Skin Tone vs Undertone
Skin tone is how light or deep your skin is. Undertone is the colour underneath: warm (yellow, golden or peachy), cool (pink, red or bluish) or neutral (a mix). Two people with the same skin tone can have different undertones, and undertone is what decides which colours flatter you.
4 Undertone Tests
1. Vein test. In daylight, look at the veins on your inner wrist. Greenish suggests warm, blue or purple suggests cool, and hard to tell suggests neutral. It's quick but not reliable on its own, so use it with the others.
2. Jewellery test. If gold looks better against your skin, you lean warm; if silver does, cool. 3. White fabric test. Hold bright white and then cream fabric under your face. Pure white flatters cool undertones; cream flatters warm. 4. Sun test. If you tan easily and rarely burn, you often lean warm; if you burn first, you often lean cool.
If the tests disagree, you're probably neutral, which is good news: you can wear most colours.
Colours for Each Undertone
Warm: olive, rust, mustard, camel, coral, warm red, cream, chocolate brown and warm navy. Go easy on icy pastels and stark black near the face. Cool: navy, emerald, royal blue, raspberry, lavender, true red, grey and pure white. Go easy on orange and yellow-green. Neutral: almost anything; soft white, dusty pink, jade, teal and medium blue are especially safe.
Depth matters too. Light skin often looks best in light to medium colours or soft contrast; deep skin can carry very bright colours and strong contrast, like white with black. For the full system with seasons, see color analysis.
Colours That Suit Almost Everyone
Teal, soft white, medium navy, eggplant and true red sit between warm and cool, so they work on most people. If you're building a small wardrobe, start there; see the men's capsule wardrobe.
You can try colours on a model with a look close to yours in Ollie Stylist before you buy.
Read more: Capsule Wardrobe for Men: 20 Pieces That Work Together