MUD: what I learnt this week

School’s in session!
I’ll be sharing some tricks I learnt in the MUD academy every single week up ’till my exams, which are in June!
 
 

 

 
This week we started discussing base matching, right off the bat one of the hardest things for me to master I think.
 
For some reason I have an extremely hard time noticing undertones in colors!
A blind mole, yeah that’s what I felt like.
 
Although when we started practicing in person, it’s like my eye set itself to the foundation, I kind of got used to it.
But it’s going to take some practice.
And random people that I will be plopping down on my couch to apply foundation onto.
 
There’s two main undertones you can have, yellow/olive being warm and red/pink being cool.
Of course there’s nuances to this though, no one is equal!
 
One of the rules of thumb, and the fastest way to notice someone’s undertone, is to look at their eyes.
Hazel or chocolate brown eyes might just mean you have warm undertones, whereas blue eyes can mean you have cool undertones.
 
However as with all rules of thumb there’s mix types, because where’s the fun in easy!
Grey eyes with olive skin, hazel eyes with pink skin, etc.
 
But it’s a handy and quick lead to start from.
 
Another handy place to look is your neck!
When looking at my neck and chest area the teacher asked us “Do you notice anything? She has quite some yellow over here doesn’t she?” she said.
However that was really hard to notice on my lobster red face (I used a clay mask the night before, handy..).
The reason a neck is so clear, is because there will be way less broken cappilaries, spots and just general discolloration.
 
At this point, with her guidelines, I actually went up two (!) whole shades from the foundation I usually go for.
I always thought nooo… that can’t be my shade.. my neck is probably just abnormal and dark.
But no, my face is just extremely pale and red compared to my neck!
 
Then to finish off that section, we learnt to mix different shades and tones of foundation to get the best possible result under camera lighting.
 
Secondly we discussed the base components and staying power of different types of foundation.
 
When I initially got my cream foundation palette I must say I got some chills, haha.
A cream foundation never really spoke to me, I love theatrical make up but not for everyday life!
No mask please, I hate a heavy feeling on my face!
I really stayed as far away from them as possible.
 
However I couldn’t have been more wrong actually, the formula of the MUD foundations feels so feathery and weightless when working with a light hand!
And when you work them into the skin oh you look airbushed. oO
I did NOT expect to walk out with such nice skin after trying foundations on each other, you know, let’s be honest, I expected a bit of an orange mask.
 
Our teacher explained that creams are actually her (and many other make up artists’) favorite type of foundation to use.
I noticed one pan in her palette was almost empty, so I asked her about it, well it’s because she uses it on herself every single day.
Her main reasoning was that it’s extremely longlasting when set with a powder.
 
Rule of thumb for foundation lasting power: creams last the longest, then we have liquids or sillicones, then a powder foundation, and lastly the mineral foundations.
Of course there are exceptions in formulations though!
It depends on what they added to it.
 
I personally love mineral foundations on my oily skin, as it settles in it gets really glowy and gorgeous.
But admittedly I don’t see a lot of product coming off on my cotton pad at the end of the day, it’s mostly gone by then.
 
Our last topic was the amount of pigment we can find in each type of foundation, and how this relates to the finish and building it on the skin.
 
Mineral foundation can look cakey when applied too heavily for example, because it’s 100 % pure pigment without additives.
Whereas liquids are only about 5-8 %, isn’t that crazy?
 
That’s it for the second week!
I hope you found this an interesting read!
 
The MUD website can be found here ->General<- and here ->Belgium<-