Tarte CC serum shade guide: which shade am I?
Pick your tarte CC serum shade by undertone, not by how light or dark your skin looks. The six shades split into three lighter and three deeper, and I wear medium.
· by Aerely Chacón
The shade is picked by undertone, not by how light or dark your skin looks. That is the part the shade names never tell you, and it is why people order the wrong one. I wear medium.
CC Color-Correcting Tinted Serum
Tinted serum in six shades that adapt to your undertone. I wear medium. It reads like skincare on the skin, not like a foundation sitting on top of it.
Someone commented asking exactly this, so I swatched all six on camera. Here is the same guide in writing, so you can read it before you order instead of screenshotting a video at a red light.
Video transcript
Tarte finally restocked all six shades of the viral color correcting serum. I cannot believe how hard it was to get my hands on mine. And the number one question I get asked is how do I know what shade I actually am? I got you. So there are three lighter shades, light, medium and tan, and three darker shades, rich, deep and espresso. Light is your colour if you have more fair skin with a peach to neutral undertone. Medium is your colour if you tan easily but your undertone is pretty neutral, like not too peachy but not too olive. This is my exact shade, and you are going to see this is going to blend so seamlessly into the actual colour of my skin. Oh my gosh, so beautiful. Tan is your colour if you have a very strong olive undertone. For my caramel to brown skin girls, the shade deep is your colour. Do you see this looking good on both a warm and olive undertone? So it definitely falls under that neutral category. So beautiful. The shade rich, I did just get this for my light skin friend and it looked beautiful on her olive undertone. And I just love that it is skincare, so it is actually helping your skin rather than clogging your pores like foundation does. And last but not least, the shade espresso, for my beautiful bronze baddies. So take a screenshot of this, I am going to leave this shade guide up for reference, and they are also in the product description photos so you can click that orange shopping cart and check for yourself. And I really hope by the time you see this video your shade is still in stock, because I had to wait over a week for mine to be available.
How do I know which tarte CC serum shade I am?
Start with your undertone, then pick depth. The three lighter shades are light, medium and tan. The three deeper ones are rich, deep and espresso. Inside each of those groups the real difference is undertone, so someone with fair skin and a strong olive undertone can land in a completely different shade than someone with fair skin and a peach undertone.
It also settles once it is on you. Swatching it and then walking away for a minute tells you far more than staring at the stripe the second it leaves the tube.
What are the six shades, and who is each one for?
Light is for fair skin with a peach to neutral undertone.
Medium is for skin that tans easily with a fairly neutral undertone, not too peachy and not too olive. That is my exact shade, and it blends in instead of sitting on top.
Tan is for a strong olive undertone.
Rich sits beautifully on light to olive skin. I bought it for a friend with a lighter complexion and an olive undertone and it looked gorgeous on her.
Deep is for caramel to brown skin, and it holds up on both warm and olive undertones, which is what puts it in the neutral category.
Espresso is the deepest of the six.
Is the CC serum the same thing as foundation?
No, and this is the part I care about most. It is a tinted serum, so it is doing skincare work while it evens you out, rather than sitting on top of your pores the way a full coverage foundation does. The trade is coverage. It softens tone, it does not erase anything.
What if I am between two shades?
Go with the one that matches your undertone, not the one that matches your depth. A shade that is slightly off in depth still blends out. A shade that fights your undertone reads grey or orange no matter how long you work at it.
All six live on the same listing, so you can switch the shade before you check out. Mine took over a week to come back in stock, so if yours is there, that is the bit worth moving on.
Who this is not for
If you want full coverage, skip it. If you are hoping to cover active breakouts completely, it will not do that either, and I would rather say so now than have you blame your shade choice. And if your skin runs very oily and you hate anything dewy, this leans glowy, not matte.
Products in this post
CC Color-Correcting Tinted Serum
Tinted serum in six shades that adapt to your undertone. I wear medium. It reads like skincare on the skin, not like a foundation sitting on top of it.
Questions I get about this
Which tarte CC serum shade does Aerely wear?
Medium. I tan easily and my undertone is fairly neutral, so medium blends in rather than sitting on top of my skin.
Is the tarte CC serum full coverage?
No. It is a light coverage tinted serum. It evens out tone and leaves texture and breakouts visible, so it is not a foundation replacement if you want full coverage.
Should I pick my shade by undertone or by how light my skin is?
Undertone first, then depth. A shade slightly off in depth still blends out, but a shade that fights your undertone will read grey or orange however long you blend.
Watch the original: TikTok