What Colors Look Best On Your Skin Tone

Hiya, Lovelies!

Color is one of the biggest statements. It can not only describe a personality, it reflects mood, makes or breaks your complexion, and when worn correctly, can make you feel like a rockstar. I think anyone can wear any basic “name color” (i.e. green, blue, red, orange, etc.); it’s just the shade that trips us up.  Your complexion may look better in a certain shade of a color than someone else and vice versa.

YES I KNOW THAT BLOUSE IS TOTALLY YOU

YES I KNOW YOU JUST NEED TO HAVE IT

BUT THE COLORS IT COMES IN

WILL NOT WORK WITH YOU.

People sometimes ask what makes me boost my confidence when I’m feeling blue (see what I did there?? Eh, eh? No? Ok.). Well, I found out what colors I look and feel good in, and that changed everything. What I’m really happy about, though, is I look good in red. And not just any red; scarlet to be exact. I know for a fact that navy blue and I are not on good terms seeing as I don’t have the right complexion, it makes me look sick (especially in fluorescent lights. BLEH).

To try and find which colors look best on you, we have to go back and remember if you’re skin tone is warm or cool. This is extremely easy to do. Just pin your hair back into a pony, making sure all hair is out of the face. Remove all makeup and grab a white towel. Place the white towel under the bottom of your jaw and in front of your neck (the pure white of the towel reflects the undertones of your skin). If gold, yellow, or any sort of beige reflect, you have a warm skin tone. If pink, red, blue, or purple reflect, you have a cool skin tone. You could also try a scarf method by taking a orange or pink cloth/scarf and determining which looks better against your skin. If you look best with the orange, you’re a warm tone; for pink, you’re a cool tone.

If you don’t want to do all that though, just take a look at the veins on your wrist. If your veins are blue or blueish,you are a cool skin tone. Greenish or yellowish veins indicate a warm skin tone. Or, if you've read our other article “The Perfect Shade of Red”, the method we use there to determine your perfect red lipstick color can work just as well.

Here is a guideline chart to give you an idea of the types of shade you should go for based off of your tone:

WARM SKIN TONES:

•  Orange
•   Brown
• Olive Green
•   Peach
• Tangerine
• Red (Try it with tomato red undertones)
•  Dusty Blue
•  Canary Yellow
•   Lavender

Warm Skin Tone Color Pallet

COOL SKIN TONES:

•  Baby Pink (along with rose or blush)
•  Lavender
• Red (With cherry red undertones)
• Light blue
• Coral
•   Yellow
• Royal Purple
• Mint/Sage Green

Cool Skin Tone Color Pallet

     Feel free to play with the color pallet and mix and match to see which look great on you because you’ll be able to find a plethora of more color shades you can look fab in!

However, on a side note,I believe there are two neutral colors that I think look absolutely gorgeous on any tone: black and cobalt blue. As far as I've seen (and there hasn't been anything to prove me wrong about this) both colors compliment either skin tone and you can’t go wrong with them!

Neutral Skin Tone Color Pallet

Now before I forget to tell you, lighting is also important in this process. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT TRY AND FIND WHAT COLORS LOOK NICE ON YOU IN FLORESCENT LIGHTS. You will be sorry and you will cry and feel sad and just don’t do it OK? The best lighting is either natural sunlight or vanity lighting (think showgirl mirror lighting) . Natural lighting will show what your skin tone and the color will be like in the majority of places you will go. As for vanity lighting, it should emit a warm, glowy shade of light, which I really like, that show a bit more detail. They flatter the best and, on another note, are the ones you should be applying makeup in.

So there you go! I hope that this post answered a few of your questions and informed you about color. Remember, knowing what colors work with you and which ones don’t will help you out in the long run. Once you know, you can make wardrobe decisions based on this and you won’t ever have to ask again “Does this color work?”. One step closer to ALWAYS having a go to outfit. Huzzah's and Yay's all around!

Stay kind!

Natalie <3