How to find your foundation online? & How to choose foundation color?

The best place - beauty forums (Everyday Minerals forum, Makeuptalk Mineral Makeup forum). Just post a picture (preferably taken in daylight, with slight overcast and not in direct sunlight) of yourself and ask for advice. People are kind.

Because pictures are not always trustworthy and every computer screen is different from the other - to be quite sure just go to your nearest MAC counter and ask the consultant to match your skin tone. The MAC skin color codes are often useful when looking for the right foundation because it's such a big and well known international makeup company with substantially large assortment of colors. Some ppl have even gathered comparative information in excel datasheets and are kind enough share them with all (this MAC skin tone is this and that in EDM, Meow etc).

The smart thing to do is to order samples in colors that are suggested to you or if you trust the descriptions, you think that will match your skin tone.

Lighting is very important when choosing one's foundation. The sensible approach would be testing the foundation in daylight first. The stuff the salesgirl puts on you in store - boy have I been disappointed when I got home! Artificial lighting tunes down the orange color and as you arrive home with your new foundi - you discover you look like an orange.
One should always test the foundation in daylight before buying it. But even this may be difficult. This is a picture taken this afternoon: one near a window facing south and the other facing north. The one taken near the northern window is considerably more bluish...

Differences in lighting play hell with the swatches I make... pictures taken during summer and pictures taken now - there's a world of difference.

It's important to choose the foundation to match your neck, not the face; test it on your neck or decolleté, not on your cheek or forehead. Even the jawline is not very trustworthy imho, because of the shadow. You have to use a smaller mirror in order to see properly - and mirrors reflect light.

Here's an "in your face!" to all of those obnoxious "know-it-all" ppl in Estonian forums, that think no one can possibly be whiter then MAC's fairest:


MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC15 and NW15 (always thought that NW means neutral warm or smth but it's actually the "cool" color group - how can it possibly be considered a cool tone - it's friggin' orange!)

So shut up about the MAC's fairest!
It's either yellow or orange and therefore totally unsuitable for us pale gurls.

The salesladies at The Body Shop were also very nice and provided me with samples of their lightest foundations: Moisture Foundation SPF15 in 02 and 03. Tried them on my neck and the result fully matched my expectations - too orange. The coverage is somewhat lesser then the one of MAC but this was to be expected - it's basically a moisturizer. I gave the swatches 10 minutes before taking these pictures:

The upper picture gives a good idea how horrible I look without foundation. Lots of hormonal blemishes and impurities.

And on the decolleté:

The funny thing is I went like aargh - my perfect match! when I saw the swatch of No 03 on my skin - it was like sooo perfect in the store. And as I got home and swatched in the daylight - all the magic was suddenly gone. I think the No 3 would be quite passable during the summer though.

Kui kurdad kusagil ilufoorumis, et emamaal ei müüda piisavalt heledaid toone, hüppab alati põõsast välja keegi, kes teatab, et loomulikult on: mine vaata vaid MACi letti. AGA mida pole seda pole. NW15 on oranž ja NC15 on kollane.

Kui aega leian, siis kontrollin ka väidet, et Max Factor Lasting Peformance 100 olevat ülivalgele nahale sobiv. Kui õieti mäletan siis see oli suhteliselt kollane...