Tips to determine your skin tone
Accurately defining your skin colour and skin tone is not easy. Yet it is important to do so if you want to find the best possible shade of foundation or any other facial make-up product and avoid having a dull complexion.
But how is it done? Here are some tips to guide you in defining your colouring and skin tone.
My skin colour
Your skin colour is quite easy to determine as it is lighter or darker and may vary depending on the season, for example in summer.
Generally speaking, but not exclusively:
- Fair complexions have blonde or red hair with light coloured eyes and a light skin colour
- Medium complexions have blonde to light brown hair with green to hazel coloured eyes and a medium skin colour
- Dark complexions have dark brown to black hair with dark coloured eyes and an olive skin
My skin tone
On the other hand, skin tone is not necessarily so well-known and not taken into account in choosing a foundation, so you are often disappointed when you apply it.
To avoid this, you need to define your undertone or your skin tone. But what exactly is an undertone?
It is a skin shade resulting from the combination of the colour of the veins and the pigmentation of the skin which gives your skin its own particular colour.
There are 3 types of skin tones:
- A cool tone: for complexions in shades of pink, blue and purple;
- A warm tone: for complexions in shades of yellow, gold and copper
- A neutral tone: which is a mixture of the two above.
How do you decide which it is?
The undertone is often determined on the inside of your wrist, where the skin is thinner, by looking at the colour of the veins on the inside of your arm. To help with this, you can apply a white tissue to your wrist to increase the contrast and thus more easily determine your undertone.
- If your veins are in blue or purple tones, you have a cool skin tone
- Conversely, if your veins seem more greenish, you have a warm skin tone
- When you have trouble defining your undertone because your veins seem to be both bluish and greenish tones, you most certainly have a neutral skin tone.
To help you decide, look at how your skin reacts to the sun. If it tends to turn red you are likely to have a cool skin tone. On the other hand, if it immediately takes on a more golden, tanned hue, then you have a warm skin tone. For those who have a neutral skin tone you have skin that first turns red and then develops an attractive golden hue.
Once you have determined your skin colour and skin tone, you will be ready to choose a foundation that suits you best and the texture that suits you best as well.
Your skin tone does not just apply to foundation
You should also be aware that your undertone is not just used for choosing your foundation. You should also take it into account when choosing other make-up products, such as your blusher and your lipstick. This even applies in choosing the colours of your clothes, which will set off your face to best advantage.
It may not be easy to decide which skin tone you have, but now that you have done it, you know all you need to know for having a glowing and bright complexion.