How do you know what skin tone you have? And why does it matter?

By determining your skin tone, you can determine what colors will look best on you for your senior photos. The colors you wear can affect how you look in your photos and by wearing the correct colors, the colors that work best for you, you can ensure that you and your photos look great!

So how do you determine your tone? There are a few tests you can do to find out your skin tone.

THE PAPER TEST

Hold a white piece of paper up to your face and look at your skin against it.

If your skin appears yellowish or sallow beside the paper, you have a warm skin tone. If your skin appears pink, rosy or bluish-red, you have a cool skin tone.

If your skin appears gray, you have skin with a neutral tone.

THE VEIN TEST

Hold out your arm in natural light and look at the color of your veins. If your veins appear blue or purple, you have a cool skin tone.

If your veins are blueish-green, you have a neutral skin tone.

If your veins appear green or olive, you have a warm skin tone.

THE SUN TEST

Ask yourself how your skin reacts to the sun.

If you burn fast, you are most likely a cool tone.

If your skin tans but it can also burn, you have a neutral skin tone. If you tan easily, you are a warm tone.

THE METAL TEST

When it comes to jewelry, what color metal looks best on you? If silver looks best on you, you are a cool tone

If gold looks best on you, you are a warm tone

If either looks great on you, then you are a neutral tone

So now you have taken all the tests and gotten the answers about what tone your skin is, it's time to determine the colors that look best on you!

Here are the different skin tones broken down by what colors look best for each:

WARM SKIN TONES If you have a warm skin tone, you will look best in colors with a warm, golden undertone. Generally warm tones look best with hair color that ranges from golden blonde to medium golden brown. Avoid harsh, bright colors such as fluorescent yellow, hot pink or lime green.

List of colors that look best for warm tones: Brown Yellow Orange Green Ivory

COOL SKIN TONES

If you have a cool skin tone, you will look best in colors on the cool end of the color wheel spectrum. Generally cool skin tones look best with hair colors that are cool, ash colors such as platinum blonde or dark colors such as brown or black with blue undertones. Avoid oranges, beige, browns and other warm type colors. 

List of colors that look best for cool tones: Blue Emerald Green Purple Pink Gray White

NEUTRAL SKIN TONES A neutral skin tone is one in which a mixture of cool and warm tones work. This skin tone is lucky because you can play around with all tones to find ones that work best. Be sure to try on a variety of colors to see which look best on you.

List of colors that look best on neutral tones: Soft Pink Medium Blue Green Taupe Gray

The Prep Guide:

When you book your senior session with me, I send access to the style guide with tips for dressing for your skin type and figure!

A favorite app:

There is a FREE app that works very well called Dressika. Super easy and could be helpful for you! Not very detailed results in the free version but a great springboard.

And don't assume one color is the best color for photos such as white! Just because a certain color is popular doesn't mean its the best one for you! Remember to bring variety and not have every article of clothing be the same color. And colors that pop will pop in your photos too! Subdued colors will be subdued in photos! Think about what you want for your photos and find colors that express that! 

Photo location: Studio in Skagit County.