Video: Foundations for Dark Skin Tones

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About the Expert

Taylor Babaian

Taylor Babaian is a celebrity makeup artist.

Transcript

Hi, my name is Taylor Babaian. I'm a celebrity makeup artist, and today I'm going to show you how to apply foundations for dark skin tones. So when I'm applying foundation for dark skin tones, I always choose two different colors - the reason being the forehead is always a little bit darker, just like on Chelsea. It has a little bit of red undertone, as well as underneath the eye is generally a little lighter, with some yellow undertones. So to get the look, I'm going to use L'Oreal Paris True Match super blendable makeup in nut brown, and cappuccino. I'm going to start with the nut brown, which is the color that's in the center of the face. It's the lightest color, and I'm just going to apply it downwards, starting with the center. We're kind of blending out. Just blending the product out. I'm just going to tap it on, and I'm using a foundation brush. You can use your fingers for the first layer if you want, but for the second layer you definitely want to use a brush or a sponge to kind of tap it on. So you can see, just this application right in here, on her cheek, looks so smooth and flawless. So I always like to use a foundation brush whenever I'm applying foundation, just because it gets a nice even look. It also just allows me to deposit a little pigment, and then build on that pigment. So this is a lovely silicone-based foundation. You can build, so we have a little bit of extra blemishes, you can just build on top of that, like tapping your second layer on. So the first layer, you'll always notice that I'm kind of just like sliding it down and applying it downwards; however, for your second application where you need a little extra coverage, you'll want to tap it on. You'll want to tap the product on to get that coverage. That way you're actually just layering product on top of another. And of course we always want to do the eyelids, because that's just going to allow whatever eye shadow product to stay on longer. So I know in the past, you've always heard put the concealer on first. I personally prefer to put the concealer on afterwards, only because if you put the concealer on first, when you put the foundation on, not only does it move it around, it just gives you too much product. I like to give as much coverage as I can with the foundation, which is going to be a lighter product so it looks a little bit more natural, and then if I needed a little extra, then I'll just tap it into, you know, maybe the inner corners where it's necessary. But I always like the foundation to look really natural. So we've applied our first layer, and it already looks beautiful. However, you can see the face looks a little bit lighter than the body or the chest, and it also looks a little flatter. So what we want to do is, we want to apply a darker color to bring all those tones back in. That's going to be on the forehead. The forehead, for darker skin, has a tendency to have a little bit more of a red undertone, so you want to choose a foundation that does have a little bit more red in it. Otherwise it's going to be ashy. However dark it is, if it's dark yellow it's going to be too ashy. And it's just a couple shades darker, you can do one or two, depending on how different your forehead and your under-eye colors are. So it's really important to use different shades, just to make everything look more natural. So we finished Chelsea's beautiful foundation. You can see it looks really natural. I applied two different colors on the forehead as well as the cheekbone, so that it looks like it's more uniform with the body. You don't have that mask going on. I applied it with a brush, and of course I chose a silicone base, which is going to duplicate more of your natural makeup. So there you have it, that's how you apply foundations for dark skin tones. I'm Taylor Babaian. Thanks for watching!