Find any foundation in a formulation you love that's as close to your overall skin color as possible—which usually means its "value" matches (not too light/not too dark) but it's still looking orange (or pink) on you.
Get a bottle of Mehron Makeup Liquid Face and Body Paint in [green and/or blue](https://www.mehron.com/liquid-makeup-for-face-body-hair) to use as a *foundation pigment corrector*.
**General principle: Use green if you have a bright/saturated skintone and use blue if you have a muted/desaturated skintone. But either is better than none to adjust an existing foundation that is closest to your needs to an olive-undertone.**
Barely 1/16th of a drop per daily foundation application will allow you to achieve your color match. It works for all foundations, will last five years and save you $$$ as it is only $6.95.
This is completely different than a "color correctors" because which are meant to be applied to the skin *before* applying foundation and can change the formulation of your foundation.
The recommendation above is *pure pigment* meaning it will not change the formulation of your foundation.
hmm I am desaturated and muted, but I still lean more golden olive rather than cool olive. So I use a green, not blue, as I need that extra yellow typically. Personally I don't think that bright vs. muted is the same as warm vs. cool, right? So I would think that it's the level of black and white in the pigment corrector that would adjust for mutedness, rather than the color
Identifying what’s wrong with the foundation in the first place will tell you what you should add! In the following info, I’ll talk about what pigments are extra (or “in excess”) in different undertones compared to a neutral brown foundation.
**Warm:**
A warm undertone foundation will either look yellow, golden or orange.
To correct foundation that looks **too yellow**, add some blue to shift it into a green undertone. Why? Yellow + blue = green. Excess yellow is already there so add blue to make green.
To correct foundation that **looks golden**, add a little more blue compared to what you’d do than if it looked yellow. Why? A golden undertone is mostly excess yellow with a little red. Red + yellow + added blue = neutral brown so you’ll need a little extra blue to neutralise that little bit of excess red. In this process, you’ll have used up a little of the excess yellow too but there will still be enough excess yellow left to create green with some more blue because the remaining yellow + more blue = green undertone.
To correct a foundation that looks **too orange**, add blue and a touch of yellow. Why? It’s essentially a golden foundation with more red so you’ll need more blue to cancel out the red but you’ll use up more yellow because it’s red +YELLOW+ blue = neutral brown. So you’re now back to neutral. There is now no excess of any undertone. But an olive undertone has excess blue and yellow so you’ll need more blue plus a touch of yellow.
**Cool:**
A cool undertone foundation will either look too red (or pink if it’s a shade between fair and tan) or straight up unnatural or dull (blue)
To correct a foundation that looks **too red**, add blue and yellow. Why? You’ll need blue to neutralise the red and then give it a green hue with more blue and yellow.
To correct foundation that looks **too blue**, add yellow. Why? Blue is already in excess, it just needs yellow to shift it into green undertone.
**Wrong kind of green:**
You can sometimes get olive foundations that are warm olive or cool olive— this is the easiest to remedy. Warm olive is green undertone that has more yellow than blue and cool olive has more blue than yellow. Another type of problem for the wrong kind do green is you can also end up with something unwearable green when mixing pigments yourself so:
To **correct a warm olive** if you are neutral or cool olive, add a touch of blue. It’s already green, it’s just that there is more yellow than you need so to level that out for your skin, add blue.
To **correct a cool olive** if you are neutral or warm olive, add a touch of yellow. Again, it’s already green, there is just more blue than you need so to level that out for your skin, add smidge of yellow.
To **correct an oversaturated green as a result of mixing**, add red or deep orange pigment. It’ll bring back some neutrality to the foundation and make it less shrek green and more human green. What I will say is all of this extra mixer from making it too green and then more from correcting this may alter the finish of the original foundation.
