Your skin tone is how light or deep your skin is. Your undertone is the subtle color beneath it — warm (golden, peachy, yellow), cool (pink, red, bluish) or neutral (a balance of both). Olive is a common extra category with a green-gray cast. Undertone does not change with a tan, which is why it is the more useful thing to know when choosing foundation, concealer, hair color or clothes.
Skin tone vs undertone
Two people can have the same skin tone and different undertones, and the same undertone across very different skin tones. Skin tone changes with sun exposure; undertone stays roughly the same. That is why a foundation can be the right lightness but still look gray, orange or pink on you — the depth matches but the undertone does not.
Warm undertones look golden or peachy, cool undertones look pink or red, and neutral sits in between. Check in natural daylight, on clean skin, at the inner wrist and jawline.
The quick tests
- Veins: look at the inside of your wrist in daylight. Mostly green veins suggest warm; blue or purple suggest cool; a mix, or hard to tell, suggests neutral.
- Jewelry: if gold looks better against your skin, you may be warm; if silver does, you may be cool; if both look good, you may be neutral.
- White vs off-white: pure bright white tends to suit cool undertones; cream and ivory tend to suit warm ones.
- Sun: if you tan easily and rarely burn, you lean warm; if you burn quickly and pink up, you lean cool. This one is less reliable because it mostly reflects skin tone and sun sensitivity.
- The jawline swatch: try two foundation shades of the same depth, one yellow-based and one pink-based, on your jawline in daylight. The one that disappears is your undertone.
What about olive skin?
Olive skin has a green or gray cast on top of a warm or neutral undertone. People with olive skin often find that both “warm” and “cool” foundations look slightly wrong — warm shades turn orange and cool shades look ashy. Shades labelled olive, or neutral shades with a green-yellow base, usually work best.
Why the tests sometimes disagree
Lighting is the biggest reason. Warm indoor bulbs make everyone look warmer, and cool screens or overcast light push skin cooler. Redness, sunburn, tanning and rosacea can also hide your undertone. Do the tests in indirect natural daylight, on clean skin with no makeup or self-tan, and trust the result that comes up most often rather than any single test.
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Frequently asked questions
How do I know if my skin is warm or cool?
In natural daylight, look at the veins on your inner wrist (green suggests warm, blue or purple suggests cool), compare gold and silver jewelry against your skin, and swatch a yellow-based and a pink-based foundation of the same depth on your jawline. The one that blends in shows your undertone.
What are the skin undertones?
The main undertones are warm (golden, peachy, yellow), cool (pink, red, bluish) and neutral (a mix). Olive is often added as a fourth, with a green or gray cast.
Is skin tone the same as undertone?
No. Skin tone is how light or deep your skin is and changes with tanning. Undertone is the color beneath the surface and stays about the same.
Can your undertone change?
Not really. Your skin tone changes with sun exposure, and redness or tanning can make your undertone harder to see, but the undertone itself stays largely the same.
Why do the undertone tests give different answers?
Usually because of lighting, redness, a tan or makeup. Repeat the tests in indirect daylight on clean skin and go with the result that comes up most often.