colormatch

Colours for an olive skin tone

Olive is a green or grey cast across the skin, and the shades that suit it are muted rather than clear.

Olive is not a fifth undertone. It is a cast — a faint green or grey laid over the skin — and it sits across the warm-and-cool question rather than inside it, so olive skin can be warm-leaning or cool-leaning and still be olive. The cast is equally independent of how light or deep the skin is, because depth is measured on its own and any undertone can arrive at any depth.

That is why this page borrows from autumn and summer, two seasons that share no undertone but do share softness. The ten shades are the five quietest from each: olive green, moss, forest green, deep teal and warm aubergine from autumn, then sage green, seafoam, powder blue, soft plum and mauve from summer. A clear, bright colour fights the green in the skin and the skin loses. A muted one sits alongside it instead.

Colours for a olive undertone

Muted shades from autumn and summer. Olive skin carries a green cast that clear, bright colours fight and softened ones sit alongside.

  • Warm Aubergine#5A3540
  • Deep Teal#255F60
  • Forest Green#3B5C3B
  • Olive Green#6B6B2F
  • Moss#7C8A43
  • Sage Green#8FA392
  • Mauve#9B7F96
  • Seafoam#8AB8AD
  • Powder Blue#8FB3D1
  • Soft Plum#7A5A73

Shades to be careful with

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

  • Icy Pink#F0CDD8
  • Fuchsia#C2247D
  • Pure White#FFFFFF
  • Cool Grey#9AA0A6
  • Black#000000
  • Orange#E2601B

Checking it at home

  1. A white sheet at the jaw

    Hold a plain white sheet of paper flat against your jaw in daylight and look at the skin immediately above the edge. An olive cast shows as a faint green or grey where other skin reads pink, peach or golden. This check finds the cast and says nothing about warm or cool.

  2. Beside a clear yellow

    Bring something strongly yellow up near your face — a lemon, a bright tea towel. An olive cast turns sallow beside a clear yellow, and your eye goes to the skin rather than to the colour. Beside mustard or moss the same face settles down.

  3. What happens at the foundation counter

    If you have repeatedly been told that base makeup looks orange or pink on you, and the shade that matches your depth still sits wrong, that is the cast showing rather than a mistake in matching. Shades built for pink or golden skin are visibly off on a green one.

Wearing it

  • Muted matters more here than warm or cool. Olive green, moss and sage green all work because they meet the cast instead of arguing with it.
  • Keep pure white and true black away from the face; both push the green forward. Cream, oatmeal or navy at the collar do the same job without that effect.
  • If you want one bright colour in an outfit, put it below the waist or carry it, and leave the softened shade at the neckline.
  • Both metals can work, since olive occurs on warm-leaning and cool-leaning skin alike. Try each at the jaw in daylight rather than assuming one is ruled out.

Get your free colour report

Questions about a olive undertone

Is olive an undertone in its own right?

Not in the way warm, cool and neutral are. Those three describe which way the colour in your skin leans, while olive describes a cast lying over it. You still have a lean underneath, warm or cool, and the cast sits on top of whichever one it is.

Which season does olive skin usually land in?

Olive skin occurs in all four seasons, so the cast does not decide the answer on its own. This page draws on autumn and summer because both are muted, and a muted shade is the one most likely to sit alongside a green cast rather than fight it. The free colour report names one of the four seasons from a photo or from seven questions, and it reads your whole colouring rather than the cast alone.

Why does grey look wrong on me when it suits everybody else?

Cool grey in particular pulls the green in olive skin forward, which is why it appears in the shades to be careful with above. Warmer greys and taupe are easier to wear, and navy does the job of grey in most outfits without the same effect.

Can olive skin wear green, or does it clash?

Green is among the easiest colours for olive skin, provided it is muted. Olive green, moss and sage green carry the same greyed quality the skin does, so they read as agreement rather than comparison. What does clash is a clear bright green such as emerald or apple green, because it sets up a comparison the skin cannot win.

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