colormatch

Colours for a cool skin tone

Silver suits you, optical white beats cream, and the shades that work have blue or pink somewhere inside them.

A cool undertone means your skin has pink, red or blue underneath it. Depth and undertone are counted separately, and every undertone occurs at every depth: cool colouring turns up in the palest skin and in the deepest, and being cool says nothing about how light or dark you are. It is the direction your colouring leans, and sun does not change it.

Two of the four colour seasons are cool — summer and winter — so knowing you are cool narrows four palettes down to two. Summer holds the soft, greyed shades and winter the clear, strong ones. The ten below are the five strongest from each, because a strong shade is where the undertone shows most plainly, and the free colour report settles which of the two seasons is yours.

Colours for a cool undertone

The strongest shades from both cool seasons — summer for the soft ones, winter for the clear ones.

  • Periwinkle Blue#7E8CC4
  • Lavender#A294C4
  • Soft Rose#D4939F
  • Dusty Pink#C98F9C
  • Slate Blue#6F8FB5
  • True Red#C5102C
  • Fuchsia#C2247D
  • Magenta#A51A6D
  • Royal Blue#1F4FA3
  • Deep Violet#4A2A7A

Shades to be careful with

These are the shades summer and winter both struggle with — the ones that work against this undertone rather than with it.

  • Orange#E2601B
  • Tomato Red#D63426
  • Mustard#C8971F
  • Camel#B98B4F
  • Pure Black#000000
  • Terracotta#A9552C

Checking it at home

  1. Silver against gold

    Put a silver chain at one side of your jaw and a gold one at the other, by a window. On a cool undertone the silver settles into the face while the gold sits on top of it, looking slightly orange against the skin rather than part of it.

  2. Paper against cream

    Hold a sheet of plain copier paper under your chin, then a cream envelope or an ivory shirt. Cool skin looks clean and even beside the paper white and slightly yellow or muddy beside the cream, which is the reverse of what a warm colouring does.

  3. How you flush

    Notice what your face does after a brisk walk or a cold morning. Cool skin flushes pink or red, sometimes blotchily; warm skin deepens towards gold or peach. It is a slow test rather than a quick one, but it does not depend on the lighting you happen to be standing in.

Wearing it

  • The colour only has to be right where light reflects up into your face — a top, a collar, a scarf, a frame. Skirts, trousers and shoes are free.
  • Optical white is open to you, with one caveat: a winter colouring takes it at full strength, while a summer is usually better in soft white or oyster.
  • Navy and charcoal work for both cool seasons. True black belongs to winter and tends to sit heavily on a summer, which is why it appears in the shades to be careful with above.
  • Silver, platinum and white gold sit with a cool undertone. Gold is not forbidden, but it does less damage away from the face.

Get your free colour report

Questions about a cool undertone

Summer and winter both look plausible. Which am I?

Judge strength rather than temperature, since you already have the temperature. Winter takes colour at full clarity — true red, royal blue, fuchsia — next to pure white or black. Summer wants those same colours with grey mixed in: soft rose, slate blue, lavender. If strong colours seem to wear you rather than the other way round, you are a summer, and the free colour report decides it from a photo or from seven questions.

Is black a cool colour that every cool person can wear?

Black is cool, but it belongs to winter rather than to cool skin in general. On a softer cool colouring it pulls attention away from the face and leaves it looking drained. Navy and charcoal do the same job in an outfit without that cost.

Can a cool skin tone wear brown and beige?

Yes, in their cool versions. Taupe is already in the summer palette and does everything most people want from a neutral brown. Golden camel is the one that fights a cool undertone, and it sits in the shades to be careful with above; warm beige is the same problem in a lighter coat.

What about orange and coral?

Those are the hardest two, which is why orange and tomato red appear in the warnings above. Away from the face — a bag, a skirt, a coat lining — they cause no trouble at all. At the neckline, true red and fuchsia give you the same lift that people usually want from a warm bright.

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