New Year, New Foundation: Find the Perfect Color for You
Two new foundation customization services promise perfect color — but do they deliver? (Photo: Jon Paterson)
There are a ton of bonuses to being half-Asian: the Chinese New Year celebrations, the Peking duck, and the chrysanthemum tea! But there’s a downside: My skin tone. I have a weird blend of yellow undertones (since my other half is Italian) and, when it comes to makeup, a match is hard to find. Like most women, I’ve spent hours at Sephora, staring into the mirror to figure out which shade is right for me (spoiler alert: neither). Some foundations are too pink, or, alternately, they don’t have the right amount of yellow.
It’s tough for girls of a certain color to find their match in a preset (and, often, totally arbitrary) library of foundation shades. It matters more than you might think, since the wrong foundation can make you look sallow, sick or, worst of all, like you’re wearing a full face of makeup. Fortunately, there are two new ways to get your exact foundation fit.
Kevyn Aucoin’s Sensual Skin Enhancer can be customized at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. (Photo: Kevyn Aucoin)
The Splurge
If you happen to be in New York City, it doesn’t get much better — or more luxurious — than a custom-blend appointment at Bergdorf Goodman’s Kevyn Aucoin counter. I arrived on a chilly Thursday afternoon and met Drita, the makeup artist. She looked at my skin beneath a light, and then went to work with a blank sheet of paper. I watched as she used a miniature spatula to scoop out dollops of the line’s megahit product, Sensual Skin Enhancer (also the secret behind Kim K’s flawless complexion — admittedly enviable whether you love her or hate her). It’s a creamy, pigmented formula you can wear either mixed with moisturizer or alone as highlighter or heavy-duty concealer.
“I thought I’d be a seven,” I said, referring to the shade I’d checked out earlier on the brand’s website. Drita laughed. “Not quite.”
She dabbed shades seven, six, and five on the paper, mixing them with her spatula. Then, she used a Q-tip to add the tiniest drop of the resulting color to a single pump of La Mer The Moisturizing Lotion (maybe itself worth the splurge). It turned into a golden-beige blob, which Drita spread onto my skin and buffed in with a soft, dense foundation brush (Kevyn Aucoin’s The Foundation Brush, $82, in case you come into a windfall and want to invest in what’s arguably The Greatest Brush of All Time).
The effect was immediate — and amazing. I looked just like myself, except if I’d had eight hours of sleep and a healthier diet. My skin had a dewy finish, and while the formula hid my dark spots and smoothed out the texture, the effect still looked totally natural.
Then, Drita spooned a portion of my personalized shade onto a clean area of the paper, where she adjusted the formula, lightening it just a little. She dispensed both the versions into a little vial. This lighter shade was my new concealer, intended for under the eyes and as a primer for lids. I use it as needed for breakouts, dark spots and everything in between.
As for my custom Sensual Skin Enhancer itself, I combine it with Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream ($100) to create my own tinted moisturizer (feeling like a very hydrated mad scientist as I do). The custom-blending service — which includes the Sensual Skin Enhancer and its concealer counterpart, but sadly not the La Mer — costs $105, but a little goes a long way (three months in, I’ve barely used a quarter of it). I’m officially a customization convert.
MATCHco’s app allows you to create a custom foundation in the comfort of your own home. (Photo: MATCHco)
The Steal
If you can’t spring for a custom-blended service — or have no plans to visit NYC — it doesn’t mean you’re stuck with the not-quite-right shade forever. The MATCHCo app makes the personalization process pretty much foolproof. One morning, still in my pajamas, I decided to download it and give it a try.
When I opened the app, a Siri-like voice with a British accent guided me through the steps. First, I calibrated my phone’s camera by tapping it against a stack of five sheets of white paper. This step ensures you get an accurate reading of your skin tone, despite having the worst lighting in the world. I then tapped the camera against my inner wrist, again against the outside of my wrist, then on my forehead and both cheeks. (The beauty writer in me advises that you wipe down your phone first, because bacteria.) The genius in this step is that the app takes the skin tone of your body into account. For most people, the face tends to be a few shades lighter (typically due to more consistent SPF usage). This accounts for that difference — so your face isn’t any paler than the rest of you.
The app uses an algorithm that assesses these five different colors to determine — and create — your ideal foundation shade. The entire process took me six minutes, and that includes the time I needed to track down five sheets of white paper. In 48 hours, my personal foundation was blended and en route to my apartment, and I received it in a bottle with my name on it. The finish is light, luminous and dewy without going into shiny territory (key for those prone to oil slicks, like myself). It’s a perfect match, color-wise.
The app hangs onto your customized color. And, at $49, it’s comparable to other prestige foundations on the shelves, and it beats buying yet another tube of foundation that’s exactly my skin tone but with just a touch of jaundice. Consider it a match made in heaven.
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