Skin Tone & Undertone
When going to buy foundation or concealer, the first question everyone asks you is what is your skin tone? Or when you go online and want to try a new foundation, there usually is a selection of shades but which one is the right one for you? While some people look in the mirror and with ease can say light or dark for some it can be difficult, and your choice gets harder when you are asked for your undertone. Knowing your overall skin tone can help you make an easier choice not just when choosing your base makeup (including BB and CC creams) but also when it comes to choosing eyeshadow, blush, lipstick and even clothes.
To determine your skin tone you must first know what is your surface colour. This can be easy to determine mainly because it is the the main pigmentation of your skin, more specifically the colour that you see first thing in the mirror which are; fair, light, medium and dark.
How to determine your skin tone:
Fair skin tones:
If you are fair skinned you typically are very fair and burn easily in the sun (meaning you skip the bronzed goddess phase and go straight to sunburn). Your skin is probably prone to redness.
Light skin tones:
You are still considered pale and the skin flushes easily however in the sun while you tend to get a sunburn in most cases that burn will turn into a tan. You might also realise that you look pale in the winter and have a healthier glow in the summer.
Medium skin tones:
Sometimes referred to as neutral. You have equal amounts of yellow and pink undertones and you usually tan in the sun.
Dark skin tones:
While having a deeper complexion you are still prone to burning or even hyper-pigmentation however you probably tan easily.
You usually can determine your skin tone by looking at your jawline as that is one of the few areas that is less affected by colour change or even by how people describe you, meaning you are told something like: "You look fair."
Undertones
Skin undertones on the other hand are the more subtle/ muted tones that lie underneath the surface and can never change. These are split into 3 categories, and if you are a makeup enthusiast you have probably heard these terms used before; cool toned, warm toned or neutral.
Cool toned is when you have red-ish, pink-ish or blue-ish undertones.
Warm toned is when you have peachy, yellow-ish or golden undertones.
Neutral toned is when you have olive tones or a mix of the above.
While these terms may not be new to you what may be challenging is actually figuring out what your undertones are however there are some very quick and easy ways of finding out.
Look at your veins:
Look at the underside or your wrist or forearm what do you see?
If your veins appear bluish or purple-ish than you are cool toned however if they appear greenish you are on the warm side. If you see no difference between the two you are more likely than not neutral.
Try the paper method:
Making sure that your face is clean (no makeup) hold up a blank white sheet of paper to your face and if your complexion looks dull then you are warm toned and if it looks good then you are cool toned. If you do appear to see a difference, once again then you are on the neutral side.
Try on some jewellery:
Put a silver and a gold chain on your am and see which looks best.
If silver jewellery tends to look best on you then you are cool toned while on the other hand if gold jewellery suits you more than you are warm toned. Once again if you look good in either then you are neutral toned.
Let your eyes (and hair) do the talking:
People with cooler skin tones in general tend to have blue or grey eyes as well as blonde hair, even though they could still have brown or black hair), people with a warmer skin tones have brown, hazel or green eyes and either brown or black or auburn or strawberry blonde or even blonde hair. Neutral skin toned people can have any colour eyes as well as any coloured hair.
Look behind your ears:
Ask someone to look behind your ears and if the skin behind your ears is yellowish it means you have a warm skin tone while on the other hand if it is more pink or rosy then you are probably cool toned. If you can't tell you probably have neutral undertone.
To generalise:
Fair skin tones will probably have freckles or redness, can burn very easily (products with higher SPF are recommended), may have sensitive skin and will most likely have cool or warm undertones.
Light skin tones may suffer some spotty redness, they burn easily in the sun however in most cases the burn will later turn into a tan. They may be prone to having sensitive skin and having both cool and warm tones are possible.
Medium skin tones do not have to worry about burning so easily in the sun, they look like they have an all year round tan even without sun exposure. Will often have warm or neutral undertones.
Dark skin tones will rarely burn in the sun and can tan very easily. They will usually have warm undertones.
Very Dark skin tones will also rarely burn in the sun however they are still prone to burning. They are often described as being 'ebony' or 'deep' and can have either warm or cool undertones.
Cool tones have a definite bluish/ pink undertone and will tend to look better in silver jewellery as well blue, red, pink or purple coloured clothing.
Warm tones will probably have yellowish/ peachy undertone and will look better in gold jewellery as well as earth tones such as brown, red, orange, beige, cream or off white.
Neutral tones can have pink, yellow or olive undertones and will look good in both silver and gold jewellery as well as any coloured clothing.
While this may all be helpful to help you understand what your skin tone and undertone is, at first hand when looking for products such as foundation they are usually labelled accordingly to the skin tones and undertones which at times can be confusing so the following is a short list of the names typically put on labels according to the skin tones/ undertones:
Warm tones are usually labelled; beige, golden, tan, chestnut or caramel.
Cool tones are usually labelled as; porcelain, sable, rose or cocoa.
Neutral tones are usually labelled as; nude, buff, ivory or praline.
Personally when trying to buy products online I find this type of information helpful especially for products that I know I can't swatch at a local store in person while this information can be helpful asking an expert can help as well as personally I have a light skin tone and a neutral undertone.
I will also be adding this to Featured Posts so that when there are more posts about various products or are looking for a product online and need help quickly it will be easy to find.
Keep following for a post on skin types coming soon.
