Free · runs on your device

Foundation shade finder

Your depth level and undertone letter — the two coordinates every shade system uses — measured from your jawline pixels instead of guessed at a counter.

Tap-to-sample color read

Step 1 of 2 · your photo

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Daylight, bare skin. Tap the jawline especially — it's where foundation must match.

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Depth + undertone match

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The science

Why foundation matching is two numbers, not a thousand shades

01

Every shade system reduces to two coordinates: depth (how light-to-deep, usually a number) and undertone (warm, cool, neutral, or olive — usually a letter). This tool measures both from your skin pixels: the ITA angle used in dermatology colorimetry for depth, and the Lab hue angle for undertone. Armed with those two, any brand’s shade chart becomes navigable.

02

The jawline rule exists because your face and neck usually differ — foundation must bridge them, so that is where you sample and where you test. And the classic failure modes are undertone errors, not depth errors: a foundation that turns orange was too warm, one that goes ashy or pink was too cool. Olive skin gets mis-matched most because many ranges simply skip it.

From measurement to counter: the shade-code cheat sheet

Most Western ranges encode depth as a number and undertone as a letter: C/R for cool-rosy, W/G for warm-golden, N for neutral — so a light-medium neutral is a "2N/3N" neighborhood in most lines. Korean and Japanese ranges often encode differently (21/23 systems, pink vs beige suffixes) — your measured undertone still translates: pink-suffix for cool, beige for warm-neutral. Olive users: look for lines with explicit olive shades, or shift one step yellower than your instinct in neutral shades. And the universal rules regardless of brand: match the JAWLINE not the hand, check in daylight, and expect to sit between two shades seasonally — faces tan.

FAQ

Common questions

How do I know my foundation undertone?+

Measure it — this tool reads the hue angle of your actual skin pixels. Warm skins suit shades ending in W/G, cool in C/R, neutral in N. If past foundations turned orange on you, you were buying too warm; ashy means too cool.

Why does my foundation match in the store but not outside?+

Store lighting is warm and dim, which hides undertone mismatches. Test on the jawline, walk to daylight, and check in a phone selfie before buying.

What if I am between shades?+

Go slightly lighter for daytime (faces photograph darker than they look) or mix two shades — most people are between shades seasonally anyway, since faces tan and pale through the year.

Why is my foundation oxidizing orange?+

Partly formula chemistry (pigments darkening with oil contact), partly a warm-of-you undertone choice that the oxidation exposes. A cooler or more neutral shade at the same depth usually survives the day; oil-controlling primer slows the chemistry.

Should foundation match your face or neck?+

The jawline boundary between them — that is where a mismatch shows as a line. Faces run darker than necks (sun), so a jaw match slightly brightens the face while staying seamless: the intended effect.

SkinPal for iOS & Android

This tool estimates. The app measures.

SkinPal scans your face and scores 8 skin metrics — then tracks how they change week over week, so you can see your routine working.