Knowing your skin undertone can be a great help in determining what clothes and jewelry pieces look good on you. Cool undertone skin looks best with cool colours such as blue and purple, while warm undertones call for warm browns, yellows, oranges and reds. Wearing the colours that go with your skin undertone will make you look glowing, healthy and gorgeous, while choosing the wrong coulors can make you look pale and washed out.
But how do I know what my skin undertone is? Surprisingly, this has almost nothing to do with skin colour. Your complexion can be light, dark, or anything in-between, and still have different undertones.
In this article we’ll go through everything from finding your undertone to what colours to wear and which ones to avoid.
Step 1: Warm or Cold
Is your skin undertone warm or cold? You can find out easiest by looking at the veins at your wrist against a white sheet of paper. If they appear blue, you have a cool undertone. If they have a more greenish hue, you’re likely to be warm-toned.
You can also check with jewelry. Hold some gold and silver jewelry to you skin, and determine what looks better on you. If it’s silver, you’re cool, if it’s gold your warm.
Step 2: Find your Colour Season
Once you know your skin undertone, we’ll split the groups further. This next step has to do with the amount contrast between your skin and your hair and eyes. For instance, if your skin is light, and your hair is dark, you have high contrast, and will look best in clear, bold colors. If your skin is light and the hair is a muted light brown or blonde, your contrast is low, and you will look best in softer colors, and pastels.
To make things simpler, each colour season has it’s own colour pallet. You can print one, and take shopping with you, to be sure only to purchase what will make you pop. So what are the seasons?
- Spring: Warm + fair
- Summer: Cool + fair
- Autumn: Warm + dark
- Winter: Cool + dark
Remember, that fair is low contrast, and dark means high contrast between your skin and hair, regardless of your skin tone or complexion.
Neutrals can be worn almost regardless of your colour season. However grays and cool neutrals will look best for cool undertones, while warm-hued grays and camels work best for warm skin tones.
The above should already give you a pretty good idea on what to look for. However, features can be confusing. You could have one cool feature and 2 warm, or vice versa. In this case, it helps to split up the season into 12 under-seasons — clear, dark/fair & true, to get to the bottom of your undertone and further narrow down your power-colors.
Of course, you don’t HAVE to wear the colours suggested for your season. If you like a different colour, by all means, wear that. Just keep in mind, that it may be a little more difficult to pull off than your recommended colours or neutral tones. At the end of the day, this is just a guide, another fashion rule made to be broken, and you should wear what you feel good in.