If you’re a little confused about the “blue foundation” trend, join the club. While at first glance, it may look like a makeup tutorial to audition for the Blue Man Group, it actually has a lot more to do with your skin’s undertones than performance art.
First, A Little About Undertones
There are three traditional undertones. And, while there are so many different types of skin tones (according to Pantone there are 110 to be exact), cool, warm, and neutral are the three basic undertones. Skin tones can vary widely and may change with the season, but your undertone never changes.
Cool undertones include those who have a red, blueish, or pink tone in their complexion. These people look great in silver jewelry and jewel-toned colors like emerald green. Celebrities with cool undertones include Adele and Nicole Kidman.
Warm undertones can be peachy, yellow, or golden. Those with warm undertones prefer gold jewelry, and they tend to look great in earth tones, like olive green. Celebs with warm undertones include Beyonce and Jessica Alba.
And neutral undertones, you guessed it, pretty much match your skin tone. These are the lucky few that can pull off any look and look great wearing any color in the rainbow. Some celebrities with neutral undertones are Kerry Washington and Natalie Portman.
So, when you buy foundation or other makeup, keeping in mind both your skin tone and skin undertone is important.
A Not-So-Solid Foundation
We’re all guilty of buying a foundation that doesn’t match our undertone. When we grab a foundation from the drugstore or online it’s difficult to completely match our coloring. And that’s the point, right? We want our foundation to blend into our skin to look natural. Not caked on, not painted on, not fake.
Rose Siard, a TikTok makeup artist, shared with her 799k followers, sometimes our foundation needs a little help. That’s where a product like Girl Pro Matte Mixing Pigment comes into play.
To demonstrate, Siard started the video by putting on a shade of foundation with coloring that’s “too warm” and a “little too yellow” for her skin tone. Think of the name of your foundation. Likely, it sounds something like “cool ivory,” “warm almond,” or “golden honey.” That’s because these foundations are compromised of colors that compliment different undertones. So, if you don’t know your undertone, it could cause problems, because certain pigments may or may not “go” with your undertone.
Enter, L.A. Girl Pro Matte Mixing Pigment
The video continues, as Siard puts on the “drugstore” foundation (Maybelline Fit Me) on one side of her face. Obviously, the shade is too dark for her. Then, she put some on her hand to mix with the blue pigment. As she puts one pump of L.A. Girl Pro Matte Mixing Pigment into the foundation, she mixed it with a brush, saying, “it’s going to neutralize those warm tones.”
As she swiped it on the other side of her face the shade is obviously closer to her natural coloring. The foundation now blended in well and looked natural. She ended the video pointing to the “corrected” side of her face and her neck, stating, “It’s the match for me.” She advised grabbing a color-correcting jar, especially if you have trouble picking out foundation
Other Mixing Pigments
While blue may be ideal for those who want to neutralize warm tones, it won’t work for everyone. So, L.A. Girl has other shades to ensure that you can make your personalized foundation color.
There’s a white mixing pigment which is great for lightening a too-dark foundation. If you bought a foundation when you had a tan, and now you’re in the depths of winter, it could be beneficial. This pigment can also neutralize the undertone, making it ideal for Natalie Portman lookalikes (those with a neutral undertone).
The yellow mixing pigment will shift your foundation to a more golden undertone and is great for all skin tones. The yellow will bring out a more neutral or warm undertone, instead of the cool undertone it started with.
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