Okay, so I've had a weekend full of foundation experiments!
1:12 warm gold looks fine for the most part, just a little bronze, but on all my hyperpigmented areas (like around my eyes and mouth) it turns them almost "fake tan" bronzy orange? Makes me look a bit jaundiced.

So I'm thinking it's not a match!
Got the yellow color booster and added 1 scoop to the 1:14olive. It almost matches, its a bit yellow but there is something else lacking in it though...warmth? It's like, it blends in, but when applied to half of my face, everything becomes monotone. Now, in general that would be great for foundation, since that gives a blank canvas to add color back to, right? But I always find myself wanting more. I want a foundation that makes my skin glow and look healthy, radiant, balanced. The sort that you can dust on and run out the door if need be without needing the time to add on blush and eye color to make you look alive! Am I asking too much of foundation?
While pondering Cupcake's wise advice, I asked myself what makes my skin glow like that and how I could add warmth to my foundation blend. Orange/peach blushes are the only thing that does that on my skin, when I put on Satisfied, Nuance, or Palace I glow! People ask me what I use on my skin because it looks so healthy. So, I tried the peach base lightened a great deal, but there is some other tone in it that looks wrong. All the bases are too...brown? They all have this earthy tone in them that doesn't get along with my coloring. Hunting for a "orange/peach booster" I swatched Peach base and Palace side by side...and Palace lacks the tone I'm seeing that looks bad on my face, it's not muddy. So....I mixed Palace with the ivory base in a ration of about 1:14, thinking it would make me look sunburned (since blush all over your face tends to do that!)...but it didn't. It matches my skin!!

I wore half a face with that, and the other half with the olive/yellow blend above...then polled everyone in the house without telling them what was on my face. Everyone voted the "palace" side, because it made my skin look awake, glowing, and in harmony with the skin on my chest (which I match to instead of my neck).
I intend to repeat the half/half face tomorrow to see if it's a fluke and if I was hallucinating or something...if we have a sunny day I'll attempt to photograph it, though I'm not sure the tones will come out right, as it's a subtle difference. I don't know enough about how the foundation pigments are made to put my finger on what is clashing with my skin, just that there's an earthiness to them all, whether it's red/brown (think volcanic red dirt), yellow brown (brownish mustard), pink brown (almost ashy), or beige brown... Maybe you know Jen?? Or maybe Karen will have some insight, once she's back from vacation and in the swing of things, of course

. Anyone else, feel free to chime in! Thanks so much!