If you want to wear clothes that will bring out your natural beauty, start by finding out which colors really complement your skin tone, hair, and eyes. Once you know which hues are the most flattering on you, you can fashion a wardrobe that makes the most of your natural complexion.
Find Your Best Color Matches
You may hear terms like "warm", "cool", or "neutral" in relation to your skin tone. You'll want to know what these terms mean and to find out which one best describes your skin tone in order to choose the most flattering colors to wear.
In clothes and makeup, the undertones in your skin, hair and eye color give valuable clues as to what colors will work best on you. But, there's a huge misconception that if you're pale, you can't be warm-toned, and if you're dark skinned, you can't be cool-toned - but that's totally not true!
Below are some of the best color shades depending on your complexion and skin tone below, and the colors you should stear clear of.
Warm Undertone
If you have warm undertones, your skin is likely to be creamy white, peachy beige, golden olive, or a honey brown colour.
Your natural hair color will be a creamy or pewter white, golden, or strawberry blond, golden, or caramel brown, an almost black shade of brown, copper, or wine red.
Best Hues for Warm Coloring
The colors that will look best on you are:
- Rich, earthy shades of red
- Rust and burnt oranges
- Mustard and citrus yellows
- Khaki and olive greens
- Chocolate browns
These particular shades will emphasise your golden tones and make you look truly radiant. Peach, coral, and red-violet are also great shades for your complexion.
While blue isn't an immediate choice for warm-toned complexions, periwinkle and teal are the blues best suited to you. Anything cooler can make your skin look gray. When it comes to neutrals, you're looking for warm grays and off-whites.
Cool Undertone
Your skin is either cool white, rosy beige or rosy pink, olive with blue or green undertones, black with blue undertones, or rosy brown.
Your natural hair colour might be ash-blond, sandy blond, towhead, ash or dark brown, black with blue undertones, auburn, snow white, or silvery gray.
Shades for Cool Coloring
In contrast to warm-toned complexions, your blue undertones are well suited to sea shades like:
- Cobalt blue and turquoise
- Icy blues
- Greens (especially mint and grass greens)
- Frosty purples and pinks
- Berry reds
In terms of neutrals, stick to cool grays and crisp, white shades. Warm shades like orange, tomato reds, and yellow are colours to stear clear of or wear sparingly, as they can tend to overpower your cool complexion.
Neutral Undertone
Your skin is ivory, beige, light to medium olive, or light brown, and your natural hair color is blond, brown, red, or white/gray. The combination of your skin, hair color, and eye color has both warm and cool tones running through it.
As you have a mixture of both tones, you're lucky enough to be able to wear the full spectrum of colors.
- Your standout, winning colour is true red.
- Opt for softened sherbet shades like muted raspberry, creamsicle, lemon, and lavender.
- Rich, bright, or neon colors can topple the balance in your complexion.
Deep and Darker Undertones
For deep and darker skin tones, you want to accentuate your natural coloring. The color range goes from mahogany to deep honey and rich honey. You can choose from rich, vibrant, and light colors. Lighter colors provide a great contrast to your skin undertones.
Your hair color may be dark brown/black, red or auburn, or gray, but you can also pull off a light color, such as blonde or another funky bright color:
- Gold or other metallic colors
- Light yellow
- White or cream
- Cobalt or pale blue
- Purple or lavender
- Red or light pink
- Orange or peach
- Emerald or new green
Bright to Pale Color Palette
Any of these colors will complement your deep and/or darker skin tone beautifully. From a brilliant, crisp white to a dreamier soft cream color, lighter colors are the perfect contrast to your skin tone. You have many choices of soft colors like pale blue, summer lavender, light pink, coral/peach, and the bright lightness of new green colors.
Dark Olive Undertone
Olive skin tone has green and/or yellow undertones. You can choose colors that complement yellows and greens, but you'll want to go with lighter or darker hues for your best colors.
