How To Find Infallible Foundation Shades That Match Your Skin Tone

As anyone who’s ever bought a too-light or too-dark foundation likely knows, a poor foundation match can throw off your entire look. Finding your perfect color match can be tricky, but getting it right is a lot easier when a foundation offers a wide range of shades in its collection. Enter: The L’Oréal Paris Infallible foundations, including the L’Oréal Fresh Wear liquid and powder foundations. 

These lightweight, long-wearing foundations provide medium-to-full coverage while resisting sweat, water, and transfer. With 60 shades available across two collections, it’s easy to find the exact L’Oréal infallible foundation shade that matches your complexion best. Keep reading for our tips on nailing your foundation match every time and a swatch breakdown of the Infallible foundation makeup lines so you can find your color.

How To Match Your Foundation Shade

Knowing your skin tone is the first step toward finding your foundation color match. However, there are a few other things to keep in mind when searching for your perfect shade.

Identify your undertones 

It’s important to understand that foundations that fall within a range of shades don’t simply have minor differences in their depth一their undertones also differ, which makes a huge difference in how they look on the skin. When you choose a shade of foundation, you should grab one that matches both your skin tone (how light or deep your skin is), and your undertones (which can be classified as warm, cool, or neutral).

Perhaps the easiest way to go about finding your undertones is to flip your wrist and let your veins be your guide. If the veins on the inside of your wrist look greenish, you most likely have warm or yellow undertones. Blue or purple-hued veins are typically indicative of cool undertones. If you’re unsure whether your veins look green, bluish or purple—or they appear to be a mix of all three—you’ve likely got neutral undertones. 

Editor’s tip: Try out the L’Oréal Paris Undertone Finder Quiz quiz to help you identify your undertone if you're still unsure. Just answer a few quick questions and you’ll get your results sent directly to your inbox.

Consider the area you’re trying to match 

While you’ll mainly be applying your foundation all over your face for daily wear, it’s important to consider where on your skin you’re testing the color. Find a spot on your face (bare skin, of course) with the least amount of redness or hyperpigmentation and see how the foundation looks there. Then test on an area with the most dark spots to see if the color appears the same. 

This approach gives you the most accurate read on how the foundation matches your overall complexion. Remember, concealer and color corrector help you tone down dark spots so no need to pile on layers of foundation to mask those blemishes.

Editor’s tip: We recommend swatching three L’Oréal foundation shades across the area on your face you chose and bring it down to your neck to see which one blends in the most seamlessly. While it may look cool to swatch colors on your arm, this won’t help you determine how shades will look on your face and neck as there may be a stark difference in the color of your arm and the color of your face. 

Think about lighting while testing 

Different lighting can affect how foundation appears on your skin. The best way to assess whether a shade is truly your perfect match is to look at it on your skin in natural light. Go outside or take a look in the mirror while in front of a window to see if the foundation blends into your skin. If it appears to disappear on the skin (but still cover uneven skin tone and blemishes), it’s your ideal match. 

Editor’s tip: It’s never a bad idea to also grab additional Infallible Foundation shades one shade up or down from your match to accommodate seasonal skin tone changes. If you tend to tan really deeply in the summer or get really pale in the winter, you’ll need to switch your foundation when the seasons change.

How Can I Match My Foundation Color Online?

If you’re not shopping in a store, you can still find the best L’Oréal foundation colors for your skin tone online. 

One option is to use the L’Oréal Paris Virtual Makeup Try-On Tool to try on all makeup, including foundation, from your phone or computer. As long as you have a working camera on either (or a makeup-free photo of yourself) you’re good to go. Plus, the Virtual Shade Finder lets you narrow down shades from different L’Oréal Paris foundation collections. 

We also recommend checking out the L’Oréal Infallible Foundation Shade Finder. After answering six easy questions, you’ll be paired up with the best L'Oreal Paris foundation shades for you. 

How To Find Your Perfect L’Oréal Infallible Fresh Wear Foundation Shade

The more shades, the better—so long as you know how to narrow down your foundation match. First, you’ll want to figure out whether your skin tone is fair, medium, or deep. Keep in mind that, unlike your undertone, your skin tone may fluctuate slightly throughout the year (like after a long beach vacation). 

