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True Skin: Ultimate Guide To Your Best Complexion
As a child, you probably learned your makeup application from the pages of a magazine, a parent, or older sibling. Styles (obviously) change, and now we look to the internet for tips and tricks on how to get the “latest” looks.
The problem is, so much of what we see online is layer upon layer of heavy, stage-like makeup applied in front of an uber-bright ring light. Whether or not it even looks good online is debatable, but in real life, it’s honestly quite scary (not to mention time-consuming).
Finding your true skin is a burgeoning trend away from the theatrics of influencer makeup. Together, we’ll explore what it is, how to discover your own true skin, and how to dial back your makeup routine by using skin-nourishing color cosmetics.
We’ll also uncover how to find the best foundation for your true skin, by focusing on skin undertone and foundation ingredients.
What is True Skin?
True skin is the skin you were born with. As a child, your skin was in its truest form, untouched by chemicals, products, or damaged by free radicals from the sun, pollution, or lifestyle choices (like smoking).
True skin refers to the uppermost layers of your actual skin called the dermis and is sometimes referred to as “real skin.”
The dermis is the thickest part of your skin, and the part that gives our skin its tones and undertones.
Our true skin often gets “lost” sometimes between the teenage years and adulthood. We mask and cake it with products, don’t take care of it, and end up with skin that has an uneven tone, has developed areas of hyperpigmentation, is dry and/or oily in spot, and just looks and feels unhealthy.
Adolescence can mean breakouts, blemishes, and acne spots that leave your true skin scarred or irritated.
Your true skin is still there, it just needs rediscovering. Finding it and nurturing it is equal parts skincare and using makeup products (especially foundations) that work synergistically with your skin.
When Will a Baby’s True Skin Color Develop?
Babies will reach their true skin color sometime between several months and several years after birth. Although they begin producing melanin, the substance that gives skin its color, while in the womb, it can take a few years before the total amount of melanin they’ll have circulating in their skin to fully develop.
By about three or four years of age, a baby’s skin tone and color should be fully developed, and likely unadulterated by sun.
Is My True Skin the Skin Tone I Get in the Sun?
No. In fact, the color of your skin in the sun is a shade with much more melanin, caused by damage from ultraviolet rays.
It goes without saying that UV rays are damaging and place you at a higher risk of developing skin cancer, but the sun also causes photodamage on the skin.
Photodamage means wrinkles, fine lines, dark spots caused by repetitive, unprotected sun exposure. It also means pores that have lost elasticity, and skin that sags prematurely. These are all unwanted effects that come along with basking in the sun without sunscreen. Not to mention, sunbathing will destroy your chances of finding your true skin.
When you’re in the sun, use a physical sunblock that contains titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. Avoid chemically-laden sunscreens that can be dangerous for your body, ruin your complexion, and cause irritation.
How Can I Determine My True Skin Complexion?
One of the best ways to determine your true skin complexion (your skin’s tone along with its undertones) is by looking at skin that doesn’t often see sunlight and is relatively untouched free from continual sun exposure or damage.
Check the skin along your jawbone. This area generally has a more consistent color than other parts of your face. This is likely your true skin color. Avoid looking at your wrist or the back of your hands; this skin isn’t anywhere near the same color as the skin on your face.
You can examine your wrist to help you determine your skin’s undertone, but for finding your true skin color (the color you’ll match for your foundation), this isn’t the spot.
How Do You Know Which Foundation Color is Best For You?
Once we find our true skin color, most of us will still need a bit of color correction to tame redness and get a truly luminous appearance. Opt for foundations with buildable coverage. Full coverage, high coverage, and even some medium coverage formulas are usually too much for a more natural, true skin look.
Examine Your Skin To Find Your Undertones
Finding your skin’s undertones isn’t hard, but it does require a little skin self-examination. Undertones are found in deep skin layers, and help contribute to the actual color and tone of your skin.
Skin undertones are different from the tone of your skin, which can range from very dark skin to medium skin tones, and extremely light skin colors.
Undertones refer to the pigments just below the surface of the skin. There are several different types:
- Cool undertones. These undertones can range from pink to blue, or even purple.
- Neutral undertones. Skin with neutral undertones look very close to the actual shade of true skin.
- Warm, golden undertones. These skin tones have hints of yellow, gold, and peach.
Here’s how you can easily find your own.
Notice How Your Skin Looks in Different Lighting
Just like original music doesn’t follow you around giving you a soundtrack for your life, you’re also not going to be in front of a circular light ring once you leave your house for the day, so it’s pointless to apply your foundation in front of lighting that isn’t natural.
Make your goal lightweight foundation texture that easily adjusts in natural and artificial lighting, which is a more realistic compilation of what most of us see each day.
Consider Any Color Changes in the Foundation Once It Dries
Foundation that beautifully blurs imperfections and feels phenomenal when you apply it might change once it dries. The warm beige color that went on so effortlessly might dry to a completely different shade.
Different shades of foundation exist for a reason, and blending some together might create the perfect foundation match for your true skin.
Test Shades in Various Areas of Your Face
Finding your perfect foundation shade takes more than just swiping a bit of color on your jawline. Using a foundation brush or beauty sponge, test your shade by using a few pumps of foundation and swiping them on the center of your face, your jawline, your cheek, and chin.
Wear Shades For Several Hours Before Making a Determination
Once you test your foundation shades, walk away and return to the mirror after a few hours to examine your skin. This helps determine how the foundation will wear with your particular skin type (oily, acne-prone, dry, etc.).
Look for Quality Ingredients
The best thing you can do to develop and nurture your true skin is to use foundations that contain organic ingredients and skin-beneficial nutrients to help boost your skin’s health, plump fine lines, improve texture, and increase hydration.
RMS Beauty’s “Un” Cover-Up Cream Foundation is the solution. This vegan foundation is fragrance and cruelty-free and is loaded with antioxidant-rich organic jojoba oil to create a barrier against environmental stressors, and wild-crafted buriti oil to help keep skin hydrated and radiant hours after application.
A powerful blend of botanical actives contained in our adaptogenic herbal blend nourishes skin deeply and boosts radiance.
Pair it with RMS Beauty’s “Re” Evolve Radiance Locking Primer, a revolutionary primer that’s actually good for your skin. Our primer contains:
- Hyaluronic acid. Known for its ability to keep skin deeply hydrated, this plant-based acid helps our primer boost your skin’s moisture levels for up to 24 hours.
- Squalane. This vegetable-based antioxidant helps protect skin against free radical damage, conditions skin to keep it soft and supple, and increases skin’s moisture.
As with all RMS Beauty products, you’ll never find parabens, talc, sulfates, nanoparticles, GMO’s, or synthetic parfum. Our cruelty-free products contain nourishing living ingredients like plant-based seed oils and skin healthy vitamins.
Conclusion
Your true skin is beautiful skin, and you can celebrate and appreciate it by using foundations that allow your skin to shine and radiate its own beauty.
RMS Beauty holds the industry standard for the cleanest, greenest color cosmetics and skin care products available. Our focus is on developing products that help you love your true skin, and our color cosmetics help accentuate it, never cover it.
Sources:
Your baby's skin: How it develops during pregnancy|BabyCenter
