Figuring out skin tone

[Danestress]

This makes me crazy. I have never been able to decide if I have "warm" skin tones and would be an "autumn" or "cool" ones and would be a "winter." I want to know this about myself - especially when I am buying makeup.

 

I think I look terrible in most of the colors suggested for "warm" toned people. I would never wear yellow, rust or orange. My best colors are cranberry red and black. I think everyone would agree this is the case, and that alone makes me think I am "cool" or a "winter."

 

But I have olive skin. It's not dark - sort of lighter olive. I think I have a yellow/green undertone. I once ordered a bunch of mineral foundation samples, and the olives were definitely the best match.

 

When I look at my veins, they look blue to me.

 

The other test I see a lot is to decide whether one looks better in silver or gold. I think probably silver, but maybe not. Maybe I just like silver better.

 

Here is a picture of me. I would just love it if someone could help me with this!

[jewellsmommy]

you sound like a cool to me :D

[Bird Girl]

You look like my DH; dark brown hair, olive-y skin, freckles in the sun, and he has blue eyes. He looks great in jewel tones and black, which makes him a winter. A good test if the red that looks best on you--if you do best with a brown-based red, like rust, you're not a winter--but if you look best in a blue-based red (like cranberry!) you are.

[Danestress]

I tan super easy. I can quite easily get a nice, deep tan and I almost never burn. When I was a kid, my father called me his little "coffee bean."

 

I see this associated with being a warm toned person a lot. I think this is what throws me. In the winter, I think I am a winter, and at my age, I wear sunscreen all the time, but there is the tanning thing....

 

Part of why I want to know this is so that I can buy the right shade of hair dye!

[Bird Girl]

My DH tans, too, he doesn't burn, although when he was a kid, he freckled in the sun. I'm a "warm" person, and I burn like a sucker.

 

But your hair is really cute! What color were you thinking of changing it to?

[Ibbygirl]

You look like a warm complexion to me. My understanding is that yellow undertones = warm and pinkish/reddish undertones = cool.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

This makes me crazy. I have never been able to decide if I have "warm" skin tones and would be an "autumn" or "cool" ones and would be a "winter." I want to know this about myself - especially when I am buying makeup.

 

I think I look terrible in most of the colors suggested for "warm" toned people. I would never wear yellow, rust or orange. My best colors are cranberry red and black. I think everyone would agree this is the case, and that alone makes me think I am "cool" or a "winter."

 

But I have olive skin. It's not dark - sort of lighter olive. I think I have a yellow/green undertone. I once ordered a bunch of mineral foundation samples, and the olives were definitely the best match.

 

When I look at my veins, they look blue to me.

 

The other test I see a lot is to decide whether one looks better in silver or gold. I think probably silver, but maybe not. Maybe I just like silver better.

 

Here is a picture of me. I would just love it if someone could help me with this!

 

 

Years ago I went to a Color Me Beautiful party. It was a lot of fun, and I learned I'm a winter. You won't catch me in an orange or yellow top.

 

The way they did the "test" was by draping colored scarves over your front, one at a time, and having everyone at the party "vote" on whether it looked good or not. Seeing the colors one right after another, all in the same lighting and no-make-up conditions, made it very easy to see the best colors for each person. It wasn't scientific at all, but there really was a difference.

 

I had one friend at the party who had always been partial to blue eyeshadow, but the test showed she was clearly a Fall girl. When she put on the recommended Fall make-up colors she looked radiant! It was amazing. She and I both have brown hair and brown eyes, but she was a Fall and I was a Winter. She had freckles, so that may have been what put her into the Fall undertones. I'm not sure.

 

I worked with a young woman who came to work one morning in an rust/orange dress. She looked terrible, and I asked if she was feeling okay. She said she was fine, and (having recently been to the above mentioned party) I mentioned to her that her dress was perhaps a bad color for her. She had an important meeting that day, and she wanted to look her best, so she went home and changed. She came back a half hour later with a royal blue dress, and she looked vibrant and healthy and beautiful!

 

I'm a firm believer in the colors theory. Yo

 

Anyway, if you are familiar with the color groups, perhaps you can spend some time in front of a mirror, draping clothes/fabrics in the various colors in front of you and seeing what they do to your face. If you could assemble a "panel" of objective friends/family members to help you, that would even be better!

