Matching Colours to Your Skin Tone
Determining what suit works best with your complexion is a key factor in how you present yourself as well as how you are viewed. Matching suits to your natural tones can be tricky, luckily there are some “unofficial” guides that you can follow.
The “Colour Me Beautiful” theory originally came from Carole Jackson’s 1987 novel of the same name. This resource provides some key principles that can apply to both men and women when it comes to finding the selection of colours that will enhance your skin undertone.
First you need to find out if you fall into Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter categories.
Spring: If your skin tone has a clear warm undertone and you have light skin you would most likely fall into the Spring season category.
Summer: If your skin tone has a cool undertone to it (so soft and a light cool look to it) you would fall into the Summer category.
Autumn: If you have a warm, somewhat golden undertone you’re most likely within the Autumn “soft deep warm” season hue.
Winter: Finally, if you have a clear deep cool or olive undertones, Winter is your season classification.
Of course this is subjective and by no means is the “be-all and end-all” when it comes to identifying your skin undertone, but it’s a neat classifier that can help in the selection process.
Now, the unofficial guide breakdown goes a little something like this:
1. Analyze the veins of your arms
In natural light, look on the inside of your wrists and see if your veins appear blue or green. If they are bluish/purple-like then you’re a cool-toned person. If they are more green looking then you’re warm-toned. If you find you fall into both the green and blue categories, or if you have a hard time determining then you are probably neutral.
2. Observe the accessories/jewellery trick (think watches, rings, cufflinks)
What do you generally wear (and like) or pair with your suits? Are you a silver person or a gold person? Generally the “rule” is if you opt for gold you are warm-toned. If you are stuck on silver, then you’re more cool-toned. Again, if you can pull off both, you are neutral.
3. Take notice of your eye and hair colours
Cool tones are generally associated with those who have blue, grey or green eyes and have blonde, brownish or, in some cases, black hair. Cool tones can also be linked with those who have ash hair colour (a.k.a you’ve dyed your hair).
Warm tones are lumped with those that have brown, amber or hazel eyes and hair in the shades of auburn, strawberry blonde or again in some cases, black hair that has hints of gold to it.
4. Have a look at your skin after you’ve been in the sun
When you’ve been out in the sun for a fairly long period (let’s say an afternoon), do you find your skin burns easily or do you find your skin turns pinkish red? If so, you are cool-toned. If you tend to tan quite well and have golden glow undertones then you are warm-toned. If you neither burn too bad nor tan or have that immediate glow, then you have a combination of warm and cool undertones so you fall into the neutral category.
5. Compare yourself to a celebrity, public personality or person chart and see which tones match yours
Have a look at these cool charts for men and women, which give more detail and break down skin complexions. This chart brings us back to the season analysis. Also, take a bit of time to look at various celebrities and their skin to apparel pairing.
6. Select a range of colours that you feel look good on you
Do you have certain go-to suits, shirts, skirts that follow a certain colour scheme? If you find you gravitate towards purples, blues, dark greens (those rich, bold, colours) you are most likely cool-toned. If you tend to favour earth-like tones including red, yellow and orange, then you are warm-toned. Now, you may gravitate to a mix of the above colours, if that is the case and you can pull it off, you have neutral undertones.
Now that you’ve done some of these little tests and assessments you can save some of your precious time and use this guide to choosing the best skin-to-colour apparel choice. We’ll go back to the season distinctions.Take note of the colours to wear versus the colours to avoid.
All of these suit outfits are designed exclusively by Masciangelo (excluding hand bags).
SPRING
–> Opt for soft colours like peach or clear blues, golden yellow, golden brown, bright greens.
–> Try to avoid dull or dark colours.
SUMMER
–> Try neutral colours like mauve, light blue, rose or even a pale yellow.
–> Try to avoid orange as it will make your skin look drowned out.
AUTUMN
–> Opt for earth tones like caramel, gold, rich brown and beige.
–> Typically shying from faded pink and bright colours.
WINTER
–> You’ll want to test out deep reds, jewel tones (i.e. emerald, royal blue, royal purple) and crisp black or greys.–> Try to avoid shades of orange, beige-brown and gold.
Remember these are just suggestions and to ensure a perfect look make sure to consult with one of Masciangelo’s experts. Book your appointment or call us directly at 647.345.0693.