How to match your foundation shade online

 Because I don't live near a lot of the big makeup counters, I buy a lot of my foundations online. This involves having to shade match myself to make sure I am purchasing the correct shade. I do a lot of research into foundation shades before I buy them online, mainly because I love high end foundations and don't want to end up wasting my money by just picking a shade really quickly. I thought I would share a few methods I use to ensure I am ordering the correct shade with the correct undertone. 

First, it's important to find your undertone. The undertone of your skin is different to your skin tone, it refers to the hue of your skin whether that's warm, cool or neutral. Previously companies generally named or numbered their shades and didn't really label them with undertones. Nowadays more brands label their brands "warm" "neutral" or "cool which helps to identify which is best for you easily. There are a few ways to determine your undertone, if you look at the veins on your wrists, which colour are they in natural light? If they're more green then you're warm toned. If your veins are blue or purple, you're cool and if they're a mix of both the above, then you're more neutral. This really helps to find the right foundation for you, even if a foundation shade isn't listed as neutral, warm or cool, the brand will quite often write a short description which details the undertone. 

 

A website I use all the time to find a shade match is Findation. Findation works by identifying shades of other brands that already work for you and choose the equivalent in the brand you're wanting to purchase. Once you're on the website, you choose foundations you already own and the shade you use, then select the foundation you are wanting to purchase. With this information, Findation works out which shade is the most similar to your current foundation. You can just enter one foundation you currently use but I find it works a lot better if you put at least a handful in to get a more accurate match. You can just use Findation to find the right shade however I also follow the next steps to make 100% sure I'm getting a shade that matches my skin exactly.

 

Once I've narrowed the potential shades down to a few which could work, I then do further checks to ensure I'm purchasing the right colour. Google is your friend massively, I simply search for swatches of foundation shades and I guarantee you will get loads from different people. Just search "Too Faced Born This Way Foundation Swatches" or whichever foundation you want to purchase and you will be faced with swatches of all shades. If you already think you know the shade you want, you can search for that exact shade. I search through a few photos as some people photograph them in different lighting so it's good to get a range. It's also worth noting that some people are really helpful and swatch foundations against other brands so in the same way as Findation, if you already know your shade in a Mac foundation for example, some people will swatch this against other foundation brands so you can see how similar they are. Another really handy tool is Youtube, some people do videos where they swatch every single shade so you can see on video format what each one looks like. I also try and find makeup tutorials of people with similar skin colour to me and look at what shade they're using or you can search for the foundation shade you think you are and see if that person has a skin colour like yours to see if you've picked the right one. 

I do all of these steps before I buy a new foundation online, it may seem like a chore to spend an hour researching but it means that I don't end up looking ridiculous with a face a completely different colour to my neck and also I don't waste my money buying high end foundations, trying them out and then ending up with a product I can't use. If you have any other tips and tricks you use to work out your foundation shade then please share them in the comments!