Mac Studio Fix Fluid For Indian Skin

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Choosing a foundation can be really daunting, but it’s a key part to our makeup and can make or break a flawless face so it’s important to get it right. Many clients ask me about the labelling of MAC foundations as they don’t understand what NC and NW means and how to colour match themselves.

  1. Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 Foundation - MAC put Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 Foundation to the ultimate test of seeing how long it wears and, not surprisingly, the formula lasts for a full 24 hours! This modern foundation combines a matte finish and medium-to-full buildable coverage with broad spectrum SPF 15 protection. Applies, builds and blends easily and evenly while controlling oil and shine with.
  2. MAC NC46 is described by the brand as 'Deep bronzed with neutral undertone for dark skin.' It is a shade in the Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 range, which is a liquid foundation with a matte finish and medium-full coverage that retails for $30.00 and contains 1 oz.

Majority of the time I find it's around NC35, NC40, NC42, NC43, NC44 or NC45 I feel most Bollywood actresses mention MACs Studio Fix powder foundation. I think a few mention NC40- NC43, I know for sure Priyanka Chopra uses NC43. MAC NC15 is described by the brand as 'Fair with golden undertone for fair skin.' It is a shade in the Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15 range, which is a liquid foundation with a matte finish and medium-full coverage that retails for $30.00 and contains 1 oz. Our skin plays an important role in enhancing our appearance. To look good, it is important to make your skin look flawless, and the MAC Studio Fix Fluid Foundation serves this purpose effectively. This foundation gives medium to full coverage, covering blemishes, dark spots, and uneven skin tone.

Mac studio fix fluid nw20

In colour theory, we’re taught that cool undertones are reds, pinks and blues and that warm undertones are yellow, peaches and golds. However, in MAC labelling, the undertones are the opposite.

NC: Neutral Cool – golden beige undertones.

NW: Neutral Warm – red, pink or blue undertones.

N: Neutral – beige undertones.

C: Cool – Yellow, golden or olive undertones

So a person with yellow, peach or golden undertones would be suited well to an NC foundation whereas a person with red, pink or blue undertones would be better suited to an NW foundation. A person with a beige undertone would be perfectly suited to an N foundation.

You might have heard that some ladies use an NC foundation but have been given an NW concealer, this is because the pink undertone of an NW concealer helps to cancel out dark green under eye circles. For blue tinged under eye circles, you could cancel them out with an NC concealer.

My client Nina has warm undertones (reds in MAC terms) with cool under eye circles (yellow). I used MAC Studio Fix in NC20 over her face to even out and correct the redness and NW10 concealer to correct the dark circles

The number that follows each NC, NW, N or C is simply the colour of each foundation. Sharon, from Sharonthemakeupartist.com explains this perfectly:

“…there are some odd numbers peppered along the way in some of the foundations. For example there is an NC27 or an NW18 in Studio Fix Fluid . These colours don’t have quite as strong an undertone as those that end in 5 or 0. These odd numbers have more of a neutral undertone. So an NC27 is not as yellow as an NC25 but it is a little bit darker.

Conversely there are also plain C’s and plain N’s. These have a stronger yellow or pink undertone than their NC/NW counterparts. Very few of the foundations in the range now have these strong undertones, it’s mostly the old school formulas like Face and Body, or Studio Fix Powder.”

The shade I wear myself is NC15 – this is much more flattering to my skin tone and helps to cancel out any unwanted redness over my cheek area. This is my personal preference too and I find that the NC blends seamlessly into my skin. I find that with the majority of my clients, an NC foundation always looks better and evens the skin tone beautifully.

The most important thing is to make sure that your foundation matches with your chest and looks natural. If you are still struggling, don’t be afraid to ask a counter makeup artist for advice and a colour match. Makeup is all about having fun so there is no wrong or right way to wear your foundation, as long as you have a good match and avoid the dreaded ‘tideline’ around the neck, you’re good to go!

Mac Studio Fix Fluid For Indian Skin

© This post is copyright of Rachael Divers 2015.

Read ALL about my review process including how I take swatches, photos, and more here.

I’ve been a part of the internet beauty world for AGES it seems. Before the proliferation of YouTube and blogs, there were beauty message boards and LiveJournal. I’m STILL friends with people I used to follow on LiveJournal from back in the early to mid 00s. I was a member in a VERY popular MAC Cosmetics LiveJournal community—this was back when MAC was practically the be-all, end-all in the internet makeup world (my, how things have changed) and practically everything in makeup was MAC-centric especially when it came to describing your skin tone. It was not uncommon, and still not uncommon today to describe yourself as being an NC45 or NW47 or NW58. I even used to use MAC foundations as a reference to help you guys figure out your shades when I would review other brands’ foundations. But then some years ago I stopped comparing foundations to MAC. I even wrote a post about it and link to it every time I do a review. But I still get tons of questions referencing a MAC shade, so I figured let me do this post.

