Choosing Jewelry That Suits Your Skintone.

Jewelry comes in all sorts of colors and styles. Normally, we choose jewelry based on our preferences. Perhaps, you purchased an Emerald Necklace because green is your mom’s favorite color or a silver tennis bracelet because the sparkle caught your eye. However, nothing is worse than purchasing a beautiful piece online and realizing that it washes you out.

A great way to avoid a jewelry box full of pieces that you’ll never wear is to shop based on the undertone of your skin. Identifying your skin’s undertone takes the guesswork out of jewelry purchasing and allows you to quickly and easily determine if a certain metal will look good against your skin.

What is an undertone? 

It’s important to understand that your undertone is different from your skin tone. Your skin tone (the overtone) is the surface layer of your skin and this can be affected by environmental factors. When you spend time in the sun your skin’s surface layer will darken but your undertone remains the same. This is due to biological factors such as the melanin or pigments in your skin. There are 3 types of undertones: Cool, warm, and neutral.

 

Warm undertones range from peach to yellow and golden.

Cool includes pink, red, or blueish undertones.

Neutral undertones are a mixture of warm and cool.

How do I determine my skin’s undertone?

1. The White T-shirt test

Throw on a white t-shirt and find some natural light and a mirror. (If you don’t own a white tee grab a piece of paper and hold it up to your face). If your skin appears rosy or pink this indicates that you are cool-toned. If your face looks more yellow you have a warm undertone. Finally, if you can wear both colors without any significant change this could indicate that are neutral-toned. 

2. Sun Exposure

Exposure to the sun tells a lot about your undertone. Do you burn easily? This could indicate that you are on the cool side. If you tan easily with no burning you have a warm undertone. Lastly, if you burn and then tan odds are you have a neutral undertone. 

3. Check your veins 

Checking your veins is a great way to determine your undertones. Flip over your hand with your palm facing up, the thin delicate skin on your wrist will expose your veins. If your veins appear blue you have cool undertones. If your veins appear green on the skin (olive), you’re warm. Neutral is a mixture of both warm and cool undertones. 

 

Should I choose Gold, Silver, or Rose Gold?

Yellow gold looks great on warmer skin tones and pairs well with earthy gems and stones colored in brown, green, orange, yellow, and turquoise.

 

Silver and white gold look great with cooler skin tones and pair well with colorful stones in purple, pink, deep reds, and blues.

Rose gold has become a popular and versatile choice for jewelry options. The pink tone does wonders for both cool and warm tones and of course, if your undertone is neutral you’ll look great in Rose Gold. 

If you prefer to style out of the box then two-toned jewelry is perfect for you. The Silver and Gold combination adds a fun detail to your outfits and shows off your more rebellious spirit.