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How to find the right foundation

Are you on a search for the one? The right foundation is like a BFF for your face, helping make your skin look like your skin but on a really good day. A bit of ‘lean on me’ magic, the perfect foundation for you helps you present your best self to the world, like a pal at your side giving you a swell of confidence to take on passion projects and planet-bettering plans. How to choose a foundation colour? Pinpointing your most well-matched shade and formula shouldn’t be a hassle. We’ve got all you need to know right here.

Hand holding various makeup foundation products

Build your foundation wardrobe

In your makeup kit, foundation is like the pillar of your ideal beauty look. It’s called foundation for a reason, right? It’s foundational to your look. A smooth canvas on which to add colour and shapes from flicks to frills, and perhaps give some thrills. Within our arsenal of amazing foundation products we’ve got all you could need and desire. Pop in your bathroom cabinet and makeup kit, and discover how each helps you get a pore-blurred finish or feel fresh faced, or mattified.

Whether you go for one of our liquid foundations, a BB cream or a powder, each has been formulated with naturally inspired ingredients and helps your skin feel good, not weighed down. Or perhaps you want to choose one of each to create a foundation wardrobe for all the variations of you, the different days, the big occasions and the chilling-with-friends moments. With various options for all skin types and skin tones, and a sliding scale of coverage choices, you could say that we’ve got your back.

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“I applied this foundation at 6am, ready for work and it was still perfectly in place at 6pm!”

  • Leigh30

About Fresh Nude Foundation

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Find the right foundation shade for you

As the basis of your makeup, finding your most well-matched foundation will help you to achieve the looks that you want, but most importantly, will help keep your face looking natural, letting ‘you do you’. The Body Shop foundation shades come in hues to suit all skin tones, and we’re here to guide you to expertly find yours. With our no-sweat checklist of three tips, you’ll soon be a master of sorting through makeup mecca to find your number one. No matter your preference for powder, liquid foundation, cream or concealer, we’ve got the right foundation shade for you and here comes the fast-track to help get you there.

Persons arm testing different makeup colours

Step 1: Identify your undertone

Before you can find your perfect foundation shade, you need to check the undertone of your skin. What’s that? Well, every skin colour has a discernible undertone, most easily spotted via the vein colour on your inside wrist. If it appears blue or purple, you’re cool-toned. If your veins look green, you’ve got warm-toned skin. And if you’re not sure? You’re likely neutral.

You might also notice that your skin has a natural rosy or golden tinge, rosy meaning your undertone is cool, and golden meaning your undertone is warm. A mix of the two means you have a neutral undertone. With these couple of ways to determine your undertone, you can then look out for the foundation that best suits you. Following this rule of thumb, foundation for cool undertones tends to look more pink in the bottle and warm undertone foundation appears more yellow. Foundation for neutral undertones tends to fall in the middle of this spectrum. And that’s all no matter the actual foundation shade, whether falling into the light, medium or deep skin colour range. Find the shade that fits you best in store.

Hands holding The Body Shop Fresh Nude Foundation

Step 2: Test the shades

So you’ve been thinking how can I find my foundation shade? There’s no better way to discover if you’ve found the foundation shade for you than simply trying it out. But did you know there’s a right way to test foundation colours? Take our tips in-store next time you’re on the hunt for your perfect shade. Numero uno is to try your shortlist of shades only when the light is right. Look for the sun at its peak, as the midday light will help you see your made-up skin to the fullest extent.

You might even want to check it in different lights, check it in different mirrors, from your pocket mirror to the in-store ones, and take a selfie – all those different ways of checking your skin will help ensure you have found the right one. And forget testing on your arm, hand or anywhere else – swatch onto your jawline, as this is that tricky area where you’ll see how good a match you’ve found. Let it sit on skin a sec before you sneak a peek to see how it adjusts to your skin.

Man applying foundation to his face

Step 3: Watch it disappear

Like finding ‘the one’, to find a foundation shade for you, you want to look for the hue that doesn’t try to change you. That is, the right foundation shade should look, not to mention, feel like a second skin – like you at your very best. As we’ve said before and will say time and time again, this is about looking like the ultimate version of you. If a foundation shade stands out, that’ll be because it’s too light or dark. If the makeup is too light, chances are your skin will appear more ashy. If the shade is too dark, that’ll make you look overly tanned.

On the subject of tans – remember that your skin tone is likely to change within a subtle spectrum with the seasons, its tone warming up with the weather. That means, depending on when you’re searching for your best foundation shade, your skin might not be its truest tone. Ideally, you want to go for a shade that’s closest to the hue your skin is most of the year. When you try it, if the test shade seemingly disappears into your skin, it’s a match.

Compare by skin type

Like any other product from your skincare wardrobe, your foundation should be tailored to your skin type or concern. This always wise rule will give your skin a better chance of getting on with your foundation, helping your complexion to look gleaming, glowing and gorgeous. We’ve rounded up some of our best foundations to help get your skin there.

The Body Shop Matte Clay Skin Clarifying Foundation

Foundation for oily skin

The Body Shop foundation with an oily skin-friendly ingredient built-in, our Matte Clay Skin Clarifying Foundation is enriched with Community Fair Trade tea tree oil and helps to promote clearer-looking skin. This vegan formulation feels lightweight and comfortable on skin, letting it breathe as you wear it, not to mention helping to minimise excess oil and control shine all day long to boot. It’s a bit of a saviour for shine-prone skin. It is both water and sweat-resistant and helps to give good coverage without an overdone mask effect. Instead, it looks natural, helping to improve the look and texture of the skin, while downplaying the appearance of pores and blemishes alike. Your complexion will be left looking smooth and more matte.