Mac studio fix fluid for indian skin products

Using MAC as a guide can be helpful to a point, but as more and more brands start to expand their shade range beyond Beyoncé beige, it’s practically impossible to keep comparing to MAC shades. Why? Because there’s no uniform guide anywhere with foundation shades. Some brands are a little heavy handed with the red, some go ham on the yellow, some act like brown doesn’t have variations in undertones at all. We beautiful Black and brown women come in all types of gorgeous shades and undertones—some of us might find a brilliant match in a foundation line that tends to go very yellow-based while others in one that goes very red-based. Then there are those of us with neutral undertones (like me). And then many of us tan in the summer—I say this a lot in reviews and other makeup posts, but I don’t always simply go a shade or two deeper when I tan, many times I get redder in undertone–so I didn’t get “darker” so to speak but my undertones changed (and not every tan is the same). So I typically would go from my usually N110 in Cover FX to the P110. But even that isn’t always going to be an exact science—I can tan a little or tan a lot. Which is why things like powders (I have Cover FX powders in N110, P110, and then I use P125 to contour or bronze) and Pro Foundation Mixers are amazing.

But here’s another reason why I stopped using MAC foundations as a guide (aside from times when brands themselves supply them like SheaMoisture did for their Serum Foundation):

EVERYBODY AND THEIR MAMA IS NC45 OR NW45.

Mac studio fix fluid for indian skin color

So my thinking behind this phenomena is a bunch of things 1. Some MAC artists were getting really crafty with shade-matching and trying to make their quotas so they put folks in whatever somewhat closely (or in some cases nowhere near as closely) matched their client 2. MAC was the most popular choice of makeup because it’s EVERYWHERE (there are a lot of folks out there who still haven’t heard of brands like BECCA, Cover FX, or Make Up For Ever) and in some places it’s practically the only choice for women with deeper skin tones—I see this a lot when I’m in Europe 3. People were getting shade-matched back when social media wasn’t as popping as it is now so you weren’t taking a gazillion pictures of yourself and then later looking back on those same pictures like “OMG, my foundation wasn’t matching AT ALL.”

Back when I wore MAC foundation, I wore Select Tint, a tinted moisturizer that made my skin look FAN-FRIGGIN’-TASTIC but I had to buy NW45 and NW50 and mix them together to get my shade. No bother for me because that was my foundation jam back then. Then MAC discontinued it, replaced it with something else that goes nowhere near my shade (as of now—who knows if they’ll extend the shades later on), and I moved onto BECCA foundations and then ultimately added on other brands like Cover FX. I haven’t even worn MAC foundations (aside from the random review) in probably a decade. I hadn’t even had a clue as to what the shade extensions MAC came out with some years ago looked like.

But because I do know how hard it is for us women with deeper shades to find a good foundation can be and because I still get people asking what shade would be an NW46 or whatever in another brand’s foundations, I figured I’d put this post together. I wanted to somewhat familiarize myself with the MAC shades again (and get to know the “newest” ones) and also help more people understand why there can’t always be a MAC equivalent to another brand’s foundation shade. Especially since I’m going to be swatching a lot of new foundation shades from brands like Hourglass and Anastasia Beverly Hills this month for #SwatchesInSeptember.

Skin

Side note: This is also why highlighting and contouring is important for women of color (which I really explained in my Why One Foundation May Not Cut it for Women of Color post) because of the way so many of us are naturally colored. Many of us are lighter in color in the center of our faces and darker around the perimeter—highlighting and contouring is a way to mimic that—and no, it doesn’t have to be super dramatic all the time. Because if you were to just put one foundation shade over all those beautiful natural shade variations, it can make you look very flat and in some cases unnatural. It’s not about being all one shade when it comes to doing makeup for women of color—it’s all about harmony and balance. You’ll get a more natural look.

OK so enough rambling—but I hope you did read above and didn’t just scroll down to the pics…lol.

Mac Studio Fix Fluid Foundation Shades For Indian Skin

(I have no idea why NW50 looks lighter than NW48—unless my NW50 bottle was mislabeled. I do know that NW50 came first before NW48 and maybe they didn’t want to name NW48 NW51? I dunno)

I remember wearing NW45 in some MAC foundations and NW47 in others. It’s not uncommon to wear a different shade depending on the foundation formula because water content can affect the shade. I don’t like Studio Fix Fluid foundation (it breaks me out, I don’t like the smell, and I don’t love the finish) but I first tried NW45. Way too light. Then I tried NW46. Too light. I tried NW47. A touch too light and off in undertone (NW45 and NW46 were probably off in undertone as well but them being too light was the first dealbreaker). NW48 was the closest match but it still was off in undertone.

To drive the point home about MAC equivalents, I swatched a NW47 and NW48 in MAC alongside some other brand shades that are somewhat close in shade (essentially dark brown colors) but as you can see in the pics, they’re far from being good matches for each other.

So how do you make sure your foundation is a good match??!?!

I got you! Check out my Foundation 101 video:

ADDITIONAL READING/VIEWING:

Mac Studio Fix Fluid For Indian Skin Products

BECCA Ultimate Cover Concealing Creme (full coverage foundation that is pretty undetectable but covers well)

Milani 2-in-1 Foundation & Concealer (another fuller coverage foundation that is pretty undetectable but covers well)

This post isn’t meant to bash MAC foundations—if you have a great match and formula from the brand, of course continue to rock it. No foundation-shaming here ;)

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See more Foundation review and swatch posts here

Mac Studio Fix Fluid For Indian Skin Care

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