How to find your skin undertone?

Knowing your skin undertone will help you tremendously when shopping for foundation. First, you need to understand your undertone. Then, you need to know the depth of color in your skin.

There are many different depths of skin tone. A strong shade range for a single foundation line is around 40 shades. When brands offer fewer options, there are often gaps where people simply cannot find a good match.

If you consistently feel that two undertone categories are “almost right,” you are likely neutral.

Quick Skin Undertone Quiz

Answer honestly based on natural daylight.

1. Look at your wrist veins. They appear mostly:

A. Blue or purple
B. Green
C. A mix of blue and green
D. Hard to tell, slightly green or gray

2. Which jewelry makes your skin look healthiest?

A. Silver
B. Yellow gold
C. Both gold and silver look good
D. Antique gold, bronze, or mixed metals

3. When you try foundation shades, they usually:

A. Pull pink or look too rosy
B. Pull orange or too golden
C. Are close, but not quite right
D. Look gray, muddy, or slightly off even when the depth is correct

4. In the sun, your skin usually:

A. Burns easily, tans slowly
B. Tans easily, rarely burns
C. Sometimes burns, sometimes tans
D. Tans easily but can still burn early on

5. Hold a white sheet of paper next to your face. Your skin looks:

A. Pink or rosy
B. Yellow or golden
C. Balanced, not strongly pink or yellow
D. Slightly green, gray, or muted

Results

• Mostly A’s → Cool undertone
  Pink, red, or bluish undertones. Silver jewelry and cool-toned foundations tend to flatter you best.

• Mostly B’s → Warm undertone
  Golden, yellow, or peach undertones. Gold jewelry and warm foundations usually look most natural.

• Mostly C’s → Neutral undertone
  A balanced mix. You can often wear both warm and cool tones, and neutral foundations are your best starting point.

• Mostly D’s → Olive undertone
  Muted, green, or gray undertones. Traditional warm or cool foundations may look off. Look for olive-friendly or muted formulas.

Helpful note

If your answers are split between two categories, that’s normal. Undertones exist on a spectrum. Start with the category you chose most often, and adjust from there.

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