Your ideal hair color may be a deep russet, auburn, jet black, or contrasting light color. Add some lighter highlights to emphasize your dark olive undertone skin:
- Tan /cream or brown
- Gray or gold
- Red or maroon
- Fuchsia or hot pink
- Orange or carrot
- Electric blue or teal
Colors That Work on Everyone
There are a few colors that will work universally across all skin tones and hair colors. This is because they provide an equal balance of warm and cool tones. These colors include:
- True red
- Blush pink
- Teal
- Eggplant
Color Seasons
If you're interested in a more detailed analysis to help you find out if you're better suited to warm or cool colors, you can have a color season analysis done. Visit ColorMeBeautiful.com to complete an online season analysis based on your unique features or use the Association of Image Consultants International (AICI) directory to find a professional image consultant in your local area.
Winter
If you are a winter, your skin color might be pale, olive, or dark; skin undertones are typically blue or rosy pink. Hair and eye color often contrast the skin. Black, dark, or white blonde hair are typical winter hair colors.
Winters look great in deep, rich colors such as black, deep blue, crimson, and dark pink. Icy pastels like silver, sky blue, light sunny yellow, and pink can also look wonderful. Bright white is another good color for many winters since this stark neutral works well with hair and eye color contrast.
Spring
If you are a spring, your skin undertones may be gold-yellow. Skin coloring is typically in cream or peach shades, with hair color ranging from auburn shades to golden and strawberry blondes. Springs often have freckles and lighter eye colors.
Springs look best in soft, rich colors. Warm colors such as peach, golden yellow, copper, coral, and brown shades with warm tones are good choices. Bright aqua, green, and royal blue can also look stunning. Rather than bright white, springs can opt for a rich, creamy ivory as a wardrobe staple.
Autumn
If you are an autumn, your undertones are typically golden, with skin coloring in shades like peach, beige, and golden brown. Red, red-brown, dark blonde, and rich brown or brown-black hair shades are common for this season. Autumns also tend to have darker eye colors.
Autumns look wonderful in rich neutrals, as well as earth-toned and spicy colors. Consider olive, forest, or mossy greens, orange shades, grays, dark browns, burgundy, purples, as well as camel and rich beige colors.
Summer
If you are a summer, skin undertones might be pale blue or pale pink. Skin might be pale or pink-toned. Light eyes and blonde or light to medium brunette hair are common for summers.
Summers look excellent in soft shades and muted colors with cool undertones (or light colored neutrals). Some of the best colors for summers include dusty or rose pink, pale yellow, lavender or pale mauve, and powder blue. A soft white can also work for this season.
You can also look at each season's traditional colors and learn more about how colors in fashion transition through seasons to help you choose your shades.
Tips and Tricks to Discover Your Tone
Discovering the shades best suited to you is no easy task. Take a look at some extra tips below to help you discover your best colors.
Look at Magazines for Reference
Fashion and celeb magazines (and websites too) are packed with full-length pictures of the best dressed models and stars each week. Find a celebrity who has similar hair, skin, and eye colouring to you, and take a look at the colours they tend to wear over and over again. When do they look their best, and when do they look washed out?
What Jewelry Looks Best on You?
If silver and platinum metals look better on you, it's likely that you have cool undertones. If gold or rose-gold suits you better, then you sit more on the warm-toned spectrum.
Check Your Veins
The best place to look is the inside of your wrist, because this is where your skin is the most delicate. Have a look at your veins. If they look more blue, your skin probably has cool undertones. If they look greenish, then you have warm toned skin - because you're seeing your veins through yellowish skin (blue + yellow = green!)
What Happens When You Catch the Sun?
If you're someone who burns and goes pink after being in the sun, you have cooler tones. If you turn golden brown, your skin is warmer toned.
Understanding Colors
You may try on a shirt that you love at the store, but it doesn't look as good on you as you thought it would. Once you know what colors flatter your skin tone the most, you might have better luck when you go shopping.
All of this isn't to say that you must always stick to one of your suggested colors. These are guidelines, not rigid rules! However, they do serve the purpose of informing you what your best colors are likely to be. These colors will enhance your natural complexion and features without clashing with your hair or skin tones.
Of course, if you do ever dramatically change your hair color, your best-suited colors will alter slightly, so it's important to be aware of this. You should use your newfound knowledge when choosing makeup colors and attire. This way, your face and clothing will blend harmoniously for an overall fabulous look.
Stick to Your Best Shades
You'll feel great in whatever you wear once you know what colors flatter your skin tone. When you wear colors that complement your skin tone instead of clashing with it, you're tuning in to your body and natural complexion, which will make you look and feel your best.
