What Is My Undertone?
If you are asking "What is my undertone?", the answer is one of four: warm, cool, neutral or olive. Your undertone is the subtle tint beneath the surface of your skin. It stays the same whether you are pale in winter or tanned in summer.
The quiz below asks seven quick questions and gives you a result in about a minute. Then you can check it with the five at-home tests below.
Seven quick questions about your veins, jewelry, the sun and the shades that suit you. Each answer points toward warm, cool, neutral or olive, and the undertone with the most points is your result.
About 1 minutes 7 questions
Before you start
- Use daylight from a window, not a lamp.
- Look at the inside of your wrist and arm, which tan less than your face.
- Answer for your bare skin, without foundation or self-tan.
Your answers stay on this device. Nothing is saved or sent.
Undertone test at home: 5 ways to find your undertone
Do these by a window in daylight, with clean skin and no self-tan. No single test is decisive, so look for the answer that comes up most often.
1. The vein test
Turn your wrist over and look at the veins on the inside, where your skin sees the least sun.
Mostly blue or purple suggests cool. Mostly green or olive suggests warm. A mix you can't call suggests neutral. Veins can be hard to see on deep skin, so lean on the other tests if yours are faint.
2. The jewelry test
Hold a gold piece and then a silver piece against your neck or the back of your hand.
If gold makes your skin look smoother and brighter, you are probably warm. If silver does, you are probably cool. If both look equally good, you may be neutral. If neither looks quite right, consider olive.
3. The white paper test
Hold a sheet of bright white printer paper under your chin, then a cream or ivory sheet. Look at your skin, not the paper.
Bright white looking better points cool. Cream looking better points warm. No real difference points neutral. If both sheets make your skin look a little grey or green, that is a strong olive sign.
4. The sun test
Think about what your skin usually does after a day outdoors without sunscreen.
Burning pink and rarely tanning points cool. Tanning to golden brown points warm. Burning a little and then tanning points neutral. Tanning easily to an olive brown points olive. Deeper skin burns less whatever its undertone, so weigh this test lightly if that is you.
5. The lip color test
Try a coral or orange-red lipstick on one half of your lips and a berry or blue-red on the other.
If coral looks fresh and berry looks heavy, you are likely warm. If berry looks natural and coral looks orange, you are likely cool. If both work, you are probably neutral. Olive skin often prefers deeper, earthier versions of both, such as brick and plum.
Warm vs cool vs neutral vs olive undertones
Each undertone appears at every skin depth, from very fair to very deep.
Warm undertone
Golden, peach or yellow cast; green veins; gold jewelry blends in; tans easily.
Best colors: Cream, camel, coral, marigold, olive green, warm teal; gold and brass.
Cool undertone
Pink, rosy or bluish cast; blue or purple veins; silver looks brighter; burns easily.
Best colors: Pure white, navy, raspberry, fuchsia, sapphire, emerald; silver and platinum.
Neutral undertone
Beige with no clear lean; mixed veins; gold and silver both work.
Best colors: Soft white, greige, dusty rose, jade, soft teal, medium blue; any metal.
Olive undertone
Green or grey-green cast; often looks grey in pastels; tans deeply.
Best colors: Off-white, khaki, terracotta, forest green, burgundy, aubergine; antique gold and bronze.
Undertone vs skin tone
Skin tone is the surface color you see first: fair, light, medium, tan or deep. It changes with sun.
Undertone is the tint beneath that surface, and it does not change. Two people with the same medium skin tone can have opposite undertones. That is why one looks fresh in coral and the other looks fresh in fuchsia.
Common mistakes that give the wrong result
Judging a tan. A summer tan can make cool skin look golden. Test on your inner arm, which tans less than your face.
Mistaking redness for a cool undertone. Rosacea, acne, sunburn and flushing sit on the surface. Look at your jawline and neck rather than your cheeks.
Testing under artificial light. Warm bulbs push everyone toward golden, and cool LEDs push everyone toward pink. Daylight from a window, without direct sun, gives the truest read.
Undertone questions
Mixed results are common, and they usually point to neutral or olive. Redo the tests on another day in steady daylight, without makeup. If gold, silver, white and cream all look slightly off, olive is worth trying even if your veins look blue or green.
Look at the shades that have matched you best. If golden or yellow foundations blend in and pink ones look ashy, you are probably warm. If pink or rosy shades disappear into your skin, you are probably cool. If neutral shades are the only ones that work, that is your answer.
The same tests work, but veins may be harder to see and the sun test matters less. Rely on the jewelry, paper and lipstick tests instead. Deep skin can be warm (golden or red-brown), cool (blue or plum), neutral or olive, and many foundation ranges now label deep shades by undertone.
A color analyst usually drapes fabric under your chin in daylight, comparing warm and cool versions of the same color. They watch for shadows, redness and how even your skin looks. The at-home paper and jewelry tests are a simpler version of the same idea.
Pink cheeks are often surface redness, not undertone. Green veins suggest warm, so you could be warm with some redness, or neutral. Check your jawline against white paper and try the gold and silver test. Whichever answer repeats is the one to trust.
Your undertone stays the same through life. What changes is the surface: tanning, redness, skin conditions and aging can all make it harder to read. If your result feels different from a few years ago, retake the tests in daylight before you change your whole wardrobe.