- I feel like I'm preparing to go into battle
to be honest with you.
(quirky interlude)
- My past experience with finding foundation
has always been really hard to find something
that matches my skin tone.
Never goes dark enough.
- I love NARS, NARS really caters
to my skin tone and my undertones
and it really brings out the hues in my skin.
- I didn't start actually trying to look
for a real foundation until I was like,
a sophomore in college.
So ever since then I just went to Sephora,
had them do the color matching thing.
- Me and drug stores,
we don't have a really great relationship.
- In high school I definitely wore drug store makeup.
I remember my friend telling me one day
that my makeup did not match my skin tone.
She was like "yeah your makeup looks kinda orange."
And I was like ... (crickets chirp)
- When I started using makeup, I first went to a drug store
and I had a really really bad experience.
Probably bought three or four different ones,
they all didn't match.
- I'm a little nervous to go out and wear foundation
that probably isn't my skin tone in public
just because I know people will probably be like,
"Alright look at that black girl,"
"trying to look light skinned."
No, I'm not trying to do that at all.
- I'm in a love hate relationship with drug store makeup,
it just like, we don't see eye to eye
because they don't see me.
- I often find that I'm like an in between,
between two shades.
- My biggest reservations are that I'm gonna look
like I'm about to be sent to the morgue.
- We're on our way to CVS to get some ...
- [All] drug store makeup.
- We'll see if any foundation matches.
Between one of these three,
but it's sad that it's the darkest color.
I'm scared I'm gonna put these on
and then I'm gonna look a lot lighter
than my actual skin tone.
- These were the darkest colors in two different products.
What is this?
- If I bled it enough, it'll like kinda match.
- Follow me, where do you see ...
My palm is where I'm gonna put it.
- Neither one of these.
This is definitely team light skin,
and this is definitely team Brianna.
These are all supposedly mochas.
- This on I think might be me.
The one that was literally before this
was three shades lighter, there was no in between.
- Creamy beige, yeah, so beige is the darkest color.
Or at least what was available in that store.
- I don't see it happening, but eh, you never know.
- Hopefully I find one so I don't have to spend $40
at Sephora anymore.
- Today I'm gonna go with this foundation.
- The day has arrived.
- It looks very white and I kinda
just wanna get it over with.
- Ya'll look at this, I feel like I have a mask on.
I honestly do, I feel like the crypt keeper in this piece.
- This one actually I feel good about.
- I might be able to keep this.
- It's not like it's distracting.
It's just not really that true to my skin tone.
Which is a shame because I love my skin tone.
- Getting me mine, when I was at the store
I chose what was the darkest one there
and what was available to me.
- I can already see what's gonna probably happen.
- What is this?
- This ones not as bad as yesterdays
I actually kinda rock with this one.
- I am wearing the lightest shade that I chose,
I've been at work for like an hour, no one seems to notice
so I'm just gonna go up to people
and ask them if they notice anything different about me.
- You look the same girl.
- Ummm ... No.
- I currently have revlon.
- This might actually work.
- So I'm really really liking this Revlon
Golden Caramel color on me.
It blends really nicely, it's not to heavy,
and it looks bomb.
- What do you think of my face, does anything look new?
- She is glowing.
- This isn't my color, but it's not terrible.
This looks like something that maybe I could have worn
before the summer.
- It looks so good!
I'm so excited that I finally don't have to spend $40.
- I already know this is not gonna work out of rme.
- Hello, what is this, exactly.
- Whether there is a darker shade or not I don't know
because this was the only option available
for the darkest shade.
- Oh my god, yeah this ...
- So this is what I look like with all my makeup,
and it doesn't look that bad.
- I see where this is going,
I see what direction we're taking.
- So now I'm gonna do the does my neck
blend into my face test.
I'm not to mad about it.
- Now I'm smoothing it in I will say
it got better, but I mean ...
- I had two shoots today so I was meeting
a lot of new people and I was on camera for a bit
and the foundation I was using
didn't really hinder from the experience.
For the other two girls it's probably
constantly on their mind.
- We made it, we made it to day five!
- It's my last day using the foundations.
- Fit me by Maybeline.
Maybe it'll work for in here and like as you can see ...
- Maybeline you are the winner.
You are the one that has been the closest to my skin.
- So it's kind of starting to blend in
a little with the lighter area of my face.
The dark area as you can see, it's not the same color
but this could end up giving me
a completely even skin tone.
So do you think that this looks okay
or it looks natural?
According to Spencer it looks natural.
- I'm easy to be fooled though.
- I think in general all of the foundations I've been using
get rid of the redness and make my skin tone even,
which is cool.
- Something really positive that I'm starting to realize
about some of these makeup products
is that even though I may think it's not necessarily
my skin tone, a lot of people who see me
aren't having an issue with it.
So actually some of these products might actually work.
(quirky interlude)
- This past week has been very interesting.
- For me it wasn't really a challenge.
- The last time I used drug store makeup
was six years prior, so that's four years later
and they still don't have my color.
- Out of the five that I tried,
I think maybe it was the Maybeline one,
but when I, you know, tend to lighten up
a little bit in the winter, I could see that product
actually working for me.
- I like the Revlon one a lot because I think
it matched true to my skin color
and that's exactly what I want in a foundation
and I'm currently wearing it right now so ...
- The Infallible makeup one, if I'm in a jif
I might use that one.
- My view point has changed a lot with drug store makeup,
you know, the first time I tried it out
I was like 13 years old, maybe the brands,
over the years have broadened their options
and had more colors available.
- I found out that some of these companies
actually do have darker foundations
but they're available online.
The lighter person gets to go in the drug store
and just buy their makeup, I should be able to as well.
- For me that was probably the most eye opening part
is just recognizing my privilege aa
s a lighter skinned woman of color.
- I appreciate you, these brands who actually
take the time to do your research,
to go in your lab and take feed back from people like me,
so keep doing your thing.
(upbeat music)