Ask Lydia: Winter Foundation

Hi Lydia,

Good question for you. Winter Foundation. I usually wear 3W Voile from Aromaleigh and I noticed this morning that when I was putting on my foundation and it looks like I was apply a much darker shade. Got any tips on going lighter in the winter? ~Michelle

Hi Michelle! Thanks for your email.

In the cooler months, those of us with tans (i.e., not me since I only turn red and NEVER get a tan!) have to deal with our colors fading a bit. This can become a problem if you notice your foundation is looking a bit off.

Here are a couple of suggestions for lightening up your foundation. Readers, if you can think of any solutions I'm leaving out, please leave me a comment.

FOR LIQUID FOUNDATIONS
Try mixing a little moisturizer with your foundation. This way you'll be thinning out the liquid foundation and diluting the colors a bit. The moisturizer-foundation combo will save you time--it's like instant multitasking! Plus making the liquid foundation thinner will make application much faster and easier.

FOR MINERAL FOUNDATIONS
Try mixing your normal shade with mineral foundation that's one shade lighter. This will give you a custom-blend that might match better to your winter skin tone. Michelle, in your case, I'd try blending the 3W with a 2W.

CUSTOM BLENDS
One other thing you could do...if you have the money to do it....would be to get a custom-blended foundation from a higher end cosmetics company like Prescriptives. This way you can't go wrong! Just expect to pay a pretty penny to get custom-made makeup.