Find your shade. Choose your finish.

Step One

Match by undertone

Undertone is the colour beneath the surface of your skin: cool, neutral, or warm. It is what makes a foundation disappear into the skin or turn ashy and orange. Undertone, not how light or deep your skin is, decides whether a shade reads as your own. Two people at the same depth can need entirely different foundations because one runs cool and the other warm.

Cool

• Veins on the inner wrist look blue or purple.
• Silver jewellery flatters more than gold; skin can read pink or rosy.

Neutral

• Veins read as a blend of blue and green, hard to call either way.
• Both silver and gold suit you; skin sits between pink and golden.

Warm

• Veins on the inner wrist look green.
• Gold jewellery flatters more than silver; skin can read golden or olive.

Once you know your undertone, match your depth. Swatch a stripe of foundation along the jaw in natural daylight, never under store lighting. The shade that vanishes into the skin is yours.

Step Two

Choose your finish

Finish is the way a foundation reflects light once it sets: matte, satin, or luminous. It decides how your skin looks in a room and in a photograph, and it should follow how oily or dry your skin runs.

Matte

A soft-focus, shine-free finish that flatters oily or combination skin and photographs evenly.

Satin

A natural, skin-like glow, the most forgiving middle ground and the easiest finish to wear across skin types.

Luminous

A lit-from-within radiance that flatters normal to dry skin, worn where you want light to sit.

Step Three

Choose your coverage

Coverage is how much of the skin a foundation conceals: sheer, medium, or full. It is a separate choice from finish, and the right amount depends on what you want the base to do rather than on your skin type.

Sheer

Evens tone while the skin still reads as skin; the register of tinted bases and BB creams.

Medium

Buildable coverage that conceals redness and unevenness while still looking like your own skin.

Full

Even, long-wearing coverage that conceals completely, made for events and photography.

The Match

Putting it together

Read the four together and the right base becomes obvious. Undertone and depth land the colour so it disappears into the skin; finish and coverage decide how that colour behaves once it is on. Start with undertone, confirm the depth in daylight, then choose the finish your skin runs toward and the coverage the occasion asks for.