Skin undertone quiz
Six quick questions built from the usual at-home tests. You get an honest lean, warm, cool, neutral or olive, and the shades people often suggest for it. These tests are rough, so every question can be answered “not sure”.
Your result
Answer the questions to see which way your answers lean.
Nothing is sent anywhere; the result is worked out on this page.
What you will get
A lean (warm, cool, neutral or olive), the tally behind it, and eyeshadow, lip and blush colors that are commonly suggested for that undertone, with hex codes. Every answer can be “not sure”.
- Copper
#B2643A - Bronze
#8E6233 - Taupe
#8A7A78 - Plum
#6B3C5E - Champagne
#E2C9A3 - Soft brown
#86644F
Drape check with your own photo
See a photo of your face framed by bright white, cream, silver and gold side by side, the photo version of holding fabric and jewelry under your chin. Use daylight, no makeup and no filter. The photo stays on your device: it is shown by your browser and never uploaded.
Phone cameras adjust white balance automatically, which can shift skin color in either direction, so treat this as one more clue, not proof.
How to take the quiz
Sit near a window in daylight, with clean skin and no filter on any photo. Answer what you can; “not sure” simply leaves a question out.
Undertone is the cast under the surface of your skin: warm (golden, peachy or yellow), cool (pink, red or bluish), neutral (no clear lean, or a mix) or olive (a green or gray cast, usually over a warm or neutral base). It is not the same as how light or deep your skin is: any depth can have any undertone.
The first four questions each add one point to warm, cool or neutral. The sun question adds half a point, because it mostly reflects how your skin reacts to ultraviolet light, not its undertone. When warm and cool end up within a point of each other the result reads as neutral, since split answers usually mean the tests cannot tell. The olive question is scored on its own, because olive skin tends to give mixed answers to the others.
Example: green-looking veins (warm), gold looks better (warm), cream looks better (warm), both lip families work (neutral) and tans easily (half a point warm) make warm 3.5, neutral 1, cool 0: “Your answers lean warm”.
With a result you get eyeshadow, lip and blush colors with hex codes that makeup guides commonly suggest for that undertone, and a link that builds a full look for it in the look generator. Treat them as starting points to swatch, not rules.
Why these tests are rough
- Veins: veins look blue or green because of how skin scatters and absorbs light, not because of the color of the blood in them, and how they look depends on their depth, the skin over them and the light. On deeper skin they are often hard to see at all.
- Metals and fabrics: these depend on what you are used to wearing and on taste, so they measure preference as much as skin.
- Sun reaction: “burns easily” and “tans easily” describe the sun-reactive skin types of the Fitzpatrick scale, a dermatology classification of how skin responds to ultraviolet light. It is linked to how much melanin skin makes, not to undertone.
- Measurement: skin color can be measured with instruments in the CIELAB color space, and indexes such as the individual typology angle (ITA°) describe how light or dark skin is. Undertone as used in makeup has no agreed instrument scale; it is a practical convention for matching foundation and choosing colors.
Not medical advice. This quiz is only about choosing makeup colors. It says nothing about your skin’s health or how much sun protection you need: whatever your answers, protect your skin from strong sun, and see a doctor or pharmacist about any skin change that worries you.
Sources
- Kienle A, Lilge L, Vitkin IA, et al. Why do veins appear blue? A new look at an old question. Applied Optics 1996;35(7):1151. doi:10.1364/AO.35.001151 (vein color comes from light scattering and absorption in skin).
- Fitzpatrick TB. The validity and practicality of sun-reactive skin types I through VI. Archives of Dermatology 1988;124(6):869. doi:10.1001/archderm.1988.01670060015008 (the burn and tan skin types).
- Del Bino S, Bernerd F. Variations in skin colour and the biological consequences of ultraviolet radiation exposure. British Journal of Dermatology 2013;169 Suppl 3:33–40. doi:10.1111/bjd.12529 (measuring skin color in CIELAB and the ITA° classification).
Questions
What is the difference between skin tone and undertone?
Skin tone usually means how light or deep your skin is; undertone means the cast beneath it, warm, cool, neutral or olive. They vary independently: very light and very deep skin can both be warm, cool or neutral, which is why foundation ranges offer several undertones at each depth.
Is the vein test accurate?
Not very. Vein color depends on how skin scatters light, how deep the veins sit and the lighting, so it is a weak clue on its own and often impossible to read on deeper skin. That is why it is one question of six here, with a “can’t tell” option.
My answers were split. What does that mean?
Often that you are neutral, with no strong lean either way. It can also mean the home tests simply do not work well for you, which is common. Try the photo drape check, or swatch a warm and a cool version of the same shade side by side on your jaw in daylight.
What is an olive undertone?
Olive skin is usually described as having a green or gray cast over a warm or neutral base. Many foundations look either too pink or too yellow on it, and the warm and cool tests give mixed answers, so the quiz asks about it separately.
Can my undertone change?
Makeup artists generally treat undertone as fairly stable, while the surface shade changes with a tan, redness or the season. So you may need a different foundation depth in summer and winter even if the undertone you match stays the same.
Do I have to wear colors for my undertone?
No. The suggestions are colors that often sit in easy harmony with each undertone, a shortcut when you are choosing, not a rule. Any color can work; a warmer or cooler version of it is usually the easiest way in.