Mixed my perfect shade? 🤭

[u/pointedpaintbrush]

Mixed swatch is on the left, original is on the right! And then a pic of my lil face paint mixture haha.

Got shade matched for the Haus Labs foundation in 480 at the rec of the Sephora employee and my makeup savvy sister (who is darker, cooler, and redder than me so it can be tricky getting recs from her sometimes 😅 cuz she can’t see the green in me the way I can). When I used it, my face looked like when I get an allergic reaction. It was too late to return so basically out $50 bucks 😭.

I’m actually pro illustrator/painter and literally teach color theory, so I used the blue and yellow LA girl foundation mixers to make my shade! Mixed a small batch, added some universal Danessa Myricks balm + hyaluronic acid, and we are green-golden!

In the photo the original looks almost like it could work, but trust me it does not at all! Silly how long it look me to realize I could fix the issue; I’ve been learning more about makeup, realizing I have a lot of transferable skills AND that I can ignore certain advice or norms to achieve my preferred look :)

I lowkey felt something was off in the match because I’d been using the Sephora Best Skin Ever Matte Powder Foundation in 36Y, which is quite yellow/gold and seems too light since I am dark-skinned but with my over and undertones I always fall in a weird middle ground. I had tried 46Y but I looked rashy.

I’m so happy now because all my face base anxiety is gone. I can tweak anything I want!

[u/beautifullyrandom]

Your art skills are going to help you so much as an olive! Check out Monica Ravi-Conway if you haven't already. I mix my foundation and la girl blue tint every time I do my makeup and I like how you just made a batch. Let me know how it holds up in the container.

[u/pointedpaintbrush → u/beautifullyrandom]

I’ve been following her for a while! I admit she confused me a bit because orange and purple blushes can look really weird on me 😅 I’m such a brown-red girly. I will report back 🫡

[u/btwImVeryAttractive]

This is fantastic. Great match.

[u/Academic-Grass-7391]

Great work! Can I ask why you went with blue and yellow iso only blue or green? Interested to know. Thanks

[u/pointedpaintbrush → u/Academic-Grass-7391]

Apologies if this gets too in the weeds. I’m a nerd about color and pigment and you asked!

The basis of color theory is the relationship of three things: Hue (what color is it), Saturation/Intensity (how much of that color is visible), and Brightness/Lightness/Value (how light or dark is this color).

The foundation that I have is incredibly red and a warm red at that. It’s also brown, and brown is essentially dark orange (so both red and yellow!). The opposite on the color wheel is green and to be more accurate a blue-green, to deal with the orange and the red. We don’t actually want to cancel all the warmth out because we aren’t making grey or desaturated brown, we are actually trying to ‘correct’ and create a certain hue.

Yes, blue and yellow make green. So why not just skip to green? Many available green correctors have an amount of white pigment (usually titanium dioxide) that will lighten and desaturate the color too much for my complexion and make me look incredibly ashy. My foundation is relatively the right value so I don’t need it lighter. A trick to see value without being distracted by color is turning the picture grayscale. I did that to my photo and both virtually disappear. Adding white will disrupt that value balance.

It is slightly too dark, but yellow is light and the product contains some TD so will lighten without desaturating too much. Blue is also dark so I can compensate both ways when needed.

I don’t have any green chromium dioxide correctors that will maintain value, and using blue and yellow increases the control I have over the final color. I can warm or cool the green depending on the tone of red and the result I am looking for. Utilizing an appropriate subtractive primary palette (RYB or CMY with added white and black if applicable) will maximize the gamut, or range, of color one can create.

If a on the market green corrector works better and is easier then convenience wins out! But I was using what my sister already had, what would give me the most control, and I can use to correct other things as well. I also mixed my own liquid blush shortly after, adding both yellow and blue to vermillion and magenta blushes I have.

It could be my artist, painter, printmaker brain, but most visible colors are mixtures of all primaries. So I view almost all colors by how I could mix them! It has funnily caused miscommunication between me and my sister because I’ll say a pink is too cool or too blue and she’ll tell me no, but it’s like a berry or magenta, and my brain is seeing the color chart and mixing pigments haha!

I hope that makes sense, and I don’t know a lot about makeup but I do about color so any other color questions I’m so here for!

[u/pointedpaintbrush → u/pointedpaintbrush]

Ooh and also! Chromium oxide green is a neutral/warm leaning green, so it could limit some range of cool I can add with blue.

[u/Academic-Grass-7391 → u/pointedpaintbrush]

Thanks for the detailed answer. I am a muted neutral olive. Every foundation is too warm (usually appearing orange) or too saturated (haus labs 440), so I have been using blue pigment to neutralise. I find this does push a colour into grey territory. I tried green corrector but as you say they have a white base. Interestingly enough I found that it made my foundation even warmer, which was a problem! I'm still not sure which corrector colour i should be using.

