Color analysis quiz › Undertone Test

Undertone Test: Warm, Cool or Neutral

Your undertone is the base hue under your skin's surface, and five checks read it better than one. Tally warm and cool marks below, then use value and chroma to find where you sit among the 12 seasons.

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Find my season

What an undertone test can and cannot tell you

Undertone is the underlying hue of your skin: warm (yellow-peach), cool (pink-blue) or neutral, sitting between the two. It is not the same as surface tone, which is how light or deep your skin is, and it is not the same as chroma, which is how clear or muted your coloring looks. An undertone test reads one axis only. That is useful, but it is not a whole seasonal result.

Before you start, set the conditions. Stand near a window and use daylight, not a bathroom bulb or a phone screen. Remove makeup. Turn off filters and beauty modes on the camera if you photograph anything. Lighting matters more than any single check: warm indoor light pushes everything toward gold, and cool office light pushes everything toward pink. If you cannot get daylight, postpone the test.

The five checks

1. Vein color in daylight

Turn your inner wrist up to the window. Look at the veins near the surface. Blue or purple veins suggest cool; green or olive veins suggest warm; a mix of blue-green, or veins that seem to change depending on where you look, suggests neutral.

2. Silver versus gold next to the face

Hold a piece of silver-toned jewelry beside one cheek, then gold-toned, in the same daylight. Note which makes your skin look even and rested and which makes it look slightly grey, sallow or flushed. Silver looking better leans cool; gold looking better leans warm; both looking acceptable leans neutral.

3. Pure white versus cream fabric

Drape pure white near your face, then cream or ivory. Pure white flattering cool coloring; cream and ivory flattering warm coloring. If neither is jarring, mark a split and read it as neutral.

4. How your skin reacts to sun

Think about a typical first sun exposure, not a tan you built over weeks. Skin that burns and peels before it tans leans cool. Skin that tans readily with little burning leans warm. Skin that burns a little and then tans, or reacts unevenly, leans neutral.

5. Which lipstick family looks natural

Compare a blue-red or berry lip with a warm brick, coral or terracotta lip, without foundation. The family that looks like your own lips intensified, rather than like a mask, is your lean. Blue-based and berry shades point cool; warm brick and coral point warm; both working points neutral.

Printable tally table

Copy this table by hand onto paper, or print this page and fill it in. One mark per check.

Check	Warm mark	Cool mark	Split / neutral
1. Vein color	Green or olive	Blue or purple	Blue-green mix
2. Silver vs gold	Gold	Silver	Both work
3. White vs cream	Cream	Pure white	Neither jars
4. Sun reaction	Tans readily	Burns first	Burns then tans
5. Lipstick family	Brick or coral	Berry or blue-red	Both work
Totals	___ warm	___ cool	___ split

Count your marks. Three or more of one side means that undertone. A split result, or two against two with one split, points to neutral or olive. Olive skin often reads as neutral-warm with a greenish cast, and it can collect both warm and cool marks.

Why single checks disagree

The five checks fail in predictable ways. Vein color depends on how thin or thick your skin is: thin wrist skin shows veins bluer, while thicker skin or a layer of surface pigment shifts them toward green, whatever your true undertone. Jewelry preference is partly learned. Many people wear gold because it was given to them or because it suits their wardrobe, so the check measures habit as much as skin.

Photographs add a third source of noise. Camera white balance shifts selfies warm or cool depending on the light in the room and the camera's automatic correction, so two photos of the same face can disagree. Never settle an undertone from a single filtered image.

Break a tie by repeating the color checks in the same daylight on a different day. Drape white, cream, silver and gold again and watch the jawline and under-eye area rather than the overall impression. If the two days still disagree, treat yourself as neutral and let value and chroma do the deciding.

Undertone is only one of three axes

On this site's model, every season has three coordinates: undertone (u), value (v) and chroma (c), each running from -1 to 1, where positive undertone is warm and negative is cool, positive value is light and negative is deep, and positive chroma is clear while negative is soft. The near-twin seasons show why one axis is not enough. Soft Summer sits at u -0.3, v 0, c -0.85. Soft Autumn sits at u 0.3, v -0.1, c -0.85. Both are close to neutral on undertone, and both are strongly muted. What separates them is a slight cool versus warm lean and a small value difference, not a dramatic difference in hue.

So a neutral undertone result does not leave you without an answer. It moves the decision to how light or deep you are and how clear or muted your features look. Soft Summer blends: mousy or ash-brown hair, grey-green or grey-blue eyes, neutral-cool skin, with dusty rose #C08A98, sage #9CAF88 and slate blue #6B7F99 among its best colors, oyster #E6E0D8 and pewter #8E8F91 as neutrals, and black #111111 and bright orange #FF6F00 to avoid. Soft Autumn leans warm: dark blond to light brown hair with a golden-ash mix, hazel or soft green eyes, warm-neutral skin, with olive #808A4E, salmon #E38B75 and terracotta #B9705A working well, oatmeal #E4D9C4 and mushroom #A08C7A as neutrals, and fuchsia #E0218A and icy blue #CFE8F7 to avoid.

Undertone result to season direction

Undertone result	Seasons it points toward
Cool	True Winter, True Summer, Light Summer, Bright Winter, Deep Winter, Soft Summer
Warm	True Autumn, True Spring, Light Spring, Bright Spring, Deep Autumn, Soft Autumn
Neutral, leaning cool	Soft Summer, Light Summer, Bright Winter
Neutral, leaning warm	Soft Autumn, Light Spring, Deep Autumn
Neutral olive	Compare Soft Summer, Soft Autumn and Deep Autumn by value and chroma

For example, a cool undertone plus clear, high-contrast features points to True Winter, whose true red #D0021B and royal blue #1F3FBF carry the clarity, with pure white #FFFFFF and black #111111 as neutrals and orange #F57C00 and camel #C19A6B to avoid. A warm undertone plus deep, rich features points to True Autumn, with rust #B7472A and mustard #D4A017, cream #F5EBD7 and chocolate #4E3524 as neutrals, and icy pastels #DCE7F5 and fuchsia #E0218A to avoid.

Getting a firmer result

A quiz on this site scores your answers on undertone, value and chroma and maps you to one of the 12 seasons. A selfie photo check runs in your browser, measures skin, hair and eye color at points you can move, and ranks the 12 seasons against those measurements. A Pro report costs $9.99 once. Use your tally as the starting point, then let the full three-axis reading settle the seasons that sit close to neutral.

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Questions

What if my vein check says cool but gold jewelry looks better?

That is common and usually means neutral. Vein color is influenced by skin thickness, and jewelry preference is partly learned from habit and wardrobe. Repeat the white-versus-cream and lipstick checks in daylight on another day; if they also split, treat your undertone as neutral and decide by value and chroma.

Can olive skin get a neutral result on this test?

Yes. Olive skin often collects both warm and cool marks and lands between the two, sometimes with a greenish cast. That is a valid outcome rather than a failed test. Compare Soft Summer, Soft Autumn and Deep Autumn by how light or deep and how clear or muted your features look.

Why do two selfies of my face look different in undertone?

Camera white balance shifts skin warm or cool depending on the light in the room and the camera's automatic correction. Filters and beauty modes add more change. Judge in daylight near a window, without makeup and without filters, and do not settle a result from one photograph.

Does a warm undertone result mean I am a True Autumn?

No. Undertone is one of three axes. A warm result points toward a family of seasons including True Autumn, True Spring, Light Spring, Bright Spring, Deep Autumn and Soft Autumn. Value and chroma decide among them, which is why a quiz or selfie check that scores all three axes gives a firmer answer.