What Undertone Is and Is Not
Undertone is not your skin's surface tone — surface tone changes seasonally and with health. Undertone comes from the fixed underlying pigments in the deeper skin layers: the ratio of eumelanin (brown-black), pheomelanin (yellow-red), and hemoglobin (red). This ratio is determined by genetics. Undertone exists in every skin tone — fair, medium, olive, brown, and deep skin all have undertones. A dark-skinned person can have a warm or cool undertone; surface depth does not determine the underlying cast.
The Warm Undertone Color Palette
Best neutrals: ivory and warm white, camel and warm beige, warm chocolate, olive, warm charcoal. Best accent colors: tomato red, rust, coral, warm salmon, peach, warm orange, golden yellow, mustard, olive green, forest green, warm teal, terracotta, bronze. Best metals: gold, bronze, rose gold, copper. Colors to avoid near the face: pure stark white, cool grey, lavender, cool baby pink, icy blue, stark black (unless very deep coloring), cool magenta, and navy with cool blue cast.
The Cool Undertone Color Palette
Best neutrals: true white, cool grey, charcoal, navy, cool taupe, true black (if deep enough coloring). Best accent colors: true red (blue-based), burgundy, cool pink, raspberry, cool fuchsia, lavender, cool dusty rose, mauve, cobalt, periwinkle, cool emerald. Best metals: silver, white gold, cool platinum. Colors to avoid near the face: warm ivory and cream, orange and warm coral, warm brown and camel, gold and mustard yellow, warm earthy greens, rust, copper tones.
Neutral and Olive Undertones
Neutral undertones have no strongly dominant warm or cool cast — more flexibility than either, but still have preferences. Neutral-undertone people look best in mid-tones of colors rather than extreme warm or cool versions, and in soft muted versions rather than very vivid extremes. Olive undertones (greenish-grey quality common in Mediterranean and South Asian coloring) do best with warm earthy tones, dusty golds, terracottas, and warm chocolate — and tend to look less good with very vivid bright colors or stark black and white.
A Practical Undertone Audit of Your Current Wardrobe
Gather five to ten shirts or tops in different colors. In natural daylight, hold each near your face and take a photo focusing on your skin, not the shirt. Compare the photos. In your best colors, skin looks clearer, more even-toned, eyes look brighter. In your worst colors, skin looks more yellow, grey, or tired. The pattern you see across colors confirms your undertone and gives you a working understanding of your palette before you even get a formal analysis.