Color Crazy: Cool, Warm, Fair Or Dark?

The average American woman spends a whopping $10,000 each year making herself look beautiful, which is a huge amount of money! If you're going to spend that much money each year, you might as well spend it on the right products for your skin tone and skin color - right?

Read More: How To Choose The Perfect Red Lip Color For Your Skin Tone

Determine Skin Tone

As we mentioned in our recent How To Choose the Perfect Red Lip Color For Your Skin Tone article, determining your skin tone is the most important step in working out which makeup colors are right for your skin.

Cool skin tones have pinky/red undertones and warm skin tones have yellow/golden undertones. Generally, cool skin tones suit bluey shades while warm skin tones suit yellowy shades. A quick and easy way to determine your skin tone is to just take a look at your veins - if they look blue, your skin tone is cool and if they look green, your skin tone is warm.

Determine Skin Color

The next step is to determine your skin color. There are four general skin colors, but there are literally hundreds of hues in between these shades.

• Fair skin - also known as porcelain and peaches and cream. Ladies with fair skin tend to have blonde hair and blue eyes, although some fair-skinned ladies have brown hair and brown eyes.

• Medium skin - those with medium skin tones, like Evangeline Lilly, Amanda Peet and Charlize Theron are lucky, because their skin is fairly neutral and this means that loads of makeup shades suit them. Medium-skinned ladies tend to have either golden blonde or golden brown hair.

• Olive skin - exotic ladies like Jennifer Lopez and Eva Longoria have olive skin, which is often warm in tone. Olive skin can look ever so slightly green in certain lights or when ladies wear the wrong shade of makeup.

• Dark skin - dark-skinned beauties are lucky, actually, because most colors pop on their skin. Just look at Naomi Campbell - she regularly rocks color brights, subtle berry shades and even zany products like white eyeliner.

How to Choose the Perfect Hair Color

Choosing the right hair color for your skin tone is much, much easier than you might think. Do you have warm skin? A warm hair color with flecks of gold, brown, red, auburn, ginger or cherry will be perfect for you. If you have cool skin, a cool hair color will work for you, with flecks of ash, platinum blonde, blue, gray or silver.

It's as simple as that!

Makeup Tips

If you have fair skin, these products and tips will really make your skin glow:

• Use a vanilla or sheer white highlighter along brow bones and cheekbones to make your features pop.

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• If you're warm toned, choose peaches, orange corals, apricots, honey, nudes and golden reds for your lips and cheeks. If you're cool toned, opt for pinky hues with blue undertones, pinky nudes and pinky corals.
• For eyes, warm tones should choose taupes, golden browns, peaches and coppery hues. Cool tones should choose deep blue greens, burgundy and eggplant hues. Every fair-skinned gal should choose brown mascara over black, too, as it's much more natural against fair skin.
• Don't forget to pluck those baby blonde hairs from under and in between your eyebrows - they'll be really obvious when you use highlighter.
• Embrace your freckles! They make you look more youthful, so use a sheer foundation to let your freckles shine through
• Use a light hand with bronzer. Choose a bronzer only a shade or two darker than your skin tone and apply it lightly to areas where the sun naturally hits your face, like your cheekbones, temples, and the bridge of your nose.
• Avoid heavy powders that can be particularly noticeable on fair skin. Aim for light, translucent powders to set your makeup, or consider a setting spray for a more natural finish.
• Highlight strategically as highlighters can add a beautiful glow. Choose a highlighter with a pearlescent finish rather than a glittery one. Apply to the high points of your face like cheekbones, brow bones, and the cupid’s bow.

Medium and olive skinned gals should take a look at these products and tips to make their skin look radiant:

• Try a champagne-hued highlighter as this works really well with medium skin tones.
• For the cheeks and lips, medium and olive skin tones with warm undertones should choose bronzes, terracottas, golden and brown pinks and reds and true reds, while those with cool undertones should choose berries, jams, pinky corals, rose and plum hues.
• For eyes, those with warm undertones should choose bright burgundies, forest greens, golden pinks, bronze and golden browns, while those with cool undertones will look beautiful in shimmering silvers, plums and bright blues. Finish with a sweep of black lash-lengthening mascara.
• Keep your brows super groomed. Your eyebrow hairs will look really obvious against your skin, so it's important that you pluck them regularly!
• Always blend your foundation into your jaw line and keep it sheer - you don't want to cover up your natural beauty with makeup that's too heavy.
• Bold lip colors. Medium and olive skin tones are versatile with lip colors. You can experiment with bold shades like deep reds, berries, and corals. These vibrant hues can stand out beautifully against your skin tone.
• Medium and olive skin tones can benefit from contouring. It helps to define your facial features and add dimension. Use a contour shade that is a few shades darker than your skin tone and blend well to avoid any harsh lines.

It's as simple as that! Gals with dark skin should definitely embrace bright hues as they pop against their skin, although subtler chocolate and coffee hues can enhance their natural features, making them look a million dollars.

What About My Nails?

We've seen a lot of conflicting advice out there about which nail colors suit which skin tones. Our advice is a little bit different - wear whichever nail colors you like. Nudes will always be classic and will always be flattering, but each season, strong colors and trends are seen on the catwalk - so we think you should just try them all and see which colors you love!

What do you think about choosing the right makeup colors for your skin color and skin tone? Or would you rather just choose colors that you love? Let us know what you think!