Undertone can anyone else not figure it out?

[Wadermellone]

Hi,

I live fairly rurally, so tend to order make up on line. But trying to work out what shade works best and what undertone I have never seems to work. I am now over 40 and I feel that my usual concealer shades no longer work for me.

Even in store the people working all day I have a different one.

I am mixed race (south India) but to most people I appear white and fairly pale at that. Most people guess I am Greek or Spanish in heritage. I have dark hair (or did before it went grey) and dark eyes and freckles. My veins in my wrist, appear blue with a tinge of green. As I read that looking at your veins can help.

I naturally have some redness in my skin. Cheeks and forehead. I thought that meant I was a cool skin tone. I am have always been quite dark/ bit purple under my eyes. But apparently not.

I tried the ‘do you look better in gold or silver’ I can’t say either really looks better. Certain shades of gold tend to look dated on me. But silver doesn’t really do anything for me either.

I have even tried filters on my adult dds Tik-Tok. No luck. I do know that a vibrant emerald green suits me and I worse a bright yellow jumper the other day and load of people commented about how well I looked. When I wear bright red I look pale and tired. burgundy looks ok. I don’t suit taupe or beige. Don’t suit white either.

I am also trying to add items to my wardrobe that have colour. I wear black, a lot. And want to change it up.

Is the only way to figure this out to get a colour consultation? And if so, how do I go about finding a good one? Thank you

If you can get to a larger town or city I would go to a large department store like John Lewis/Fenwicks/Flannels or even a larger Boots where there are lots of make up counters with staff who will try different colours to match your skin tone.

I bought some BB cream at Flannels yesterday and it matches my skin exactly. It was an expensive first purchase, but now I know what works I can shop around for when I need to replace it.

None of the 'tests' worked on me and it turned out I was pretty neutral. The only way I found out I was slightly warm was when I ordered some custom foundation and it told you where you are on the pale/dark cool/warm scales.

It's possible you're just a neutral tone, maybe in summer when you tan you look more autumn seasonal palette and might look slightly better in tan and gold tones and in winter when I assume you look paler then look better in winter palette so frosty pink, burgundy red, black, charcoal, silver.
Do you dye your hair? If not are they silver grays (winter, cool) or gingery yellowy grays (warm)?

Looking at yourself in the mirror isnt really easy to tell. Take a photo of yourself wearing orange (eg a scarf) and gold accessories and another one wearing pink and silver. Then, objectively compare the two and ask for other opinions.

Btw its quite normal and common to mix make up shades of concealer and foundation its also normal to have a lightet shade and a darker shade depending on tanning.

I would have said cool until you mentioned the yellow jumper.

Thank you all.

@RampantIvy I will try stores again. Any brands you recommend? I have been to countless counters over the years and have been told I am cool then warm, then neutral. Then recently olive toned. Which I understand can be warm or cool so not helpful 😂

@WeRateSquirrels can I ask where you got that from?

@SaladDays2024 i do wonder if I am neutral. But then neutral undertone make up never seems to work. My skin colour does change a lot depending on time of year. I do have different shades of bb cream for different seasons. But I thought the undertone stayed the same? That might be my misunderstanding. I dye my hair. I have attached a picture of the colour. I do feel this colour suites me more than any others I have had. my greys are silver white when they come through.

@rockwater i will try some colours out when I get to a store. My wardrobe is all very dark colours. Even the accessories. The only bright thing is the yellow jumper.

@BusterGonad i thought cool too. I got the jumper as a gift about a year ago. I hadn’t worn it. I threw it in because it was cold and I wanted to get wear out of it. I couldn’t believe how many people said how great I looked.

@Wadermellone I agree it's really hard to tell. I have pale skin with definite blue veins, with a tendency to redness on my cheeks. I always assumed I was cool toned and always wore silver and blue toned colours. However, someone bought me a gold necklace and it really suits me so then I was like WTF? I do notice that blue/pink toned blush looks good on me as opposed to bronzer (which tends to be orange toned) so I stick with that but then I dyed my hair blonde (from dark brown) and ash blonde looks absolutely horrific on me but the gold/honey tones look great so tbh I am still very confused 😂

It was from Dcypher, @Wadermellone

I'm not at all convinced that this cold/warm system really works, but it's certainly true that some colours suit us much better than others.
If you want to follow the system, then some websites talk about 'dark autumn' or 'deep autumn' - a zone where warm autumn meets cool winter. Might that be you? This is just an example, the first one that came up when I googled; there are many others: https://theconceptwardrobe.com/colour-analysis-comprehensive-guides/dark-autumn-a-comprehensive-guide
Do you wear lipstick? In which case, you might try to see whether a cool blue-red or warm brown-red suits you better.

