How to Custom Mix Foundation

This is a post I have been meaning to write for a while.  I often blend foundation for one of two reasons, sometimes both;

• To alter the colour 
• To alter the finish/properties 

When I start getting a tan as Summer progresses I have no desire to keep buying new shades to get a good colour match. Another reason is that when I apply fake tan, I don't know exactly what shade I may be in the morning (neon orange anyone?)

I get around this by having a very light "Winter" shade of foundation and MUCH darker "Summer " shade.  The difference in my lightest and my darkest foundation is pretty stark.  My summer colour is for at the end of a 3 week holiday in the Sun and I tan easily so it's pretty dark. I also have at least one medium one on the go at any time, so that I don't have to mix too much.  Lets be honest I have 5 foundations on the go at the moment, but they will all be used up within a year max.

Yesterday I completed my first fake tan of the year. I did a thin layer of St Moriz on Tuesday night and then repeated Thursday night ready for a party on Saturday. My face had changed quite a lot, but as the colour will vary each day as the tan wears off/is reapplied then I start to mix my own custom colour.

My go-to foundation is always Revlon Colorstay as NOTHING lasts as well and it controls oil too.  The only downside to this foundation is that it can look overly matte on your cheeks and forehead.  To combat this I mix it with a small amount of one of my more luminous foundations (Bourjois Healthy mix or Rimmel Perfect Match) to give a more pretty finish.  Today I used my Rimmel Perfect Match in 400 (told you it was dark) I used perhaps a fifth of the darker shade but it changes the colour quite dramatically so only use a small bit.

Here is my skin using the 2 tone foundation.

Once I have applied the new "custom" colour I then use the lightest original shade to highlight, so it goes under my eyes and on my forehead and above my top lip (I have hyper-pygmentation there so any extra lightening is good.)  I guess I could then also use the darker shade to contour, but I have such a phobia of people seeing tide lines in my foundation that I nearly always don't do this.

It always seems to me that people are always searching for the perfect shade match when they buy foundation, whereas I just get a close match then adjust.

Another reason why I don't make an extra special reason to match my foundation exactly is because Bobbi Brown suggests that if you have pink undertones (that would be me) then you should use a yellow shaded foundation to balance your colour and avoid you looking florid.

Does anyone else do this and have any tips?