WHAT IS YOUR SKINS UNDERTONE? TRICK QUESTION? IT SHOULDNT BE!!!

One of my favorite things to do, to this day, is to choose foundation color for someone. I wish I could jump through the computer and help each and everyone one of you shop for the perfect shade of foundation. Its the most important thing you should be in search for and you got to be picky when it comes to it too.

I often ask when teaching about foundation colors, "How many of you women like your foundation color?" I am shocked when only half of the room raise their hands. 50% is not acceptable...especially when I meet about 6,000 a year. Have you ever noticed that when your foundation or skin color is off, that no matter what you do to your eyes or lips you still don't look that good? Yep! It's your foundation shade... and its distracting all the attention away from your eyes and lips and trust me... people are noticing. I always say with the perfect shade and amount of foundation you can go without eye shadows, liners, lots of lip stuff and you are still going to get compliments on them. There is nothing stopping people from noticing them naturally.  Also if you have the wrong shade you have to end up putting it everywhere, even sometimes down the neck, just to make you look normal. Let's try to put a stop to that now!

So why is it every time you go to the store to buy a foundation you are given usually a different color? It's time for YOU to take control of your skins undertone and own it forever!

Now this is probably one of longest lessons I had while learning make up. It took me a while to understand it and I don't expect anyone to be an expert at it right away. I think that's why you go home with so many different colors of make up each year from different artists. The first thing that everyone should know and become familiar with is an UNDERTONE. An Undertone in skin, is a subdued color that comes through your skins color. This determines not only what color your foundation should be but also what colors, shadows, jewelery, lipsticks, blushes, clothes, anything that will be the most flattering on you and your skin.

There are 3 Undertones that you should know about: COOL, NEUTRAL, and WARM.

Now there are a few different ways to figure out your undertones in your skin. Once you become well trained in it and know what to look for it will just come natural for you. Lets see if I can get this lesson started!

Some people look at the veins on the inside forearm in daylight. If you see Bluish veins this is usually a sign that you are a COOL tone. If you notice more Green or Yellow veins then you are more a WARM tone. If you look at your veins and see both the blues and the greenish yellows you are considered more a NEUTRAL tone. Now this works for some people but sometimes veins are harder to see. So many people see green veins also and it brings out the red in the skin (Complimentary Color Theory) and automatically think Pink=Cool tone. Don't make that mistake.

Another way to figure it out which is pretty easy is with Jewelry. Silver and Yellow Gold are quick ways to determine your skins undertone. When placed on the skin, YELLOW GOLDS look best with a WARM Undertone and SILVERS look best with a COOL.

The last way, without coming to see me, ha ha, is with a white piece of paper or fabric up against the face.  Pull your hair back so that it doesn't distract you or your coloring and hold the paper or fabric close to your skin. This helps to bring out the skins undertone and make them more identifiable. With the white next to your skin a WARM tone will appear more Yellow. With a COOL tone you will see more Pinks. Lastly, NEUTRAL, your skin will appear Olive, almost Greenish looking.

Now that you know this you can make sure that the shade of foundation you are getting matches that of your skins undertone. It's usually right on the bottle of make up or box it comes in.

C=Cool ,N=Neutral, and W=Warm. A lot of times they can get even more custom blended and you can find NC=Neutral Cool, and NW=Neutral Warm.

Knowing this also allows you to find the most flattering colors for you.

Cool= Pinks, Lavenders, Roses, Reds, Pure White, Silvers and Greys. Think Jewel tones.
Warm= Peaches, Yellows, Golds, Oranges, Greens, Coppers, Browns. Think Earthy tones.
Neutral= you are lucky, you can get away pretty much with both!

Look at post: "Lets Learn Color Theory ABC's "to better determine cool and warm colors and HAVE FUN!