50 Shades of Wrong: How to Find the Best Foundation

Tonya Riner

What’s your undertone? Cool, neutral, warm? Do you know how to tell? Do you care? If you’re looking for a foundation it’s important.

Finding the right one can be a work out, to say the least.

Here’s what you’re up against:

  • Your foundation should be imperceptible on your skin. That means the color has to be a perfect match.
  • The texture has to work with your skin type. Matte? Demi-matte? Dewy?
  • Sephora alone has roughly 1,500 different foundations to choose from.
  • That perfect match you found in June is no longer perfect in October.
Here’s why you should consider finding the best foundation:
  • Beautiful skin is, well, beautiful. The right foundation can make your skin look smooth, even and radiant.
  • When you have that perfect match, applying it is easy. It becomes one with your skin, so you can use it only where you need it. Less makeup always looks better.
  • New formulas have the added benefit of high quality skin care. Your skin not only looks better, it is.

Here’s what you can do:

TECH SUPPORT
1. Matchmaker app by L’Oreal True Match is a bit tricky. I followed the prompts and then clicked on my “celebrity match” – Jennifer Lopez popped up. As much as I’d like to have J-Lo’s skin tone, I don’t. I’m no longer wondering why the “try again” option is so prominent on the page that also lists “my true match.”

So I made my friend try it. I asked her if she had ever thought about the undertone of her skin. She rolled her eyes and said, “Just show me which one to buy.” That’s the beauty of the app; it brings your attention to the differences in undertones, which brings you closer to finding yours.

The bottom line on L’Oreal’s True Match foundation and app: The formula is great. The price is right. If you’ve got the patience, it’s worth the trouble.

2. The Sephora + Pantone Color IQ system takes it up a notch. A beauty adviser uses a device to take photos of your skin, which are used to determine your skin tone. That number is entered into the system and every shade that matches you appears on an iPad, in two minutes. And it’s free. Your adviser will help you select the formula that’s best for you.

The search is over …

Forget foundation phobia! The chances of finding your perfect match have never been better. It’s out there.

Go get it.

 

Written by 

Tonya Riner started doing makeup as a teenager in her two-stoplight hometown in Kansas. From there, she declared herself a professional, and has spent the last twenty-five years on fashion shoots and shows, on both coasts, and in Europe. Tonya's work has been featured in Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. She was included in Allure Magazine’s Directory as one of the best makeup artists in the United States. Her long list of celebrity clientele includes Heidi Klum, Erin Wasson, Julie Anderson, Rachel Hunter, Chandra North, and Lauren Bush. Backstage, she has worked alongside Frederic Fekkai and Ted Gibson. She was a member of the beauty team for Beyonce’s Blow video. For Tonya, one of the most rewarding parts of her job is spending time, one-on-one, with models and clients. She finds that ordinary barriers fall away within minutes of the start of a makeup session, leaving space for instant intimacy and the shared pursuit of beauty. Connecting with extraordinary people from all walks of life fuels her passion for her work. As a consultant, Tonya works with creative teams to devise strategies for beauty brand product development, most recently for the company, Beauty for Real. She enjoys working with products from both the manufacturing and marketing ends. Moving forward, she would like to be instrumental in the development of the kinds of beauty products she, herself, would want to use.

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