For your makeup to truly enhance your features, it is important to match it with your skin tone or it could appear very caky and uneven. In this guide, we are listing down five simple steps you can follow to get flawless makeup that blends in with your skin. 

A 5 Step Guide to Match Your Makeup to Your Complexion

Determine Your Complexion 

The very first step to matching your makeup to your skin tone is identifying your complexion. Every complexion has different requirements and therefore to match the colour of your cosmetics, it is very important to know your exact skin tone. 

The tricky part is that you might not necessarily have the same skin tone throughout the year. It may change as per the season based on temperature, humidity, sun exposure etc. therefore you will have to check the skin tone every time you make a new purchase. 

Beauty brands across the globe have thoroughly classified their cosmetics into undertones and shades to cater to each individual. However, first, it is important to identify with the basic categories of dark, light, medium, fair, and olive skin tone.

Different brands may have different fancy names for these categories but the traits they represent are more or less the same.

2. Identify Your Undertone

After the basic complexion determination, the next step is to figure out your undertone. This is slightly more complex than identifying your skin tone. Nevertheless, undertone identification is very important to find the correct makeup that truly blends with your skin. 

Undertone is basically the hue that comes through the skin from underneath its surface. It has to be observed very closely. Broadly there are three categories of undertones:

1. Warm: yellow, peach and golden hues

2. Cool: blue, pink and red hues 

3. Neural: Neither of the above-mentioned hues.

To identify your skin undertone, examine the colour of your wrist vein and then see which category it falls in. Another way to test it is through the response of your skin to sun exposure. If your skin turns red in sun, you have a cool undertone. If it gets tanned quickly, then you probably have the warm undertone.  

3. Choose Your Foundation

Now that you have identified your complexion and undertone, the next step is to find a foundation that suits your skin the best. Most foundations are categorized based on both the over and undertone of the skin. 

Therefore, it is easy for you to choose a suitable one for yourself. Always pick a tone lighter than your shade to make the skin look more bright. To be doubly sure, do a patch test of the foundation on your jawline since it is not as red as the other parts on the face. 

After you have applied it to the jawline, examine it under different lights. If it suits your skin tone, it will blend in perfectly to give your skin an even texture. Sometimes, a single foundation may not do the job so you can make a custom foundation by blending in two different shades. 

If your skin tone tends to change with the seasons, it is best to stick to the same brand and go a few shades up and down to match the tone. 

4. Match the Concealer and Blush

After you have got the perfect foundation, the next step is to get yourself a matching concealer and a Blush. Experts suggest that you should ideally choose the concealer from the same brand as your foundation because different brands use different categorizations for skin tones. 

In case of blush, follow the following guidelines.

1. Fair skin and a Warm Undertone: Peach shade- It highlights the natural golden undertones and makes your face look very radiant.  

2. Fair skin and Cool Undertone: Plum Shade- It complements the pink undertone perfectly.

3. Medium Skin with Warm Undertone: This skin colour is also referred to as Olive Skin. For this kind of skin, mauve shade is considered the best as it highlights the warm undertone and makes the skin look bright.

4. Medium Skin tone with Cool Undertone: A mix of plum and pink is considered to be good. 

5. Dark Skin and Warm Undertone: Orange blushes- They are considered ideal for this kind of skin. This is in fact the only skin tone on which orange blushes look great.

6. Dark Shade and Cool Undertone: Shimmery Berry Color: It pays off the bluish, reddish, or pinkish undertones well. 

5. Match Your Eye Makeup

Your eye makeup is one of the most prominent features of your face makeup therefore it has to perfectly blend in with your skin. Once you have identified your complexion and undertone it is easier to pick up the shades of your eye makeup. 

For Light Skin: Light skins should ideally go for light shades of eyeshadow. For warm undertones, a shade of dull bronze would look good and for a cool tone, you can wear a shade of washed-out copper. 

For Wheatish Skin: For wheatish and warm skin tones go for shades like gold, cinnamon, and warm shades of red, like rust. 

For Olive Skin: It is a slightly complex skin tone so you can choose shades such as jewel tones in a cool palette, especially teal. 

For Dark Skin: For dark skins, metallic colours look best. You can go for shades of purples, 

teals, and midnight blue.

Finishing touch with Translucent Powder

After you are done with the makeup, dab a little translucent powder on your face. It sets the makeup very well. Also, since the powder does not have a colour of its own, it does not affect the makeup and blurs the visible pores.