Some brands are a little heavy handed with the red, some go ham on the yellow, some act like brown doesn’t have variations in undertones at all. Why? Because there’s no uniform guide anywhere with foundation shades. Using MAC as a guide can be helpful to a point, but as more and more brands start to expand their shade range beyond Beyoncé beige, it’s practically impossible to keep comparing to MAC shades. But I still get tons of questions referencing a MAC shade, so I figured let me do this post.

I even wrote a post about it and link to it every time I do a review. But then some years ago I stopped comparing foundations to MAC. I even used to use MAC foundations as a reference to help you guys figure out your shades when I would review other brands’ foundations. It was not uncommon, and still not uncommon today to describe yourself as being an NC45 or NW47 or NW58. I was a member in a VERY popular MAC Cosmetics LiveJournal community-this was back when MAC was practically the be-all, end-all in the internet makeup world (my, how things have changed) and practically everything in makeup was MAC-centric especially when it came to describing your skin tone. I’m STILL friends with people I used to follow on LiveJournal from back in the early to mid 00s. Before the proliferation of YouTube and blogs, there were beauty message boards and LiveJournal.

I’ve been a part of the internet beauty world for AGES it seems. Read ALL about my review process including how I take swatches, photos, and more here.

Mac makeup for dark skin