Are you the type of person who likes to sport all-black-everything? Or maybe you prefer the nude tone neutrals. Black, gray, tan, and navy can be universal shades that anyone can rock with relative ease. But what about all the colors of the rainbow? How can certain shades actually complement your skin tone?
If you’ve ever been told, “that color washes you out”, you know what we’re talking about. Never again.
In this article, we will go through a few of the most common skin tones, and make recommendations for which colors you should add to your wardrobe.
The Color Combinations Based On Undertones
Though it is not talked about as frequently as your skin overtone, your skin undertone can inform a lot about your color choices. In this capacity, we like to categorize undertones as:
- Neutral: gray or indistinguishable
- Warm: yellow, green, or brown
- Cool: pink, blue, purple
If you have never tried to identify your skin’s undertone, take a look at the jewelry you wear. Do you gravitate towards silver or gold? Oftentimes, people with cool undertones will wear silver jewelry, and people with warm skin tones will wear gold jewelry. Therefore, those with neutral skin tones will mix metals, or go back and forth. As the mixing of metals is becoming more popular for everyone, the jewelry test may become outdated, but there are other ways you can identify your skin’s undertone.
For example, take a look at your veins, if you can. If your veins appear on the greener side, you have a warmer undertone. If they appear on the bluer or pinker side, you have a cooler undertone. If you are unable to see the color of your veins you can also try the paper test.
Using a piece of white printer paper, hold it up to your face and look in the mirror (in a well-lit room). What shade stands out to you? In comparison to the white paper, does your skin look redder, or greener? Does it look bluer, or more yellow? For darker skin tones, this test is the best way to determine your undertone.
Now that you’ve established your undertone, let’s identify which colors belong in your wardrobe.
- Neutral Undertones: Whites, reds, light pinks, light yellows, bright blues, and medium greens.
- Warm Undertones: Corals, olives, creams, reds, peaches, and oranges.
- Cool Undertones: Blues, emeralds, magentas, dark reds, lavenders, pinks, and grays.
Color Combinations Based on Overtones
If you prefer to select your wardrobe colors based on your skin overtone, here are some common combinations.
- Deep Skin Tones: Bold colors go very well with deeper skin tones. That includes light yellows, cobalt blues, fun reds, and most jewel tones.
- Dark Skin Tones: Olive greens, creams, bright pinks, and funky purples.
- Medium Skin Tones: Metallics, dark grays, neon greens, neon yellows, magentas, and bright reds.
- Light Skin Tones: Baby blues, warm tans, off-whites, forest greens, and mustard yellows.
- Fair Skin Tones: Seafoam greens, ocean blues, lavenders, burnt oranges, and dusty pinks.
Once you have evaluated both your undertone and overtone, you have double the wardrobe recommendations! Try out these color combinations, see how they compliment your skin tone and let us know what you think.