In order to discover which colours suit you best, all you need to do is work out not so much the colour of your skin tone but your skin undertone. Skin tone is the surface skin color, whereas skin undertone is the subtle hue underneath the surface. This is important because a colour may suit your skin tone but not your undertone.
The first thing is to work out your skin tone. You may have the same skin tone as someone else such as light, fair, medium, dark but a different undertone and therefore the same colours won't suit you both. The undertone can be divided into the following three categories:
Cool (pink, red or blue undertones)
Warm (yellow, peach, gold undertones)
Neutral (a mixture of cool and warm)
So how can you find out whether you're cool, warm or neutral? Read on to find out.
1. You're So Vein!
Look at the veins on the inside of your wrist. If they look blue then you are most probably cool. If they look green then it looks as if you have warm undertones. If you belong in the warm category, it's not that your veins are actually green; it's just that the yellow pigment in your skin creates this effect.
2. Gold & Silver
Another way of judging is whether silver or gold jewellery looks better on your skin. This doesn't mean whether you prefer gold or silver jewellery - you should look to see which looks best on your skin - which flatters your skin tone more. Usually, those with cool tones look best in silver jewellery and those with warm tones, gold.
3. Hair & Eyes
Natural hair colour and eyes can also help when it comes to choosing which colours suit us most. Usually, cool types have blue, grey or green eyes and are blonde, brown -haired or brunette with blue, silver or purple tones under the skin. In contrast warm types have brown or black eyes with blonde red, brown or black hair and tend to have gold, red, orange or yellow undertones.
4. Shades of Sun
When you're in the sun does your skin tan a nice golden brown or does it turn red and then tan? If you tan easily then you belong in the warm category whereas if you have a tendency to burn then you are a cool type. If you turn red and then brown then you are most likely a neutral type.
5. White Paper
Hold a blank piece of white paper next to your face under the skin. If your skin appears more yellow, then you're probably warm. If your skin looks pinkish, then you're probably cool.
6. Who's Your Celebrity Twin?
Jessica Alba and Blake Lively have warm undertones. Examples of cool undertones are Cameron Diaz and Nicole Kidman. Celebrities with neutral undertones include Jessica Biel and Drew Barrymore.
7. What's Your Colour?
Okay so now you know whether you are cool type or a warm type now let's look at which colours will suit you. Warm types should opt for yellow, orange, green, ivory and warm red. Cool types should choose blue, pink purple green and mauve.
If you can't figure out whether you're warm or cool, then chances are, you're probably neutral - and you are lucky as this means most colours will look good on you. As with warm and cool undertones - it always depends on the shade.
Knowing your skin undertone is crucial when it comes to choosing the right clothes, make-up or even hair colour. So do the undertone test and find out whether you are warm, cool or somewhere in between!
