Understanding Skin Tones & Undertones

Since this blog is all about beauty, I would like to start from the very basic which is understanding skin tones and undertones. I myself also had a hard time finding my undertones, finding skin tones was really easy because you can see it with your naked eye. I'm going to make this easy and simple to understand. This post is all about identifying skin tones, understanding undertones, methods of finding undertones and complimenting colors.

Skin Tones & Undertones

It is important to identify your undertones as you may end up buying the wrong foundation for your skin and wrong hair color. Before realizing that I'd wearing a wrong foundation I've noticed that my face were looking dull, muddy or ashy and if you are wearing an inappropriate foundation you may end up looking like mine. The foundation may match your skin tone but it may not match you undertones so this is why it's important to know your undertones.

Not only can undertones determine what foundation matches you but it can also determine what eyeshadows, blushes and lipstick you should wear.

The first thing you might wanna know is that there's a difference between skin tones and undertones. Your skin tone is the color of your skin which can be seen easily with our naked eye and your undertone is the color within you skin tone, it hides under the skin but it can be seen through several methods. A lot of you might think that cool, warm and neutral are skin tones but they are in fact undertones.

Another thing you should know that your skin tones can change, but your undertone never changes. An example of this is tanning, you may tan during summer meaning your skin tone will be tanned or change but of course your undertone will not be tanned.

Shades/Types of Skin Tones:

• Very Light
• Light
• Light-Medium
• Medium
• Medium-Dark
• Dark
• Very Dark

Shade/Types of Undertones

• Cool - Pink, Red or Blush Tones
• Warm - Yellow or Golden Tones
• Neutral - Both Red & Yellow Tones (or neither)
• Neutral Cool - Neutral undertone but more oncool tone
• Neutral Warm - Neutral undertone but more on warm tone

Methods of Identifying Cool, Warm or Neutral Undertones

1. Genetics

One easy way of determining your undertones is by your genetics, because human natural hair color and eye color were complimented with skin undertones. I made a chart for easy understanding.

  If you have black, brown or blonde hair and have blue, green or grey eyes, you have a cool undertone.

And if you have black, brown, auburn, blonde, strawberry blonde or red hair with black, brown or hazel eyes, you have a warm undertone.

2. White Shirt/Towel Method

If you have any hesitations or confusions whether you have cool, neutral or warm undertone use another method. I also did a second method in determining my undertone actually I've done all of the methods just to justify or clarify myself that I really have a warm undertone.  Another method will determine if you have a cool, warm or neutral undertone is the white shirt or white towel method.

Get some form of white fabric, whether a white towel, a white t-shirt, a white cloth or white sheet (basically anything that's white), a pony-tailed hair (hair tied), clean face and some effort.

Steps to be followed:

1. Wash your face make sure it is really clean, no make-up
2. Tie you hair back
3. Take some white shirt or any white cloth
4. Place it around your neck
5. Stand to a window facing a natural light or just stand in natural day light
6. Have some mirror

When you notice that your face appears to have a red, pink or beige tones, you fall to cool undertone category. But if your face appears to have a yellow or golden tones, you fall to warm undertone. And if your face appears to have slightly green brown tones, you have a neutral undertone.

3. Vein Method

Another way of determining your undertone is simply looking at your veins. It's a quick and easy method with a little effort needed.

The easiest way to look your veins is  in your arm, hand or under your wrist.

• If your veins are mostly blue, you have a cool undertone.
• If your veins are mostly green, you have a warm undertone. 
• If your veins are mix of blue and green (like turquoise/aqua), you have a neutral undertone.

4. Gold vs. Silver

Another simple way of identifying your undertone is the gold vs. silver jewelry method. You may already knew what jewelry suits but you might wanna know is that it is the another method.