It's nice that a lot of the established cosmetic brands are adding shades for "deeper" skin tones. New brands seem to be popping up all the time (like Juvia's Place). Still, finding an affordable and appropriate shade of foundation is tough for a lot of us. I know ladies of all races and colors who have almost as hard a time as I do in trying to find something that works with their peach- or olive-hued tones. If you can't pull off one of the basic shades - porcelain, ivory, buff, light, tan, medium, "deep", chocolate, almond, or some variation of "toast" - then you have to be the Indiana Jones of the makeup world.
These are some arm and face swatches of all the shades I have lying around. I throw nothing out so I have stuff from 4 years ago. Don't judge me!
Just so you know:
- I photographed my leg in the natural light of my home. (ceiling and floor lamps)
- I applied a light primer and nothing else other than the moisturizer I already had on
- I did not apply any other powders or setting products
- I used a makeup spatula to apply (cleaning after each use)
- I ran a line of the Nars shade along the top so you can compare it to each of the other shades.
sorry for the bad cropping see names and shades below |
Black OpalTrue Color |
MilaniConceal & Perfect |
e.l.f.Flawless Finish |
I did notice that Target carries quite a range of brands with diverse shades. Also, the site has a "foundation guide" to help locate suitable brands on their site with your shade range.
Actually, once I started searching, I found quite a few brands with "deep" shade choices. You have probably heard of most, but I think at least a couple will be new for you.
Here are some with prices in the mid to higher range - depending on what your budget is. I'm too tired to do links for all of them but hit up Google.
- Uoma Beauty (totally new to me)
- Fenty (Rhianna's gig so I won't bother with it. Personal bias.)
- Il Mikiage (see this a lot on social media platforms)
- ColourPop (I've seen this on Influenster)
- Black Up (I had one of their foundations in a near-matching shade for my skin. Good foundation as long as you get a match.)
- Urban Decay
- Nars (of course)
- Becca
- Marc Jacobs (who knew?)
- Lancome (love theirs but it's pricey for me at around $45)
- Hue Noir (another totally new one for me)
- MAC
- Makeup Forever
- Black Radiance (of course)
- Flori Roberts (I used to love their Gold perfume but it's no longer made)
Believe it or not, there are more I could have listed but I got tired.
Hope this helped.
Peace
--Free