The Edit

How to tell

Two tests that work at every depth, and one that does not. What works: put a stripe of any foundation you own along the jaw, leave it twenty minutes, and look at it in daylight — a shade that goes orange on you was too pink for you, one that goes grey or ashy was too cool, and one that disappears was right. Second: hold a true red lipstick and an orange-red one up to your mouth and see which one your own lip colour agrees with. What does NOT work is the wrist-vein test. Vein colour is decided by how deep the vessel sits and how wide it is, not by anything about your skin's temperature, and on deeper skin there is often nothing to read at all.

What that means for the base

Until undertone is stated, the desk matches on depth only and biases toward sheerer bases — because a sheer base forgives a small mismatch and an opaque one advertises it.

At your depth

Depth is not stated, so shade guidance stays general. Depth changes corrector colour more than any other field on the desk.

Colour families

• Blush

  Soft rose · Muted peach

  The two families that read as blood on almost every undertone.

• Lip

  Rosewood · Your own lip colour, one shade deeper

  A shade close to your own lip is the one that cannot clash.

• Eye

  Neutral brown · Taupe

  The two shadow families that work before you know your temperature.

• Bronzer

  Neutral bronze

  Neutral bronze is the safest choice while temperature is unknown.

• Contour

  Neutral taupe

  Taupe is a shadow on every undertone; a warm contour is not.

• Highlight

  Soft champagne

  Between warm and cool, so it does not fight either.

• Metals

  Either

  Run the gold-and-silver test above and this answer becomes specific.

Corrector colour for your depth

• No colour correction needed

  None.

  Nothing in your profile names a colour that has to be cancelled. A corrector with no colour to correct is one more film for no return.

What your depth does to colour

• Depth is unset, so this stays general.

  Depth decides how much pigment a colour needs to register at all, which is a different question from which family it belongs to. State it and these notes become specific.

Matching rules

1. 01Match on the jaw and check against the neck, in daylight. A hand is a different colour from a face on almost everybody.
2. 02Wait twenty minutes before you judge a base. Most oxidation happens in the first half hour, and it is why a shade that matched in the shop is orange by lunchtime.
3. 03If two shades are close, take the one that is very slightly lighter and warmer — spot work can add depth, but nothing removes a base that is too dark.
4. 04A base that needs a second layer to look right is the wrong shade, not the wrong amount. Extra opacity does not fix a mismatch; it advertises it.

Placement, for your lid

The desk has not been told anything about your lid, so every eye instruction here is the general one.

How much lid shows when your eyes are open decides whether a placement is visible at all, and it is the one eye question this desk cannot work out for itself. Until it is answered, shadow and liner advice here is written for a lid with a visible crease — which is a guess, and not a safe one.

• Every lid

  Judge every eye placement with your eyes open and looking straight ahead, not closed and tipped back. A shape that is even on a closed lid is a shape you have never seen on your own face.

  The lid you wear is the open one. Everything about how much shows, where the fold sits and where a line has room to be a line changes between open and closed, and only one of those states leaves the house.

What this does not account for

• Season is stated on the profile and is not read here. Whether a colour belongs to a season is a fashion judgement rather than something that follows from undertone or value, and the desk would rather say nothing than pass an opinion off as a consequence.
• Coverage is not read here either. A heavier base leaves less of your own skin showing through to mix with the colour on top, which plainly changes how a family lands — by how much is the part nobody here can currently defend.
• No room is named, so nothing below accounts for the light the face will actually be seen in. That is the single largest thing this report is missing, and it is one field away.