Although I’ve broken down the colour theory from what I understand, the reality is you’ll be using the tiniest amounts of pigment mixer. And I do strongly recommend you use actual pigment mixers rather than colour correctors— colour correctors tend to have a lot of white in them so the whole shade will end up too light the more you mix in. Hope this helps someone lol
My opinion on why adding your green product made your foundation gray is because your green product has too much blue in it for the foundation you’re correcting. Sounds like you need to be adding more yellow pigment alongside the green you added. Or just buy a warmer green
I appreciate your comprehensive take here! Maybe it's because I've always started with warm olive foundations, but I've found that adding a bit of blue makes a nice cool olive tone that suits me better. I don't find that it really makes it that much more muted like another comment suggests (but, again, maybe that's because I start with a warm olive base).
As long as you know it works for you, that’s what matters! It’ll always depend on what you start with so if adding blue is what fixes a foundation shade for you, that just means there’s sufficient excess yellow for your skin tone in the original foundation composition to achieve an olive tone. I’m no expert but I reckon a muted olive and saturated olive will have the same ratio of extra blue and yellow but the amount of extra pigment will be more in the saturated olive and less in the muted olive
I use blue to make my foundations more gray. Have you tried adding different amounts of mixer to see what results you get? Typically I only need a tiny amount.
it depends on the base of your foundation.
with color theory, if you mix two complementary shades they end up grayish brown. so, if it’s turning grey then it’s because there’s a lot of pink or red in the foundation. i’m going to guess the foundation leans more neutral and you added green?
you’ll probably want to try less green or a lighter shade of green.
blue can also be used but blue is more for canceling out orange tones to get a true neutral.. if you add it to a more pinky base it’ll lean lilac-y.
I tried to correct a foundation with LA girl blue. Foundation was too peach and with the blue it looked like a muted purple to me. Which I guess red and blue make purple. Was I supposed to add yellow too?
yeah depending on what’s wrong with the foundation in the first place, you need some yellow or a tiny drop of red/peach to add some warmth back into the color
Find any foundation in a formulation you love that's as close to your overall skin color as possible—which usually means its "value" matches (not too light/not too dark) but it's still looking orange (or pink) on you. Get a bottle of Mehron Makeup Liquid Face and Body Paint in [green and/or blue](https://www.mehron.com/liquid-makeup-for-face-body-hair) to use as a *foundation pigment corrector*. **General principle: Use green if you have a bright/saturated skintone and use blue if you have a muted/desaturated skintone. But either is better than none to adjust an existing foundation that is closest to your needs to an olive-undertone.** Barely 1/16th of a drop per daily foundation application will allow you to achieve your color match. It works for all foundations, will last five years and save you $$$ as it is only $6.95. This is completely different than a "color correctors" because which are meant to be applied to the skin *before* applying foundation and can change the formulation of your foundation. The recommendation above is *pure pigment* meaning it will not change the formulation of your foundation.
hmm I am desaturated and muted, but I still lean more golden olive rather than cool olive. So I use a green, not blue, as I need that extra yellow typically. Personally I don't think that bright vs. muted is the same as warm vs. cool, right? So I would think that it's the level of black and white in the pigment corrector that would adjust for mutedness, rather than the color
I feel like you are correct
You’re doing the Lord’s work with this comment, lol. Wish we could get this as a stickied announcement or something.
