How To Get Your Foundation Shade Match With An Online Beauty Service

The brilliant minds at Prescriptives have discovered the perfect foundation formula. More accurately, they’ve figured out how to best customize it (with an online video chat that determines your color-matched foundation or powder of choice).

Precise shade-matching is one of the few areas where there’s little difference between the department store and the drugstore; it’s simply not feasible to mass-produce enough foundations to cover every variation in skin tone. Even if a brand should launch, say, 20 shades, most will have to make do with the next-best-thing to a perfect match. And then there’s the actual formula. Some are more suited to those with dry skin, while others tout claims of oil control. To launch a foundation line that satisfies everyone? Impossible.

There do exist color companies that take can take care of the blending for you. But for the ultimate in convenience, Prescriptives can do it online, and they can do it for free.

There’s a button located at the top of their site that reads “Chat Live.” Click it on any weekday from 10 a.m.-7p.m. EST and tell them you’d like to book a custom blend session. Take note: the “book a session” part matters, as this means you are not obligated to make a purchase.

While you wait for your scheduled chat, the company recommends that you prepare two things ahead of time. First, a bare-faced photo taken in natural lighting. Then, an online account, so your recipe can be uploaded as quickly as possible. A Beauty Genius—their phrase, not mine, and it’s accurate—will walk you through the process, designing a formula to your exact specifications. I make a novella out of my requests. I’m looking for a liquid foundation with sheer yet buildable coverage. Because it’s summer, I need something with a weightless finish. I’d also like both oil control and dewy luminosity. I begin to wonder if this dream bottle will ever exist beyond my imagination.

The Beauty Genius takes it all in stride, and promises me a formula that delivers on all counts. She explains that I have warm undertones and an olive base, so she will need to cut out the orange and red pigments to make my shade. Within two business days, I receive my date-stamped recipe. My base shade level, requested coverage and shade extenders (two pumps of green, one pump of blue and three pumps of yellow) all appear—as do my other specifications: candlelight finish, oil control, brightening, evening and clarifying.

From here, Prescriptives gives you the option to purchase your creation for $75 and shipping. When mine arrives, I experience a moment of doubt. In the glass bottle, it looks like it might be a little too fair. But then I smooth it on my face. The finish is light and the coverage just sheer enough. It even delivers the illumination I asked for. By the end of the week, it’s the only foundation on my makeup stand.

As the color? A perfect match. I realize there’s really only one thing left to do: order their $55 custom powder to go along with it.

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