What is my undertone? Take the 60-second test
Your undertone is the stable colour underneath your skin, cool, warm, olive or neutral. It is separate from how light or deep you are, and it does not change with a tan. Answer five questions to narrow yours, then see the colors each undertone suits.
By Ruslan ShchuchkinML engineer and data scientistUpdated
The skin undertone test
The four classic at-home checks, folded into five taps. Answer what you actually see, in daylight.
Answer the five questions and the verdict appears here.
The four undertones
Each has its own tells and its own best colors, with hex codes.
- Cool undertoneBlue and pink-based skin, color looks best when it has no gold in it.
- Warm undertoneYellow and golden-based skin, colour looks best with warmth in it.
- Olive undertoneA green-grey cast that sits over warm or cool, the most misread undertone there is.
- Neutral undertoneA balance of warm and cool, flexible, and the hardest to pin from a single test.
The tests behind the test
What each check actually reads, if you want to run them the long way.
- The vein test
- Inside of your wrist, in daylight. Blue or purple veins point cool; green points warm; a blue-green you cannot decide points neutral or olive.
- The metal test
- Silver and gold either side of your face, watch your skin, not the metal. The one that makes your skin look even and fresh is your temperature.
- White vs cream
- Hold pure white, then cream, under your chin. White flattering you points cool; cream points warm; both fine points neutral.
- The sun test
- Burning first points cool; tanning golden points warm. The weakest signal of the four, use it only to break a tie.
The vein test is the one people reach for first, and it has its own page, blue vs green veins, explained. Note the three wrists above are three different depths on purpose: undertone is independent of how light or deep your skin is.
Undertone is one axis of three
Colour analysis places you on three axes: temperature (that is undertone), depth (light to deep) and clarity (bright to muted). Undertone narrows the twelve seasons to about six; depth and clarity decide which of those six is yours, the part no wrist test can do. The free analysis measures all three from your photo, corrected for lighting, and names the season with a confidence score and the runner-up.
From undertone to season
Frequently asked
What is a skin undertone?
The stable colour underneath the surface of your skin, blue or pink (cool), yellow or golden (warm), a green-grey overlay (olive), or a balance of warm and cool (neutral). It does not change with a tan the way your surface tone does, and it is separate from how light or deep your skin is. Undertone is the temperature axis of colour analysis, one of the three that decide your season.
How do I find my undertone at home?
Run three tests in daylight and go with the majority: the vein test at your wrist, the metal test beside your face, and pure white versus cream under your chin. If two of the three agree, that is your undertone. If they split, you are most likely neutral or olive, the ambiguity is itself the answer.
Which undertone test is most reliable?
The metal test, watched on your real face in daylight, is the most reliable single one, because it shows you the effect the colour has rather than asking you to judge your own skin in the abstract. The vein test is the quickest. No at-home test is decisive on its own, though, which is why reading several together beats trusting any one.
Can I find my undertone from a photo?
Not from a raw photo, a camera’s white balance shifts warm against cool before you ever see the image, which is the one signal undertone depends on. The analysis here corrects for that: each photo is calibrated against the whites of your eyes, an in-frame neutral that reveals the lighting, and adding photos taken in different light lets the median cancel each light’s cast. That is the difference between reading a photo and trusting one.
Does my undertone decide my color season?
It narrows it, but it does not name it. Undertone is temperature only. Cool points you to the Summers and Winters, warm to the Springs and Autumns, six seasons, not one. Depth and clarity then decide which of those six you are, which is the part a full analysis measures.