Choosing the right foundation
It’s hard enough to try and figure out what foundation best matches your skin tone if you’re a genetic girl. But if you’re a guy it’s nearly impossible! First, there’s the fact that there’s so many different manufacturers, and second there’s the little problem that a closeted cross dresser like us has to be careful about how it looks standing in the makeup aisle trying on different shades of color. (Yes, I know it’s “no big deal” but that doesn’t make me feel more comfortable standing there).
There’s a couple things I’ve learned about choosing the right foundation if you’re a guy.
Do a little research online first. Most makeup companies have great websites where you can look at all the different products. It’s a lot of fun and well worth a little time to learn about the different kinds of foundation they offer. Most of the time, this is very helpful in determining what kind of skin you have (oily, dry, sensitive, normal) and getting a feel for what your tone might be before you even step into the drugstore. There’s also several different “kinds” of foundation like “powder” and “liquid” and more. I had the best results with liquid, but powder can be good if you want extremely light coverage that you can wear to work and get away with. I had fun looking at CoverGirl, Loreal Paris, and Almay.
Don’t buy the color that you “want” to be, try to find your real color. This topic is going to come up a lot because it took me a long time to realize that I’m better off matching my accessories, clothes, and makeup with what goes well with my body and color as opposed to buying items for who I wish I was. Initially I would buy lighter colors than my actual skin tone and it never quite looked right (and clothes that were too small). It wasn’t until nearly a year later that I finally made a commitment to myself to find the closest match, and believe me it’s so much better!
(Continued below...)If you feel uncomfortable in the makeup aisle, go with wife or girl friend. I’ve found this to be really helpful because I can’t exactly go into the makeup aisle and spend a lot of time there in my small neighborhood without getting noticed by someone who probably knows me. Taking my wife along is perfect, because the two of us can go through things and people just assume I’m there helping her find the color she’s looking for.
Bite the bullet and just buy several colors. Here’s the thing, since you can’t really try on a bunch of colors in the drugstore, you’re going to end up buying several colors and trying them until you find the right one. You really should be testing the color on your face near your jawline to really know if you’ve found the right color – and that might be hard to do in the store. However, many drugstores will let you return makeup if it’s the wrong color (only if you’re brave enough to take them back, or if you can get a wife or girl friend to do it for you – save the receipt!) I ended up needing to buy 4 different colors before I found my match. It cost me about $30, but now I know!
Find a good online guide. There are tons of sites that tell you how to know if you’ve found the right foundation, so I won’t expound on that too much here. But I did learn that it’s important to actually test the color on your face, not just on your wrist. My face color differs a bit from my wrist.
Just figuring out that I need to try and find the most accurate color, and that I should just go ahead and buy a few different colors to determine my tone was what finally gave me the look I was looking for.
Have you been looking for foundation, or have you found your shade? How did you do it?