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color wheel with a list of warm and cool colors

In my wardrobe, the mature clothes are black, grey, or white. Why? Because it is not easy to wear colors! My mother used to dress me all the time when I was younger, in orange colors, and it looked hideous.

I looked unhealthy and greenish on my face. As soon as I was able to, I banned all orange pieces from my closet. Way later, someone told me about skin tones and colors that either makes the skin look brighter or dull.

My skin undertone turns out to be cold, making it almost difficult for me to wear dark, toned colors (like orange). Especially because my skin has an olive, Mediterranean color.

I also learned that each color has nuances that can be warm or cold. Since I love wearing colors because it just lifts up your mood, the first thing I did was I went shopping and bought a bright orange top with cold nuances. And I look great in it!!! Why am I telling this story? Because I know, many guys and girls have the same problem.

So here are a few tips on how your skin tone can be decided and what color tones work best for you.

 

How to determine your skin tone: (A small tip before you start: don’t go for what you like better, but what actually looks better on your skin)

 

  1. What jewelry looks better on your skin, makes it more tan and healthy looking? Is it Gold? Then you most likely have a warm undertone. Is it Silver? Your undertone might be cold.

  2. Another smart trick to see if the skin tone is cool or warm is to take a look at the veins. Your skin tone is warm if your veins look green. The yellow in your skin makes your naturally blue veins appear green.

  3. Your eye and hair color can also lead you to an answer. People with a cold undertone in their skin usually have bright eyes like blue, green or gray. Blond, brown and black with ash, silver or violet tones are their hair colors. People with a warm undertone, most likely have brown, amber or hazel eyes. Their hair color has a gold, red, orange or yellow shade. An example here is strawberry blond.

  4. How do you tan? If your skin has a cold undertone, you will most likely burn faster in the sun. That doesn’t mean cold skinned people can’t have a tan! For darker skinned people, the red turns into a nice tan later. Warmer skin tones are more fortunate in this department. They usually get a golden tan right away.

 

Understand color the palette
Primary colors: red, yellow and blue. The other colors are a combination of these main colors (secondary colors). The more a cold color (blue) is used to blend a color such as purple or green, the better a cold skin tone can match. The more yellow is used in, for example, orange or green, the better the color goes with warm toned skin.

 

 

Colors to wear with cold undertone
1. Blue, green, pink, purples that have a cold color as undertone (red shades with more blue than yellow (cherry, raspberry)


Colors to wear with a warm undertone
2. Yellow, orange, red, green and more orange and yellow than blue.

 

Different tones in the same color

 

Both these tones are considered red. They only have different shades. The cherry red contains more blue pigments and heads towards a pink tone almost. The tomato red has more yellow pigments in it and therefore comes out to be a warmer color.