Tipping Thursday: Skincare Part VIII-Skin Tone

How do you know what colors are right for you?  It’s all about your skin tone.  Your skin tone effects more than just your make-up, too.  It helps you make better decisions on colors for hair and clothing, too.  Determining your skin tone is actually a lot easier than you think.  There are 2 basic ways to do this.  They are:

1) Flip over your arm and look at the veins. Veins that appear greenish indicate yellow undertones which means that your skin tone is warm. Veins that appear to be more blue indicate blue undertones which means your skin tone is cool. Determine if your tone is warm or cool.

2) Pull your hair back into a pony tail or use a head band to keep all of the hair off of your face. Wash your face and then place a white towel around your neck and shoulders. The pure white cloth will reflect skin undertones. If your face looks yellow next to the white towel you have a warm skin tone and if it looks more blue then you have a cool skin tone.

In both of these “tests,” if you skin doesn’t look any different, then you have a neutral skin tone.

But what does that mean, warm or cool or neutral skin tones?  That doesn’t tell me anything about what colors are right for me!  Never fear.  You also have to take into consideration your complexion-which is your skin’s coloring.  There are 4 basic complexion types:

Fair-you have pink undertones and your skin is sensitive to the sun (you burn easily.)

Light/Medium-you have beige to yellow undertones and must be cautious of the sun because although you tan, you burn too.

Medium/Dark-you have honey to golden undertones and your skin has a natural tan color and darkens easily when exposed to sun.

Dark-you have mocha undertones and though you don’t burn, you’re still cautious when it comes to the sun.

So take your skin tone and your complexion and combine them to figure out what make up colors suit you best.  Neutrals colors like browns, greys and tans are great on everyone regardless-just be sure to pick shades that won’t overpower your skin.  For example, if you’re fair, don’t cover your entire eyelid in the darkest brown you can find.  Instead, choose a lighter brown and line with the dark brown.  The best way to find out what looks best on you is to experiment!  Try stuff out.  Really, any skin tone/complexion can pull off any shade.  It all in how you apply it.  Only thing to stay away from is matching your eyeshadow to your eye color-always a Don’t!  Not that I’m saying that blue eyed girls can’t wear blue eyeshadow, just don’t choose a shade that’s the same as your eyes.

There’s a great feature at mark's website called Shades of You that, using your complexion, shows you shades that work best with your skin for eyes, lips and cheeks.  From there, you can choose from the suggestions which colors will go best with your skin tone.  If your skin tone is cool, choose colors with blueish undertones (for example, with reds, they’ll look more purple.)  If your skin tone is warm, choose colors with yellowish undertones.  If your skin tone is neutral, you’re in luck, wear whatever you want!  If you're able to, test the color on your skin, like on the back of your hand, before using it.  That will give you a good idea of the undertones in it.