Hi everyone, it's Justine. Today we're
talking about color again because I get
many questions on that topic at the
moment. If you take two women who have my
skin tone, one might say, "Black looks great
on me," and the other one would say, "Black
makes me look old and sick and I hate it."
Why is that? In this video I'd like to
explain the difference between skin tone
and undertone, first off. Then tell you
why it's good to know your under-
tone and what you can do with that
information, and then I'll give you three
methods to find out what your undertone
is. Skin tone versus undertone: Your skin
tone is your skin color the one you see
when you look at yourself in a mirror
without thinking about it too much, in
natural daylight. It is often referred to
as very fair, fair, medium, dark, tan, et cetera until
very dark it's also the range of colors
you get when you go to a tanning salon
and you pick which tan you want to get.
So your skin tone changes in summer
versus winter depending on how tan you
are. That's why you always want to
measure it, for instance here, on a place
that doesn't get sun that much so that
you get a better idea what your real
skin tone would be. I did a video on how
to help you measure your skin tone, I
link it down below and in the corner
here. That's it for skin tones, now you're
undertone, on the other hand, does not
change. It's the hidden color in your
skin, so to say, the one that you don't
see at first sight. It's the one that
makes your skin overall look rather cool,
rather warm, but you really don't "see" it.
Why do we have a skin tone and an under-
tone, you would ask? Great question- because
the color of the skin, no matter which
complexion you have, is a really complex
color to get. You need to mix all colors
in order to get it. I had a color theory
professor once who asked us, for homework,
to mix paints until we got the exact
color of our skin here. You wouldn't
believe how much blue I had to pour in,
in order to get that color! So the
undertones in your skin are the tones
you don't "see" but that make your skin
look the way it looks. Why it's important
to know your undertone: When the colors
in your outfit suit you well it's because they
flatter your skin, so they say. People
will tell you, "Wow! You look radiant
today, your eyes are shining, you look
beautiful!" On the other side, when you
wear colors that don't work well for you
people will tell you "Oh, you look tired. What
happened?" or you look at yourself in the
mirror and you think, "Wow, the bags under
my eyes are so strong today. I look
washed out, what's wrong with me?" Right?
There are several reasons for that. It can
be that the color is too bright or too
dull compared to your skin. It can also be
that it's a cool undertone when you're
in fact warm undertoned. The rule is:
colors that have the same undertone as
you do, as your skin does, will always
make you look, somehow, a bit more radiant
and healthy, so we want to find out which
undertone you have. Three quick tests to
find out you're undertone: For this part,
first, make sure that you're standing
next to a window, facing that window, that
you get a lot of natural daylight into
your face. No sunlight, no artificial
light. It would screw up the results, so
daylight, just daylight. First method: look
at your veins right here on the inside
of your wrist. Do those veins look rather
bluish to you of greenish? If your veins
tend towards blue or maybe purplish then
you're on the cool side. If your veins
rather look green or olive-tone, you're on
the warm side. If you can't really say
which color your veins are, that's
possible. You might be in the middle. You
might be neutral. Then, try the next
method. Second method: take a white sheet
of paper. Bring it next to you, like this.
You want to compare this white with the
color of your neck, or your chest (even
better) not with your face because the
face always looks a bit more reddish.
That's because of hormones. Men and women
have that, no difference here, so don't
use the face. That's deceiving. Use the
neck or the chest. Even better, you take
off your clothes and you wear only a
white towel, put your hair away, so that
everything else around your skin is
white it's even easier to see. When I put
this sheet of paper next to my skin
without... you're hearing that in the
microphone (laughs)... does your skin compared to
that white turn rather pinkish or rather
yellowish? If you feel that suddenly
your skin looks more reddish, it is
because you have a lot of blue under-
tone in your skin, so you're on the cool
side. If your skin turns yellowish then
you're on the warm side. If you still don't
know after this test, you might be
neutral. Third method: take a piece of
silver jewelry and a piece of golden
jewelry. Ideally, they should have the
same size and surface. That's the biggest
piece of something golden I own- sorry
about that, but it's not ideal for this
test, right? So, you have those two pieces.
You hold them alternatively in front of your
neck and compare until you found which
one makes your skin look more radiant
and healthy. The right metal among those
two sorts will make your skin light up
visually and you will really see the
difference. If silver is the one that
makes you look healthier, then you're cool.
If gold is the metal that makes your
skin look better, then you're warm.
Remember that I said French women
usually don't mix metals? They wear
either all silver or all gold. Well
intuitively that's the reason why. They
know that one metal out of those two
makes them look better than the other
one. Now what if you get different
results from those three tests, or you
can't really tell the color of your veins, or
the colored skin, even after comparing
with friends? In that case, you might be
neutral which is great because neutral
toned people can theoretically wear any
color- lucky you! But if you found that
you have a warm or cool undertone you
can really work with that information. If
you're cool toned, you will find that a
cool blue suits you better than a warm
blue. You will also find that a bronze
color or a golden dress are just too much
for your skin. You're disappearing. People
see the dress instead of you, but if you
are warm then golden tones or earthy
tones will look good on you, while glacier
blue makes you look pale and sick. Now
you're understand why Beyoncé always
rocks golden outfits. In my previous
video, you saw that the skin tone
influences which colors suits you well
and which don't. That was basic because
I used only pure colors on the color
wheel. Now you see that not just the skin
tone matters, but also the undertone; and
there's not just one blue and one red,
but a ton of different ones so the eye
needs to be trained. You can surely
differentiate a blue from a green, but in
fact, you also need to differentiate
warm green from a cool green because the
one on the left while suit people with a warm
undertone while the one on the right suits
people with a cool undertone. The easiest
way to practice, guys, is to compare
pieces that you already have in your
closet. Hold the clothes right here. Chin.
Fabric. No space in between. Right. Which
colors make your skin look fantastic and
your eyes shine? Which colors make you
look older and tired? The more you
practice, try, and compare, the more you'll
get a feeling for all this. I know there are
painters and artists among you. Such
people can tell immediately, "this is a
warm color it has that much blue, yellow,
and red in it." That's actually a very
useful skill for fashion! Thumbs up if you
like this video and if you want to hear
more about color in the future. Let me
know. I'm happy to help. Also, feel free to
comment below if you have doubts about
your undertone or any question remaining
about the methods I explained. I'll see you
Wednesday and Sunday again. Here are two
more videos for you to watch until then.
Take care, bye bye!