Then, identify your undertone, as outlined above. In many cases, makeup is labeled with a W, C, or N to specify whether the shade has warm, neutral, or cool undertones. If it doesn’t, read the shade name closely: 

• Warm undertone shades are often named beige, golden, tan, and caramel.
• Cool undertone shades are often referred to as porcelain, rose, sable and cocoa.
• Neutral undertone shades are often called ivory, buff, nude and praline.

With these two considerations in mind, you should be able to easily narrow down a handful of foundation options, which you can then swatch on your skin. 

How Do I Know My Liquid Foundation Shade?

Below, find a breakdown of the L’Oréal Paris Infallible 32 Hour Fresh Wear Foundation shades—categorized by skin tone—for a jumping off point in your foundation match journey.

Deep and dark skin tones

Those with deep to dark skin should reach for one of the following shades: Deep Golden (525), Deep Amber (530), Espresso (535), Mahogany (540), or Ebony (545).

Caramel (medium brown) skin tones 

If you have a dark skin tone but your color leans more medium brown (often referred to as caramel), you may want to choose from these shades: Toffee (505), Hazelnut (510), Maple (511), Copper (515), Sienna (520).

Olive skin tones or bronze skin tones 

The following shades work well for those with bronze and olive skin tones: Warm Almond (487), Caramel (488), Golden Amber (490), Amber (495), Honey Bisque (500).

Medium and tan skin tones 

People whose skin appears naturally tan—which is often described as “medium”—should try one of the following shades: Radiant Sand (480), Cool Sand (481), Radiant Sun (482), Golden Sun (485), Toasted Almond (486).

Light skin tones 

Light skin tones can find their L’Oréal Paris Fresh Wear liquid foundation match with one of the following options: Ivory Buff (430), Rose Vanilla (435), Natural Rose (440), Vanilla (445), Rose Beige (450), Natural Buff (455), Golden Beige (460), Sand (465), Radiant Honey (470), Sun Beige (475).

Fair skin tones 

If you have fair skin, your match will likely be one of the following L’Oréal foundation colors: Beige Ivory (411), Warm Ivory (412), Rose Ivory (415), True Beige (420), Linen (425).

Pale skin tones 

Those on the lightest end of the fair skin spectrum should start their search with these shades: Snow (390), Rose Pearl (395), Pearl (400), Porcelain (405), Ivory (410).

How Do I Know If a Shade Is Lighter or Darker Than Another?

Each L’Oréal Fresh Wear foundation shade has a corresponding number (included online and on the packaging). Those numbers go in order from lightest to darkest. 

For example, in the L’Oréal Infallible Fresh Wear foundation (liquid formula), the shade Porcelain is 405, while the shade Ivory is 410 and True Beige is 420. This means that of those three shades, Porcelain is the lightest (so if your skin tone leans more pale, that color is likely to be a better match for you). In this entire collection Snow (390) is the lightest shade and Ebony (545) is the darkest.

Note that in the Infallible Up to 24H Fresh Wear Foundation in a Powder, the corresponding shade numbers still go in order from lightest (lowest numbers) to darkest (highest numbers), but the range goes from 5 (Pearl) to 390 (Ebony).

How Do I Know My Fresh Wear Foundation in a Powder Shade?

Below, find a breakdown of the L’Oréal Paris Infallible Up to 24H Fresh Wear Foundation in a Powder swatches—based on skin tone—to help you find your best color match.

Deep and dark skin tones 

Those with deep, dark and caramel skin tones should reach for the following shades: Mocha (370), Deep Amber (375), Ebony (390).

Olive or medium skin tones

People who have an olive or medium skin tone should try one of these Infallible foundation shades: Amber (300), Hazelnut (330), Sienna (355), Copper (365).

Light and tan skin tones 

If your skin tone is light (but not fair), your L’Oréal Paris Fresh Wear powder foundation match can be found in one of the following shades: Linen (180), Beige Sand (190), Sand (220), Radiant Honey (245), Radiant Sand (250), Golden Sun (260).

Fair and pale skin tones 

Have pale or fair skin? Your match will be one of the following colors: Pearl (5), Porcelain (10), Ivory (20), Vanilla (120), Ivory Buff (125), True Beige (130), Golden Beige (140).

Remember that these shade recommendations are simply a jumping-off point. To find your perfect match, you’ll want to swatch a few shades on your face in natural lighting to see which one suits your complexion best.

Next up: How To Choose a Concealer Shade