LOOKSMETER · GUIDE
How to find your foundation shade
A foundation shade is three separate decisions that most people collapse into one: the undertone, the depth and the finish. Get the undertone wrong and no depth will save it. Get the finish wrong and a perfect match still looks like a mask by lunch. This guide takes each decision in turn and ends with the only swatch test that is worth trusting.
Decision one: undertone
Undertone is the colour under the surface and it does not change with a tan. It is the decision that makes a foundation look like skin or like paint.
Warm
Skin leans golden, peach or yellow. Veins look green, gold jewellery flatters, ivory white looks better than pure white. Foundations labelled golden, warm, yellow or peach.
Cool
Skin leans pink, red or blue. Veins look blue or purple, silver flatters, pure white looks cleaner than ivory. Foundations labelled rose, cool, pink or beige-pink.
Neutral
No strong lean, veins look blue-green, both metals work. Foundations labelled neutral. Often a half-step warm reads more natural than a half-step cool.
Olive
A green-grey cast that sits across warm, cool or neutral. Standard warm shades turn orange and cool shades turn pink. Look for shades labelled olive or neutral-golden with a greyer base.
Decision two: depth
Depth is how light or deep the shade is. It is the one that changes across the year. Match it at the jawline, not the wrist and not the back of the hand, because both are different depths from the face. Check in daylight: store lighting is warm and makes everything look one shade deeper than it is. If you are between two depths, take the lighter one for the face and warm it with bronzer, because a too-deep base cannot be lightened after the fact.
Decision three: finish and coverage
Finish is decided by skin type, not by preference. Oily skin needs matte or natural-matte and a setting powder through the T-zone. Dry skin needs satin or dewy and a hydrating primer underneath, because matte on dry skin looks cracked within hours. Combination skin does best with satin and powder only where it shines. Coverage is a separate call: sheer for even skin that needs tone correction, medium for redness and uneven texture, full only for specific areas, spot-applied, rather than the whole face.
The swatch test that works
Narrow to three candidates in the same undertone family. Draw a vertical stripe of each along the jawline from cheek to neck. Wait five minutes, because many foundations oxidise and deepen as they set. Step into daylight with a mirror. The stripe that disappears into both the face and the neck is your shade. If none disappears, the undertone is wrong and no amount of depth-swapping will fix it: go back to decision one.
What a photo-based report adds
The Beauty Report reads undertone, depth and skin type from one face photo and returns a shade family with finish and coverage inside a full complexion map, alongside concealer, blush, contour, highlight and setting placed for your face shape. It never names a brand or a shade number, which is the point: the family is what you carry into any store. The swatch test above is how you finish the job.
Frequently asked
Can a photo really tell my foundation shade?
A photo in even daylight can place you in a shade family: undertone, approximate depth and the finish that suits your skin type. It cannot read a brand's shade number because every range names shades differently. Take the family into a store and swatch within it, which cuts a wall of 40 shades down to three or four.
How do I know if my undertone is warm, cool or neutral?
Look at the veins on the inside of your wrist in daylight: green reads warm, blue or purple reads cool, a mix reads neutral. Check it against the jewellery test (gold flatters warm, silver flatters cool) and against which white looks better on you, pure white for cool and ivory for warm. Two out of three agreeing is enough.
Why does my foundation look orange or grey?
Orange almost always means the undertone is too warm or the depth too deep. Grey or ashy means too cool or too light. If the depth is right but the face still looks off, the undertone is the problem, not the shade number.
Should foundation match my face or my neck?
Your jawline, blended toward the neck. The face is usually slightly deeper or redder than the neck, so a match on the cheek alone leaves a line. Swatch three candidates along the jaw, step outside and the one that disappears is yours.
Which finish should I choose?
Oily skin holds a matte or natural-matte finish longest. Dry skin looks healthiest in a dewy or satin finish and should avoid heavy matte. Combination skin usually does best with a satin finish and powder only where it shines. Mature skin generally reads best in a lightweight satin that does not settle into lines.
What does The Beauty Report give me free?
Your Beauty Score on a strict 1-10 scale, your tier, your percentile and the three words your look reads as today. The paid report includes the complexion map with your foundation shade family, undertone match, finish and coverage, concealer, blush, contour, highlight and setting, all by category and never by brand.
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The Beauty Report
Foundation shade family, finish and the full complexion map from one photo
Skin undertone test
Warm, cool, neutral or olive plus how to check it
Blush and contour by face shape
Where each product goes once the base is right
What makeup suits me?
Face shape, eye shape and colouring decide it
AI beauty report, explained
What a complete report covers and what is free
Colour analysis
Your 12-season palette from one photo
Face shape detector
Primary and runner-up shape with match percentage, free
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This page is general information about facial aesthetics terminology, not medical or cosmetic advice. Scores from our tools are calibrated reads of one photo that describe presentation, never your worth.