How To Know Your Skin Undertone?

How to determine your undertone before finding your foundation shade



While some shades of makeup make your skin glow, others often make it look dull! Have you wondered why? Your skin undertone holds the answer. Once you learn how to find skin undertone, choosing the right makeup products becomes effortless. Not sure how to check skin undertone? Read on as this guide will help you figure it out in minutes.

 

How To Know Your Undertone?

  1. Check Your Veins: Look at the veins on your wrist. Blue or purple suggests a cool undertone, green indicates warm, and a mix of both points to a neutral undertone.
  2. Test Some Jewellery: Gold jewellery usually flatters warm undertones, while silver suits cool undertones. If both look good, you may have a neutral tone.
  3. Do You Tan Or Burn?: If you burn easily and turn red, you’re likely cool-toned. If you tan quickly and go brown, you’re warm-toned.
  4. White Paper Test: Hold a white sheet near your face. Yellowish tones suggest a warm undertone, rosy or pink hues signal cool, and a balanced look indicates a neutral undertone.

What Is Skin Undertone?

Your skin undertone is the subtle, natural hue that sits beneath the surface of your skin. Unlike your skin tone, which can change with sun exposure, weather, or skincare, your undertone stays the same throughout the year. It influences how colours look on you and whether certain shades make your skin appear brighter, warmer, cooler, or dull. Knowing your skin undertone helps you choose makeup, clothing, hair colours, and jewellery that truly complement your natural complexion.

 

Undertones are broadly broken down into three categories:

 

  • Warm - Your skin has hints of yellow or gold beneath your skin
  • Cool - The underlying colours in your skin are red, blue, or purple
  • Neutral - You have a mix of both warm and cool hues

 

Quick Note: Your skin’s tone is the colour of your skin and is divided into three types: fair, light, medium, deep, etc.

 

Now that you know the three types of undertones, here are a few simple ways in which you can determine your undertone.

How To Know Your Undertone?

Knowing your undertones and your skin’s colour will help you find your perfect foundation shade. It can be done with three simple steps:

1. Check Your Veins

Wondering how to know your undertone quickly? One of the quickest and most common ways to determine your skin undertone is to check the insides of your wrist. If your veins appear blue or purple, you have a cool undertone. If they look green, you’re warm. If you’re having a hard time narrowing down between blue and green, you most likely have a neutral undertone.

2. Test Some Jewellery

How to check skin undertone, you ask? Tell us if you think you look better in gold jewellery. If yes, you probably have a warm undertone. If silver jewellery is more flattering on your skin tone, you have a cool undertone.

3. Do You Tan Or Burn?

Another easy way to know your skin undertone is to know how your skin reacts to the sun. If you usually get a sunburn and your skin turns red, you have a cool undertone. If you tan easily and your skin turns brown, you have a warm undertone.

4. White Paper Test

Here’s a quick tip on how to check skin undertone! Hold a white sheet of paper against your face and look at yourself in the mirror. If your skin appears yellow next to the paper, your skin has a warm hue and undertone. If your face has a rosy blush, you’re cool-toned. If you can’t determine between the two, you’re in the middle with a neutral undertone.

 

Equipped with all the facts on how to determine your skin undertone, look for makeup products that match not just your skin colour but also its hue or undertone. Here’s a quick guide for you.

How to Find Makeup Products Once You Know Your Undertone?

Once you understand your skin undertone, choosing makeup becomes much easier and far more accurate.

1. Foundation & Concealer

  • Warm Undertones: Choose yellow, golden, or olive-based foundations and concealers.
  • Cool Undertones: Pick pink, rosy, or blue-based formulas.
  • Neutral Undertones: Go for balanced shades without a strong warm or cool tint.

2. Blush

  • Warm Undertones: Peach, coral, warm apricot shades suit people with warm undertones
  • Cool Undertones: Go for Rose, berry, cool pink tones
  • Neutral Undertones: Choose soft mauves, dusty roses, mixed-toned peach blush makeup

3. Lipsticks

  • Warm Undertones: Brick reds, warm nudes, terracotta, coral shades flatter warm undertones
  • Cool Undertones: Blue-based reds, berry tones, cool mauves, pink lipstick shades brighten people with cool skin undertones
  • Neutral Undertones: Balanced nudes, rosewood, neutral pinks complement neutral undertones

4. Eyeshadow Shades

  • Warm Undertones: Go for Gold, bronze, copper, warm brown eyeshadow shades
  • Cool Undertones: Taupe, plum, grey, navy, cool brown hues make eyes pop up
  • Neutral Undertones: From soft browns, beige, to champagne, consider using versatile eyeshadow nudes for neutral shades

5. Highlighter

  • Warm Undertones: Champagne and gold highlighter help radiate warm undertones
  • Cool Undertones: Pearl and icy highlighter tones work best for cool undertones
  • Neutral Undertones: Use soft rose-gold highlighter for a glowing complexion

 

Now that you have learned how to know your undertone, every makeup choice, i.e., from foundation to lipstick, will become perfect, smooth, and flattering. Choose beauty essentials based on your skin tone and undertone, and build your own makeup kit. From simple makeup looks to dramatic makeup looks, create looks that allow your skin undertone to shine through and express your authentic beauty.

 

Explore the wide range of face makeup, lip makeup, and eye makeup products with the Virtual Try-On tool to check out all face makeup, eye makeup, and lip makeup shades virtually. Try the Foundation Shade Finder tool to get the tone-matched base makeup online.

Frequently Asked Questions On How To Know Your Undertone

You can find your undertone at home using simple tests like checking your wrist veins, noticing whether gold or silver jewellery suits you more, observing how your skin looks against white fabric, and seeing whether you tan or burn easily. Most people have one consistent undertone, such as warm, cool, or neutral. However, some individuals may appear to have a blend of tones, which is considered a neutral undertone, not two separate undertones. True dual undertones are extremely rare. No! Undertones do not change over time. Your skin tone may become lighter, darker, or more tanned with seasons, age, or sun exposure, but your undertone, whether it’s warm, cool, or neutral, remains the same throughout your life.

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