What skin tone am I? A free skin tone quiz

Answer 6 questions about your own skin. You get your depth, your undertone and a swatch you can find on the skin tone chart. You need a window and a sheet of white paper.

By Jane MitchellCertified color analystPublished Oct 23, 2026

Take the skin tone quiz

Stand by a window in daylight, with no makeup. Tap one answer for each question.

1/6Hold a sheet of white paper beside your jaw, by a window. How does your skin compare?

Use bare skin with no makeup and no tan. Daylight only, not a lamp.

2/6After a first day in strong sun with no sunscreen, what happens to your skin?

This is about sun sensitivity, not color. It points toward your depth but does not measure it.

3/6In daylight, what color are the veins on the inside of your wrist?

On deeper skin the veins are hard to see. If so, pick the last answer.

4/6Hold a gold chain and a silver chain under your chin. Which one makes your skin look better?

Watch your skin, not the metal. The wrong one leaves a gray or yellow cast.

5/6Which looks better next to your face, a bright white shirt or a cream shirt?

Hold each one up in daylight. Look at your skin, not the shirt.

6/6In daylight with no makeup, what color shows under the surface of your skin?

Look at your cheek and jaw. If you can only see a green or grey cast, pick the third answer.

Answer all six questions to see your result.

A sheet of white paper, a hand mirror and a gold ring next to a silver ring on a sunlit windowsill — An illustration made with an image model, not a photo of real products. The swatch in your quiz result is the computed one from the chart.

What is my skin tone? Depth and undertone

People use "skin tone" for two different things, and the quiz answers both.

Depth is how light or deep your skin is. It is the row on the chart, and it changes with a tan. There are 6 bands.
Undertone is the color under the surface: cool (pink or blue), warm (yellow or golden) or neutral. It is the column on the chart, and it does not change with a tan. More on undertone.

Which paper answer lands in which depth band

Paper answer	Depth band	ITA°
Almost as light as the paper	Very light	more than 55°
Light, a little darker than the paper	Light	41° to 55°
Light to medium, clearly darker than the paper	Intermediate	28° to 41°
Medium, golden or tan	Tan	10° to 28°
Medium brown to rich brown	Brown	-30° to 10°
Deep brown	Dark	-30° or less

ITA° is the angle dermatologists use to sort skin by depth from its color. A higher angle is lighter skin. The paper question counts for twice as much as the sun question in the depth result.

How to answer, step by step

Stand by a window in daylight. Indoor bulbs make skin look warmer or greener than it is.
Look at your jaw and neck, not your hand. That is the skin next to what you wear.
Judge your skin without a tan, as it looks after a few weeks indoors.
If the veins are hard to read, use the vein test and the gold or silver test to check your answers.
If your skin shows a green or grey cast, read about olive undertone.

Why the sun question is not the same as skin tone

The sun question comes from the Fitzpatrick idea: how skin reacts to strong sun. People with light skin tend to burn more, and people with deep skin tend to burn less. But it measures sun sensitivity, not color, and two people with the same skin color can burn differently. So in this quiz it only nudges the depth result, and the paper question leads.

What a skin tone quiz cannot tell you

It cannot measure depth. You judge your own skin by eye, and your eye adapts to the room. The result can be one band off.
It cannot give your color season. Your season needs undertone, depth and clarity. Skin gives undertone and part of depth, and hair and eyes give the rest. That is why the result leans to three seasons.
A screen changes colors, so the swatch looks a little different on each phone. Our selfie analysis corrects each photo for the light first. How it works and how often it is right.

How we made this quiz

The quiz has 6 questions. Two are about depth (the paper test and the sun) and four are about undertone (veins, gold or silver, white or cream, and the color under the skin). Each answer has a number. The depth answers are averaged, with the paper question counting twice, and rounded to one of the 6 bands of the skin tone chart. The undertone answers are averaged too. If the result is close to the middle, it reads neutral.

The swatch is computed, not a photo. It is the chart cell for your band and undertone, with its hex code and ITA°, and the three seasons nearest to it on undertone and depth.

How this is different from other color analysis tools

01
Your photo stays on your device
Many photo apps upload your selfie and read it on their server (see our comparison). Ours measures it in your browser. There is no upload.
02
The result is free
Your season and palette, with no account and no email. At least one app in our comparison takes payment before you see any result.
03
A close call says so
Every result names the runner-up season and how close the call was. Borderline is a result we print.
04
We publish our accuracy
We tuned the method on faces that experts had labelled by season, then tested it on 410 celebrity photos we collected. The results, misses included.

How the photo analysis works, step by step

Questions

What is my skin tone?

Your skin tone has two parts. Depth is how light or deep your skin is, in one of 6 bands from very light to dark. Undertone is the color under the surface: cool (pink), warm (golden) or neutral. The quiz above asks 6 questions and gives you one depth band and one undertone.

What skin tone am I if I burn easily and never tan?

Burning easily points to light skin, but it is not proof. Sun sensitivity and skin color overlap, and they are not the same thing. The quiz counts the sun question for half as much as the paper question, so one answer cannot decide your band.

Is this skin tone quiz accurate?

It is a good first guess, and it can be off by one depth band. You judge your own skin by eye, and your eye adapts to the room. The selfie analysis measures depth from the photo and corrects it for the light, which a quiz cannot do.

What is my skin tone quiz result if I get neutral?

Neutral means your answers split between cool and warm. That is common. Both gold and silver can look fine on you, and the colors that suit you depend more on depth and on your hair and eyes. The vein test and the gold or silver test can help you check.

What if I have olive skin?

Olive is an undertone with a green or grey cast, and it can sit at almost any depth. If you pick the green or grey answer, the quiz notes that you may be olive and still gives you a cool, neutral or warm reading from your other answers.

Does my skin tone tell me my color season?

Only in part. Your season comes from undertone, depth and clarity. Skin gives undertone and part of depth. Hair and eyes give the rest, which is why the quiz result leans to three of the 12 seasons and never to one.

What you can do on this page

This page has a free skin tone quiz with 6 questions: the paper test and sun reaction for depth, and veins, gold or silver, white or cream and the color under the skin for undertone. A visitor gets one of six depth bands, a cool, neutral or warm undertone, a possible olive note, the computed swatch with its hex code and ITA°, and three color seasons it leans to. The page says the result is a self-judged guess. It then offers the free photo analysis, which measures undertone, depth and clarity from one selfie in the browser, with no upload and no account.