A lot of picking the right make up has to do with your skin tone. Deciding your skin's tone and skin undertones will help you select the best foundation. The right foundation will help your skin appear flawless. Most of our skin has pink or yellow undertones. Once you have figured out what your skin's undertones are you can select the best makeup to complement your features. Powder, blush, foundation… all rely on your skin's undertones.
Cool Undertones Vs. Warm Undertones
How do you know what undertones you have? Consider how your skin looks while you are in the sunlight. Do you appear golden or yellowish? Perhaps you notice green or bronze undertones (olive skin). You have warm undertones in your skin if you fall into these categories. If however, your skin appears pink or rosy, red or has beige or brown undertones, your skin is cool.
If you are still not sure, you can stand in natural light and hold something with liver or gray undertones in your hand. Check to see whether that color adds or detracts to your skin. Then do the same with a gold colored object. If your skin looks more vibrant next to a gold colored object, you have warm undertones. If it looks best with silver or gray, you are a cool person. Most people are warm toned, not cool toned. If you are still not certain stop buy your local cosmetic counter and have a sale representative help you decide.
Selecting The Best Foundation For Your Skin Tone
Once you decide your skin tone you can pick a foundation to match. Warm toned skin looks best with nude, creamy beige and pink foundation. Cool shade skin tones look best in porcelain or sandstone hued foundation. Of course, if you are still unsure you can always go for a neutral color that looks good on anyone. Neutral colors include ivory, honey and wheat.
When applying foundation, use the following tips to help ensure a the appearance of flawless skin.
- Find a foundation that matches or complements your skin tone. You can test foundations by applying to your inner arm. The foundation that looks transparent and blends the best is the one you want to go with.
- Use moisturizer on your face before applying foundation. Moisturized skin provides a better foundation than dry skin, which will just absorb any foundation you try to apply.
- Apply foundation to your hands and gentle dab to your face including your forehead, cheeks, nose and chin. Be sure to minimize the amount of foundation you apply to your eye area. Foundation also belongs on the lips and eyelids. It will help your lipstick stay put and provide a smoother canvas when you apply your eye shadow.
- Use a light dusting of powder to set your foundation. If you need to use a concealer, apply the concealer over your foundation but under your powder.
Other Great Makeup Techniques
Finding a foundation and make up that complements your skin tone is the first step toward looking great each and every day. Here are some other great tips that will help you look your best day in and day out.
- Use as little make up as possible to achieve the desired affect. Too much makeup never looks good. It ages you and brings attention you may not need. Naturally applied makeup helps bring out your features and draws attention to your best features.
- Use only as much mascara as necessary to bring out your eye.
- Select a foundation that blends into your skin tone, not one that changes the color of your skin.
- Avoid using too much powder during the day. Too much powder results in a caked on appearance. It can also cause your foundation to 'crack' during the day.
- Blend your lip liner into your lip color so it doesn't look like you obviously drew your lips in.
- Never draw lips outside the contours of your natural lips. Some people feel this will help their lips look larger. This usually results in a clownish like appearance.
- Highlight one feature but not all your features. If you wear dark lipstick, let your eyes and cheeks look a bit more natural. If you want to play up your eyes, use a nude color lipstick and minimal blush. Otherwise you will achieve a clown like appearance instead of drawing attention to your best features.
Makeup For Mature Women
Over time our skin gets much dryer. Make up you used to use religiously may not look as well as you age. Here are some tips for improving your make up as you age.
- Use moisturizing products as you get older. Most of our skin dries up as we age. A rich moisturizer will help create a smoother surface to work with.
- A creamy or oil based cover up and foundation will glide on skin and not cling to wrinkles or fine lines.
- Select a concealer to tone down age spots or under eye circles. You can also use a concealer to hide fine lines.
- If your skin looks blotchy select an appropriate color correction cream to apply under your foundation.
- Avoid using excess powder, which can dry your skin further.
- Try matte shadows on the eyes and avoid those with a shimmery base, which can accentuate crow's feet or lines around the eye.
- Use a lip liner to help make up stay in place. Set with some powder.
Regardless of your age, you can look and feel great when you select the right make up to complement your features and bring out your inner beauty. We all deserve to look and feel our best after all whether in our 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond.
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