Undertone Help

[sunny1903]

Can anyone give me their insights on the differences between a peach and olive undertone, please? I think I'm light with an olive undertone, but I'm not really sure. There's not a lot of light colored foundations that have peach and olive undertones at my store, so I usually have to go a shade or two darker to get a decent undertone and then work backwards from there. Peach tones help cancel out my sallow hyperpigmentation but I feel like it looks a little gray and too pink, especially when it's a shade darker than me. Olive undertones generally match me really well, but most olive foundations are too dark for me. If anyone knows any light shades with these undertones, please let me know! Thanks!

[EsinaJ]

Hi @sunny1903. The thing with olive is you can be warm, cool, or neutral olive. Olive itself just means your skin has green to it. Peach is on the warm spectrum but contains more blue pulling it more towards cool (or here, neutral) than the warm foundations you find orange. -- If you feel peach makes you look gray, it could be that they're not yellow enough! -- I have this problem, am a warm olive (golden olive), and end up wearing orangey foundations because I'd rather look tan than sallow.... Olives in all depths are hard to match because you have two tones to balance. Yellow-leaning foundations like Nars, Bobbi Brown may be with a look for you! And shades described as Golden. HTH!

[risa0225]

I completely understand what you mean! I think that you understand your undertone very well. My undertone is olive also and cool/peach based foundations do appear ashy on me. I've found good foundation matches with Giorgio Armani (4 or 3.5) and Bobbi Brown (Warm Sand or Sand). Generally, I tend to lean towards warm based foundation for a decent match. 

[sunny1903]

Thank you for the reply! I like the Armani LS, but all their shades are either too light or dark for me. I'll check out Bobbi Brown though!

[figu0020]

This is so not a satisfying answer, but it may be best to mix two shades. I too have olive undertones, but am on lighter end in shade. I previously mixed Armani LS in shade 6 (the only olive based color in the LS lineup, but way too dark) and shade 5 (a light/medium neutral shade, but ultimately too light) to make a great option. BUT, I recently reevaluated my undertone and swapped the shade 5 for shade 4 (a light warm shade). It's a pain to play mixologist every day (two pumps 4, one pump 6), but it's worth it for me to get a perfect match. I feel you though--the market sucks for olive undertones, particularly in lighter shades. 

[JaxElle]

There are three undertone colors: warm, cool and neutral.

• Warm: If the base tone of your skin is yellow or gold, you have warm undertones.
• Cool: If you see hints of blue, pink or red, then you have cool undertones.
• Neutral: If there’s a mixture of both warm and cool hues, or your undertone is the same color as your actual skin color, then you fall into the neutral category

Trick for knowing which one you have:

Look “through your skin” at the inner part of your arm and at the veins on the inside of the wrist. The color of your veins will help you determine your undertone.

“If your veins appear to be green, it’s safe to say that you have more warm undertones,” suggested Willis. “If they are bluish and purple in color, then you have more cool undertones.”

Hope this helps!

Source: essence website

[sunny1903]

Thank you for the reply! Unfortunately, the vein test works mainly for Caucasians. It can get hard to see vein color once you're past a certain skintone or in my case, if you're Asian you tend to have more yellow to your skintone so veins look green but it doesn't mean you're warm. Warm foundations look orange on me.