Skin Changed Color Radically, or was it the Make Up?

[Martine A.]

Some time ago I went to mac store and got foundation color matched to my skin tone. I was happy with the results and I also got good at putting stuff on myself.

But yesterday held a surprise for me. Even while putting the stuff on, I noticed my shoulder skin had become much lighter in contract to the foundation. That. Was. Not. The. Case. Before. The colors used to match nicely.

Colors of the make up look legit like the same the day I got them, I am not inclined to think they changed.

So, how common you'd say this is? I do have a sensitive and moody skin. But this is like two or more shades off.

[Ms Grace]

Skin does get a bit lighter on HRT. I also find that with some make up the pigmentation can settle so the stuff at the end is darker... keep it shaken/stirred to avoid this.

[Martine A.]

Alright, thanks for the advice to save for the future. : )

Notably, I am not in HRT, also my make up is not one of those one can stir. It is solidish powder plus clay like foundation. Got that recommended for the Summer. To my perception, they did not change in color since bought.

[Serenation]

does it still match your face is the important question

[Martine A.]

does it still match your face is the important question

Hi,

Thanks for the interest. The thing is, my face doesn't have consistent color from its top to its bottom, so the guy there matched the foundation to the forehead, that was sameish as the shoulders. Today morning all has changed, but until the afternoon it went back to matching. I am able to smear the studio fix in my forehead and be unable to find it.

I suppose it is my weird skin.

[Martine A.]

Hm...

I already posted before that I am aware that lighting can be deceiving. That is why I use daylight, or direct stronger artificial light to see all the color detail.

Since I got it, I used one pack of N4 studio fix powder foundation. Since I only use it to cover the beard shadow, sometimes it looks good on me, sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, it looks too dark and too pinkish.

So, today I just got a pack of NC15 shade. When I put it at home, it looked immediately too pale and too yellowish. But take a breath... as I sat down to browse about wth went wrong, it calmed down and blended in. It is still a little too light, but kind of difference nobody will notice unless they are looking for it.

So... #fml no wonder people have trouble pinning down my skin color.

My skin does change color that much. Since there is no way in this world I will do the full cover routine every day, only to go out, I suppose my best hope is laser hair removal. Doing it, but it takes long as you probably know.

[barbie]

My body skin becomes lighter in winter and spring, and darker in summer and fall. It is very contrasting, even within the same summer.

Before going to the beach:



Some days after:



I wonder whether your skin color changes so much with season.

barbie~~

[Martine A.]

Haha, good one, barbie. But I am a vampire. Hissss...

Seriously, even during longest days here I know how to minimize my stay under sun to minutes or less. And I do so.

Here I am only concerned about my facial skin, and how its color changes in short time. I trust completely that when I got N4, my face had such color, since the guy who did it is the best they have. Today I watched myself NC15 being too light to have another look 15 minutes later and see it blend in fine.

[Martine A.]

FYI, I am back to N4. I should stop posting, all is clear yet -- my face color changes a lot and it seems that a non full cover differs the least over time when I use N4. Now it seems like a really good recommendation from that guy at the mac store.

I have also been playing with some software comparisons. There is no much space between N4 and NC15. By euclidean RGB distance, there is only NW15 in between. A more sophisticated comparison with real pics vs ideal shade colors spat it right out... "take N4". Just to put this here, the order of moving away from the white by euclidean RGB disatance is: N3, NW10, NW13, NC15, NW15, N4, NC20, NW18, C2, C3.5, C3, NW20, N5, ... . I attempted multiple luminosity formulae, but those ones looked less intuitive when showed on screen.

Ask me more if you are curious. This topic bothered me enough that I started working on a software to hlep me. Per above, it is still not good enough to be made public and still has long way to go before that. But if you have similar prob (choosing the right shade) and want to share what you know and learn what I know, we'll start a topic on susans.