How to Determine Your Skin Undertones (and Why it's Important)

The package you have been anticipating for weeks has finally arrived containing that perfect cherry red lipstick you have had your eye on for a month. At last, you take it out of the box and uncap the tube and swivel it up, and the gorgeous red appears. It looks exactly as the pictures did online and in the magazines! Excitedly and carefully, you swipe it on, seeing the color start to unfurl across your lips, but as you watch yourself in the mirror, you begin to notice something. The color is not looking like in the pictures you've seen. What was a perfect cherry is showing up on your face coral orange.But after all this time waiting, how could this color not wear like all the ladies you've seen wear the shade online. Well, the answer, could have nothing to do with the product and everything to do with your skin's undertone.

It is easy to identify skintone or skin overtone. That is just simply where your skin falls in the range of fair to deep and everywhere in between. Basically, it is the thing you first consider in choosing your foundation or concealer. Skin undertones, however, are a bit more complex and even more individualistic. Skin undertones are defined as the ratio and basis of all primary colors (red, blue, and yellow) and the lightness of depth of each of those color families. At the most basic level, skin undertone is usually classified as being cool, warm, or neutral. Every one of these undertones exists in the many ethnic groups and races across the globe. This is partially what makes undertone trickier to decipher because it is, literally, what lies beneath the surface of what we automatically observe. The general rule of thumb is that cool skin tones will look best in bluer-based tones shades of true bright blue, grape-toned purples, many, if not all, tones of gray, crimson reds, and emerald greens, whereas warm tones will be flattered by yellow or more orange-based hues like copper, peach, , rusty reds or bright apricots, and hunter or lime greens. Neutral tones, depending on where they lean on the scale in cool vs. warm will often be equally flattered by colors in both families.

But beyond Cool v Warm, a person's most flattering colors will also be contingent on both the Lightness v Depth of a color as well as its Brightness v Mutedness of a particular shade of color. But since these classifications vary greatly from person to person, Color temperature more consistently seems to be the most important factor in discovering one's most flattering makeup colors. This means that when the color temperature of our skin is in harmony with that of our makeup, it looks seamless. However, when something is off-- sometimes even by the slightest bit-- it can clash, make us look sick, or just simply give us the wrong look, regardless of how the color may appear in the packaging.

While determining your skin undertones can be tricky, try these tips to help you figure out your most flattering colors.

Gold V, Silver-- A quick and dirty tip to determining warm, cool, or neutral undertone is by which tone of jewelry flatters you the most. Warm tones are flattered by gold (or rose-gold) jewelry, cool tones by silver, and neutrals many times both. Bracelets are the best for this test because the wrists are majors paths for blood flow and, therefore, the skin there contains a lot of pigment. Take a gold bracelet on one wrist and a silver one on the other and look for the wrist that has seemed to change the LEAST. Skin that is in the same temperature of the jewelry it wears will become like a shining best version of itself and seem to reflect the hue of the glow that that piece of jewelry offers. Unflattering silver jewelry on a warm- undertoned skin will consequently make it look green or gray. and gold jewelry on a cool-undertoned skin will make it appear overly flushed and ruddy. If, however, you try both and none of these effects seem to happen, your undertone is likely somewhere on the neutral scale.

Natural Instincts: A lot of times, the colors we naturally gravitate to or enjoy wearing are the most naturally flattering to us. There is a reason why we have that favorite sweater or that bold-colored dress in whatever hue that just makes look and feel amazing. Put that item of clothing on and see truly how it interacts with your skin. Do you notice the skin reflecting a healthy glow or the eyes sparkling? Then, there is a strong possibility that this garment has the same or close to the same undertones as your skin. This test , should be done with the hair pulled back and with a bare-face so that no other colors will interfere with the focus on the skin. The human eye is naturally sensitive to color harmony and balance, making this an easy and accurate test.

Lipstick Testing: Lipstick is the most sensitive cosmetic to skin undertones, and the closer the applied color is to the tube, the more in line with your undertones it is. Swatching lipcolors on the inside of your finger or wrist best inform you of your flattering and unflattering shades as well as provide clues to your undertone. . Those which blend in are likely in alignment with your undertone, while those that jar are not. Overall, look for the same effects as in the jewelry test.

Veins: Last but not least,a tricky but excellent test is to look at your veins. Again, the ones in your wrists are particularly good to use for this as they are not only in an area that contains a lot of blood flow but also are often easy to see. Check your wrist for blue-purple or greenish veins. Blue veins signify cool undertone while green veins signify warm. If it is hard to tell, you are likely more neutral.

*** Bonus tip: It is possible to have all of your coloring assessed -- undertones, the lightness v depth and brightness v mutedness and, therefore, find your most perfect colors told to you through a process called Personal Color Analysis or PCA . PCA systems work by grouping people into color palettes based on the colors of nature during the four seasons of the year and then further subdividing each season into 3 subgroups each. There are a few variations of this method, some offering more specifications than others. Other similar theories are presented through blogs and books such as Color Your Style by David Zyla, and offer their own variations on color theory.

Whether you use it to edit your closet or makeup collection, finding your skin undertone can be a lot of fun. You can use it to find your power colors or create a certain aesthetic. At the very least, you will know which lipstick to buy!