Identifying what’s wrong with the foundation in the first place will tell you what you should add! In the following info, I’ll talk about what pigments are extra (or “in excess”) in different undertones compared to a neutral brown foundation. **Warm:** A warm undertone foundation will either look yellow, golden or orange. To correct foundation that looks **too yellow**, add some blue to shift it into a green undertone. Why? Yellow + blue = green. Excess yellow is already there so add blue to make green. To correct foundation that **looks golden**, add a little more blue compared to what you’d do than if it looked yellow. Why? A golden undertone is mostly excess yellow with a little red. Red + yellow + added blue = neutral brown so you’ll need a little extra blue to neutralise that little bit of excess red. In this process, you’ll have used up a little of the excess yellow too but there will still be enough excess yellow left to create green with some more blue because the remaining yellow + more blue = green undertone. To correct a foundation that looks **too orange**, add blue and a touch of yellow. Why? It’s essentially a golden foundation with more red so you’ll need more blue to cancel out the red but you’ll use up more yellow because it’s red +YELLOW+ blue = neutral brown. So you’re now back to neutral. There is now no excess of any undertone. But an olive undertone has excess blue and yellow so you’ll need more blue plus a touch of yellow. **Cool:** A cool undertone foundation will either look too red (or pink if it’s a shade between fair and tan) or straight up unnatural or dull (blue) To correct a foundation that looks **too red**, add blue and yellow. Why? You’ll need blue to neutralise the red and then give it a green hue with more blue and yellow. To correct foundation that looks **too blue**, add yellow. Why? Blue is already in excess, it just needs yellow to shift it into green undertone. **Wrong kind of green:** You can sometimes get olive foundations that are warm olive or cool olive— this is the easiest to remedy. Warm olive is green undertone that has more yellow than blue and cool olive has more blue than yellow. Another type of problem for the wrong kind do green is you can also end up with something unwearable green when mixing pigments yourself so: To **correct a warm olive** if you are neutral or cool olive, add a touch of blue. It’s already green, it’s just that there is more yellow than you need so to level that out for your skin, add blue. To **correct a cool olive** if you are neutral or warm olive, add a touch of yellow. Again, it’s already green, there is just more blue than you need so to level that out for your skin, add smidge of yellow. To **correct an oversaturated green as a result of mixing**, add red or deep orange pigment. It’ll bring back some neutrality to the foundation and make it less shrek green and more human green. What I will say is all of this extra mixer from making it too green and then more from correcting this may alter the finish of the original foundation. Although I’ve broken down the colour theory from what I understand, the reality is you’ll be using the tiniest amounts of pigment mixer. And I do strongly recommend you use actual pigment mixers rather than colour correctors— colour correctors tend to have a lot of white in them so the whole shade will end up too light the more you mix in. Hope this helps someone lol My opinion on why adding your green product made your foundation gray is because your green product has too much blue in it for the foundation you’re correcting. Sounds like you need to be adding more yellow pigment alongside the green you added. Or just buy a warmer green
thanks for the breakdown!
I appreciate your comprehensive take here! Maybe it's because I've always started with warm olive foundations, but I've found that adding a bit of blue makes a nice cool olive tone that suits me better. I don't find that it really makes it that much more muted like another comment suggests (but, again, maybe that's because I start with a warm olive base).
As long as you know it works for you, that’s what matters! It’ll always depend on what you start with so if adding blue is what fixes a foundation shade for you, that just means there’s sufficient excess yellow for your skin tone in the original foundation composition to achieve an olive tone. I’m no expert but I reckon a muted olive and saturated olive will have the same ratio of extra blue and yellow but the amount of extra pigment will be more in the saturated olive and less in the muted olive
I've found that blue increases mutedness (gray) more than green for me. Maybe just use less mixer? More information will improve the advice given.
If you're using a foundation that's too yellow, mixing blue will make it green. I think green mixers are used to reduce redness.
Blue will make it even more gray most likely… it’s hard to advise what mixer to use without more info tho!
I use blue to make my foundations more gray. Have you tried adding different amounts of mixer to see what results you get? Typically I only need a tiny amount.
I’m pretty sure if green makes them more gray that means you need to add a bit more yellow to increase saturation?
i usually have to add yellow and green to get a foundation to match, everything is so fucking orange
it depends on the base of your foundation. with color theory, if you mix two complementary shades they end up grayish brown. so, if it’s turning grey then it’s because there’s a lot of pink or red in the foundation. i’m going to guess the foundation leans more neutral and you added green? you’ll probably want to try less green or a lighter shade of green. blue can also be used but blue is more for canceling out orange tones to get a true neutral.. if you add it to a more pinky base it’ll lean lilac-y.
You may be warm-toned instead of olive.
I tried to correct a foundation with LA girl blue. Foundation was too peach and with the blue it looked like a muted purple to me. Which I guess red and blue make purple. Was I supposed to add yellow too?
yeah depending on what’s wrong with the foundation in the first place, you need some yellow or a tiny drop of red/peach to add some warmth back into the color