The Ultimate Guide on How to Find Your Undertone

The hardest part of perfectly matching your foundation to your skin tone—or any complexion product, for that matter—is figuring out how to determine your skin undertone. With outdated skin-matching tests and new formulations that come in so many shade options, it’s really easy to end up with a product that makes your skin either look too orange or too gray. I should know: my light-to-medium skin tone has baffled me for years until I mastered the art of matching shades to my neutral undertones.

So if you’re like me and have had enough of never getting your foundation shade right, this will be the most helpful guide in finding your actual skin undertone—and it’s straight from the pros. Read on to learn more, and may you never fall victim to looking too orange again.

What are skin undertones?

As celebrity makeup artist and Tatcha global director of artistry and education Daniel Martin explains, your skin undertone is the color underneath the surface of your skin tone. Where your skin tone is the surface color (which is usually categorized as fair, light, medium, tan, deep, or dark) that can shift due to a different number of things such as sun exposure, tanning, hyperpigmentation, or redness, your undertone tends to stay a consistent shade. “It’s really what determines how a makeup shade is going to look on you,” says Martin.

“[Skin undertones] influence whether your skin reads as warm, cool, neutral, or olive, even as your surface color shifts,” adds J. Brandon Correa, celebrity and YSL Beauty national makeup artist. “[It] is not the same as how light or deep your skin is; people of any skin depth like fair, medium, tan, deep, or very deep can have warm, cool, neutral, or olive undertones.”

Correa goes on to explain that you can sit somewhere between undertone categories as skin tone and undertones are incredibly nuanced. “I always remind people that undertones are not rigid boxes,” he says. But in general, the most common undertone shades are:

Cool Undertones

Both Martin and Correa say that cool undertones carry hints of pink, red, and rosy tones underneath. They can also lean blue.

Warm Undertones

Warm undertones, they say, are more yellow, peach, or golden. Martin adds that it can be orange beneath the surface too.

Neutral Undertones

“Neutral undertones have a balance of warm and cool characteristics,” says Correa. “Meaning the skin does not pull strongly in either direction.” Martin agrees and adds to think of it this way: nothing reads strongly pink or golden.

Olive Undertones

Martin says that olive undertones carry a subtle green, gray-green, or yellow-green cast that can show up at any depth, light to deep. “Olive is a little more nuanced,” Correa agrees. “Someone with an olive undertone may also lean warmer or cooler, which is why olive complexion can sometimes be tricky to shade match.

How to Determine Your Skin Undertone

There are a couple of ways you can figure out what your undertone is on your own. Martin first recommends the jewelry test where you hold up gold and silver jewelry to your skin to see which one is more flattering (“It’s my go-to way to determine undertones,” he adds). “If silver is more flattering you’re likely cool [undertone]. If gold looks better, you’re probably warm. If both work equally well, you’re likely neutral. If other metals like rose gold, antique gold, or mixed metals look best, you may be leaning olive or neutral,” he says.

Correa says you can also look to areas where the skin naturally gathers or folds. Think the crooks of your elbow, your neck, jawline, and places where the ears connect to the head to check what he calls the “small nuances of color.” Then in natural daylight, look at those areas closely and see whether your skin reads more pinkish, gold, or slightly green to determine your undertone. “You are not looking for the obvious color,” he says. “You are looking for the subtle cast beneath the skin.”

You can also compare those areas with shades of fabric, clothing, or makeup that you already know lean warm, cool, or neutral and see which aligns closest to your tone. Another popular test is taking a photo of yourself in natural light with a white background (“No filters,” he says) to see how warm or cool your skin may be in comparison to neutral surroundings.

Can your undertone change?

Generally speaking, your undertone will not change. What can change, both Martin and Correa say, is how your skin appears. “Redness, rosacea, inflammation, hyperpigmentation, melasma, acne marks, [and] even hormonal shifts can all affect the surface. So if someone with a warm undertone is dealing with facial redness, their skin might temporarily read cooler or pinker,” says Martin.

“This is also why someone may need a different foundation shade seasonally without their actual undertone having completely changed,” Correa agrees. “I think it is extremely helpful to separate what is happening on the surface of the skin from the actual color beneath it.”

How to Find the Right Beauty Products for Your Undertone

Again, these aren’t strict rules; wear whatever color feels right could be, undertone be damned. But if you’re looking for some idea of how to pick the right beauty product based on your specific undertone, consider the following suggestions:

Foundation

This is arguably the product where undertones matter the most. “Foundation needs to match both your depth and your undertone,” says Martin. As a general rule, he says cool undertones should look for foundations that are either pink-, rosy-, or red-based. Warm undertones should look for foundations that are yellow-, golden-, peach-, or honey-based. Neutral tones should look for neutral or balanced beige foundations. And Olive undertones should look for olive, golden olive, or muted golden shades. “I always swatch along the center of the face (the nose and cheek are) and check it in natural light,” he says. “The right shade won’t look orange, pink, or gray, and it should disappear into the neck.”

Concealer

Correa says that with concealer, it depends on your end goal. If you want it to match your complexion, then stay close to your undertone. If you’re trying to color correct, you’re looking for another tone to neutralize darkness or discoloration. For those looking for the former, Martin says you can follow the same general rules as you would a foundation (especially if you’re looking for concealer for the under-eye area).

Blush

“Your undertone can help predict which shades will feel harmonious and what shades could draw attention,” says Correa. For warm undertones, he recommends looking for peach, coral, and warmer red blushes. For cool undertones, he recommends berries, plums, or blue-based red blushes. Neutral undertones have more flexibility, and he says they can move between shades for both warm and cool undertones. As for olive complexions, he recommends looking for earthy tones, bronzed hues, and subtle reds.

Lipstick

Martin says that lipstick works very much in the same way as blush (so cool undertones go with berries, plums, and blue-based red blushes; warm undertones with orange, coral, and peach blushes, etc.). And if you’re looking for a nude lip shade, “If the shade makes your lips look gray or chalky, it's the wrong undertone match,” he says.

Highlighter & Bronzer

Martin says that highlighter and bronzer follow similar shade matches. Cool undertones, he says, should look for a pearly, icy champagne, or soft pink highlighter and neutral to cool bronzer. Warm undertones go well with gold, champagne, bronze, and warm caramel shades. Neutral undertones and olive undertones can both go with champagne, soft gold and bronze shades. Just one thing to remember with olive undertones: “I’d steer clear of anything too pink, icy, or orange,” he says.

Eyeshadow

Eyeshadow is another product where it’s pretty flexible and you should wear whatever shade you want. But matching your undertone is a great starting point, Martin says, if you’re stuck on deciding which color to use. Cool undertones shine in shades like silver, gray, mauve, cool brown, and taupe. Warm undertones go great with gold, copper, peach, and terracotta. Neutral undertones are the perfect base for champagne, rose, and soft brown. And olive undertones can go with olive green, copper, and a muted plum

But again, these aren’t strict rules to abide by. Think of them as just helpful guidelines. “Sometimes the most exciting color on someone is not the shade that perfectly matches their undertone,” says Correa. “It is the one that intentionally pushes against it.”

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