A few weeks ago, I received a lovely email from a lady called Tess who asked if I would be interested in sharing some information about skin tone with you guys. Seeing as I knew next to nothing about skin tone myself, I said yes and she proceeded to send me a really useful article. It's fairly short and sweet but honestly, I had never considered my skin tone when choosing make up and now I see why, in the past, I have made the wrong choices. The article is below and I hope some of you find it as useful as I did!

Skin Tone

When it comes to cosmetics, it can be easy to be drawn in by a beautiful FOTD or a trend. However, just as you should bear in mind your body-shape when choosing a dress, so should you know your skin tone. This helps you to choose the best look for you.

How can you tell?

By tone, we often jump to the conclusion that we are fair, medium or dark. However our skin’s undertones are more complex than this. A fair-skin can still have warm undertones, and likewise, a darker skin can have cool pink pigments. To avoid wasting money on a foundation or palette which doesn’t match you, you need to distinguish your skin tone before anything.

The easiest way to determine your skin undertone is to do the “vein test”. By standing in natural light, you should be able to examine your colouring. Blue veins imply a cool skin tone, whereas a greener tone means you have a warm undertone. If you’re still not sure, you can can rely on any make-up artist to correctly identify your tone. As they are used to working with such a variation of tones, they should be able to give an objective answer.

Warm tones means you have yellow or golden undertones. People with a warm skin tone often have red/brown hair and brown/hazel or green eyes, although this isn't always the case - somebody with blonde hair could still have a warm skintone. When choosing cosmetics, a deep and earthy palette will work perfectly. This way you will enhance and compliment rather than clash. It will also result in a look that looks effortless and natural. However, if you favour more daring colour, for example for a special occasion, then peaches and golden products will still compliment your colouring, but will stand out a little more. You can also add heavier make-up with a strong smoky eye palette.

Products that work beautifully on warm tones are; Wild About Beauty Nutrilips, Nars Blush in Gilda and Bobbi Brown Nude Glow Shimmer.


Those with cool skin will have pink and red undertones. It’s much better to work with this pinkish tint, than to attempt to mask it with darker foundations and blusher that simply won’t suit the skin. Being cool-toned, doesn’t necessitate being pale. You could potentially have a relatively deep pink or reddish tinge to your skin and this would still be considered a cool skin tone. As a result, you should try to compliment rather than hide your pink pigments. When it comes to your eye, cheeks and lips, you can arguably be more daring and explore wider options than a warm-tone. Anything from bright greens, blues and pinks stand out beautifully, without clashing with your skin’s undertones.

Recommendations include; Urban Decay Eye Pencil, Nars Lipstick in Rouge and Laura Mercier Blush.

Working with your tone

Skin tones can only be very broad and vague categories, as each person’s colouring varies so much. It really just takes practice to see what really works for your own. The distinction between warm and cool is the initial questions to answer, and from this you can slightly alter your palette depending on how far on each end of the scale you are. You can read opinions and other product recommendations from expert beauty bloggers on the Skintone Guide here.