Adjusting Your Makeup to your Tan

 As we finally start to get the summer that we've all be waiting for, it's pretty safe to say that many of you are gonna be workin on your tans! Being irish, and the way I am, I will not be one of these people (My skin burns and then goes straight back to white) but I applaud those who can! It's very common that as your skin starts to golden, you'll have to adjust your makeup as well. Hopefully I can teach you a few tricks to match your skin tone, forgoing the orange-like foundation appearance, or even do without foundation all together!

There's nothing worse than having to go through the process of matching a foundation. There are several different tricks of the trade, but one mistake and your foundation may be far too dark (or in some cases, far too light) for your skin tone. You then, may be left with one of the following images...OUCH!

Foundation too dark

Foundation WAY WAY WAY too dark.

Foundation too light

Foundation too light

 Hopefully you have pretty good lighting in your room or bathroom, where you can avoid the errors like the ones above, but I'm sure everybody has a failed foundation story to share. Let's forget about the mistakes, and move on!!

Tried and true foundation matching techniques:

1. Go to a makeup counter and have them do it for you: With makeup counters like MAC and Nars, the makeup artists goal in life is to get you in the chair and put makeup on you! Inevitably it's to sell you their product, but you could simply walk up to any one of them and ask for them to match your skin tone, and they would be more than happy to help. Ask for them to do color swatches on your face, NOT on your hand! I cannot stress this enough!! Why? Because your hand is most likely a lot more tan than your face. A lot of makeups and lotions carry and SPF to help protect your skin, as it should, but also makes it to where your body can get more tan than your face. You can choose to buy their suggested foundation or not, but either way write down the type of foundation, or take a picture with your phone. This will give you a good starting point to find the perfect one.

2. The Back of the Wrist Test: Although you have to be very careful with this one, because like I said before, your body may be more tan than your face, the wrist test has always worked for me. Swing by your local CVS or Walgreens and look for foundations that have very many shades and tints. L'Oreal and Maybelline have great diversity ranging not only from light to dark, but warm to cool, and pink undertones to olive undertones. Select the closest to your tan without going too dark. Remember with a little bronzer and/or powder compact, you can darken the foundation, but you can never lighten. Hold the bottle to the BACK of your wrist (most likely to match the shade of your face) and adjust from there.

3. Try to forgo the foundation all together:  One of the most amazing things about a summer tan, is it's ability to give you a beautiful bronze glow. Foundation has a tendency to matte things down and diffuse that glow. Instead of buying a heavy foundation, try a tinted moisturizer and bronzer. Apply the tinted moisturizer all over your face to even out the skin tone. Add a bronzer (very carefully) to the hollows of your cheeks and a little blush to the apples of your cheeks. This will give you a finished made-up look, without it looking too matte or cakey.

What are some of your favorite summer makeup techniques? Share below!
Syd/O, Human Holiday!