How to Find the Perfect Foundation for Dark Skin
Finding the best foundation for dark skin is no longer like searching for a unicorn. A broader range of foundations and makeup for women of color exist today than ever before - something for every shade of beautiful! Where’s the best place to start to find your own flawless foundation? Read on for our pro tips for choosing the perfect foundation for brown and black skin.
What’s Your Undertone?
Before beginning the search for any makeup for dark skin, you need to know the undertone of your skin type. This isn’t how light or dark your skin is, but the underlying shade of your complexion. Undertones can be warm, cool, or neutral.
To identify your undertone, look at your skin in natural light. Focus on the hue of your skin, ignoring any redness, rosacea, acne or other discoloration. Here’s how you can identify your undertone:
- Warm Undertone: your skin has a golden, yellowed, peachy or honeyed tone. Check the insides of your wrists. If your veins appear greenish, then you’ve got a warm undertone. Still not sure? Try the jewelry test. Gold looks better on ladies with warm undertones than silver does.
- Cool Undertone: your skin has hints of pink, red, or blue and could be described as coffee or chocolate-hued. Your veins will most likely look bluish or purple. Sure, everyone looks great in gold, but silver stands out on you.
- Neutral Undertone: your skin has no apparent warm, pink, or blue undertones. Women with this balanced skin tone can wear more foundation shades within a certain color range. Your veins look both green and blue. Gold or silver jewelry, it doesn’t matter, you look stunning in both.
Foundation Shade Finder for the Win
After you’ve got your undertone figured out, it’s time to start the search for the foundation shade that makes your skin sing.
Finding the perfect shade is now easier than ever with different shade guides that exist today for various products that are available. Mented offers a foundation shade finder online that was created to be user-friendly and help you identify the best makeup product for your skin type. Each of Mented’s 16 foundation shades can be compared side-by-side on the finder. Information on each shade’s color sector - either light, tan, medium, or deep - and the shade’s specific undertone are noted. In addition to the color description, every shade features a swatch of color and a woman wearing the foundation so you can look at skin tones similar to yours to help locate your best match.
Complete Coverage Chart
To round out your skin coverage needs, you’ll likely need a complementary shade of concealer for dark skin. Concealer is your best friend when it comes to covering up blemishes, hyperpigmentation, scarring - you name it. It’s also used for highlighting areas, like the bridge of the nose and around the eyes. Combining a concealer with a darker contour shade can help add definition to your features.
We make finding your concealer and contour shades a breeze with our complete coverage chart. This chart lists each base foundation shade and the corresponding concealer and contour shades for every skin tone so you can achieve complete natural-looking coverage. If these additional products are new to you, learn more from a step by step makeup tutorial for dark skin to start incorporating them into your everyday look.
Test It Out Before You Apply
When selecting a foundation shade, test it out before applying it to your entire face. The ideal test spot is at your jawline. Your skin’s natural tone shines here and is a good indicator of whether the foundation is the right match.
Foundation that looks chalky means it’s too light. Conversely, foundation that appears muddy means it’s too dark. As for undertones, your skin will throw off color that doesn’t complement it. For example, a woman with warm undertones will look pinkish wearing a cool foundation. Likewise, cool skin will look yellowish with a warm foundation. Essentially, you want a foundation color that disappears into your skin from your face to neck.
If it’s difficult to hone in on one color, try testing three shades. A lighter, medium, and darker color will play off each other and make it clearer which is the right one for you. To help with this, Mented offers a sample pack for just $5 that features samples of 16 different foundation shades so you can experiment and find your perfect match.
Change of Seasons
One thing to keep in mind when testing and applying foundation is that your skin color could change from season to season. Depending on how your skin responds to the sun, you may be a shade or two darker in the summer than in the winter.
Some women adjust to seasonal skin tone changes with a different powder or bronzer. Other women may need a lighter foundation in the fall and winter and a slightly darker foundation for sunnier months. If you do switch up foundations over seasonal changes, stick with the same undertone color profile when selecting your shade. Your undertones stay consistent, whether your skin is sun-kissed or not.
Foundation Done Right
Quality, natural-looking makeup made specifically for dark skin is what Mented is all about. We know how hard it’s been to find the perfect foundation for dark skin tones, so we sought to change that. Our glide-on foundation sticks are moisturizing, lightweight, and buildable to give you the exact coverage your skin deserves. From foundation to eye shadows to lipstick shades for dark skin, we’re here to help you feel like your most beautiful self!