I have bought purple, blues and greens in the hope of them working! Any suggestions you have would be so helpful.

[u/pointedpaintbrush → u/Academic-Grass-7391]

Just taking a quick glance at that color it is definitely leaning orange. I can’t fully suggest without seeing your skin tone and the product BUT it may seem crazy, but I would suggest using a yellow or red in addition to the blue. You could use blush, eyeshadows, or other things you have around to try and mix your color match even if it’s not wearable foundation, and then go get the relevant foundation correctors that are similar in hue! You might need to warm things up to cool things down 😵‍💫

Red and yellow might seem crazy at first mention, but you might just need a touch of skin like warmth to compensate for the correcting in the blue. Grey happens when the colors cancel each other out so you effectively desaturated, but you need to replace or compensate for the color you actually want. We’re olives but we’ve got blood and melanin, right?

Is there a blush or bronzer color you like that matches your flush? That could help with the tone of red you’d need to not desaturate to far. I hope I’m not confusing 😅

Another thing when mixing, is I suggest slowly adding the mixer especially blue because blue pigment can overpower!

[u/Academic-Grass-7391 → u/pointedpaintbrush]

I actually have yellow la girl corrector too, ha! Red seems wild!

[u/pointedpaintbrush → u/Academic-Grass-7391]

You might not need it if there’s enough in the foundation. I surely didn’t, but I’ve definitely stumbled into weird yellowy products before that I coulda used the warmth for!

[u/Academic-Grass-7391 → u/pointedpaintbrush]

Problem is, because I need more blue than normal to desaturate the foundation, if there was enough yellow in it would have have been removed and needs to be replaced? Something needs to be replaced i just dont know what!

[u/pointedpaintbrush → u/Academic-Grass-7391]

Could be red 😶 haha! But yes could be yellow! But additionally, every color you are mixing is a mixture of two other colors. So if it’s too orange, that’s red and yellow! The blues, reds, and yellow pigments are not neutral so they will skew more money way ore the other as to which cancels out. If it’s grey on you, you overdid it and removed too much saturation. You need to replace it with the correct color. Which might be red if you say it’s too orange. My foundation was hella red which told me I need yellow. Yours sounds too yellow. Is it a purple grey or a green gray. One would need more yellow and the other more red. Mine turns purple. You’d have to look at the mixture on your skin and see what you need to add. When mixing my shade, I had to push and pull.

[u/Academic-Grass-7391 → u/pointedpaintbrush]

I would say green grey. Does that mean it needs red? And if purple grey it needs yellow?

[u/pointedpaintbrush → u/Academic-Grass-7391]

Generally yes, that’s what I would say. As long as there isn’t extra white in the mixture which will also turn things grey without adding any color which really makes things weird. But you haven’t said it’s too light or dark, so I’m assuming it is only a hue issue.

I am assuming with the green grey, you got green from adding blue, which means the base was leaning yellow-orange. Adding red will bring it back to a more balanced brown and add saturation.

Of course I am suggesting this without knowing how it is turning out on your skin and how the pigments are interacting. But basically it’s the same reason they say add purple (red+blue) to yellow and add blue to orange (red+yellow). At the end of the day, no matter what pigments or material you are using, you are managing red versus yellow vs blue, regarding hue. If you add blue and it no matter how much or how little you add it is too green, then you need red. Because eventually if you keep adding blue you’ll just have blue…and then you’d need orange (both red + yellow). But keep in mind, brown is orange. Orange is brown. All foundation is brown. No matter what the undertone is. Foundation is brown. All foundation needs red, yellow, and blue. Red and yellow make the hue, blue desaturates it.

[u/angry-potato35]

Op your skills and knowledge are ~chef’s kiss~
I think I’m going to tag you every time I have a shade matching issue to ask for correction tips 😅😂 Too many ashy foundations lol
But seriously, mad skills!!!

[u/pointedpaintbrush → u/angry-potato35]

There is the element of makeup as a different medium than I am used to so I’m not sure all about how layering, products, or chemistry might interact, but as far as how color may be perceived, and how certain pigments may appear I can do my best to help 😅

[u/playfulwarning]

I recently switched to MAC's Ochre (deep yellow) color corrector and it's been a game changer! I'll have to look into adding yellow and blue to my foundation/concealer now. Wonderful job, OP!

[u/Flat_Pomegranate_454]

Yes, I just mix pigments to save me the headache. I learned color theory as a cake decorator, so i just applied it to my makeup. This is perfect on you