What's my undertone? Warm, cool, neutral or olive
Your undertone is the hue under your skin's surface. It stays the same when you tan or go pale.
Warm leans golden or peach, cool leans pink or blue, neutral sits between, and olive is a green-grey cast that can be warm or cool.
The 60-second self-test
Indicative, not final: lighting, self-tan and mixed undertones fool all three checks. Do them in daylight, bare face.
1In daylight, the veins on the inside of your wrist look…
2Which jewellery makes your skin look brighter, not sallow or ashy?
3Hold a pure white top, then a cream one, up to your face.
4Do you tan easily and does your skin have a faintly greenish or grey cast in some light?
See it, don't guess it
Same face, same light. Only the top or the metal changes. Look at the skin under the jaw: which one looks clearer, not greyer or yellower?
Optical white 
✓ Cream Warm (autumn): cream wins, white throws grey onto the skin.AI sample
✓ Optical white 
Cream Cool (winter): white wins, cream turns her sallow.AI sample
✓ Gold 
Silver Warm: gold lifts, silver sits cold against the skin.AI sample
Gold 
✓ Silver Cool: silver reads clean; gold looks brassy.AI sample
Cream 
✓ Soft white Cool-soft (summer): soft white edges cream, gently.AI sample
Gold 
✓ Silver Cool-soft (summer): silver reads clean; gold warms her too much.AI sample
AI-generated sample faces (not customers). Only the garment or jewellery was changed between the two photos.
Undertone at a glance
| Warm | Cool | Neutral | Olive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Veins | Green | Blue / purple | Both | Green-grey |
| Metal | Gold | Silver | Either | Mixed / antique |
| Best white | Cream / ivory | Pure white | Off-white | Off-white |
| Lipstick | Coral, brick, warm nude | Berry, rose, blue-red | Rose-brown, MLBB | Rosewood, mauve-brown |
| Blush | Peach, apricot | Rose, plum | Rose-peach | Muted rose |
| Foundation lean | Golden / yellow | Pink / rosy | Balanced | Golden with a grey lean |
A guide, not a rule: depth (light to deep) and clarity (soft to bright) matter as much as temperature.
Why the tests give the wrong answer
Warm-lit bathrooms
Yellow bulbs make everyone look warm. Do the checks by a window, in daylight.
Self-tan and sunburn
Both add orange or red on top of your real undertone. Test on the inside of the wrist or on untanned skin.
Vein colour is the weakest test
Vein depth and skin thickness change how veins look. Treat it as one vote of three, never the verdict.
Confusing depth with undertone
Fair skin isn't automatically cool and deep skin isn't automatically warm. Every depth exists in every undertone.
Ignoring olive
Many people who 'don't fit' warm or cool are olive. If both metals look slightly off and pale peach makes you look tired, suspect olive.
Find out for sure
Find out for sure: your undertone from one selfie, free
One selfie in daylight and a one-minute quiz. You get your undertone with a confidence level, your colour season, the lipsticks and blushes that suit you, and one look painted on your own photo. No account. Your photo is not stored.
What to do with your undertone
Undertone picks the temperature of your best colours; your colour season adds depth and clarity on top. Warm undertone → the spring and autumn families; cool → summer and winter; neutral and olive can sit on either side depending on depth and clarity.
The most visible wins are lipstick and foundation: a warm undertone in a blue-red lipstick looks harsher, a cool undertone in an orange-coral looks sallow. Foundation should match your undertone first, depth second, a shade can be the right darkness and still look wrong.
Questions people ask
- Can my undertone change?
- No, it's the hue under the surface and stays stable through tanning, ageing and season. Your surface tone (depth, redness) changes; the undertone doesn't.
- What if gold and silver both look fine?
- You're likely neutral. Choose metals by the outfit and lean on depth and clarity for colour choices.
- Is olive an undertone or a skin tone?
- An undertone: a green-grey cast that can appear at any depth, from fair to deep. It's often misread as warm or neutral.
- How does the free analysis decide?
- It looks at your selfie in context (skin, eyes, hair) alongside your quiz answers, then reports an undertone with a confidence percentage. Bad lighting lowers the confidence and we say so.
- Do I need a bare face?
- Bare is easiest, but a light base is fine. Heavy foundation in the wrong tone will skew any test, ours included.
Watch: undertone tests done properly
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Related guides
How we analyse: your selfie and quiz answers are read together and reported with a confidence level; the map and proportions are measured from face landmarks in your browser. It’s an AI estimate for choosing colours and placement, not a medical, dermatological or professional colour consultation. Sample faces on this site are AI-generated, not customers.