Understanding your skin’s undertone can significantly enhance your beauty routine and help you choose the most flattering makeup, clothing, and accessories.
While your skin tone refers to the surface color of your skin, your undertone is the subtle hue that lies beneath.
This undertone remains consistent even if your skin tone changes due to sun exposure or skin conditions.
Identifying your undertone can be a game-changer in finding colors that enhance your natural beauty.
Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you identify and understand your skin’s undertone.
Types of Undertones
There are three primary categories of undertones: cool, warm, and neutral.
1. Cool Undertones
- Characteristics: Cool undertones have hints of blue, pink, or red.
- Skin Appearance: Skin with cool undertones often appears slightly bluish, pink, or red.
- Matching Colors: Cool undertones are complemented by colors like blues, purples, pinks, and jewel tones such as emerald green and sapphire.
2. Warm Undertones
- Characteristics: Warm undertones feature hints of yellow, gold, or peach.
- Skin Appearance: Skin with warm undertones typically has a golden, yellow, or peachy hue.
- Matching Colors: Warm undertones look best with earthy tones like yellows, oranges, browns, warm reds, and golds.
3. Neutral Undertones
- Characteristics: Neutral undertones are a mix of both cool and warm tones.
- Skin Appearance: Skin with neutral undertones often appears balanced, without a strong inclination towards either cool or warm.
- Matching Colors: Neutral undertones can wear a wide range of colors from both cool and warm spectrums. Most colors will complement neutral skin tones.
How to Identify Your Undertone
There are several methods to help you determine your skin’s undertone:
1. Vein Test
- Look at the veins on the inside of your wrist.
- If your veins appear blue or purple, you likely have cool undertones.
- If your veins look green, you likely have warm undertones.
- If you can’t decide whether your veins are blue or green, you might have neutral undertones.
2. Jewelry Test
- Consider whether you look better in silver or gold jewelry.
- Silver jewelry tends to flatter cool undertones.
- Gold jewelry tends to complement warm undertones.
- If both silver and gold look good on you, you might have neutral undertones.
3. White Paper Test
- Hold a piece of white paper next to your face in natural light.
- If your skin looks more yellow against the white paper, you have warm undertones.
- If your skin appears more pink, rosy, or blue, you have cool undertones.
- If you see a mix of both, you might have neutral undertones.
4. Sun Exposure Test
- Think about how your skin reacts to the sun.
- If you tan easily and rarely burn, you likely have warm undertones.
- If you burn easily and struggle to tan, you likely have cool undertones.
- If you tan moderately and sometimes burn, you might have neutral undertones.
Choosing Makeup Based on Your Undertone
Knowing your undertone can help you select the most flattering makeup shades.
Foundation
- Cool undertones: Look for foundations with a rosy, red, or blue base.
- Warm undertones: Opt for foundations with a yellow, gold, or peach base.
- Neutral undertones: Choose foundations that aren’t too yellow or pink.
Blush
- Cool undertones: Pink, rosy, or plum blush shades.
- Warm undertones: Peach, coral, or bronze blush shades.
- Neutral undertones: A variety of shades can work, including peachy pinks and neutral roses.
Eyeshadow
- Cool undertones: Cool shades like purples, blues, greens, and cool browns.
- Warm undertones: Warm shades like golds, oranges, browns, and warm reds.
- Neutral undertones: Both cool and warm shades can work, so you have more flexibility.
Lipstick
- Cool undertones: Blue-based reds, pinks, and berry shades.
- Warm undertones: Orange-based reds, peaches, and warm browns.
- Neutral undertones: Both blue-based and orange-based shades can be flattering.
Conclusion
Identifying and understanding your skin’s undertone is a key step in enhancing your natural beauty.
By knowing whether you have cool, warm, or neutral undertones, you can make more informed choices when it comes to makeup, clothing, and accessories.
Use the tests outlined above to determine your undertone, and embrace the colors that make you feel confident and radiant.
