Understanding your skin type

Hi everyone, it's Justine.

Today we're talking about color again because I get many questions on that topic at the moment.

If you take two women who have my skin tone, one might say, "Black looks great on me," and the other one would say, "Black makes me look old and sick and I hate it." Why is that?

In this video I'd like to explain the difference between skin tone and undertone, first off.

Then tell you why it's good to know your undertone and what you can do with that information, and then I'll give you three methods to find out what your undertone is.

Skin tone versus undertone:

Your skin tone is your skin color the one you see when you look at yourself in a mirror without thinking about it too much, in natural daylight.

It is often referred to as very fair, fair, medium, dark, tan, et cetera until very dark it's also the range of colors you get when you go to a tanning salon and you pick which tan you want to get.

So, your skin tone changes in summer versus winter depending on how tan you are. That's why you always want to measure it, for instance here, on a place that doesn't get sun that much so that you get a better idea what your real skin tone would be.

I did a video on how to help you measure your skin tone, I link it down below and, in the corner, here.

That's it for skin tones, now your undertone, on the other hand, does not change. It's the hidden color in your skin, so to say, the one that you don't see at first sight. It's the one that makes your skin overall look rather cool, rather warm, but you really don't "see" it. Why do we have a skin tone and an undertone, you would ask?

Great question- because the color of the skin, no matter which complexion you have, is a really complex color to get. <br><br>You need to mix all colors in order to get it.

I had a color theory professor once who asked us, for homework, to mix paints until we got the exact color of our skin here. You wouldn't believe how much blue I had to pour in, in order to get that color! So, the undertones in your skin are the tones you don't "see" but that make your skin look the way it looks.

Why it's important to know your undertone: When the colors in your outfit suit you well it's because they flatter your skin, so they say.

People will tell you, "Wow! You look radiant today, your eyes are shining, you look beautiful!" On the other side, when you wear colors that don't work well for you people will tell you "Oh, you look tired.

What happened?" or you look at yourself in the mirror and you think,

"Wow, the bags under my eyes are so strong today.

I look washed out, what's wrong with me?" Right? There are several reasons for that. It can be that the color is too bright or too dull compared to your skin. It can also be that it's a cool undertone when you're in fact warm undertone.

The rule is: colors that have the same undertone as you do, as your skin does, will always make you look, somehow, a bit more radiant and healthier, so we want to find out which undertone you have.

Three quick tests to find out your undertone:

For this part, first, make sure that you're standing next to a window, facing that window, that you get a lot of natural daylight into your face. No sunlight, no artificial light. It would screw up the results, so daylight, just daylight.

First method: look at your veins right here on the inside of your wrist.

Do those veins look rather bluish to you of greenish? If your veins tend towards blue or maybe purplish then you're on the cool side. If your veins rather look green or olive-tone, you're on the warm side.

If you can't really say which color your veins are, that's possible. You might be in the middle. You might be neutral. Then, try the next method. Second method: take a white sheet of paper.

Bring it next to you, like this. You want to compare this white with the color of your neck, or your chest (even better) not with your face because the face always looks a bit more reddish. That's because of hormones.

Men and women have that, no difference here, so don't use the face.

That's deceiving. Use the neck or the chest.

Even better, you take off your clothes and you wear only a white towel, put your hair away, so that everything else around your skin is white it's even easier to see.<br><br>When I put this sheet of paper next to my skin without... you're hearing that in the microphone (laughs)...

does your skin compare to that white turn rather pinkish or rather yellowish? If you feel that suddenly your skin looks more reddish, it is because you have a lot of blue undertone in your skin, so you're on the cool side. If your skin turns yellowish then you're on the warm side.

If you still don't know after this test, you might be neutral. Third method: take a piece of silver jewelry and a piece of golden jewelry.

Ideally, they should have the same size and surface.

That's the biggest piece of something golden I own- sorry about that, but it's not ideal for this test, right?

So, you have those two pieces. You hold them alternatively in front of your neck and compare until you found which one makes your skin look more radiant and healthier. The right metal among those two sorts will make your skin light up visually and you will really see the difference. If silver is the one that makes you look healthier, then you're cool.

