The Light Test is our answer. Before a Lucerna complexion shade launches, a swatch of it is laid on a gray shade card and photographed three times, and the three photos are published on the product page, next to each other, unretouched for color. The card is the same for every shade, so what changes from one photo to the next is the light and nothing else.
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3 lights
daylight, warm indoor light and phone flash
The three you are most likely to be seen in.
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3 depths
of skin in every wear test
In the lab, each shade is worn on light, medium and deep skin before it launches.
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4 hours
before the oxidation reading
We read the foundation again after it has been worn for half a working day.
Daylight
Daylight is the honest one. It is the fullest light there is, so it shows undertone most clearly: a shade that is too warm reads orange, one that is too cool reads gray or pink. We shoot by a window in indirect mid-morning light, never in direct sun, which bleaches everything. If you only check a foundation in one light, check it here, on your jawline.
Warm indoor light
Most of the evening is spent under warm bulbs. Warm light adds yellow to everything, which makes a warm foundation look more golden and can make a cool one look flat. A shade that matched in daylight should still match here; if it suddenly looks like a mask, the undertone was off and daylight was being kind.
Phone flash
Flash is the cruelest light. It is cold, direct and close, and it bounces off anything white in a formula. This is where flashback shows up: the pale cast that makes a face look lighter than the neck in photos. It is why our setting powder comes in five tints instead of one white, and why we test the foundation and the powder together under flash.
Worn on three depths of skin, in the lab
A shade behaves differently on different skin. A sheer blush that reads as a soft flush on light skin can disappear on deep skin, and a lipstick that is a nude on one person is a statement on another. So before a shade is approved, our lab wears it on light, medium and deep skin: cheeks for blush, lips for lipstick, and for foundation, the three wearers whose own depth is closest to the shade. Those wear tests are not photographs on this site. What the product page shows is the swatch on the gray card, and what the wear test taught us is written in the note under each shade.
The oxidation reading
Some foundations change color as they sit on the skin, usually toward orange. It happens as the formula meets the oils and the air on your face. We cannot promise that no skin will ever shift a shade, because skin varies. What we do is wear every Lanternlight shade for four hours and read the color again against the bottle. A shade that drifts is reformulated before it launches.
What the Light Test cannot do
- It cannot fix your screen. Two phones will show the same photo differently. Use the photos to compare shades with each other, not to match a shade to your wrist held up to the screen.
- It cannot see your skin. Nobody can read a true shade from a photo, including us, which is why we will not tell you your shade from a selfie.
- It cannot replace wearing it. The Shade Match Duo exists so you can wear two shades for a full day each, in your own three lights.
And when the match is still off after all that, the Shade Promise covers one free exchange per order.
Do your own Light Test
Apply the shade along your jawline, where the face meets the neck.
Daylight
Stand by a window in indirect light. The shade that disappears is the match.
Indoors, in the evening
Look again under the lamps you live with.
One flash photo
Take a photo with flash at arm's length and compare face and neck.
Four hours later
Look once more. If it has gone orange, try the neutral or the olive at the same depth.
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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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Sample Set
Shade Match Duo
Two 5 ml minis of the Lanternlight foundation in the shades you choose, with the price back as a code toward the full size
48 shades
$14
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Setting Powder
Soft Focus Setting Powder
A finely milled pressed powder in five translucent tints, in a refillable magnetic compact
5 shades
$34
