Why Are You Wearing The Wrong Foundation?

Hue, Value & Chroma

Eco-Friendly Mineral Makeup Tutorial: The Stripe Test, How to Choose the Right Foundation Shade

Let’s face it, nothing looks worse than the wrong foundation shade.

You just want the perfect match, right?

If you want to get technical, the process of choosing a foundation to match your skin tone looks at undertone (hue) and depth (value) of different foundations against your skin.

But really. Who cares?

Here’s what you do:

Eyeball a few foundation shades:

Choose three that you think look close to your skin tone.

Dip your finger in the minerals (go ahead, minerals are inorganic so will not become contaminated with bacteria, hence a forever shelf life, cool eh?) and swipe a thick stripe of each next to each other on your neck/jaw line.

Let it cook

Now that you have your three stripes next to each other, take a minute to do something else.

Call your mom. Sort your underwear drawer.

After a few minutes, take a look in the mirror. The stripes will have changed; one of them should have disappeared.

That is the one you want. You want your foundation to match your skin, avoiding the line that separates your face from you neck.

The goal is one continuous matching skin tone.

A common mistake I see, is when women look for color in their face and attempt to get it with their foundation.

This leads to the two shade demarcation on the jaw line, the neck being one color and the face another.

Instead, use your bronzer and cheek color for a rosy glow. It will look so much more natural.

Save the Romance for Your Weekend Getaway

Dash Natural Mineral Foundations are so easy to get a perfect match with, because they are named with function in mind. Instead of romantic names like “Arabella” or “Caramel” they have names such as “Warm 1″ and “Neutral 2″.

This takes so much of the guess work out! If I were doing a personal consultation with you, I would first determine what your undertone is.

What is Your Hue?

Are you warm or cool? If you are a warm, I would pull from the Warm Group. (Note: If you have a lot of redness to your skin, this does not always mean a cool undertone. It can be tricky, so if you need a bit of help let me know.)

And Your Value?

Are you fair, or darker in complexion? If you are darker, I would then pull Warm 3 or 4.

I would then give you your stripes, and to confirm my choice of Warm, I would add a third stripe of Neutral. If, after your stripes cooked, the stripes were too light, I would bump up to Warm 4 or 5. Or, I could bump down to 2 if the stripes were to dark. Easy!

Seasons of Time

Your skin tone will change over time, It is important to retest your foundation every few years to be sure you still have a good match. Just as the seasons bring more (think summer) or less color to our skin, the seasons of life play a role here as well. As we age, our skin tone softens in depth, and you want to be sure you are making the necessary adjustments. Don’t get stuck in a time warp!

Would You Like Personal Attention & Care When Choosing Eco-Friendly Mineral Makeup, Organic Skincare & Unique Handcrafted Jewelry? You Got It!

I am happy to send you mineral makeup foundation samples so you can do your stripe test at home. Just give me a holler. Or, if you are local to the San Francisco Bay Area, I can help you out in person.

If you liked this post, please comment below. Tell me what other tutorials you would like to see? What makeup questions do you have? I want to help answer your questions, so ask away!

Technorati Tags: Bare Escentuals, Dash Mineral Makeup, eco friendly makeup, Ingredient Spotlight, mineral makeup, Natural Mineral Makeup, Th

Hot, Crowded And Overpriced; Let’s Go!

Making Memories

I took my daughter and her friend to Disneyland last weekend.

It was hot. It was crowded. It was expensive. The food was disgusting and overpriced. The shops were full of plastic baubles that will end up in the land fill.

And.

I loved it.

The girls and I would emerge from the crowds, one ten year old girl in each hand , ‘Hold on girls!”, I would say, and away we would go, weaving in and out and through masses of people navigating our way from It’s A Small World to the other end of the park to Pirates Of The Caribbean, the girls giggling nervously, me squeezing their hands tight so as not to loose either of them. I would find myself simply feeling awestruck, mesmerized as we walked along, feeling as if in a time warp, experiencing the same feelings I must have had as a child, when my dad and grandparents took me to Disneyland. I would walk along the very same spots,… there…where I met Alice In Wonderland, there… where I had an ice cream cone, there…where I rode the teacups, remembering what it was like to be there as a child, the lights twinkling, the warm balmy nights (I am from northern California, where seldom is there a warm and balmy night) and it is truly nothing less than magical.

What is it about that place?

Do they put something in the water to make you remember the good feelings only, forgetting the not-so-good? In the end, wanting to go back again? I mean really. You wait in line at least 30 minutes per ride, it takes another 30 minutes to maneuver from one end of the park to another, it is exasperatingly hot and the food is lousy. And then I say “Let’s go back!” What gives here? It defies all logic.

I will tell you what it is.

One of the highlights for me on this trip was to see Tinkerbell fly. I swear, I thought I was 5 years old again. I could not take my eyes off her, flying soooo high in the sky (flailing, it looked to me, but that is beside the point) . It was magical. Really. I had seen that once before in my life and I have a very vivid memory of it. That was the year I also got a Tinker Bell doll; I cherished that doll. And, I realize, that is it. It is the deeply held memories that come flooding back. Childhood is so fleeting, and is so full of feeling. I believe that if you had been to Disneyland as a child, you can not stay away for long. If, in my adult life I can reach back in time for a moment and capture that feeling, again, then I will pay ridiculous sums of money for food that I would not even glance at while at home, struggle through crowds, stand in line and drip in sweat. If only to feel that long lost feeling. This is my theory, and I’m sticking to it.

Fashion, Disney Style

On another note, I enjoyed people-watching while I was there. I discovered that neon pink and neon green shoes are coming back in style, in case you were wondering when that fad would show up again. I really should have saved my neon green plastic biker jacket that I loved so in the 80′s. Also, people buy Disney wear that they would never wear outside of the park. And they wear it with zeal in the moment. I am convinced though, that they do not wear the bridal Mickey Mouse ears, or the Mickie Mouse sorcerer hat ever again, once they get home. You will, however, see me in my Tinker Bell sweat pants, if you stop by unannounced. What can I say?

I can say , thank goodness I traveled with my Dash Natural Mineral Makeup. It multi-tasked as concealer, foundation and sunscreen to protect my skin from the sun, and keep me looking fresh all day! Love it!

And of course, through all this, I had my handcrafted jewelry on. You have to look your best, just in case you get to take a photo with Prince Charming. And don’t forget, you have to compete with all those darn princesses.

Would You Like Personal Attention & Care When Choosing Eco-Friendly Mineral Makeup, Organic Skincare & Unique Handcrafted Jewelry? You Got It!

If you liked this post, please also ‘like’ the Style Essentials FaceBook page to your right. You don’t want to miss a healthy style tip, now do you?