Cold, neutral or warm skin undertone? Know what yours is so you don’t make mistakes when it comes to makeup or when choosing clothes and accessories.
Who has never wanted to buy a foundation that they saw in an advertisement and thought it would look perfect on them, but when they tried it on, they realized that it didn’t make any sense with their skin color? Or even an outfit that you loved, but when you tried it on you realized that it didn’t look as good on you as it did on the model? This probably happens because your skin’s undertone doesn’t match the tone of your makeup base or the color of your clothes.
In short, skin undertone is not the same thing as skin color – light, medium or dark. In short, it is the background color, which is under the skin. Thus, a person can have dark skin and still have a cool undertone, and a person with fair skin can have a warm undertone.
Therefore, it is important to find out what yours is to have a more harmonious makeup, so you can use the right products if you want to enhance or smooth your skin.
Types of skin undertone
There are 3 types of skin undertone: warm, cold and neutral. However, to understand this division, it is also necessary to know about the concept of colors.
Warm tones
Warm colors are those that resemble red, yellow and orange, colors that are strong and make a statement.
Cold tones
The coldest tones are blues, purples and pinks.
Neutral tones
In neutral tones, we can notice a mix between warm and cold tones. Therefore, beige, brown, gray and even shades of green fit here.
Discovering your skin’s undertone
First of all, you need to know that melanin is the pigment responsible for giving color to the skin. Therefore, it also presents three different color tones, which reflect each person’s skin color:
- Pheomelanin: yellow pigmentation;
- Trichosiderin: red pigmentation, which is more uncommon;
- Eumelanin: blue pigmentation.
Therefore, those with a cold skin undertone have bluer pigmentation. On the contrary, the hot one has more reddish pigmentation. Finally, neutral is characteristic of a person with both balanced pigments.
However, what’s the point of knowing about colors if you don’t know your skin undertone? So let’s help you find out how to find yours so you can be more successful when buying makeup and clothes.
Observation of the veins
To find out your skin undertone, it is not difficult with the vein test, the most used. To do this, when you stretch your arm, observe the color of the veins:
- If they are blue, purple and violet: cold skin undertone;
- If they are blue-green: neutral skin undertone;
- If they are green and brown: warm skin undertone.
Coin test
If you want to be more sure of your undertone, in addition to the vein test, you can do the coin test. Take a gold coin and a silver coin. Place them on your hand and see which color best suits your skin.
If you think gold matches better, your skin undertone is warm. If it’s silver, your undertone is cold. However, if your skin matches both, your undertone is neutral.
Skin undertone and makeup
Having finally explained your skin undertone, it’s time to buy a foundation, concealer or makeup. Basically, it should follow your skin’s undertone. So, if you have a cold undertone, choose foundations with a pink or olive base. If it’s hot, opt for products with a yellow background. However, if it is a neutral skin undertone, the base of the foundation is not important.
The basic tip is: when buying a foundation, always try it in the most natural light possible and always on the cheek area. Testing on the wrist or hand is wrong, as the skin color is not the same and is always lighter than the face. This way, you are more certain that you have chosen the right tone.
Skin and clothing undertone
In addition to makeup, we must also observe our skin undertone when choosing clothes and accessories. After all, a color of clothes that looks beautiful on a friend doesn’t always look good on us.
For this, it’s cool to do a test. So, tie your hair up and make sure you don’t have makeup on. Once done, stand in front of the mirror and take different colors of fabrics or clothes and place them close to your face, remembering to always use natural light. This way, you will see which color suits you best.
If the orange and red colors look better, your undertone is warm. If it was blue or pink, it’s cold. However, if you thought they all looked great, yours is neutral.
Finally, the undertone can even help you choose accessories and jewelry. If the silver ones look better, yours is cold. If the gold ones look better, it’s hot.
Okay, now there’s no mistake when it comes to applying makeup or putting together a beautiful look that matches your skin color.
Sources: Mari Kalil, Catherine Hill, Look.SOS, Natura
Images: Eli Zatt, Betisa, Cara de Rica, Sephora, Vix,
