We're not sure which is tougher: finding your perfect foundation, or your perfect man. Like the afterglow of a great first date, you stroll out of the makeup store with only the highest expectations. Then you spend a day -- maybe a week -- with your perfect match, only to find out that, under broad daylight? Major flaws. Maybe your foundation is too orangey. Or you've noticed in photos that you look super ashy. Whatever the issue, it's a total deal breaker -- and back to the store you go, hoping this time will be different. Enter the Patti Stanger of makeup: Sephora Pantone Color IQ -- a matchmaking device that pairs you with the perfect foundation shade every time. The handheld tool scans the surface of your skin to tell you exactly what shade and brand of foundation (from a pool of 1,500 contenders) will allow you to live happily ever after. Of course, with such big promises, we had to see it to believe it. So the Total Beauty team took a field trip to Sephora (Best Friday Ever) to meet up with Sephora PRO elite makeup artist Helen Phillips, who helped develop the technology.

How It Works
According to Phillips, the most common mistake people make when picking a foundation is looking only at the tone on your face. The Color IQ system remedies this by reading three separate places on your face, neck, bust or arm. "The device marries all the tones from both the face and décolleté to give you the perfect match," says Phillips.

For Best Results
To get the best read, Philips recommends coming into the store sans makeup. (You can remove your makeup in-store, but that can leave redness behind which could skew your results). Your skin should be free of self-tanner, and you should steer clear of harsh chemical peels in the days leading up to your visit. And if you're extra-serious about finding that perfect match (and who isn't?) drink more water and less caffeine the day you go in. If you can't make it to a Sephora but still want to try out a new foundation shade, you can go to the Color IQ section of Sephora.com and enter a shade of foundation that matches you already and it will give you a readout and a list of matches.

Phillips made our faces look so natural that we had to get her to spill her technique: "I love using a sponge, like the Sephora Collection The Perfectionist Makeup Sponge, $12, to apply foundation because it allows you to start with a sheer layer that can easily be built upon." For sheer, yet still flawless, coverage, she recommends getting the sponge wet and squeezing out the excess water before applying.

Next up: Find out if the Sephora + Pantone Color IQ tool lived up to its hype and sent us all home with a match we could commit to -- for the long haul.

Foundation is not my friend. Give me a lipstick in any color and I can find a way to make it work, but foundation has too many factors for me to choose from. It's too light. It's too dark. It's patchy. It covers too thickly. Which is why I was so surprised when after eight or so years of trial and error, I walked away from a 15-minute consult at the Sephora Color IQ station with a foundation I absolutely love.

After my skin was scanned (makeup-less in the middle of a crowded Sephora, yikes!) I received shade number 2Y03. This little code means my skin is pretty neutral with slight undertones of yellow in it. This didn't really mean anything to me at first, but when the makeup artist tried to put a shade of foundation on me called Snow Glow, I balked. Because I am hyper-vigilant about wearing sunscreen on my face every day, my body is much tanner than my bare face. Luckily the Color IQ system allows for you to add a little of your own preferences, so the Sephora rep bumped my number up a shade class to 2Y04.

In the end I chose Dior Nude BB Crème because of my recent love affair with BB creams. The shade was much lighter than I'm used to wearing, but I absolutely loved it. My boyfriend immediately remarked how natural the look was, and asked if had skipped makeup altogether that day. The BB cream also had major staying power -- it lasted even after a long night out in Vegas. Even though $44 is a lot for this intern on a budget to spend, I may have to give up my penny-pinching drugstore foundation for this dreamy formula I can't seem to get over.

I rarely wear foundation -- my usual routine is a spritz of toner followed by Simple moisturizer, and that's it. The most I'll ever do is dab some loose powder over any shiny spots that tend to appear later in the day. Regardless, I was curious to know if the shade of powder I was using was on the right track. After Phillips took my color reading, one of the first products to pop up on my list of suitable candidates was in fact the same shade of loose powder I already use, which was a nice metaphorical pat on the back.

Since I don't wear much makeup, Phillips selected for me AmorePacific Color Control Cushion Compact Broad Spectrum SPF 50+, (which she wears daily) $60, in 208 Amber Gold. The color was a great match, I loved the cooling, refreshing feel of the product when applied to my skin, and it was a nice change not having loose powder spilling everywhere.

As someone who prefers to spend her energy comparing different shades of eyeliner and eye shadow than compacts and powders, I like the Color IQ for convenience's sake-- I just need something that matches! But after seeing a whole range of products tailored to my skin tone in so many different brands, who knows... maybe I'll finally start stepping up my foundation game.

I've been hooked on foundation since the first time I was allowed to put bareMinerals on my face. As a seventh grader with bad skin, getting compliments on how glowy I looked was a huge confidence booster. To this day, I've tried dozens of different brands, shades and formulas -- not because I haven't found my match (I've found several) but because I'm always on the lookout for the next best thing. I will admit to my fair share of foundation faux pas (with skin this pale, it's hard not to end up orangey at least once in a while), and I am totally clueless about "undertones," so I like the idea of taking the guesswork out of finding a foundation.

My shade turned out to be 2Y01 (almost the lightest shade out there). There were so many options for me to choose from -- I had no idea so many brands could match my pale skin! Still, I ended up not completely happy with my foundation. Don't get me wrong, the shade was spot on. But instead of my usual multi-step process, I decided to try a BB Cream (Tarte BB Tinted Treatment 12 Hour Primer Broad Spectrum SPF 30 in Fair), thinking I would like it if I knew it was the right shade. But, like all the BB creams I've tried before, the formula just didn't have the coverage or staying power I'm used to.

Undeterred, I decided to visit my local Sephora store on my own to see if someone who wasn't a Sephora PRO could give me an accurate reading. In short, yes! At first my reading came out a shade darker than my original, but after a few adjustments, I ended up back at 2Y01. We tried out a few foundations and, after using the filter to figure out what kind of coverage I wanted, I am happy to report that I have found my match (Marc Jacobs Beauty Genius Gel Supercharged Foundation, in 10 Ivory Light)... at least until the next foundation comes along.

I'm always incredibly overwhelmed by the amount of foundations available. Color matching, age-defying, matte, oil-free, moisturizing, mineral...the list goes on. Besides the type of foundation available, I'm also confounded by the shades available. Even though I've been buying makeup for over a decade, I'm still not 100 percent sure which one I should select. Am I cool-toned or warm-toned? Fair or light? Isn't that the same thing? And what if I have a tan?

Enter: The Sephora + Pantone Color IQ System. When my skin was put to the test, my magic number turned out to be 1Y04, which means my skin is just slightly yellow (rather than red) and I'm a shade four, on a scale of one to 15. From there, I was able to narrow down the foundations (there were 47 that matched my skin) by my age range, coverage, finish, and formulation. You can also search by skin type, ingredient preferences, skin concerns (think: acne, wrinkles, etc.), and sun protection.

I ended up trying Diorskin Forever Flawless Perfection Wear Makeup in Ivory010 (my recommended shade) and I really love it. I want a foundation with full coverage and SPF, and I was able to find just that. This foundation matches my skin color perfectly, and I didn't have to try all 1,500 of Sephora's foundations to find it. I highly recommend this process to anyone who has trouble selecting their own foundation. I can't wait to see what else Sephora does with this technology -- next, I'd like to be matched with the perfect red lip for my skin tone.