I don’t know about you, but for me and most other people, finding the perfect shade of foundation can sometimes be a real hassle. If you are in between colors like me, the foundation color is either too dark or too light. Living on the coast doesn’t help the situation, my skin tone tends to change ever so often needing me to switch up to a darker shade of foundation after a day or a weekend in the sun. On the flip side a few weeks stay in Nairobi usually gets me to lean to the lighter shades. This has been a tough balance; but a few months ago, my good friend and makeup artist Debby taught me a simple trick of mixing up your own shade using two foundations to get my closest color match. A trick that I have used religiously until today, so successfully that I am happy to be sharing this tip with those of you that haven’t yet caught on to it.
How I do it:
-I use two liquid foundations of the same consistency. Right now I am using MAC, but I also love Lancome and Estee Lauder.
-I go for two shades, one which is a shade lighter and another one which is a shade darker than my natural skin tone I then combine them on the back of my hand.
-Finding the perfect mix for a given moment depends on whether my skin is tanned in which case I will use two drops of the darker foundation to one drop of the lighter shade, and vice versa if my skin is not so tanned. I keep adding a little of each until I find my perfect shade, using as much or as little as I need depending on the coverage I want to achieve. And sometimes I even use the lighter foundation for a subtle day highlight and the darker one to contour. Double win!
-Finally, I use a foundation brush or a beauty blender to gently blend the colors before applying the mix to my skin.
Let me know if this trick works for you as well.
Photo by Charles Ngomo at the Concord Hotel
