Had a shocker in the past where the wrong foundation shade left you looking like an Oompa Loompa?
Keen on purchasing a new foundation online but a bit stuck as to which shade of beige you are from swatches on your computer screen?
Haunted by an experience where a well intended makeup artist or makeup counter assistant sold you the wrong shade? (I am deeply traumatised about this).
Have you answered yes to any of the above? Read on: This blog post is for you.
Introducing Findation.com. This is a blinkin’ genius of a website that is almost foolproof in helping you identify your perfect foundation shade. This is a must visit website ahead of a visit into town, online makeup purchasing (fellow web-shopaholics will love this). It’s also brilliant if you are in-store and want to check on your Smart Phone that you are definitely about to buy the right shade! I do this. Full confession.
How does Findation work?
Findation is the world’s largest usable database of matching foundation colours. How it works is that you simply enter two foundation shades that you are happy with and Findation will match that shade to another foundation. Any foundation – name your foundation brand, I’m almost ready to bet you that you’ll find any foundation brand in here.
How does this work? Don’t ask me to get too detailed (that’s like white noise to me, it’s a real design fault, this limited attention span business). To keep it simple, Findation uses data from over 553,000 foundation users worldwide and a sophisticated proprietary algorithm to match shades between brands (sounds fancy, eh?).
Once you’ve entered two brands Findation will make a recommendation to you about which foundation shades will suit you in different brands. Each recommendation will come with a percentage rating to indicate how well they reckon it’ll suit your skin – based on that algorithm thingy.
Sound too good to be true?
Yeah, I thought so too, so I gave it a run for it’s money. So, I’ve been testing Findation and trying to catch it out. But it didn’t work. It’s smart.
You see, I’ve owned quite a few foundations in my time and, well, don’t tell anyone, but I’m a bit of a foundation spotter (like car number plate spotters, or train spotters, but a bit different). Annoyingly, whilst I have trouble remembering what is on my To Do List, I have no problem remembering what foundation brands and shades I have used in the past. My Number One Foundation two years ago? Elizabeth Arden Intervene in ‘Soft Bisque’. What about four years ago? Clinique Tinted Moisturiser in ‘Vanilla’. You get the idea.
Anyoo, off I trotted to Findation on my Samsung smart phone. I entered a bunch of foundations (by brand and shade) that I’ve used in the past that spun my wheels. Then I sat back and looked for a match with foundations that are currently in my makeup kit (I have a good collection).
What happened? (I can tell you are hanging on the edge of your seats)… Findation matched me to a Mac NW25 in ProLong Wear Foundation… Yes, that’s right. I am. It says I’m shade ‘Buff’ in Sheer Cover Mineral Powder… Bobbi Brown Warm Natural 4.5.. Jordana’s Oil-Free Foundation I’m the colour Toast.. And more. All 100% correct and I feel like someone has been poking around in my undie drawer. How does it know this stuff?
The ultimate test was buying foundation online without looking at any swatches anywhere. I went in cold. Off I went to Findation, I entered three shades of foundation I found to be good matches in the past and the algorithm thingy-ma-gig told me I was a ‘Soft Beige” in Rimmel Match Perfection. Given this product was on sale for NZ$10 with free shipping(from ASOS’s Beauty Aisle) I figured I’d give it a whirl. The worst thing that would happen was that an unsuspecting friend would inherit a new foundation and I could write a cautionary blog post on the perils of purchasing foundations sight unseen. What happened? The colour is perfect and I’m ecstatic. This has changed my foundation shopping FOREVER.
Last handy hint of the day
Sign up to Findation.com and they’ll save your results for later. Additionally, there’s the option to have your personal list of foundation brands and shades emailed to you. Blinkin’ genius.