If gold is the metal that makes your skin look better, then you're warm. Remember that I said French women usually don't mix metals? They wear either all silver or all gold. Well intuitively that's the reason why.

They know that one metal out of those two makes them look better than the other one.

Now what if you get different results from those three tests, or you can't really tell the color of your veins, or the colored skin, even after comparing with friends?

In that case, you might be neutral which is great because neutral toned people can theoretically wear any color- lucky you! But if you found that you have a warm or cool undertone you can really work with that information.

If you're cool toned, you will find that a cool blue suit you better than a warm blue. You will also find that a bronze color or a golden dress are just too much for your skin. You're disappearing.

People see the dress instead of you, but if you are warm then golden tones or earthy tones will look good on you, while glacier blue makes you look pale and sick.

Now you understand why Beyoncé always rocks golden outfits. In my previous video, you saw that the skin tone influences which colors suits you well and which don't. That was basic because I used only pure colors on the color wheel.

Now you see that not just the skin tone matters, but also the undertone; and there's not just one blue and one red, but a ton of different ones so the eye needs to be trained.

You can surely differentiate a blue from a green, but in fact, you also need to differentiate warm green from a cool green because the one on the left while suit people with a warm undertone while the one on the right suits people with a cool undertone.

The easiest way to practice, guys, is to compare pieces that you already have in your closet.

Hold the clothes right here. Chin. Fabric. No space in between.

Right. Which colors make your skin look fantastic and your eyes shine?

Which colors make you look older and tired? The more you practice, try, and compare, the more you'll get a feeling for all this.

I know there are painters and artists among you. Such people can tell immediately, "this is a warm color it has that much blue, yellow, and red in it." That's actually a very useful skill for fashion!

Thumbs up if you like this video and if you want to hear more about color in the future.

Let me know. I'm happy to help.

Also, feel free to comment below if you have doubts about your undertone or any question remaining about the methods I explained.

It’s very important to know your facial oil and water skin type if you want your skin care products to do the very best for you that they can.

If you use the right products for your skin type, you’ll be able to achieve the skin you’ve always wanted.

But if you use a product with a vehicle not appropriate for your skin type, even though it has the right active ingredient in it, it may not only fail to help your problem, but it may make your problem worse!

Let’s dive deeper!

Hello, I'm Dr. Neal Schultz And welcome to DermTV.

Using skin type appropriate products is one of the most important parts of creating your skincare regimen.

And it’s actually the vehicle that the active ingredient is dissolved in that determines if it’s appropriate for your skin type.

As a quick reminder, the active ingredient is the ingredient actually affecting change on your skin, such as glycolic or vitamin c.

The vehicle is the solution it’s suspended in, such as a serum or cream.

But I’ll come back to this in a bit.

So first, your facial oil and water skin type is very simply determined by the relative balance of oil and water on your skin.

That balance results from the activity of your skin’s oil glands that make oil, and the activity of different, unrelated sweat glands that make water.

That balance determines which of the four facial oil and water skin types you have.

If your cheeks feel tight or dry or appear flaky, you have dry skin.

If your T-Zone appears oily, feels oily, or you break out with acne, then you have oily skin.

If you have dry skin in your cheeks and oily skin in your T-zone at the same time, then you have combination skin.

And if you have neither dry skin nor oily skin, then you have normal skin, and we’re all jealous!

Simple right?

It is, but there’s a slight twist.

The relative needs of your skin and its oil and water balance can actually change in different seasons depending on whether it’s warm or cold outside and whether the humidity is the hair drier on low.

So in warmer more humid weather, you usually need a lighter vehicle while in colder dryer weather, a heavier vehicle is more appropriate.

So the next time you select a new skincare product, make sure that it’s appropriate for your skin type.

And better yet, find a brand that offers the same actives in different vehicles – like a glycolic cream and a glycolic serum – so you can change products accordingly with the seasons while using the same actives to always maintain the skin you want.