Sometimes you’ll see additional category names thrown around, like pink undertones or yellow undertones or olive undertones, but if you want to keep it simple, stick with these three umbrella terms: Your skin’s undertone is the permanent, underlying color that your skin tone casts (i.e., a warm, cool, or neutral tone), says makeup artist Tanya Deemer, Temptu global educator. Keep reading to find out the absolute easiest way to find your skin undertone-and how to use that info in your makeup shade selections.

And now, I’m here to help you figure out your undertone too, so you don’t go through the same headache I did. I had taken all the quizzes, tried all the makeup hacks, watched every video, got super confused…and then eventually talked to enough makeup artists and experts who helped un-confuse me and turned me into the lowkey ~expert~ I am today. The only annoying thing? It’s freaking hard to figure out on your own.

Sound familiar? And even though I know that the whole skin undertones thing sounds like some marketing ploy that doesn’t matter, I’m living proof that it’s actually a major key when it comes to choosing the best foundation for your skin tone. I know this because my makeup also didn’t perfectly match my face for many years (and many unfortunate photos) before I finally figured out the issue: I had no idea WTF my skin undertones were. Hey, I’m telling you this as a friend, buuut there’s a good chance you’re probs not wearing the right shade of foundation right now.

Dark, darker yet darker remix