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The Body Shop Fresh Nude Foundation

Foundation for sensitive skin

Though technically not a skin type, but a skin concern, we couldn’t help but tell you about our ideal foundation for sensitive skin. Our Fresh Nude Foundation is enriched with Community Fair Trade aloe vera from Mexico in a formula that feels an absolute pleasure to apply on skin – pretty important when you consider it does cosy up to your entire mug all day long. It helps you achieve a smooth, satin finish and healthy-looking glow with medium, even coverage that looks entirely natural. In fact, this foundation favourite helps you look fresh faced – it blends easily and lets skin breathe, its colour staying true as you wear it on what will soon be known as your good skin day. That’s every day that you apply this, then.

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The Body Shop Fresh Nude Tinted Beauty Balm

Foundation for combination skin

A good foundation for combination skin has got to be our Fresh Nude Tinted Beauty Balm SPF 30. If we’re being exact, technically this is a beauty balm (that’s what the ‘BB’ stands for), meaning it’s the lighter touch cousin of foundation, but that’s sometimes just what you need for combination skin. This tinted beauty balm is super easy to blend and can be worn under a fuller coverage foundation if you like. It feels non-greasy and lightweight on skin, helpfully not sitting in the creases of your fine face when you apply it, instead helping give you a smooth, flawless finish with buildable coverage. Oh, and did we mention, it doesn’t block pores? In fact, pores look blurred and skin feels hydrated and plumped all day with a luminous look.

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Compare by texture

Sometimes what your skin needs or what your skin likes to feel on it is down to personal preference as much as skin type or concern. You might find you lean more towards powder as your face is prone to shininess, or you might like the way liquid foundation feels on skin. Equally, what you’re up to on any given day will affect what product you pick up at your dressing table or bathroom mirror. You might be about to embark on a big adventure and need longer-lasting, fuller coverage. Or you might just be about to pop out and want a little touch-up before you go. For all occasions and needs, whatever your plans, whether you’re taking over the world or taking charge of a conference call, explore the benefits of our different foundation textures.

Hands applying foundation

Liquid Foundation

Our bestselling Fresh Nude Foundation is enriched with English rose water and Community Fair Trade aloe vera from Mexico. A heavenly hydrating formula, it helps your face to feel instantly fresh with up to 24-hour moisturisation. Coming in 16 shades, you’ll be able to find one that suits you. Its light to medium coverage has a semi-matte finish that’s borrowed from nature, helping skin to get a nude glow finish. Apply with your fingers or, even better, apply it with our Fresh Nude Foundation Brush, a makeup kit must-have and the best friend of our foundation that has two different bristle lengths to better apply and blend the formula. Plus, we also have our Fresh Nude Tinted Beauty Balm SPF 30, a lighter coverage option than the foundation version.

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THE BODY SHOP MATTE CLAY POWDER

Powder

Find yourself always reaching for the Loose Face Powder? A particular favourite of oily skin types and those in warmer climes who might be more prone to shininess, powder is a fab foundation stand-in or addition to help perfect a matte-looking finish. Our Fresh Nude Face Base can be a multi-tasker, helping you create an even look when used either dry, on bare skin or on top of liquid foundation, or wet – simply make our Complexion Blender wet and apply to skin for more coverage. Our formulation can give light to high coverage, depending on how you use it, but regardless it doesn’t turn out cakey. Your face will feel comfortable thanks to this breathable powder, helping your complexion look more smooth and healthy.

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Compare concealers

Sometimes your skin needs a little extra attention or a hand-holding to help it ace a more even and smooth-toned look. That’s where concealer comes in handy. The most targeted of the face base products in your makeup kit, concealer helps to, well, conceal and camouflage the likes of dark circles, spots and blemishes. A perfect partner for your mainstay foundation, which you should of course match to your foundation hue, you’ll be able to pick and choose how to caringly make up your complexion with our pick of our concealers. Boasting different textures and formulations, you’ll be able to find the concealer for you.

Hands holding The Body Shop Concealer

Liquid concealer

Our Fresh Nude Concealer suits all skin types, even dry, sensitive skin. It’s enriched with naturally inspired ingredients such as caffeine, marula oil and Community Fair Trade organic aloe vera. Feeling soothing on skin, this vegan formula is non-comedogenic, meaning it won’t clog your pores – result. As a liquid, it’s easy to apply with a concealer brush or the wand and doesn’t feel sticky or tacky. Rather, it feels lightweight and comfortable, helping to conceal blemishes, pigmentation, and dark circles and leaving your complexion looking flawless and natural. Pair it with the rest of our Fresh Nude range.

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Hands holding The Body Shop Concealer

Concealer Stick

A lightweight, creamy stick concealer, our Concealer All-in-One is infused with vitamin E and marula oil in a lightweight formula that’s easy to apply and blend with your pinky finger or a concealer brush. Helping to provide a medium coverage that helps to cover imperfections as well as dark shadows well for all skin types, it applies in a smooth texture so you can be sure your skin looks natural, not to mention its best. Feeling caring to skin, it stays in place with a silky-smooth finish that you’ll no doubt love.

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The Body Shop powders

Concealer Balm

Our Matte Clay Concealer is enriched with aloe vera and, like the rest of our Matte Clay range, Community Fair Trade tea tree oil. This vegan concealer feels like a dream for oily skin, as it helps to give skin a full coverage, matte finish. It’s ideal for any skin type, though, helping to conceal blemishes and under-eye dark circles alike in a non-comedogenic formula (that fancy word for not blocking your pores). Resisting humidity, transferring and smudging, it helps your skin to look clearer, clarified and more balanced for up to 24 hours.

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