A nicely done base is, true to its name, the foundation for a put-together makeup look. However, what seems as easy as dotting on a foundation and blending it out, creating a base is a very critical step of your makeup that requires a nuanced understanding of skin tones and skin undertones.
While the former is associated with decipherable terminologies such as fair, deep, olive and wheatish, the latter involves classifications of cool, warm, and neutral. To pick up a foundation (or any base product) that complements your complexion like second skin calls for a thorough understanding of both. Identifying skin tones can seem like a cakewalk to most people, whereas the comprehension of skin undertones needs more attention to detail.
We spoke to celebrity makeup artist Tanvi Marathe to help us make sense of skin undertones and share some hacks on how best to identify them.
Skin tone versus skin undertones
While skin tone is suggestive of the ‘colour’ of the complexion, skin undertones are the underlying hues of the skin which may not be easily visible to the naked eye at first glance. “Skin tone has the tendency to change due to the weather conditions; when you move from a tropical area to a colder region, you can get fairer or perhaps lighter, and vice-versa,” says Marathe. As explained by her, the skin tone is very noticeable to the eye and spans across fair, light, medium, medium dark and dark. “Undertone, however, is something that a person has naturally, and it stays with them forever,” she explains. According to Marathe, nothing really changes or causes a shift in one’s undertone throughout their life.
The different types of skin undertones
Broadly speaking, there are three main skin undertones — cool, warm and neutral. There are high chances that you may have come across these terms at some point, but here’s what each of them really means. “One’s skin’s undertone can be a little more reddish/pinkish or on the yellowish side,” explains Marathe. If it’s more pinkish or reddish, it’s a cool undertone, and in case it’s yellowish (i.e., if you can see more yellow than red or pink in the skin), it’s a warm undertone. “Sometimes, there are people who fall under both categories; that’s when you know that the person has a neutral undertone,” she says.
How can you identify your skin undertone?
There are a couple of tried-and-tested ways of identifying which category of undertone your skin belongs to.
The first and the most common one is the vein test. “If you just look at the veins running on your wrist very closely, you’ll notice a peculiar, more prominent hue. If the veins are bluish in colour, then it’s said that the person has cool undertones,” reveals Marathe. On the other hand, if the veins are greener in colour, then it’s an inference of a warm undertone, adds the makeup expert. If the veins exhibit an blue-green shade in equal parts, the undertone is neutral.
Another way of identifying your skin undertone is by undertaking, as they call it in the field of professional makeup, the jewellery test. “It’s one of the oldest techniques of finding out one’s undertone in the makeup industry,” reveals Marathe. She goes on to explain that if silver jewellery passes as a more flattering option for someone over gold, they’re likely part of the cool undertone category, whereas if a gold-hued necklace or earring complements someone better, they’re likely in possession of a warm undertone. “And, people who carry off both equally well are probably ones with a neutral skin tone,” says Marathe. “However, I personally avoid opting for this technique of identification since nowadays it’s all about preference, and most people tend to prioritise the kind of jewellery they like instead of factoring in their skin undertone,” she concludes.
