Do You Know Your Skin Undertone?
The base of every makeup look is the foundation. Getting the foundation right is the key to achieving that flawless makeup look for any occasion. This is particularly important for women of colour. Have you ever tried foundation that looks like your tone externally, but after you have applied it, it looks odd? Well that is essentially the difference between skin tone and undertone.
In this article:
• Difference between skin tone and undertone
• How to find your undertone
• Finding the right foundation
Skin tone vs Undertone
Skin tone is the shade of your skin that is visible externally, however undertone is the colour underneath the surface of the skin. There are three undertone colours: warm, cool and neutral. This phenomenon is the reason black women struggle to find foundation that matches their skin. Two black women could be the exact same skin tone yet have different undertones. Furthermore, many people associate dark-skinned women with having only warm undertones and fair-skinned women with having only cool undertones. This is false.
The issue many black women are facing is that when huge global brands only have three foundation shades for darker tones, they automatically exclude black women. Not only from a shade perspective, but an undertone perspective. As aforementioned skin tone and undertone differ. (Shout-out to Rihanna for coming out with 40 shades. She understood the assignment).
Finding your undertone
There are various ways people can find their undertone, vein checking, jewellery, and even assessing your eye colour. At Reine Africiaine, we believe that beauty shouldn’t be complicated and therefore we have chosen the easiest method to help you on this journey to finding the perfect foundation.
The vein method as we call it, involves checking out the colour of your veins.
Green: Warm undertone
Blue or purplish: Cool undertone
Colour of skin: neutral undertone
Finding the right foundation
Now that you may have an idea of your tone, it’s time to test out which foundation suits you best. When you walk up to a beauty retailer and the makeup artist wants to test products on you. You can confidently tell her your undertone. This will direct the individual to the right products and therefore save time.
Pro-tip: after testing foundations and feeling like you have found the right foundation. Try taking home a sample. Therefore, you can try the foundation on with a full-face beat and see how well the look comes together.
