Mixing foundations from Primary Colors

As promised to a few students, here is a little post that will hopefully help with trying to mix foundations from primary colors (red, yellow & blue) and tint/toning it with black and white.

First of all, lets take a look at our color wheel again, shall we?

So, our primary colors are red, yellow and blue. By mixing one primary with another, we get our secondary colors (orange, green, purple). Mix a primary and a secondary and you get a tertiary. So, can't help but notice that brown isn't on there...?

The color brown is made by mixing all three primary colors together (in different amounts, for the desired tone of brown). As in the picture to the right, my preferred method is to mix orange (which is red+yellow) with blue. Because, aside from brown, skin tones are usually mostly reddish or yellowish, I find that starting with an orange color and adding small amounts of blue gives me more control over how the color changes. From there, I tint and tone the color lighter or darker using black and white to change the saturation of the color. Of course, if you'd rather start with green and add red (still ends up being the same combo of colors, just different starting amounts) y'know, go with what ya feel.

Here is a great video by a painter who goes through the process of mixing a skin tone using a similar technique.

Having a deeper understanding of color theory in makeup is an incredible advantage. Corrective makeup is all about knowing which colors compliments the other, and in turn, cancels it out (neutralizes it). Complimentary colors are the colors directly across from each other on the color wheel.

A corrective concealer pallete by Graftobian

In the pallete above, the 'blue neutralizer' (great for covering up old black tattoos which tend to turn blue as they age) uses blue's complimentary color, orange. The 'deep red/purple concealer' uses purple's complimentary, yellow. The 'redness remover' uses red's complimentary, green.

Notice that these concealers do not use intense, saturated colors- instead, they have been tinted and toned to match that of the average skin tone. If you swatch a color against skin and it appears as a noticeably darker or lighter splotch on your arm/face when you squint, then you either need to tint or tone with back or white to match the saturation.


Finally, identifying whether you have cooler or warmer undertones in your skin will help you determine how much yellow or red you need to add to your mix to match your foundation. Ivory and olive tones will have more yellow, while porcelain and ruddy complexions will have more red.

Hope this helps! If you have questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comment section!