From Cool Ivory to Warm Almond - Foundation Matching Is Still A Pain In The Hoop. Share your stories!

Cool ivory and warm almond don't sound remotely similar, do they? And yet they're just some of the colours my face has been matched up to over the past little while.

Foundation matching is still a bit of a minefield - Aisling's post last week got me thinking and I had a little look over my foundation stash. The shades vary massively and ok, some of them were sent to me by brands at random, but mostly I've been matched up by a makeup artist or brand rep in store or at an event.

That's the case with all 5 foundations pictured and it's pretty clear that there are some wild variations here. From left to right in these swatches you're looking at Boots No 7 Instant Radiance foundation in Cool Ivory, Urban Decay Naked Skin in 3.0, Lancome Teint Visionnaire in 035, Max Factor Facefinity in Warm Almond and YSL Le Teint Touche Eclat in BD10.

Some of these are several shades too dark and have been kept for use with fake tan. The ones I wear most regularly from this line up are the YSL, even though I think it's a smidgeon too light, the Max Factor, even though it's a smidgeon too dark, and the Boots product, which is actually the very best match for me of all.

Looks like that new doohickey we told you about isn't so gimmicky after all.

It's high time other brands started following Boots' lead and coming up with more consistent and accurate methods of colour matching.  Because come on now, surely the Satsumas and Testy Broaders have had their day.

Have you had a good or bad colour matching experience? Tell us all about it in the comments!