Find the Best Colours for Your Skin Tone

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You look great. Your clothes are per­fect, your acces­sories are on-trend, your make-up is Insta­wor­thy, and you feel fab­u­lous. But some­thing is amiss! The clothes you love, and which fit you like a glove; the clothes which draw end­less com­pli­ments from your friends and even win you a few secret admir­ers, are just not right because they don’t per­fect­ly match your skin tone. Find­ing the ide­al blend of skin tone and cloth­ing shades is not easy, but it is pos­si­ble if you fol­low a few sim­ple steps!

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Find your skin tone

Before you splash out on some new out­fits (don’t fret, you can do that soon), iden­ti­fy your skin tone. An inter­net search can lead you to infor­ma­tion that will guide you through the var­i­ous nat­ur­al skin tones and which one most accu­rate­ly defines your skin. Your over­all tone also incor­po­rates your nat­ur­al hair and eye colour, which must be con­sid­ered. Con­verse­ly, if you die your hair or alter your skin col­or, such as through a fake tan, the ide­al cloth­ing colours will also change.

There are specific methods for finding your general skin tone:

Stand­ing in front of a mir­ror, with­out make-up and in nat­ur­al light, hold gold or sil­ver jew­el­ry against your skin under your chin. The gold jew­el­ry will cause the skin to glow in those with yel­low under­tones, while those with pink under­tones will look bet­ter next to sil­ver pieces. Anoth­er method is to hold a true white piece of paper or fab­ric to your neck. Peo­ple with warm skin under­tones will appear yel­low next to the white fab­ric, while those with cool under­tones will look pink or blue. Now you know whether to shop for clothes under the broad cat­e­gories of warm or cool colours. Of course, you can and should always cre­ate your style, per­son­al­i­ty, and state­ment to the world because what mat­ters most is that you feel con­fi­dent and great about your­self and the skin you live in. You can still do this with a lit­tle help from styl­ists and experts who know what com­bines best with skin tone variation.

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How do I look?

Before search­ing for spe­cif­ic colours, try on some out­fits and observe whether they make you look washed out or sick­ly, or whether they make you appear brighter, and allow your nat­ur­al com­plex­ion to glow. Clear­ly, when assem­bling your wardrobe, you should favour the latter. Hint – the light­ing in cloth­ing and fash­ion stores can alter cloth­ing col­or, so remem­ber this when shop­ping. Fur­ther­more, styl­ists rec­om­mend try­ing on the clothes at home with­out make­up and in nat­ur­al light before decid­ing whether they are right for you.

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For the sake of this article: We’ve divid­ed skin tones into a dark skin, medi­um skin, light skin, and fair skin and com­piled a list of colours that we think bring out the best in peo­ple with each skin tone.

“Dark Skin”

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Cobalt

Styl­ists and fash­ion experts rec­om­mend cobalt blue for dark skin. The bold colour is flat­ter­ing for dark skin and can be worn for tops, bot­toms, and oth­er out­fit components.

Light yellow

Anoth­er rec­om­mend­ed colour is a light yel­low, which stands out against a dark­er com­plex­ion. Search for tops, jack­ets, coats and oth­er wardrobe pieces in this colour, includ­ing a cozy sweater or a cardigan.

Red

Red. Deep red, Ruby red, and dark skin; a beau­ti­ful look. Red high­lights the inher­ent beau­ty of dark skin, whether it is in coats, boots, dress­es or skirts. For­mal or infor­mal, win­ter or sum­mer, this colour is a strong rec­om­men­da­tion from those in the know.

Olive green

Olive green and kha­ki are trend­ing in the form of util­i­ty wear and edgy urban streetwear, and they make dark skin look even bet­ter. Opt for car­go pants and com­bat boots when you want to release your inner pow­er or a short and jack­et com­bi­na­tion for smart casu­al wear. Find a pantsuit for the office or more for­mal situations.

Cream

Let your skin glow with the con­trast of cream. Wear flat­ter­ing skirts and dress­es in sum­mer and fall back on easy and ever-styl­ish options like a T‑shirt or sin­glet top, which still looks great and serves you well for brunch, pic­nics, bar­be­cues or trips to the beach.

Magenta

Dark skin is a bless­ing, espe­cial­ly when paired with magen­ta. This colour does not flat­ter every­one, but it does com­bine well with dark­er skin and can accen­tu­ate your inner beau­ty in the form of an evening gown or for­mal dress, as well as casu­al pieces from any decade.

