for finding effective solutions that are easily accessible to everyone so that we can all achieve our best, glowing complexion.