I already did a post on undertone, but it’s not the most comprehensive. In fact there are other ways to find your undertone. Here are all the possible ways that you can use to find your undertone by yourself. They might not work for everyone, but since they are several, try them together and see what is your dominant temperature.
The draping method
I already talked about the draping method. What you should do is that you should cover yourself with white cloths, leaving only your face visible. Then place yourself in front of a mirror. Here, you should let the skin on your face do the talking. In your best colours, your face should look radiant, and in the other colours your face might look a bit dull. First try putting warm-coloured clothes next to your face and see how your skin reacts. Then try cool-toned ones.
You may want to write things down as you go. Once you have found your temperature, you can focus on value (the lightness and the darkness of the colours) and the chroma (how much grey is in the colour). Again, see your skin’s reaction and write things down as you go for best results. Remember that you should do this test with no makeup on and in natural light. Also, you need to focus on your face when you are looking at the mirror, and switch the drapes to compare the reaction.
If you are planning to go to an image consultant to find your colours, this is one of the methods that she/he is most probably going to use, as it’s one of the most precise and it works for everyone.
The skin-eyes-hair method
This method helps you see what your undertone could be through the colours of your features. If your undertone is warm, your features will give off a golden-yellow kind of colour. If you are cool-toned, your features might give a pink/reddish/blue kind of tone. For olive-skinned people, it’s often the latter but it doesn’t mean they can’t be warm. For example, the actress Sophia Loren has olive skin, yet she suits warm colours a lot better than cool ones and wears warmer colours most of the time. This means that she actually has a warm undertone. For a cool olive skin example, the most famous one is Kim Kardashian.
With this method, the way you tan and the colour of your tan also matter: cool-toned people have a brick-coloured kind of tan (if they tan), and in the cooler months the tan completely disappears. Also, cool-toned people tend to burn before they tan, or they may not tan at all. Warm-toned people tend to tan easily and they maintain that slightly golden look all year round, even if the tan goes away. I am going to dedicate a post to this, because it does deserve to be talked about in a bit more depth.
By the way, this is one of the methods image consultants use to figure out whether celebrities are wearing the right colour(s) for their complexion. They may also use this method for you in order to figure out what is the best colour palette for you.
The jewellery test
This test is best done with necklaces in different-coloured metals. You can also do this test by having metallic-coloured textiles and putting those next to your face. Warm-toned skin reacts better to yellow, pink and red-coloured jewellery. On the other hand, cool-toned skin prefers white-coloured jewellery. I am mentioning the jewellery colours because not everyone can’t afford the real metal and so rely on costume jewellery. Still, if you choose the right colours for your complexion it will look as good as the real deal if not better.
The vein test
It can be kind of misleading because some skin is more transparent than other skin, but it may work for some. In particular, if you are warm-toned, your veins look greenish. If you are cool-toned, they look blue or purple. For olive-skinned people they often have a teal kind of colour, which oftentimes means they have a neutral-warm or neutral-cool undertone. In combination with the vein test, they should try the other methods too to see which temperature is more dominant.
Does the neutral undertone exist?
The answer, on a more practical level, is no. Because it’s really rare for someone to be neither warm or cool. We all lean on either the cool side or the warm side of the spectrum. For example, Anne Hathaway is definitely cool, because if she wears a warm colour, her skin will look unhealthily yellow. Kim Kardashian though, can handle some warm colours very well even if she has a preference for cool colours. This means she is neutral-cool.
However, if you have trouble choosing foundation that fits your skin properly, you should try going for a neutral foundation. Eventually, you can warm it up with a bronzer or cool it down with contour powder. Do consider your undertone when it comes to foundation, but remember that it has to match your overtone more. Your overtone is your skin as you see it in the mirror, and it doesn’t necessarily match your undertone. For example, your overtone looks warm but your undertone is cool. Here, you ought to go for a neutral foundation that is just slightly warm.
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