 

 

ETA: I was just looking at your picture, and those green trees behind you do nothing for you. I don't know how true the colors are in my monitor, but based solely on what I see, I would say you are a Winter.

Edited January 19, 2011 by Suzanne in ABQ

[Shawna in Texas]

You could be a neutral. :D:tongue_smilie:

 

 

Or you could be warm, just a fair one right now. The type of red thing is usually a good indicator, but the tan thing is throwing me off. There are probably exceptions, but cool people don't generally tan, or at least not easily. So, neutral.

 

I'm a neutral. I collect reds (before the grand world of academia and kids, I was a budding artist), and while I get more complements with cranberries, I actually think I look better with warmer reds.

[EthiopianFood]

You look warm to me. Could you be a spring?

 

This is interesting: http://www.beauty-and-the-bath.com/Season-Color-Analysis.html They list hair/skin/eye colors on the bottom, too.

Edited January 19, 2011 by RaeAnne

[Mejane]

Have you seen the new makeups that change color to match your skin? I thought they were bunk until I tried one last week. They absolutely work. My daughter, who is a cool, and I, a warm, both put on the same light shade and it blended away on both of us. Amazing. Almay, Cover Girl and Revlon all carry them. They're called True-blend or Match or somesuch.

 

If your best colors are black, white and jewel-tones like cranberry, you are a winter, which is a cool.

Edited January 19, 2011 by Mejane

[KidsHappen]

You look warm to me. Could you be a spring?

 

This is interesting: http://www.beauty-and-the-bath.com/Season-Color-Analysis.html They list hair/skin/eye colors on the bottom, too.

 

This is an excellent website and very helpful. I have studied this quite a bit and worked with doing people's colors way back in the 80s when it was popular the first time. People wih olive skin are almost aways Winters and it sounds like the colors that looks best on you are winter colors. I admit that this one can be a difficult one to figure out due to the fact that olive skin usually has a yellowish undertone. I am not exactly sure why that is so but you should not play it up.

 

When you have choices of make-up colors also go with the cool tones. Same with hair colors. You wants ashes, colors that could be considered mousy, chestnuts, salt & pepper and silvery greys. Eyes, are usually bue, grey, hazel or some form of brown.

 

The best way to tell is to find which colors would best for you: white and silver will always looks better than golds and cream. Jewels tones will looks the best on you. Your neutrals are blacks and greys. Almost any true red or one with a blueish base should really look good on you. Clear or true colors will always look better on your than muted colors.

 

HTH some.

[laundrycrisis]

You look like a warm complexion to me. My understanding is that yellow undertones = warm and pinkish/reddish undertones = cool.

 

I have always been told this, BUT.....I think it can get more complicated than that.

 

I definitely have yellow undertones. I need makeup with yellow, not pink undertones, or it looks terrible. Because of this, people who "know about colors" tell me I am "an autumn".

 

However, I look awful in the colors that "warm" people are supposed to be able to wear. I cannot get near off-white, and I look fabulous in black. I have been told by a "color" person that I should never, ever wear black...and that same night, she saw me in black and said, "wow, you do look great in black ! How can that be ?" :tongue_smilie:

 

Making makeup more complicated - I need foundation and powder that is yellowish or neutral. If it is pink toned it looks pink. But then all the "warm" blushes and lip colors look orange on me. So for those, I head for the cooler colors.

 

I've decided that I am a person who defies color analysis. I have reddish hair and I freckle on my face only, I have yellowish skin that tans easily everywhere except my face, and I look awful in the "warm" colors and great in the "cool" colors.

 

Danestress, maybe you are also a person who defies color analysis !

[Ibbygirl]

I have always been told this, BUT.....I think it can get more complicated than that.

 

Oh I agree with you. I was only speaking in very general terms.

 

I too am a hard one to define. I have olive skin with yellowish undertones. I need yellow based foundations, but I have some redness in my skin too mainly in my cheeks. I also look good in black. It's actually one of my best colors. And my hair is almost black too. Go figure. :confused:

[Onceuponatime]

You look warm to me. Could you be a spring?

 

This is interesting: http://www.beauty-and-the-bath.com/Season-Color-Analysis.html They list hair/skin/eye colors on the bottom, too.

 

I found this sight recently when I was having similar questions to the OP. In fact, based on the picture, my coloring is similar to hers as well.

 

I decided I was right between "soft autumn" and "soft summer," which overlap anyway.