How to Pick the Perfect Foundation

Foundation can be a tricky thing to master. And finding the perfect foundation for you can be a very long experience. Foundation is as personal as a skincare routine. What works for your best friend might look terrible on you and you might hate it. What doesn’t work for your favourite beauty influencer might be your holy grail.

Today, I’ll be talking all about how to pick the perfect foundation for you. We’ll be talking all about shades, undertones, finishes, and coverage.

Lets start off with what you want out of your foundation. Do you want to be completely covered? Do you want your natural skin to peek through? Do you want to look natural, matte, or radiant?

Foundations come in a variety of coverages. You can get sheer coverage which is just a very light tint on the skin. It doesn’t have coverage but evens out the skin a little bit. I personally never go for foundation with sheer coverage because I don’t see the point. Next you can get light coverage. This evens out the skin a little bit more but still lets your natural skin shine through. Medium coverage covers minor blemishes. But if you want everything completely covered then full coverage is for you. Typically, full coverage foundations are thicker than light to medium coverage.

The finish of foundation has to do with how you want your skin to look but also your skin type. A matte foundation gives your skin a shine free finish that also looks incredibly smooth. Matte foundation usually also have the added benefit of being transfer proof. These foundation are usually the choices of those with oily or combination skin. A radiant foundation makes your skin have a dewy or wet look to it. These foundation are usually infused with light reflecting properties to make your skin look youthful and glowy. Mature skin types generally gravitate towards radiant finish foundation. Natural finish foundations kind of have the best of both worlds. Natural finish foundations are often lightweight and let your skin shine through. These make it look like you’re not wearing a ton of makeup, even if you are.

Lastly with foundation, you must know the undertone of your skin to choose a good foundation match. Foundations have 3 different undertones – warm (yellow), cool (pink), and neutral. There are a few ways to determine your skins undertone. One of them is to know how your skin reacts to the sun. If you burn, you most likely have cool undertones. If you tan, you most likely have warm undertones. If you burn then tan, you probably have neutral undertones. Another way to know the undertone of your skin is to look at the veins in your wrists. You have cool undertones if you can see blue veins in your skin. If your veins appear green on the skin (olive), you’re warm. Neutral is a mixture of both warm and cool undertones.

I hope this helped with figuring out how to pick the perfect foundation for you. If you have any questions please leave a comment below or reach out to me on instagram!

I’m thinking I might do a series reviewing new foundations and then revisiting some old ones!