Your skin tone has two parts, depth and undertone. Depth is how light or deep your skin is, from fair to rich. Undertone is the hue underneath, cool, neutral or warm. Three quick tests at home find both in a few minutes, or our free undertone test reads your undertone from one selfie.
Before you start
Good light is the whole secret. Stand by a window on a bright day, out of direct sun, and turn off any lamps. Wash your face, skip makeup, and wait ten minutes for any redness to settle. Have a mirror, a sheet of plain white paper, and one piece each of gold and silver jewelry ready.
Test 1, find your depth
Depth is the easiest part. Look at the side of your jaw, which sees less sun than your forehead and nose, and compare it with a skin tone chart.
| Depth | A quick description |
|---|---|
| Fair | Very light, burns easily |
| Light | Light, tans slowly |
| Medium | Clearly between light and deep |
| Tan | Golden or bronze |
| Deep | Deep brown |
| Rich | Very deep brown |
Our full skin tone chart shows each depth with all four undertones side by side. Pick the row that matches your jaw most closely. If you are between two, that is normal, because skin depth is a smooth range, not a set of boxes. Researchers measure it with a continuous number for the same reason.
Test 2, the white paper test for undertone
Hold the white paper under your chin and look at your face in the mirror.
- If your skin looks pink, rosy or bluish next to the white, you lean cool.
- If it looks yellow, golden or peachy, you lean warm.
- If it looks even and balanced, you are likely neutral.
- If it looks slightly green or gray, you may have olive skin.
This is one of the most reliable home tests, because pure white is a fixed reference, a bit like the way our undertone test uses the whites of your eyes.
Test 3, the jewelry test
Hold the gold piece against your wrist or neck, then the silver one.
- Gold looks better if you are warm. Your skin looks brighter and smoother next to it.
- Silver looks better if you are cool. Gold may look brassy.
- Both look good if you are neutral.
If the paper test and the jewelry test agree, you can be fairly confident. If they disagree, try the vein test on your wrist, explained in our guide to skin undertones, or take a selfie with our undertone test.
Putting it together
Your skin tone is your depth plus your undertone. For example, you might be light and cool, medium and warm, or deep and neutral. Write both down, because shade ranges for foundation are organized the same way, by depth number and undertone letter.
| Your result | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Light and cool | Pink based foundation, silver, berry, navy and pure white |
| Light and warm | Golden foundation, gold, peach, coral and cream |
| Medium and neutral | Neutral foundation, both metals, jade, rose and true red |
| Deep and warm | Golden foundation, gold, rust, olive and mustard |
| Deep and cool | Red or blue based foundation, silver, emerald, sapphire and berry |
These are starting points. Your eyes and hair also shape your best colors. If your result came out neutral, our article on the neutral undertone explains what to do with it.
Using a selfie instead
If you would rather not juggle paper and jewelry, a selfie works too, as long as the light is good.
- Face a window in daylight with no filter and no makeup.
- Hold the phone at eye level and look straight at the camera with your eyes open.
- Add the photo to our undertone test.
The test balances the color of the light using the whites of your eyes, samples your cheeks and forehead, and tells you if you are warm, cool or neutral. It runs on your phone, so the photo is never uploaded. If you held white paper next to your face, you can tap it for an even more precise reading.
Common mistakes
- Testing at night or under a lamp. Indoor light is usually warm and makes everyone look warmer.
- Looking at your face in the bathroom mirror. Bathroom lights are often very warm or very cool.
- Mixing up a tan with your undertone. A tan changes depth, not undertone.
- Using red cheeks as a guide. A flush or sunburn adds pink on the surface. Check your jaw and inner arm instead.
Skin tone, complexion and undertone, a quick glossary
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Skin tone | Usually means depth, how light or deep your skin is |
| Complexion | The overall look of facial skin, including tone, texture and evenness |
| Undertone | The hue under the surface, cool, neutral or warm |
| Overtone or cast | An extra tint on the surface, such as olive |
| Depth | How light or deep skin is, from fair to rich |
People often use skin tone to mean all of these at once, which is why charts and quizzes can seem to disagree.
How skin tone changes through the year
Your skin depth can change with the seasons. Sun makes most skin a little deeper in summer, and it fades in winter. Your undertone does not change, so the main thing that shifts is the depth you need in foundation, and sometimes how deep your best clothing colors can go. If you tan easily, it can help to check your depth twice a year, once in late summer and once in late winter.
Using your result when you shop
- For foundation, look for your depth number and your undertone letter or word in each brand chart.
- For clothes, use your undertone to choose between warm and cool versions of a color, such as coral or raspberry.
- For jewelry, gold for warm, silver for cool, both for neutral.
- For hair color, golden and red shades for warm, ash and beige shades for cool, balanced shades for neutral.
What to do next
Once you know your skin tone, the next step is your full color palette. Our free seasonal color analysis adds your eye and hair color, measures the contrast between them, and matches you to one of 12 color seasons with 24 colors to try.