lilinah
Well-known member
Since people have been talking about make up and skin tone here, i guess i'll post a recent experience.
Sephora has been touting their new computerized system for determining skin color, Sephora Pantene Color IQ. It includes a "camera", which is attached to a computer, that captures your skin color when pressed up against your face at three different places. The computer averages the captures and suggests what it determines to be the most suitable foundations. You can narrow down the field by choosing coverage, finish, and whether your face is oily, combo, normal, dry, or sensitive.
It took me 2 years of trying multiple dozens of samples from sephora (yea! for sephora samples!) to finally find a foundation i like in a color that was not too egregious. After all those tests, i have determined that i am neither pink nor yellow, but, rather, neutral. Plus i have rosacea pink cheeks and dark patches along my jaw lines, so my skin is quite uneven. My base tone is still visible at my forehead. Sephora no longer carries my foundation in the local shop, so i'm hunting for a new foundation: liquid, medium coverage, natural or "radiant" finish, not drying.
The first time through the process, the recently trained SA found i had pink skin... which is not my natural base color, just on my cheeks and chin. She was quite certain i would be happy if i just tried the color, but, seriously, i actually do know better. So, after much hard work (and another SA who told her to do it to get me to be quiet), she tried again, and i asked her to skip the cheeks and dark patches. The second time it was determined i had even darker and yellow skin. So i asked her to get me samples of 3 recommended foundations.
I was walking around with them to try them from testers before i took them home, when i ran into another young SA who knew me from my years of shopping there. She took one look at the samples and commented, unbidden, on how two of them were much too dark. Yes, i don't want my whole face to be the color of my limited dark patches. Seriously, one of the samples was several shades too dark, but the original young SA was too insecure, i guess, to see that the computer's suggestion was wacky. I've noticed a bit of a trend to make the face darker than the neck and chest, which seems odd to me, but, hey, it's what's fashionable, i guess. However, i do not want to look tanned or "bronzed". I just want to look like me! The third was NARS in Fiji. It was close in value (i.e., how light or dark a color is), but no cigar, being too yellow. Deauville is closer.
Since my previous sampling period, many companies have new lines out - cosmetic science never sleeps, after all. So i'll be at it again, but i think i now have a better idea of what to look for, so i hope it won't take me another 2 years to find a new foundation.
I will say the new system may work for people with more even skin tone than old me. But if you have dark and/or pink patches, it will not necessarily come up with the right color suggestions. I suspect a sensitive human eye is still a better judge.
Sephora has been touting their new computerized system for determining skin color, Sephora Pantene Color IQ. It includes a "camera", which is attached to a computer, that captures your skin color when pressed up against your face at three different places. The computer averages the captures and suggests what it determines to be the most suitable foundations. You can narrow down the field by choosing coverage, finish, and whether your face is oily, combo, normal, dry, or sensitive.
It took me 2 years of trying multiple dozens of samples from sephora (yea! for sephora samples!) to finally find a foundation i like in a color that was not too egregious. After all those tests, i have determined that i am neither pink nor yellow, but, rather, neutral. Plus i have rosacea pink cheeks and dark patches along my jaw lines, so my skin is quite uneven. My base tone is still visible at my forehead. Sephora no longer carries my foundation in the local shop, so i'm hunting for a new foundation: liquid, medium coverage, natural or "radiant" finish, not drying.
The first time through the process, the recently trained SA found i had pink skin... which is not my natural base color, just on my cheeks and chin. She was quite certain i would be happy if i just tried the color, but, seriously, i actually do know better. So, after much hard work (and another SA who told her to do it to get me to be quiet), she tried again, and i asked her to skip the cheeks and dark patches. The second time it was determined i had even darker and yellow skin. So i asked her to get me samples of 3 recommended foundations.
I was walking around with them to try them from testers before i took them home, when i ran into another young SA who knew me from my years of shopping there. She took one look at the samples and commented, unbidden, on how two of them were much too dark. Yes, i don't want my whole face to be the color of my limited dark patches. Seriously, one of the samples was several shades too dark, but the original young SA was too insecure, i guess, to see that the computer's suggestion was wacky. I've noticed a bit of a trend to make the face darker than the neck and chest, which seems odd to me, but, hey, it's what's fashionable, i guess. However, i do not want to look tanned or "bronzed". I just want to look like me! The third was NARS in Fiji. It was close in value (i.e., how light or dark a color is), but no cigar, being too yellow. Deauville is closer.
Since my previous sampling period, many companies have new lines out - cosmetic science never sleeps, after all. So i'll be at it again, but i think i now have a better idea of what to look for, so i hope it won't take me another 2 years to find a new foundation.
I will say the new system may work for people with more even skin tone than old me. But if you have dark and/or pink patches, it will not necessarily come up with the right color suggestions. I suspect a sensitive human eye is still a better judge.
Anyway, I ordered a PP from this collection and got my package today, when I opened it, Mac had sent me a sample of their Zoom Fast Black Lash mascara. I was shocked. Mac sending samples??? Any of you got this too? Maybe it was an accident but anyway, I thought I should share.
