Pink, Yellow, Olive, Green, Blue? Which Undertone am I?

There is always a lot of controversy on which undertone people are and lots of old-wives tales of how to find out your undertone. I did a post the other day on MAC undertones (which you can find here http://mattsmakeupmad.blogspot.co.nz/2014/08/why-are-undertones-in-mac-foundations.html) and explaining them but that isn't really helpful unless you know your own undertone.

Now first things first what exactly is an undertone? Most people think, it’s the tone you see on your skin. WRONG. What you see on the surface is your skin tone. Your undertone is just that, it's what is underneath the skin. Generally speaking undertones are divided into three different tones: Yellow, Pink and Neutral.

Now on to how you actually find your undertone. One of the easiest ways to find your undertone is to look at your wrists and see which colour they are. If you find that your veins are a blue or purple kind of colour you most likely have cool undertones. If they have a green or olive kind of tint to them you are more likely to have warm undertones. If you have both colours in your wrists then you are probably neutral toned.

The next way of finding out your undertone is see what kind of jewellery suits you. If you find that silver jewellery flatters your skin more than gold then you most likely have cool toned skin, conversely if find that gold jewellery suits you more than silver you have warmer toned skin. If you are lucky enough and both kind of jewellery suits you then you are neutral toned.

Finally, another way of helping to determine your undertone is to do the "White-Fabric Test". To do this test, with a freshly cleansed face place an Ivory-White towel or other kind of fabric around your neck and shoulders, the white of the should reflect the true colour of your skin. If your face appears more yellow then you are warm toned. If you see a slight blueish cast to your skin you are cool toned. Make sure you do this test in natural or incandescent light as fluorescent lighting can throw greenish, making you look warmer than you really are.

Now there are always exceptions to all of these rules. So in the end if you are really really stuck it is probably best to disregard everything I just said and go straight for the Neutral toned foundation!

I hope that this helps you on your journey of discovery your perfect foundation!

X's and O's

Matthew