Skin tones & how to found yours

Looking good is easy if you ensure your natural colors are in harmony with the colors you are wearing. This means ensuring the colors of the makeup you choose blend well with your overall skin color and hair color. This is crucial as matching colors in this manner ensures the makeup you apply highlights your face and adds value to it, instead of taking away from it or distracting attention.
The secret to doing flattering makeup is to build on what you are already gifted with, your natural skin tone and hair color. Here, it is also important to remember that successful makeup is more about using the right shades of colors than bold colors.
Primarily, skin has two shades of color called the undertone and the overtone. The overtone of your skin is what you see when you look at yourself and because this skin is exposed to numerous elements such as tanning, it changes color over the years. However, the undertone of your skin remains much the same throughout your life as it is considered the inside or permanent shade of our skin. It is good to understand that your skin color is different from your skin undertone, it is the base of your skin color, or a natural foundation at best.
Such an undertone is best visible on the underside of our wrist. Good makeup is about matching and blending color with the skin undertone and not the skin color. This should be done in such a harmonious and gentle way so it builds or adds to your overall complexion, giving it a smoother, softer and flawless look. Broadly speaking, makeup and skin experts have divided these skin undertones into three broad categories; cool tones, warm tones and neutral tones.

 When it comes to doing makeup, finding out the correct skin tone is paramount. To do this, you simply have to look at the inside of your forearm and wrist, where veins are generally visible. If your veins appear slightly greenish, that means you have a yellow skin undertone or a warm skin tone. However, if your veins appear more bluish, you clearly have bluish-pinkish undertones or a cold skin tone. If you are not be able to clearly make out the color of your veins, and the overall area has a beige tint, then you possess a neutral skin tone.

Another popular and easy way of determining your skin tone is to wash your face well, and pat it dry. Now stand in front of the bathroom mirror and hold a plain white sheet of paper next to your face. If your face starts looking slightly yellow or red in comparison, then you have a warm skin tone. Similarly, if your face gives off a pinkish-bluish aura then your skin tone is cool. If your face simply comes across as brownish then your skin tone is neutral.
Once you have established your skin undertone with the help of these simple tests, the next step is to mix and match makeup colors according to your skin tone. The warm skin tone color palette includes a range of shades such as honey beige, shades of beige, almond, copper, gold etc. These colors in general and their accompanying shades are bound to compliment the skin of any person with a warm skin undertone. When applying makeup for a person with a warm skin tone, your foundation should reflect any one of these shades. Remember the best way to ensure the foundation is the perfect match for the skin tone is to do another quick, easy test.
Take 3 similar foundation colors and apply it underneath each other onto your cheekbone. The perfect match foundation would simply become invisible to the naked eye, instead leaving a smoother and even looking skin tone. This easy test should always be performed before applying any foundation on the face, as it ensures you find your perfect skin tone match. We will discuss foundation in more detail in later chapters.
When it comes to lip, eye and nail color, people with warm skin tones generally look good in shades of browns, tans, corals, reds, bronze etc. People with cold skin undertones on the other hand look great in foundations with shades of ivory, and browns. While pink, rose, mauve, berry, red, plum, wine, orange etc. look good on cool skin tones in lipstick, nail paint and eye color. The biggest advantage here goes to people with neutral skin tone. They should generally settle for foundation in shades of beige.
Having established skin tones and their complimentary palettes, it is good to remember that no two people can have the exact same skin tone. So, while these colors and shades work well on most skin tones, you must apply and test these colors before embracing them in your makeup. Here, experimenting with color is a must; otherwise you might find yourself bored of using the same color, while losing out on a huge range of flattering shades out there.