Maya was a key makeup artist in film and television. On set, the cast in her chair came in every depth and every undertone, and the foundation ranges she could buy did not. The deepest shades went red under the lights. The olive ones did not exist. The fair ones were pink whether the actor was or not. So she mixed: two bottles, sometimes three, a drop of green corrector, a note in a binder so she could do it again the next morning. She became known for it, which she will tell you is a strange thing to be known for.
Daniel came from the other side of a company. He had run operations for a direct-to-consumer apparel brand, and he knew what Maya did not: how to make forty of something consistently, ship it and take it back when it was wrong. When she showed him the binder, he saw a shade range that had already been tested on hundreds of faces.
Forty shades, then the eight that were missing
The Lanternlight Skin Foundation launched with forty shades. The numbering was Maya's system from set: a number for depth, a letter for undertone, so that two shades with the same number are equally deep and two with the same letter lean the same way. Customers understood it at once, and then told us what was missing. The olive range stopped too early. Within the next few years we added the depths it lacked, and Lanternlight has forty-eight shades today: twelve depths, each in cool, neutral, warm and olive.
On set I could fix a shade with a second bottle. A customer at home has one bottle and a bathroom mirror. The range had to be right before it left the building.
The Light Test
Selling foundation online has a problem no shade range solves: a camera shifts color, and a screen shifts it again. Maya knew this from set, where a shade that was perfect to the eye could go gray on a monitor.
So before any shade launches, it goes through what we call the Light Test. Its swatch is photographed on a gray shade card under daylight, under warm indoor light and under phone flash, and for the foundation, the concealer and the skin tint those photos are what you see on the product page. In the lab, the same shade is worn on light, medium and deep skin before it is approved. The name Lucerna comes from the same idea: a lucerna is an oil lamp, the small light you carry to see something as it is.
The Shade Promise
Even with all of that, some matches will be off. A screen is not a mirror. So Daniel built the second half of the idea: if a complexion shade turns out wrong, you can exchange it once per order for another shade of the same product, within 45 days, even if you have worn it, and we pay for the label. It costs us real money. It also means nobody is stuck wearing the wrong shade because sending it back felt like an argument.
What came after
Lips came next, in 2020, built around a lipstick case meant to be kept and refilled. The Glasslight Lip Oil went viral in its first month and has been selling out within days of each restock ever since, which is a good problem and still a problem. Eyes followed in 2021, starting with the Lumen Lash tubing mascara. The refillable powder compact arrived in 2022, and the first creator collaboration in 2024.
Today Lucerna is a team of sixty-eight. The studio, the shade lab and our content team are still in the Arts District, and orders ship from a fulfillment center in Ontario, California. We sell mostly direct, with a small set of specialty stockists.
What we will and will not tell you
- We will tell you the depth and undertone of every shade, and show every complexion shade under three lights.
- We will not tell you your shade from a photo. Cameras shift color, and a guess presented as a match helps no one.
- We will not name an equivalent shade from another brand as a certainty. Shade systems do not line up reliably.
- We will tell you which formulas are fragrance-free and which are vegan, product by product. We do not claim that any product is non-comedogenic or hypoallergenic, and we publish no cruelty-free certification.
- We will not clear a product for a pregnancy, an allergy or a medical condition. That is a conversation for your doctor, and the full ingredient lists are published for it.
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- Best seller
Foundation
Lanternlight Skin Foundation
Medium, buildable coverage with a satin finish, in forty-eight shades across twelve depths and four undertones
48 shades
$42
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Concealer
Halo Blur Concealer
A creamy, crease-resistant concealer in thirty-six shades, mapped shade for shade to the Lanternlight foundation
36 shades
$28
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- Best seller
Lipstick
Velvet Verse Lipstick
A soft-matte lipstick with a velvet feel in twenty-four shades, in a case you keep and refill
24 shades
$24
