The Ultimate Guide to Know Your Skin Undertone

The biggest key to getting the right shades for your makeup lies in knowing your skin tones and undertones. However, people often get confused about their skin undertone and which shades of color complement their skin best. Thus, we bring you the easiest ways you can identify your skin's undertone so that you can buy the correct colors for your skin.

What is a skin undertone?

A skin undertone is a soft, subtle hue of color that influences the overall appearance of your skin. It’s different from the skin’s outer tone as the skin’s surface color can change due to sun exposure or even through time and age. The undertone, however, stays the same throughout our lives and affects how certain colors, like clothes and jewelry, look on us. It helps in finding out which shades will suit your skin complexion and enhance your beauty. Understanding your skin tone makes it easier to choose clothes, makeup products, and accessories that are compatible with your skin, ensuring you get the best and most natural look.

What are the three types of undertones?

Skin undertones are a factor that is always right in front of our eyes but recognizing and understanding it is a little difficult. To know your undertone better, you must have an idea of what undertones exist. Thus, we have explained the types of undertones people have so that you can identify yours:

Cool-toned: People with cool undertones usually have hints of blue, pink, or red. This undertone gives a rosy or bluish tint to the skin, often seen in lighter complexions.

Warm-toned: Contrary to cool undertones, people with warm undertones have yellow, gold, or peach in the skin. This undertone gives the skin a golden or peachy glow.

Neutral-Toned: Now people with the best of both undertone worlds are from the neutral-toned population. They have a balance of cool and warm undertones, not leaning too much towards pink and yellow. It makes the skin look more even-toned.

Olive-toned: People with olive undertones in their skin have a unique mix of neutral and slightly greenish or grayish hues. This skin tone is common in some Asian skin tones, including Indian, and can give the skin an earthy or subtle appearance.

How to identify your skin undertone?

Now that you know the types of skin undertones, you can try these tests to understand your skin tones too, so that you can buy the right products and accessories according to how flattering they look on you.

Jewelry Test: 
The first and the most basic test you can take is the jewelry test. It is nothing too complicated, just try out gold and silver accessories and see which one of them suits you the best. If gold suits you, you are warm-toned; if silver looks better, you are cool-toned. A win-win situation when you have neutral undertone skin because you can pull off both gold and silver. Olive undertoned people have it better too, as along with both gold and silver, some people may find that subtle metallic-colored accessories would suit them too!

 

Vein Test:

Next up, you can try the vein test, which involves just checking the colors of your veins! If your veins appear to be blue or purple, then you are one of the cool-toned folk and if your veins look green then you have a warm undertone. If your veins are a mix of these colors then you have a neutral undertone. People with olive undertones would have veins that may appear a bit greenish, with a hint of brown or gray.

 

Sun Reaction Test:

The Sun test is actually pretty basic where you just have to observe your skin’s reaction to the sun. If you feel a burning sensation or your skin turning red after a long day under the sun, you are from the warm-undertone family. On the other hand, if you feel your skin getting tanned from the sun's rays then you are one of the cool-toned people. If you get both burning sensations and tanning, then you have a neutral undertone. When your skin tans easily, sometimes even developing an olive or golden hue, then you have olive undertones. 

 

White Paper/T-shirt Test:

Another undertone test you can do is putting on a white t-shirt or just holding a piece of white paper against your skin. Now observe how your skin looks against them. If your skin appears to be yellow or in the yellow tones, then you have a warm undertone. In this case, colors like off-white and cream are the best for you. If your skin appears to lean to pinkish tones then you have a cool undertone. For clothing shades, you can dabble with whites, purples, and pastel shades. People who find their skin has a slightly greenish or grayish tint, have olive undertone skin.

By following these tests, you can easily understand which skin undertone is yours, so that you can get the right products and accessories according to your skin. Because you deserve the best of what enhances your beauty, whether it be makeup or jewelry.