“Medium skin”

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Metallic

Be bold in strik­ing metal­lic colours, and steal the show at any club or par­ty with sil­ver, cop­per and gold colours. Star in gold pants and recre­ate the days of dis­co or light up the night with a sil­ver top or cop­per-coloured out­fit. Bedaz­zle one and all with sim­i­lar­ly coloured acces­sories such as jew­el­ry, a bag or a clutch, and set the night on fire. Hint – have your cam­era and your pos­es ready. A sil­ver skirt also com­bines per­fect­ly with sneak­ers and a top of your choice for a casu­al but daz­zling out­fit when you want to dress it down. Casu­al can be cool!

Dove grey

Dove grey com­ple­ments medi­um skin tones and is com­mon­ly found in win­ter and autumn coats. Think falling leaves, crisp cool morn­ings and knee-high boots on vis­its to winer­ies or Sun­day brunch. Dove coloured trousers, in var­i­ous styles, also make an ide­al alter­na­tive to jeans, and the colour is emi­nent­ly suit­ed to under­state but on-trend busi­ness wear. Look good while you work and play. When win­ter arrives, enjoy match­ing dove grey coats with hats and gloves.

Neon

Stand out and switch on. Neon colours com­ple­ment medi­um skin and can be paired with plain colours in the remain­der of the out­fit to accen­tu­ate their fun and vibran­cy fur­ther. With such loud colours, you can tru­ly express your imag­i­na­tion and your joie de vivre. The beau­ty of neon is that it fea­tures many acces­sories, such as uber-cool and super cute glasses.

“Light skin”

Camel

Camel is said to make pieces look more expen­sive. What a bonus! The style and sophis­ti­ca­tion with­out the price tag. For peo­ple with light skin, camel is a flat­ter­ing colour, and as it adds an ele­ment of sophis­ti­ca­tion, it’s a great ‘go-to’ colour for classy out­ings such as high tea, a for­mal par­ty or a wedding.

Baby blue

The blue of the sky. The blue of your eyes. Won­der­ful colour in any con­text and cloth­ing, baby blue match­es your skin tone and can be found in a wide vari­ety of pieces. A light blue leather jack­et speaks of effort­less sophis­ti­ca­tion. A baby blue cardi­gan is ver­sa­tile and cute, and a baby blue pantsuit is fit for the office or many oth­er occasions. Of course, the pants and jack­et can trav­el solo. Even when they are apart, they make a wor­thy addi­tion to your cloth­ing range.

“Fair skin”

Seafoam

This sub­tle shade of green is ide­al for peo­ple with fair skin and is a love­ly colour in its own right. It pairs well with white ankle boots and is a great colour for a long, flow­ing skirt. Seafoam is also a fan­tas­tic part­ner to white and oth­er lighter colours, which can cre­ate a fresh appear­ance on a dress or top. A dash of seafoam on a short skirt will draw the right kind of atten­tion to your legs and have you feel­ing carefree.

Blush

A sim­ply won­der­ful colour which speaks of sub­tle­ty, spring flow­ers and saku­ra blos­soms. For­tu­nate­ly for peo­ple with fair skin, it is a nat­ur­al enhance­ment to your nat­ur­al skin tone and is pop­u­lar in faux fur coats, hats, light­weight sweaters and cute and sexy crop tops. Pair your out­fits with a sim­i­lar tone of lip­stick and oth­er forms of make-up, and you will look sim­ply irresistible!

Lavender

Laven­der is a colour that defines a sea­son, and it evokes thoughts of beau­ti­ful, blos­som­ing gar­dens and calm­ing aro­mas. It can also enrich your appear­ance with its inher­ent com­bi­na­tion with fair skin. Knitwear appears to be cre­at­ed for laven­der, and the calm­ing colour lends itself per­fect­ly to blaz­ers over a light coloured blouse and pat­terned skirts.

Last but not least

You deserve to look and feel fab­u­lous. You work hard to look your best and feel great about the image you present to the world, but often one small fea­ture off­sets that great ensem­ble you put togeth­er – match­ing your out­fits to your skin tone. There is a solu­tion. Iden­ti­fy your skin tone and search for the best colour com­bi­na­tions list­ed above. Using this as your foun­da­tion, fol­low the advice of experts to acquire pieces from a select range of colours that best suit you and your skin. Then, add your style, per­son­al­i­ty and state­ment to cre­ate a wardrobe that makes you happy 🙂