If you read my ‘Styling the Mister for a Day‘ post published last week, then you would be expecting this post, because I mentioned I was going to write a post explaining skin undertones. I hope you find this post useful…

Have you ever wondered why some colours look amazing on some people and not so amazing on others? Well I know I have. We all have colours that suit us better than others. Different colours suit different women. A colour may look good on a pale skin and look horrible on a brown skin. It all depends on what undertone your skin has; cool, warm or neutral undertone. Now don’t mistake skin undertone for surface tone. Your surface tone is the colour on the surface of your skin, the one visible to all. While the undertone is the colour underneath the surface. You can have the same surface tone with your BFF, but have a different skin undertone, if that makes sense. Our undertone is usually influenced by our diet and general health, while our surface tone is what we are born with.

To discover your skin undertone, hold a white piece of paper under your hand and look closely at the colour of your skin. If the overall hue of your skin is yellow, then you have a warm skin tone. If the overall hue of your skin is blue, then you have a cool skin tone. Make sure you test for undertones in natural light to get accurate results.

My overall hue is yellow, so I have a warm skin tone. Earthy colours flatter my skin best, so the likes of brown, beige, olive, orange, yellow, gold, corals, and peach, flatter me best.

If you have a cool skin undertone, the best colours for you are pale blue, green, purple, rose-pink, and other colours in the pink/purple family.

If you are not warm or cool, then you may fall into the neutral skin undertone spectrum, which is a mixture of cool and warm undertones. With this undertone, almost every colour looks good on you.

Another way to test your undertone is through the good old jewellery trick. Do you look better in silver or gold? Think about this careful, not which metal you prefer, but which metal gives you the glowing, radiant look. If you look better in silver, then you probably have a cool undertone. If gold suits you better, then you probably have a warm undertone. Gold suits me better so that confirms I carried out the undertone test properly because I have a warm undertone.

Knowing and understanding your skin undertone helps you shop for the best colours and makeup shades that will flatter your skin. It takes the guessing game away because you now know what looks good on you and why it does. And you can shop in confidence, knowing what shades you need in your wardrobe and your makeup bag.

Do you know your skin undertone? Sound off in the comment section please.

Thanks for reading and have a fab day!