Maskcara Artist Color Matching Guide – Lesson II

No, this is not déjà vu. Yes, I am teaching you Maskcara Beauty Color Matching again. Last year almost to the day, I provided it HERE. It has been a tremendous honor to have so many Artists ask for color matching advice and tips. Your constant reminders to update my chart have been heard. Here goes: Color Matching for Maskcara Artists Lesson II. 

First off, please make sure you understand the basics explained HERE. I go over the differences between skin tone and undertone and how to find yours, review basic color theory, and give you steps to go through when helping a client identify the best foundation shade for their skin tone, undertone, and any other skin concerns they may want to address. I have grown in knowledge and practice over the past year, and fortunately Maskcara Beauty has also grown their shade range! YAY! Hooray for more shades for Women of Color! I have updated the color chart to reflect the new shade range as well as more information to help new Artists.

This blog entry also updates information on contour matching, troubleshooting, color correcting, and concealing. Although I am confident in my skills and the quality of information I provide, this post is not sponsored by Maskcara Beauty corporate. I am happy to edit any errors or oversights, or include any suggestions you might have to help fellow Artists. I hope this information will help you become a Maskcara Beauty Artist: Color Matching Expert!

Highlight Matching

When you color match someone you go through the steps of:

All Maskcara Beauty highlights have a yellow base. The yellow base creates the lit from within glow that all Maskcara customers are known for exuding. It is an incredible experience to walk into a bustling Las Vegas hotel and know exactly who is a Maskcara Artist simply from looking at their gorgeous glowing face. Seriously, go to next year’s conference and play that game! We are always the best looking people there and I’m not even ashamed to admit it! HA!

The best way to get acquainted with your Maskcara Beauty Artist kit is to practice, practice, practice! It is so key in learning to identify the shades that work best on different faces. Not only do you master your artistry skills, but you also learn to see skin in a different way. Most faces are not one single shade across the board. We are all unique creatures with varying shades, tones, and special needs. I very rarely come across a client who needs only ONE shade. Yes, there are times one can ‘do’, but honestly, who wants one, when they can create a palette with a base foundation and add a secondary color to brighten the center of their faces EVEN MORE?! I updated my chart to include a few suggestions of which shades work well with certain skin tones, undertones, and skin concerns. 

My goal is for you to learn from this chart and your in-person applications in order to easily identify whether a warm, cool, or neutral shade will work, what shade could be used for concealing dark circles, and which might be a good option for brightening. I want you to be able to take a look at a freckled client with a face lighter than her tan freckled body and with the utmost confidence know off the bat, she needs Bella bronzer with warm shades of amber, aura, and olive to help bring out her glow! Practice seriously makes perfect!

Take a peek at the chart below. You may notice some of the suggestions I make are rather general. They are a guideline, not a prescription. Every face is unique and you must take into account the numerous variables that come along with every uniquely beautiful face!

Contour Matching

Maskcara carefully crafted all contour shades from an ash base to ensure that everyone regardless of skin tone or undertone will see a shadow where they apply their contour. While the yellow-based highlights are meant to draw light to the center of your face, the ash-based contours are intended to recess areas of the face you want to downplay. 

Some of the Maskcara Beauty contour shades offer more warmth than others. I’ve grouped them together below:

• Warm: Walnut, Stone, Indigo
• Cool: Aspen, Ash, Cola, Shadow
• Neutral: Henna, Olive, Astoria

Learning to identify undertone and the basics of color theory will help you choose the best contour shade for your customer. I do have a secret when color matching though! I like to look at a client’s brows as an indicator of which shade would work well. Maskcara Beauty prides itself on being multi-purpose…What’s more multi-purpose than using your contour as a brow pomade!? Even if they don’t, most client’s brows serve as a good indicator for which level of warmth/coolness/neutrality is needed for their contour shade.

Troubleshooting

Tips from my previous lesson still apply, but I will reiterate the basics. An ideal color match will melt like butter into a client’s face. A little will go a long way, and it will appear like second skin! Trouble blending and/or accentuated fine lines, dryness, or pores can be a sign of an incorrect or incomplete match, or the need for better skincare! If your client notices their makeup looks like it’s sitting on top of the skin and is accentuating flaws more than their beauty, suggest they apply it with a lighter hand. If that doesn’t work, it might be a shade issue. You might need to add another highlight for the redness on her nose, or maybe the contour looks “dirty” so it needs more warmth, or it looks muddy and needs to cool off. I guarantee there’s a way to fix the issue, even if it means creating a custom shade by mixing a few colors for the perfect custom palette!

Another situation I forgot to address before is the importance of the RIGHT TOOLS. CLEAN TOOLS! This makeup needs a clean, smooth, often densely packed bristled brush to apply the foundation smoothly. Yes, it works with other brushes, or even your finger, but the most ideal situation is to use the brushes specially made for this foundation! And even when you use a fluffy brush like the Best Blend Forever (BBF) or B Squared brush, you want the brush to be CLEAN in order to give that flawless airbrushed filtered finish! Blending creams works best with either a clean damp Perfector sponge or a fluffy brush like the B Squared or BBF to pick up excess product and lightly blend everything together beautifully. The tools definitely make a difference!

Color Correct & Conceal

Cara creates every product to be multi-functional, including every single tin shade! As Artists, we want to solve our clients’ skin concerns by creatively using our palette shades as solutions! This allows us to perform our in-person makeovers with confidence to know everything we ever need for a beautiful flawless glowing face is in our kit. I will cover the fundamentals of color correcting and concealing in a future blog entry, but there are a few highlight and contour shades you should recognize immediately for their color correcting qualities.

When a client has melasma or other hyperpigmentation concern, my favorites for color correcting are to use Bella as a base wash before starting to HAC, or using a neutral shade like candlelit, June, or my favorite, Sandy, to bring together the uneven tones. Freckles tend to blend in nicely using warm orange shades like Amber or Mango. Redness from rosacea or other issues can be hidden well with yellow or green-undertoned highlights like Sunlit, Candlelit, June, Sandy, or Wheat. Orange tones like Mango, Goddess, Icon, Mirage etc can often help diminish dark circles on medium to dark skin. 

When a client has various skin concerns, don’t be afraid to recommend multiple highlights or even suggest the lip+cheek shades that might work to conceal too. 

Although all are yellow-based, the highlights that work best with cool, warm, and neutral tones are:

1. Warm: Aura, Sunlit, Amber, Wheat, Mango, Goddess, Papaya, Icon, Cinnamon, Mirage
2. Cool: Moonlit, White Peach, Muse
3. Neutral: Linen, Candlelit, June, Sandy

Pay attention to highlights that lean towards yellow, green, pink, or orange as they may help you pick a shade that will help a client conceal a skin issue. It may also be helpful in identifying a brightening shade.

1. Yellow: Aura, Sunlit, Wheat
2. Orange: Amber, Mango, Goddess, Papaya, Icon, Mirage
3. Green: Candlelit, June, Sandy
4. Pink: Candlelit

That’s a wrap yall! Thank you so much for being here. I hope this lesson helped you! Feel free to reach out with questions, comments, & suggestions! And make sure to subscribe to be notified when I post my next lesson!

XO,

Kat