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Hi Josie, you’re definitely not alone in those mistakes!
The easiest, if you’re comfortable, is going to an actual makeup counter… Macy’s, JC Penny, Ulta, Sephora, MAC, etc… the makeup personnel will be a huge help in finding the perfect shade without having to purchase anything.
If you’re not comfortable with that, then you just have to mitigate the expense of the mistakes… meaning, if you have a Daiso in your area, or something similar, they’ve got a HUGE selection of the LA Colors brand where you can probably open them, put some on your hand, and see how close you can get before buying a few shades… they’re often a dollar for those foundations… and surprisingly, they’ve got a ton of shades and pretty much any other makeup product you’d ever need, especially for beginners.
If both are not an option, you’re left with just guessing unfortunately, and hope you find the right foundation shade for you BEFORE running through the budget. (Don’t ask me how I know of this one so well LOL). When I started, I went to target, where you just hope for the best and make your way to checkout. Yeah, I admit, I went back and forth plenty of times… and in stores like that, you’re looking at 14 dollars or more each “mistake”.
EDIT: I also want to add for reference… every single makeup item I use now, with the exception of a base if I even decide to wear it (foundation or mineral powder) is a Dollar Store item. Yes, I’ve bought pretty much everything under the sun at Ulta already, but in all honesty, there is absolutely ZERO reason (for me personally) to use or buy anything more than a dollar for the following items: Blush, Black Eyeliner, Black Eyebrow Pencil, Lipgloss, Lipstick, hair scrunchies, makeup brushes (if in stock), cotton balls, cotton pads, makeup sponges, moisturizer, hair shampoo and conditioner, masks, retinol serum, hyaluronic acid serums, vitamin c serums. In every picture you see of me, ALL of it, are dollar store items. I don’t do that for budget constraints as I have none, I do it because they work best along with being… a dollar. LOL.
Hi Josie,
Not that I’m an expert, but …
I pretty much echo what Carmen said. Face to face if possible – but they’ll want to sell you expensive products. Or if you trust your own judgement, buy some cheap options and play around. Here in Britain, there’s a chain called PoundLand which sounds like a US Dollar store. Do they sell the top quality ( equals expensive ) brands – no. Do they sell super cheap not too bad alternatives – yes.
Just what’s needed when starting out. At those prices you can better afford to experiment and ditch stuff you don’t want or like – preferably before you clutter up your make up bag with gloop that you will never use 😉
Marti xxx
Wow, thank you so much! All of this information has been very helpful. I am very nervous to ask for help in public. Which is what led me to lurking in the cosmetics section guessing and wasting money. I didn’t even think about the dollar store. I will have to check that out. At least that way my mistakes won’t be so costly. 😅
Hi Josie
Just thought I would add in my thoughts, as Carmen and Marti have both said if your not comfortable with face to face then buy cheap and experiment another option is to contact Jecca Blac (advert on the right) they have a Makeup assistance page where you can email them a photo and they match your colours, I think it’s a free service and I haven’t done it myself but it may be worth looking at (link below)
https://jeccablac.com/pages/makeup-assistance
I actually had my first ever 121 makeup lesson with a professional makeup artist this week and I would highly recommend something similar when you are ready. It’s taken me three years to pluck up the courage 😂
Stephanie ❤️
I recommend going to a makeup place (I went to Sephora) to get my skin tone matched. They’re more than happy to help, and I’ve been in about 5 of their chain stand always found great help.
many of the girtell me they’ve gone to Ulta or another, but to me getting it done in person makes all the difference in the world.
they always test skin tones and put a bit on to see how it works.
pre-Covid I even got a full makeover at Sephora, only needing to buy $50 in product in exchange (whis is easy to spend there, believe me…)Hi Josie,
Here in the UK we have a pharmacy chain called boots and online (boots.com) they have a foundation finder tool (Amazon has one but I can barely ever get it to work) where you load a facial pic and after a couple of questions find your matching products so my plan is use the tool, get the shades then search the web for the best price to suit me and like yourself BB I’m also on a very tight budget.
Luv Lucy x
Hi there,
Sorry to hear you’re having trouble finding the right shade for you, it can be tricky to shade match at the best of times!
We offer a free shade matching service at Jecca Blac, we ask that you submit a selfie of mainly the lower half of your face, that is free from any makeup or filters, and with as much natural lighting as you can get! This will help us to give you an accurate shade match to one of our shades, which could help you with matching to future products too.
You can find the shade matching service here – https://jeccablac.com/pages/makeup-assistance
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