How To Custom Mix Your Foundation

Finding the perfect match to your foundation can sometimes be a real hassle. And many times it’s not as easy as just going to the store and picking out one out. Sometimes it can be hard to find the perfect shade and finish of foundation for your skin. Whether it’s to light, dark, to yellow or pink a lot of us have a hard time finding a color that’s ideal for our skintone.

You may wonder what the benefits are for custom mixing your foundation. The benefits of blending two colors of foundation are actually three-fold:

1. To get the right color – make the foundation cooler or warmer. There are 3 colors you can generally be, warm, cool, or neutral.  Sometimes a foundation may look a little to pink, tan or yellow.  Because of this finding the right shade can sometimes be somewhat tricky especially when it comes to lightness and darkness.
2. To get the right shade – make the foundation lighter or darker. This may be especially necessary at times when you are spray tanning, or in the summer months when you are outdoors more. At those times you want to have a couple of foundations on hand to mix and match to get the right shade.
3. To get the right finish – make the foundation more matte or dewy. Sometimes your foundation can be to matte or flat looking. On the other hand there are times it can be to shiny, so you want to find something that falls right in the middle.

To show you how to mix your foundations, I am going to be mixing the ones I use on a regular basis. I am going to be using the Revlon Colorstay in #360 Golden Carmel; this has a matte finish and can look to flat. Right now this is slightly darker than what I need so to lighten it up and make it not appear so matte so I am going to mix it with Lancome Teint Idole #320 Bisque. This foundation is not as matte finish as the Revlon Colorstay so mixing the two will give me a sort of satiny finish, not to flat, not to shiny finish.

How To:

• Begin by making sure your hands are clean to avoid transferring any germs onto your face.  Next, place small dots of the first foundation around your face onto the cheeks, nose, chin and forehead. If you are working on a client you can mix the foundation on the back of your hand but for yourself this way is easier and quicker.
• Do the same thing with the second foundation as well. I know this seems like a lot of foundation but I want full coverage. You don’t have to use this much, you can use as much or as little as you want for your desired amount of coverage.
• Next, take your stippling brush (which I am using here) a Beauty Blender or your preferred method of blending and gently begin to blend the color into the skin. Work from the middle of the skin out toward the hairline to keep the majority of the product in the middle of the face. This will also help keep you from forming a foundation ring around your hairline.

And that’s really all there is to it to mix your foundations. You just need to experiment a little to find out which foundations work best for you and what kind of finish you want on your skin.