Finding Your Skin Undertone

Dear Readers,

I'm swamped in work at the moment, but I managed to find time to write this post about skin undertones. I love you that much, yeah.

Is 'skin undertone' a fancy way of referring to 'skin tone'?

Well, not really. Your skin tone and your skin undertone are two separate things. The former can change from time to time, but the former remains more or less the same throughout your entire life. Your skin undertone is similar to a shadow beneath your skin that gives colour to your skin.

Why should you know what your skin undertone is?

To put it simply, it's like having an extra card to play in the Fashion World. Knowing your skin undertone helps you determine which colours look great on you in terms of clothing, make-up and hair colours. You might finally understand why that canary yellow sweater doesn't look flattering at all on you!

How can you find your skin undertone?

There are three simple tests that will only take a couple of seconds of your life. Pretty easy see! I personally suggest giving a go to all three tests, but you're free to try one only. Three tests are bound to give you a more exact result, but then again, it's all up to you!

Test 1: Look at your wrist, specifically at that area where your veins show through. Look at those veins and their colour. If your veins look green, then your skin undertone is warm. However, if your veins have a purple / blue tint to them, your skin undertone is a cool one.

Test 2: Wash your face, make sure you have no make-up on and tie your hair backwards. Then grab a blank sheet of white paper and put it next to your face. The whiteness of the paper will reflect your skin undertone. So, if your face looks yellow-ish in comparison to the white paper, then your skin undertone is warm. People with cold undertones will find that their face looks blue-ish instead. Oh, when I say blue I don't intend smurf-blue by the way!

Test 3: For this test, you're going to need something silver and something gold. You can opt for earrings, clothing or even vases if all else fails. Grab the items of your choice and stand in front of a mirror. Place the silver item close to your face, then do the same with gold piece. Try to determine which one of the two accentuates your characteristics better. Does the gold make your eyes look brighter? Or does silver make them  glow? Pay particular attention to your skin and whether your face looks washed out with any of the two metallics. Make a decision. Silver suits cold undertones and gold looks better on warm undertones.

Is there anything like a 'neutral undertone'?

Of course, there's always a happy medium. Well, not always, but there is this time. If you find that you are somewhere between the two undertones, you have a neutral undertone. My pale skin and my green eyes give me a cool undertone, but my red hair warms it up a bit. Therefore, I lie somewhere in between, slightly on the colder side of the scale though.

What colours suit which undertone?

Though there might be some exceptions, warmer colours like orange, yellow, mustard and brown look better on warm undertones. Colours like blue, purple, white and green suit people with cold undertones. With regard to metallics, as I specified earlier, warm undertones fair better with gold whilst cold undertones match silver almost to perfection. 

I hope this post has been useful and that you'll make use of these tips as well! Remember, metallics are so, so in this season (and in the next one too!) so your undertone should make it easier to decide between the gold and the silver scarf!

-B