Makeup Tips For Teenagers & Beginners - What's Your Undertone?

As a 20-something grown adult today in 2022, my first memory of putting on makeup was when I was 14! I remember taking my mom's powder foundation and layering my face in so much powder for school that I was almost expelled! At the time, my mother did not reprimand me. She encouraged me to learn how to do makeup right, so nobody knows you are wearing anything! 

 

This was one of the first makeup tips I received as a teenager. Yet still, the learning curve was too much. 

 

I struggled a lot with my winged eyeliner, made my cheeks a little too rosy, matched the wrong eyeshadow with the wrong lip shade, did not blend my liquid foundation well, or even worse, chose the wrong undertones for my foundation! 

 

My mom could not be with me at every step. She, of course, had her limits. She was also juggling a lot on her plate at the time. But that makeup tip she gave me at the time is still etched in my mind - Do your makeup right, so nobody knows you are wearing anything! 

 

If you can relate to me, whether you are a struggling teenager or a makeup beginner, WomenWire is here for you! We know how important it is to have a mentor or a role model! We are going to give you our best makeup tips, so you can start and master the basics at first. 

 

These makeup tips will help you in the right direction to find out the perfect shade of foundation for you, which will be your start! 

 

I so wish I knew these tips when I started out! 

 

Makeup Tips To Find The Right Undertones 

 

 

The ideology behind flawless skin is flawed! 

There is really no flawless skin. Today, it is really easy to come across people with glass-like, crystal-clear, and flawless skin. Whether it is the Instagram filters or Photoshop, we are all obsessed with flawless skin. 

 

Truth be told - the idea of flawless skin is flawed at multiple levels. 

 

In real life, perfect skin is unachievable. Angelina Jolie or even Zendaya do not have perfect skin! It is because we are all humans. We all have pores, fine lines, dark circles, and all sorts of imperfections. 

 

There are multiple studies today that prove the correlation between exposure to social media's unrealistic beauty standards and one's mental health and self-esteem. Studies even show that teenage girls who tend to reshape and retouch their images before they upload them to social media have a lower body image. 

 

We have all been there. I also had (still have) a lot of dark circles and puffiness under my eyes. I used to put a gallons-worth of concealer under my eyes to cover everything up nicely. The more concealer and foundation I used, the more high-coverage formulations I wanted. 

 

Because of this, my under-eye area became drier with each passing day. It got really uncomfortable at nighttime, so I could not go to bed. And the routine of perfectly adding the right color-correcting shades before putting on my makeup was physically and mentally exhausting. 

 

One final day, I got this wake-up call. I stopped doing everything! Once I stopped, I then realized and felt that everything I did was unnecessary. 

 

Stop looking for perfect, flawless skin! 

 

Learn To Appreciate What You Already Have 

 

Everyone has different features, and you might see multiple makeup tutorials and try to follow them. It is really difficult to follow them since, of course, everyone comes with their unique set of features. We all have different face shapes, eye shapes, and even skin tones and types. 

 

Trends are constantly changing. In fact, change is the only constant in the beauty industry. 

 

When you are just beginning to do makeup, it is really important to know your features. Know your true self. This is one of the most important makeup tips for you. Know your face shape, eye shape, and even your right skin tone. 

 

When you know your true self, you can aim at being the best version of yourself! It is hard, especially when you are just starting out. Personally, it took me almost four-five years to find out my ideal makeup routine and my true self. 

 

It even took me a really long time to figure out my right undertones and my true and perfect foundation shade! 

 

Your Undertone and Complexion mean something!

 

So, here's something you must definitely know before you get your new foundation or concealer. 

 

Skin Complexion 

When you are getting yourself a new foundation or concealer, the first thing to know is your real skin complexion. It is all about how light or deep your skin color is. 

 

It all really comes down to the color of your skin surface. You have an endless range of options, from the palette going from light to deep, in general. But, it is important to know that it can even change for everyone, depending on the kind of season we are in. You could be an NC 35 during summers while becoming an NC 25 during winters! It all really depends on seasonal changes as well. 

 

Undertones

The second most important makeup tip to know before buying a new foundation is to know your true undertone. 

 

Undertones are really just the right pigment of your skin. The color that is beneath your skin is your undertone. Undertones never change, while your complexion can. 

 

There are four undertones in general. They are: 

 

- Warm 

- Cool 

- Neutral 

- Olive 

 

So, if the base tone of your skin is yellow or gold, you really have a warm undertone. Your skin is prone to getting tanned easily but can rarely burn. If your skin tone is bluish and pink, you have cool undertones. Your skin can burn easily but will tan really minimally. 

 

For neutral undertones, it is quite confusing, to be honest. They are a mix of both warm and cool undertones. 

 

So, if you have an olive skin undertone, general foundations and concealers might look pinkish or too yellow, and neutral shade foundations or concealers might look a bit ashy. 

 

How To Find It Online?

 

If following all these makeup tips is too confusing to understand, simply visit Rare Beauty or Fenty Beauty's official websites. Both the brands carry over 40 different shades of foundation, along with a mini-quiz on the website, which you can take to know your right complexion and skin undertone. And suppose you find the right one online. In that case, you can either buy that shade or visit Sephora to get two or three different shades tested out on your face to really get a glimpse of what you are going to be buying. 

 

Another thing you can easily do is go to any Mac counters and get a consultation with Mac official makeup experts in the store. They will happily advise you on your right undertone and complexion and the perfect shade for you! 

 

Whatever you do, when you visit the stores, just get a few samples for yourself. You can refer to these samples when you make future purchases for drugstore products from different brands to get a real idea of the right shade of foundation or concealer for you.