Typically when we need to purchase a new foundation we make a laundry list of all the things we want to the makeup to do. Then we head to the store and begin swabbing shades on our chins and on our necks (we stopped testing on the back of the hand years ago).
But according to beauty influencer and expert Jackie Aina, those methods are played out too.
“Please do not shade match on your neck!” she said passionately on the latest episode of Dear Media’s Breaking Beauty podcast. “That is canceled! Do not shade match on your hand, do not shade match on your wrist, don’t even shade match on your jaw or your cheek or your face.”
“Always do it on the center of the chest because you want your face to match your body,” she explained. “When you have darker skin, most of us tend to have a bunch of different complexions all in our face. It tends to be a little darker around the hairline and the perimeter; sometimes around the jawline, like myself—I have hyperpigmentation there. Stick to the center of the chest and you more than likely will almost always get a perfect match.”
For those whose chest is a little lighter, Aina said you can overcompensate by highlighting with concealer.
The makeup guru and entrepreneur always comes with a bounty of tricks and hacks that work for melanin-rich girls (and pretty much everyone else too). So I put Aina’s hack to the test with four different foundations, two that I knew were face matches for me and two that I knew were not. And in true Aina fashion, she nailed it.
Equipped with this newfound knowledge, I’m getting my coins together to go secure some full-coverage formulas immediately.