Wearing Colours That Suit Your Skin

As we know, it's summer! There are so many clothes in so many colours a girl can’t stop shopping, but before you hurry off on your shopping spree always have an idea what exactly you want to buy and what colours suit you.

It’s important to know what colours make your skin tone pop but to make the right choice we need to know what skin tone we have.

Skin tones are normally grouped like seasons: cool – winter/spring or warm - summer/autumn.

To find out your skin tone check underneath your arms, if the veins running down your forearm appear bluish you are in the ‘cool’ complexion category and if the veins at your forearm appear greenish then you fall under the ‘warm’ complexion category.

If you fall under the cool skin tone category it means you're pale or dark skinned with blue or pink under tones. So you should stick to bright colours that show off these undertones. Colours like pink, blue, and yellow work for you.

For those who fall under the warm skin tone category, your skin type has undertones of gold and yellow. So dark colours like black and colours with earthly undertones such as brown, red and orange suit you. Avoid bright colours and think of autumn related colours.

Grouping skin tones into seasons is a bit complicated, so we will also group them into fair/pale skin, olive/medium skin and dark skin.

Fair /Pale Skin

Most ladies with fair/pale skin are always conscious of not looking too pale - to look bright and healthy dark colours do the trick. They create a contrast to your skin; stick to colours like navy blue, emerald green, and primary colours. You can wear a bold bright colour like pink but pick a shade that flatters your skin tone.

When you wear black integrate it with a bright colour like red to highlight your rosy undertones. If your rosy undertone is so red that makes it seem like you are constantly blushing, tone it down with a cool colour like primary blue.

Avoid colours with earthly undertones like beige, orange, cream, terracotta and tan they can make you look washed out.

Avoid pastels but if you want a more subtle look than the bright primaries, go with teal or turquoise.

Olive/Medium Skin

If you have a tanned skin it means you have yellow and green undertones. People with olive skin tones have to avoid wearing green and yellow because they bring out your undertones and you will look almost like a Simpson!.

Go for colours like beige, cream, light blue, black and grey. By wearing earthly tones like beige and perhaps sands you bring out your olive tone, but in order not to overdo it, mix with key monotone pieces. Combine black bottoms with lighter tops to create a great mix of contrast and compliment your skin tone.

Dark Skin

For people with dark skin all colours suit them. However make sure you avoid white or black or too light or too dark colours, you can wear white or black but mix with other colours. Keep it bright, fresh and bold, avoid brown and navy’s and stick with pastels to complement blue and pink undertones.

If you find these complicated or you still don’t know where you fall, simply experiment - place colours beside your skin tone and see if it gives you a healthy glow, you can also take a picture with you wearing the colour, the camera will adjust the colours and make you look great or terrible in the colour, so from the picture you can see if it makes you look good.

Have fun with colours this summer!