What 32,000 foundation shade matches show
Between 18 July 2026 and 12 October 2026, people ran 32,172 readings on our foundation shade finder. Only 3.5% landed in the deep family. 78.1% landed in fair or light.
The split is almost the same in the US, the UK and India. And when a match was deep, it was cool 64.0% of the time, against 37.1% across all matches.
Most matches are fair or light
Fair took 40.9% and light 37.1%. Medium took 18.5%. Deep took 3.5%, which is 1,114 of 32,172.
The US, UK and India look alike
Deep is between 2.5% and 3.8% in all three. Fair and light together are 75.4% in the US, 78.2% in the UK and 79.1% in India.
FairLightMediumDeep
Undertone differs more than depth
Across all matches, neutral led with 38.6%, then cool with 37.1% and warm with 24.3%. By country the picture moves. Warm is 35.7% in India and 15.2% in the UK.
CoolNeutralWarm
The sharpest pattern sits inside the deep family. Of 1,114 deep matches, 64.0% were cool, 21.0% neutral and 15.0% warm. In the medium family cool was 43.2%, and in fair it was 31.8%.
The numbers behind the charts
Counts are matches. Shares are rounded to one decimal, so a row can sum to 99.9% or 100.1%.
| Country | Matches | Fair | Light | Medium | Deep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All countries | 32,172 | 13,170 40.9% | 11,946 37.1% | 5,942 18.5% | 1,114 3.5% |
| United States | 7,766 | 3,011 38.8% | 2,842 36.6% | 1,659 21.4% | 254 3.3% |
| United Kingdom | 2,229 | 925 41.5% | 818 36.7% | 431 19.3% | 55 2.5% |
| India | 8,366 | 3,268 39.1% | 3,345 40.0% | 1,437 17.2% | 316 3.8% |
| Country | Matches | Cool | Neutral | Warm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All countries | 32,172 | 11,934 37.1% | 12,405 38.6% | 7,833 24.3% |
| United States | 7,766 | 3,638 46.8% | 2,840 36.6% | 1,288 16.6% |
| United Kingdom | 2,229 | 1,089 48.9% | 801 35.9% | 339 15.2% |
| India | 8,366 | 2,077 24.8% | 3,302 39.5% | 2,987 35.7% |
| Family | Matches | Cool | Neutral | Warm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | 13,170 | 4,183 31.8% | 5,486 41.7% | 3,501 26.6% |
| Light | 11,946 | 4,471 37.4% | 4,395 36.8% | 3,080 25.8% |
| Medium | 5,942 | 2,567 43.2% | 2,290 38.5% | 1,085 18.3% |
| Deep | 1,114 | 713 64.0% | 234 21.0% | 167 15.0% |
Other countries are left out: each is small, and the database merges any group under 5 events. They make up the rest of the 32,172.
Method and limits
Each match is one photo reading. The tool measures skin colour from the photo, puts it in CIE L*a*b*, and files it under a depth family (fair, light, medium or deep) and an undertone (cool, neutral or warm). When the result page loads, the tool sends those two labels and nothing else. No photo, no face data and no identifier is part of it. The data is counted, not stored per person.
Window and size. 18 July 2026 to 12 October 2026, 32,172 readings. Events sent after 12 October are left out because about 15% of them were being lost in transit, which could skew the mix. Country comes from the visit, not from anything the person told us. Groups under 5 events are merged by the database, so no small country appears here.
This is not a map of who has which skin tone. People who use a shade finder skew toward people who struggle to find a match. A reading is one photo in one light. One person can appear more than once, and we cannot tell.
The deep share is probably too low. Depth is the weaker half of our reading. A phone exposes for a pleasing picture, not for a measurement, so a photo taken in strong light reads lighter than the skin is. We cannot undo that from a single photo. Part of the 3.5% is real, and part is the camera. We do not know the split. Undertone is more stable, because the tool corrects for the colour of the light.
What we do not know. Whether the deep family is small because fewer people with deep skin visit, because fewer find the site, because the tool reads them lighter, or because they have given up on shade finders. The data cannot separate those. We also have no age, gender or product data.
Use this data
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The chart is an inline SVG with a text alternative, so it works in any article or page. The credit line is an ordinary link to this page. To cite in text: Foundation Shade Finder, “What 32,000 Foundation Shade Matches Show”, 2026.
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