Warm, cool, neutral, huh? HELP!

May 29, 2013

Hillary T.

How do you know what kind of undertones you have I can't figure it out for the life of me!

May 29, 2013

Jazzmyn R.

Me neither. I can't c it, no matter how many examples I look at. Some people just have that sixth sense haha.

May 29, 2013

Sinéad K.

Warm is yellow undertones which would be sallow tan undertones, cool is pink undertones like a more paler pinker complextion and neutral has half warm half cool undertones.

May 29, 2013

Julia L.

It is pretty hard to tell. normally you can find out when you have a look at the whole package. when you have a cold eyecolour like blue, grey, dark brown etc.and a cold hair colour like ash you normally have a cold/rose undertone. when our eyes are warm like green (more yellow than blue green) or a warm brown like honey and your natural hair colour is warm like reddish or goldish you normally have a warm undertone more of a yellow or olive. but then you have some cases where you can't really tell because there kind of a "mixtype". in some cases it helps to hold a cold coloured scarf and a warm coloured scarf next to the face and look which colours makes you look fine and which sick :D
hope I could help a little :)

May 29, 2013

Hillary T.

Sinead (sry can't do accent) technically I know what its supposed to be I just can't figure out what I am if a posted a pic could you tell me??

May 29, 2013

Hillary T.

Julia that did help a lot!

May 29, 2013

Julia L.

Oh good. you can post a picture. maybe you have one in daylight?!

May 29, 2013

Kimberly T.

You look at your veins too. Like if you have bluey veins you're more warm but if you have greenish looking you're cool!

May 29, 2013

Shauna S.

I think it's so hard to tell. And as for the veins, everyone's veins are blue unless your skin is a bit darker. I personally just go as a cosmetologist at sephora or another beauty store. They will tell you right away.

May 29, 2013

Kimberly T.

Oh well okay. I was told that by my Cosmetology teacher and it's worked for me.

May 29, 2013

Sinéad K.

I'm going to say warm but I could be totally wrong there are lots if different tests you can do to determine what undertones you have just Google it and it will explain them all x

May 29, 2013

Hillary T.

awesome thanks everybody

May 29, 2013

Jillian K.

You can try the paper test. Hold a white sheet of paper to your skin. If your skin looks more yellow, you have a warm undertone. If its pink or blue, you have a cool undertone. If its neither of those options, you may have a neutral undertone.

May 29, 2013

Paige M.

The way I can tell is if you suit most clothes, jewelery and hair colours than you're neutral.
But if you only suit say silver jewelry then you're cool and if you only suit gold jewelry then you're warm.

May 29, 2013

Alicia H.

Hi guys,

This is always a confusing topic. You see, there are many layers to the skin which is why they call it "under"tone. Personally, I've gone to makeup counters and day in and day out they want to match me with a cool ivory tone. I have a pink surface tone but I have a warm neutral undertone. You put some pink on me and I look like a tomato.

As a makeup artist the best way to know when picking a foundation (which is usually when we'd need to know) is taking a dense synthetic concealer brush (or sponge if you're doing this without a MUA at the counter or store) and make one line all the way from the upper cheekbone down to below the jaw line in 3 colors all in the same shade range - one cool, one neutral and one warm. What you will see is that 2 will show very prominently through all the different surface shades of the face and one should blend pretty nicely with no lines of demarkation on the jaw line. That's your undertone.

May 30, 2013

Hillary T.

Alicia does it have to be on your face or could you test say on your chest or arm.

May 30, 2013

Kim S.

I think it's quite hard to tell too, but I think if you're struggling to tell, that may mean you're neutral. Surely if you we're really warm or really cool it would be easier to tell. I don't think all of these 'tests' you can do work particularly well. I *think* my skin is quite cool, but it might be neutral because I do sometimes think hmm I'm not so sure. But my hair is warm (natural redhead)... Only it's faded to a more neutrally mousy red over the years and my eyes are a warmish green. Looking at my arms and legs I definitely look more cool (my skin looks almost bluey purple sometimes because its so pale and translucent, but I suit gold a lot better than silver! Eugh. I'd say don't worry too much about your undertones, just try out different makeup and use your judgement as to what looks best, whether its warm, neutral or cool :)

May 30, 2013

Nicole B.

There's also the metal test, on which jewelry looks better (gold,silver, and bronze...? I think)

May 30, 2013

Emma E.

Wrap a white towel around your face.. So you can't see your hair. You can only see your face and then white around it (If that makes sense) if your skin is more yellow, you have warm undertones, if your skins is more blue it's cool, and pink is neutral. Hope this helps.

May 30, 2013

Heidi-Loren B.

The other day I got my hair dyed brown and I wanted a foundation to be the right colour so me my mum and sister went to boots to have a look I tried on loads of foundation as it is hard for me as I am really pale and combination skin (unlucky) but I went to no7 counter where they can use this thing which they press on your face and find your perfect colour they have every colour I was the palest colour and it was perfect try it out!:)

May 30, 2013

Alicia H.

@Hillary - it works best on your face to neck as that is where most surface tones are (redness, melasma, freckles etc) that can offset your true undertone. We also tend to tan on our bodies more than our face which raises melanin levels and can make you look more warm.