Foundation is an essential part of a woman's cosmetic routine. Foundation helps even out your skin tone, hide imperfections and create an attractive canvass for the rest of your makeup. Depending on your makeup needs, foundation can provide strong coverage, give you a shimmery, light-refracting glow, or make you look younger than your years.

You want your foundation to look natural, so you need to pay attention to more than the shade of your skin. Whether you're fair, medium or dark, you have underlying tones to your skin, and your foundation should match those tones. The most common underlying tone is a subtle yellow, but some women have olive or slight reddish tones as well.

The only way to know whether a foundation will look good on you is to try it on. Don't buy a foundation online unless you've tried it out in person as well. If you're purchasing from a department store, you can ask the clerk to help you test out the colors. If you're shopping at a pharmacy or grocery store, there are usually testers you can use to try swatches on your hand or wrist (whichever is closest to your facial color). Always try to see what the foundation looks like in natural light. Walk over to a door or window and determine whether the color and formula look acceptable.

Dry, oily and combination skin all have very different needs and require different formulas of foundation to help them look their best.

Oily Skin

The first rule of choosing a foundation for oily skin is to avoid products with oil and ingredients that cause the skin to produce more oil. This seems like a no-brainer, but it isn't always obvious which ingredients to look for. Dimethicone is one ingredient that can clog pores and lead to breakouts. Alcohol in a product may initially reduce the appearance of oily shine, but will actually cause the skin to produce more oil after a short time.