Determining Your Undertone


Hello! Welcome back to the Color Analysis Series! If you read through the first post you should now have a good idea whether your contrast is high, medium, or low. As a refresher take a photograph of yourself in natural lighting then turn it black and white to see how much contrast there is between your eyes, hair, and skin.

In this post we'll be moving on to the next step in finding your Color Season by determining your undertones.

For those who wear make up knowing your undertones is essential to discovering the most natural shade of foundation. We've all seen how that can go wrong resulting in a face that is too ghostly pale, orange tan, or sallow yellow...not pretty!

As before I'd like to state that a full professional color analysis is recommended if you want to know exactly what your truest undertones and over tones are but as a starting point we'll discuss 3 main undertones

Warm, Neutral, Cool

There are several different techniques to determine your undertones.

First lets talk about the gold and silver test. Take a look in your jewelry case or take a look at your watch or wedding band. Do you favor gold or silver tones in your favorite jewelry? If you are not sure you can try on one of each color and see which appears the most cohesive with your overall look.

Gold is more flattering against a Warm undertone

Silver jewelry is more flattering to a Cool undertone

If you feel that gold and silver equally flatter your skin then you could be a neutral undertone. Olive skin tends to be more neutral and is most flattered by antiqued metals in softer finishes rather than bright shiny finishes.

Another test is to look at the veins in you wrist

Veins with a blue or purple appearance indicate a cool undertone and pinkish toned skin.

Greenish veins indicate a warm undertone and slightly more yellow skin tone.

If you have both green and blue veins you could have a neutral undertone.

Cool undertones are Summer and Winter Color Seasons

Warm undertones are Spring and Autumn Color Seasons

Neutral undertones can exist in each color season so neutral skin tones are lucky to be able to wear most colors with ease but often are flattered more by a softer version of the color.

Try it out! You now have two factors to assist in narrowing down which will be your Color Season.

Next blog we will discuss how to determine whether you look best in soft or deep tones!