https://www.imageconsultantmaidenhead.co.uk/online-services.html#/?fbclid=PAAaazDV3Iae-lZHKC08LxjII-tbH7dX3uvlYv5fRI0rNUXnuBS3T7fe5T51I_aem_AbeAxnh8OoTlyg8GZxSqCQGKySvbJ5V1AL-BSLLbRMAWDjXMkoHwlNT6NfQh8vjIwmc
This lady is on instagram and she has a link she does your colour analysis over the web and her reviews are brilliant I’m going to have the transformation package done when I hit my target weight so I can buy clothes without wasting money !!
I find it hard I have blue veins blue eyes pale skin but goes red with touch !
ash mousy natural hair ! I suit forest green as well and gold and silver I can’t tell !!
Hope this helps x

imageconsultantmaidenhead that’s her Instagram account x

It's definitely hard to tell.
Undertone, as far as I observed, is not related to your ethnicity. I'm white, my sister is white (no shit sherlock) and yet we have very different skin undertones. I'm quite pale but still quite "orange-y", whereas, despite being as pale, she's more "rose-y".

Regarding your jumper test, yellow and red (and all colours actually) come with a lot of nuances, a yellow can be super warm, neutral or cold, so it's hard to generalise on that.

Also, it's not that straight forward, such as "I have warm undertones so I'm going to wear only gold and those colours and dye my hair this way". I have warm undertones but used to have platinum blond hair which looked quite good with coral make up. Now I have natural brown hair and I'm decent looking wearing a bit of pink on my cheeks.

Don't overthink it is what I wanna say.
From what you said (emerald green and bright yellow) I'd say you're more warm, but being warm wouldn't mean that all apparently warm colours suit you (eg. bright red)
I'm personally good in mustard yellow, but can look quite dead in bright red, as soon as there's a hint of blue in said red, I'm out.

Thank you all for all the tips and recommendations. And even just for people letting me know it’s not just me. 😂

I have been faffing around. Neither plain gold or silver seems to do much for me. Silver or white gold with some sort of stone does. Not sure that’s much help. But I have silver with amethyst stones that really seems to brighten up my skin. So did the sapphires (not real ones unfortunately) as did the silver with pearls. And silver with some stone that’s meant to look like diamonds. They all worked quite well. I forgot to add the hair colour photo earlier. But it’s here with a photo of the colour of the jumper. It’s not the exact one but it’s the same company and the colour is the same.

Also I just realised my Eborian CC cream which is a good match which a lot of people says pulls orange on them.

Also went through adult dds wardrobe and borrowed some accessories to have a look. It does appear that reds with blue don’t work for me.

Oh and rose gold earrings looked good.

Going to check out that instagram account 😄

@Wadermellone I bought a this

The sales girl tested a couple of colours on my skin and the second colour was spot on.

I was out today with some friends in the bright sunshine and they couldn't tell that I was wearing any make-up. The testure is light and it is a perfect colour match.

Could you be olive? The seasonal analysis doesn’t always fit if you are. Olives may not suit beige but yellow and greens often work.
Wear a white top (or use paper) and take a mirror outside on an overcast day and look at your neck to see if there’s a green or grey tone.

that sounds amazing. I have only tried their translucent powder which came in an advent Callander. But i will take a look when get chance to get to town.

@Vulcanodon that was what I was told before Christmas. I have a slight olive tone. But I can’t see it myself. I will try the test you suggested though.

olive tones can be hard to see. I’m very pale with dark eyes and hair (usually wear NC15-18) and I could never work out if I was warm or cool. Finally worked out I’m pretty neutral but fair olive. I can pull off most dark autumn colours and quite a few dark winters as well. I’m not great in white or beige and awful in anything pastel.
If you have dark hair and eyes take a look at kettlewell and filter for deep colours.
I’ve heard that red leopard in London are good for colour consultations but they are not cheap!

A couple of people have suggested you may have olive undertones, which seems to be the case for a lot of people who can’t get foundations to match. I know Nars makeup has some olive shades so you could start there

@Vulcanodon you sound very similar to me. Oddly I just uploaded a photo to Vivaldi Color website and it suggested dark winter and that some colours from dark autumn would be best. So we sound very similar. I did the white paper test and do think I am cool with a slight olive. Which might be what’s made it so complicated.

@Happyinarcon thank you. I will take a look at their selection when I get to town.