LeonnaShay Makeup

Tone It Down: How to Determine Your Skin’s Undertone

 

Hey chicas! I hope all of you had a great Valentine’s Day. Mine was…awesome! I got a beautiful card, roses, dinner cooked for me (this was the day before Valentine’s Day), and surprise tickets to Tyler Perry’s play Madea’s Big Happy Family (with great seats—I would post pics but I wasn’t supposed to be taking any and I don’t want any trouble from TP Studios, lol)! I really enjoyed my entire weekend. I hardly had time to think about what I was going to post today. I finally decided on discussing skin undertones. This is a key factor is choosing the right foundation shade and eye shadows. If you find that a certain color looks better on someone else than on you, then that probably means that color doesn’t compliment the undertones to your skin (this applies to your wardrobe as well).   So, what exactly are undertones? Your undertone is the pigment under your skin that picks up and reflects light.

 

There are two basic types of undertones: warm and cool. An easy test to determine your undertone is the t-shirt and paper test. Put on a white t-shirt and hold a piece of peach paper next to your face (do this without makeup on); then hold a piece of blue paper next to your face. Which looks better? If the answer is peach, then you’re a warm tone. If it’s blue on the other hand, then you’re cool tone. If the t-shirt and paper test seems to be a bust for you, then just have fun experimenting and playing with different colors. That’s actually the way I learned what eye shadow colors compliment me the most—peaches, golds, yellows, pinks, purples/plums/violets all look fab on me. But blues, dark greens, silvers & grays don’t look as great and sometimes depending on the depth of the color is a no-go, period! I’m a warm tone for sure! I find that most women of color have warm undertones. This means that foundations that are yellow-based in color look best. You’ll need to figure out whether you’re warm or cool toned in order to choose the best makeup to compliment your skin.

 

A great way to test your foundation match is to apply a little bit of the color on one of your cheekbones. Some people say to apply it to the inside of your forearm, but I disagree with that because your forearm is typically a couple of shades lighter than your face (probably because its part of the body that’s not exposed to the sun). Try different shades and blend them into your skin with your fingertips until you find the one that seems to disappear. For those of you who never wear foundation and don’t even own a compact, this may be a pricey trial-and-error process.   With eye shadows, warm tones should stick with what I mentioned for myself…cool tones can go in the opposite direction, those silvers/grays and blues will look great on you. You may find that experimenting with colors may come in handy because colors vary in depth and pigmentation. For example, you may look good in light green, but dark green throws things off a bit. So a little trial & error will help you see where to draw the line, and that line is different for all of us.

 

Here’s a color wheel to help you out…find your undertone on the wheel, the colors that compliment you will be the opposite of that color (I’m warm toned, which means there is yellowish pigmentation under my skin, so that’s why the violet/plum colors work well for me).

 

 

 

 

Hopefully this helps you understand what undertones are and how to figure out on what side of the spectrum you fall. However, with makeup, experience is the best teacher so if at first you don’t succeed…try, try again. Leave comments & let me know how you fare with the process. I’d love your feedback! And don’t forget to follow my blog! Take care & take charge chicas! :-D