How to Choose Foundation Color Online: Four Easy Ways

Ask any makeup lover and they’ll all tell you the same thing: finding a shade of foundation which makes their skin look absolutely flawless is probably their lifelong quest. While it’s already a massive headache to do that at the store, how to choose foundation color online is even harder.

Nevertheless, with our easy tips and tricks, you’ll be on your way to doing fabulous makeup with your perfectly matching foundation.

Table of Contents

• How to Determine Your Skin Undertone
• How to Choose Foundation Color Online
  • 1. Compare with Your Existing Products
  • 2. Look for People with a Similar Skin Tone
  • 3. Order Samples
  • 4. Mix and Match
• Choosing foundation online doesn’t have to be hard!

How to Determine Your Skin Undertone

We’ve written in the past about how to choose your foundation color, and a lot of the steps overlap with how to do this online.

Before you get to match your foundation, you need to check your skin tone.

More specifically, you need to determine what kind of skin undertone you have.

The tone of your skin on the surface and the tone under your skin are two entirely different things. It’s important when buying a foundation to match it with both of these to get that natural look.

Your outer skin tone can change due to external factors. For example, seasonal changes can make you slightly fairer while a day at the beach can give you a nice tan for the summer.

On the other hand, your undertone does not change, and ultimately, that is what affects your overall skin color.

Usually, skin undertones fall into three main categories:

• Warm
• Cool
• Neutral

An easy way to check which undertone you have is to look at your veins.

Do your veins appear greenish? You probably have a warm undertone.

If they seem more bluish, that points toward a cool undertone.

And if your veins look neither blue nor green, or a mix of both, you most likely have a neutral undertone.

Once you’ve determined your skin undertone, you can narrow down your options significantly.

How to Choose Foundation Color Online

There’s absolutely nothing worse than wearing the wrong foundation color on your skin and looking weirdly orange everywhere you go.

It’s even more of a risk to not match with your foundation if you shop for products online. However, it isn’t impossible.

If you also want to avoid the nightmare of mismatching, learn how to choose foundation color online with these four easy ways.

1. Compare with Your Existing Products

If you’re already using a foundation which suits you well, this would be the simplest and most straightforward way to find your new shade online.

You can directly compare your existing shade with the ones you’re looking at online. If you want to switch between brands, you can use websites such as Findation to help you find the same shade in different brands.

If you don’t use foundation already, there’s no need to fret. You can look at other products such as any BB cream or pressed powder you use. These can also give you some hints as to which foundation color will suit you.

2. Look for People with a Similar Skin Tone

Even though no two people will have precisely the same skin and tone, there are people who come really close. Therefore, another way to find your foundation color online is to look for people who have a similar skin tone.

That could include your friends whom you can ask for help in choosing the right color. Maybe someone from your family, such as your sister, can give you an idea about which shade will suit you.

Most importantly, you can search up celebrities and famous makeup artists who seem closest to your skin tone. With so many social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, you have access to so much information.

By following your favorite artists, you’ll not only learn of your foundation color but various other helpful tips and tricks.

With that said, if you do find a foundation by following another person, make sure you also compare other factors such as skin type, coverage, and any other skin situation.

3. Order Samples

If you’ve already narrowed down your choices to two or three options, but you just can’t decide between these last few, get them all.

Before you get confused, let us clarify.

If you’re stuck between two very similar shades, order both of them in small travel sizes or samples. This will be the ideal way to test both products and choose the one that suits you best.

You can also want to try if a certain type of foundation remains the same color despite changing states, such as a cream to powder foundation.

Even though samples won’t be free of cost, they would cost lesser than full-size bottles. Also, with samples, you can test the product for a few days rather than a quick swatch on your neck in the store.

Best of all, you can order these from the comfort of your home.

Although not every brand provides samples of their products, you can at least determine the correct foundation color for yourself this way.

4. Mix and Match

In general, what we absolutely love about foundation and makeup is that it truly allows you to be as creative and crafty as you want.

With that said, you are bound to get the wrong foundation shade at least once in your life. Also, sometimes, despite having the wrong shade, you still love that foundation for its consistency or its coverage, and you just don’t want to let it go.

Regardless of the reason, the makeup and internet community is full of tricks for when you’ve got your hands on the wrong foundation color. One of these tricks is to mix and match until you get what you want.

For instance, if you’ve gotten a darker shade, you can mix some white moisturizer or any lighter cream with the foundation to lighten the shade till it suits you.

Similarly, if you’ve got a lighter shade, you can mix in a darker foundation or use lipsticks to darken the shade till it matches your skin tone.

Choosing foundation online doesn’t have to be hard!

As makeup enthusiasts, we all fear the day when we run out of our favorite products. This is not only because we’ll have to go to the nearest makeup store and fail to control ourselves from buying unnecessary brushes and lipsticks, but also because going to the store is not always convenient.

The good thing is that the internet is already filled with stores where you can shop conveniently. The next time you need a foundation and need to buy online, use the easy methods we provided to help you find the perfect shade!

Do you have tips and tricks for shopping for foundation online? We’d love to hear ’em!