How to find your colors in makeup: Foundation, Blush, & Lipstick

I’ve been experimenting with makeup for a little bit over a decade. And I’ve always preferred a natural makeup look that enhances. I like makeup that is done in a way where you can barely tell you’re wearing any. I’ve come across a lot of makeup that just didn’t fit me. It looked out of place on my skin. It was either too dark too light, too cool or too warm, too pigmented or not pigmented enough. I finally figured out my colors when I learned what was happening. All I knew was that the color looked out of place. I didn’t know about being cool or warm or saturated or muted. Most color theory systems go by light or dark. But I actually think that is irrelevant. A color that is dark can be muted. And a color that is light can be saturated. Darker coloring doesn’t automatically mean dark colors suit you best. Just as light doesn’t equal muted. I tried so many brown lipsticks and deep raisin lipsticks and blushes and burgundy colors that didn’t work for me. Here are a few methods that helped me to get closer to my most flattering colors.

Finding Your Undertone

One of the most important things to help find the right colors for you is undertone. There are a few methods you can use to find your undertone you can determine which jewelry colors are the most flattering on you.

Do you look better in gold jewelry? If you do, that means you are warm. If silver is more flattering you are cool.

Drape Test

Find an article clothing you have that is warm and one that is cool. Sit in front of a window or in natural light and look in the mirror or take a selfie without makeup. For a cool tone drape use purple green or silver. And for a warm tone drape you can use orange, red, yellow, tan, or gold. Take a selfie in both your warm and cool color. You can compare White vs off white shirt. If you look better in white than off white you are cool. If you look better in off white than white you are warm. In the wrong color it will show all of your imperfections and show shadows around your chin area. In the correct color your completion will look healthy and even.

Foundation Color Matching

When you’re testing foundations match the color to your neck or chest and not your hand or your face. Usually when shopping the first instinct is to test the color on your hand or your wrist. The foundation won’t be anywhere near the hand or the wrist so it doesn’t need to match those areas and they are often a different shade from the neck. A lot of foundations tell you if the shade is warm cool or neutral and that will make it easier to narrow down shades if you already know if you are warm or cool. A lot of it is just trial and error. The more pink or blue a color leans the color it is. And the more a color leans yellow, orange, or peach the warmer it is.

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Trial and error

You can get matched at a counter but I find that in makeup stores the lighting is unnatural and very bright and can throw your coloring off. If you’re just starting out, buy drugstore shades to try to get as close to your coloring as well. After some experimenting you can usually go straight to your shade or get within a few shades just by guessing. Then you can experiment with higher end foundations once you have an idea of your shade.

It might be easier to shop at a store like sephora. They can help you match your foundation. And you can ask for samples of a few colors and test them at home in natural lighting. Test them on your neck chest or lower jawline and compare it to your neck.

Finding Your Natural Blush Shades and Lip Colors

When it comes to blush and lip colors sometimes your natural shades aren’t what you would think of when you think of natural. They are not browns or muted pinks. They are deeper shades like burgundy or wine. It depends on your color saturation and warmth or coolness of your skin.

It is also helpful to know if you are warm or cool when finding lipstick and blush shades too. If you can’t tell if you are warm or cool or just want color suggestions one of the best ways to get close to your natural lip color is to use a color picker. Upload a picture of yourself to a color picker . Then use a hex color finder and click on your lips in different areas until you find a color you think suits you. Search for the names of the hex codes, then search for colors close to those names. There are phone apps that do this too.

Here’s an example with my own picture.

imagecolorpicker.com > This was the website I used for a color picker.

hexcolorpedia.com > You can lookup the color number on this website.

Then google “Auburn colored lipstick” and google will give you suggestions of colors in this range. This is just an example. The same can be done for blush. It doesn’t have to be exact with color. can be a few shades darker or lighter just in same color family. This is a matter of trial and error like foundation. But with the color picker you have something to go off of.

Another way to find your blush color is to match the color to the inner lip as close as you can. Or….. you can pinch your cheeks and when they turn pink or red match it to that color. And another way to find your neutral lipstick color is to pinch the tip of your finger and find a lipstick closest to this color.

In my experience because I’m deep I automatically wanted to go towards the deepest shades. But those shades didn’t work well for me and neither did the lighter shades. Your coloring can be dark but the saturation level can vary from person to person. This is why you should try different variations of a color to see what fits you best. Try light colors with white added to them. And muted colors which are toned down with more grey in them and bright vibrant and vivid colors and colors that are darker with more brown added to them.

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For example if you think a shade of rosy pink might be your color you can try rosy colors of varying saturation and depth until you find one that harmonizes with your depth and undertone. There are cool rose colors and warm rose and like the color palette below, every color has varying depths and saturations when you add black white or grey.