Ivory Foundations VS Ivory Paint Shades!

As a Graphic Designer and make up enthusiast (what gave it away lol) I've always had a sneaking suspicion that when it comes to the names of foundation shades, well they are not always entirely accurate.

Take the shade "Ivory" for example. When buying this in a decorating store for our walls, what we expect is something plain and off-white that is ideal for a calm neutral space. However in the drugstore, Ivory comes out quite a bit different and that's before it's even had time to oxidize.



I wanted to test the theory for myself, so using a canvas I painted Dulux paint in "Ivory" along with the Maybelline Fit me Foundation shade 100 Warm Ivory, Barry M Flawless Matt Finish Foundation in LF1 Ivory and Collection Naturally Matt foundation in the shade 2 Ivory. Essentially, all four shades I purchased were called Ivory - therefore they should all pretty much be the same right?!

Erm....




The results of this experiment show what us pale girls have to put up with when buying foundations, unless we go to specialist brands or use a mixer product. Equally, I know many brands don't go near deep enough so on both sides of the spectrum there is clearly work to be done, namely actual research on ultra fair and deep skin tones.

Speaking on the whole as a pale person with naturally Irish skin given to me by my Father's side of the family, I honestly get really annoyed at how brands always bring out new contour palettes, lip kits, highlighters etc... but never go back to their original line to make it more inclusive.

Granted, pale skin isn't in. I know everyone loves a tan and I'm fine with that. I just want to be able to express who I am too through the make-up I wear. Why is this such a scary thing for brands, and why must they get it so horribly wrong?

Here are the swatches applied onto my arm. Whilst the Maybelline wasn't too far off, overall you can see the issue here especially when my arm is also the colour of my neck so you can imagine the tide mark issues if I don't mix the colour before application and blend well. Though, why should I have to do this in the first place in 2017, when even McDonald's has table service these days and we are coming up with new medical breakthroughs all the time yet I still can't get a foundation to match....



No matter your skintone, let me know your foundation colour matching struggles! You can also see the video I made for this post here.