Color IQ at Sephora...Never Get The Wrong Shade Again!!/Richmond Makeup Artist Aaron Ellerbrock

This new gadget at Sephora is AMAZING!!!!!! As many of you know I spend one day a month in the store training and educating on my favorite foundation brand, Cover FX. While I was there a couple of months ago they introduced me to this new technology called Color IQ. In a nutshell, what it does is find the exact foundations that match both your skin tone and depth of color!

I can't tell you the number of times my clients have said they buy a foundation, or tinted moisturizer, or BB/CC cream and it was the wrong color. Now, you never have to worry about that again...and it really works (more on that in a minute). Sephora teamed up with Pantone the company known for creating color matching. The Pantone Color Matching System is largely a standardized color reproduction system. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in different locations can all refer to the Pantone system to make sure colors match without direct contact with one another. If you ever have seen a book of color swatches (the big books) it is probably Pantone.

So here is how Color IQ works. Basically you go into Sephora and ask to get matched with the Color IQ system. This works best with a clean face, but they can always remove your makeup if you have some on. They use their special camera, pressed to your face and take three scans. Most cameras work using ambient lighting, but their device captures the images in pitch darkness (hence why it is pressed against your face). This allows the tool to focus on the skins physiology and eliminate the variables that distort shade selections.

Once the scans are taken, the computer gives you your matches from over 1,500 options. Now what I think is so cool is that you can then filter your matches in a variety of ways. Do you only want options for a liquid foundation? You can filter that way. How about foundations only for oily skin? Sure thing! If you only like a certain brand (probably Cover FX as it is amazing!!), you can filter so you only see that brand. There are so many ways to filter, you really can't go wrong. And, as I mentioned earlier, it really works. I had my Color IQ done before my summer vacation and I randomly tried three of my matches. All three were perfect. Then I thought I would try it again after a week of a little sun, again trying three other random matches...all of which were spot on!

The process takes less then a minute but has the potential to save you hours of searching and lots of money as you won't get the wrong shade. If you have even once chosen the wrong color of foundation, GO TO SEPHORA!!! Check this out. You will not be sorry!!