If you've got fair or pale skin, then hues that clearly contrast with your skin tone works best for you as they can, quite literally, give some colour to your complexion. Darker colours like grey, brown, burgundy, bottle green, navy can contrast beautifully with your skin tone, making you look vibrant.
With pale skin some colours tend to make you look washed out. Try and avoid wearing light, pastel shades on their own as it will make your appear duller than you are. Stay clear of blacks as it will contrast too harshly and whites as they will have very little contrast. Stick to greys, beiges and navy.
If you're fair skinned with cooler undertones, you look great in the berry family. Think strawberry or deep red, raspberry pink, boysenberry and deep purple. It creates a nice contrast with your skin and can bring out a hint of color in your cheeks. Jewel tones can also really flatter your skin.
Colours to avoid: Yellow and orange, as well as any pastel shades or soft colours as they will only wash you out.
For fair skin
It goes without saying that if you're fair, you've hit the jackpot when it comes to donning your fave pastel shade. Your cool undertones will help you rock baby blues, powder blues, candy pinks and pastel lilacs with ease.
Start with your regular foundation routine, applying primer, your favorite powder or liquid formula and a little concealer if needed. Then you'll turn up the heat right away by grabbing a bronzer. If you're especially fair, don't be afraid to choose a powder foundation a few shades darker than your natural skin tone.
If you have fair skin, the best colors for you are shades that have ivory or yellow undertones. Avoid opting for the cooler tones found in that pure white gown. Ivory has a slight tint of creaminess. The warm yellow undertones compliment most skin types.
Although you can sport a wide variety of colors, the best nail polish colors for this skin tone is nude brown, bright pink, light coral, metallics, and true red.
Whether your skin tone is more fair or deep, your skin has pink or red undertones. Pefferman recommends wearing jewel tones like emeralds, deep purples, lavender, pink, ice blue, and bright blues for your clothing and makeup. When choosing a foundation or concealer, look for neutral or pink-based shades.
Brunettes who have fair skin with cool undertones can go anywhere between light and dark, though blue-based, taupe or neutral browns will work better than those with a reddish tint to them. If you're fair-skinned with warm undertones, go for a richer brunette.
One big foundation mistake is to assume that pale skin means a cool undertone and vice versa, warned Aimee; "It's a total myth that fair skin tones have cool undertones and darker skin tones have warm undertones. Different undertones can be seen across all skin tones."
Having pale skin is normal for some people and simply describes the color of their complexions. However, when skin suddenly turns pale, it is often a sign of an underlying health condition. Unhealthy pale skin is called pallor. The sudden or unusual lightening of one's skin tone can occur in all skin tones.
Researchers have found that men are subconsciously attracted to fairer skin due to its association with purity, innocence, modesty and goodness, while women feel that darker complexions are associated with sex, virility and danger.
Sun Spots - After wrinkles, pigmentation is about the most noticeable sign of aged skin, and, surprise surprise, they don't manifest if you stay out of the sun. In general, staying paler helps to keep you looking young.
The new cells produced in the basal layer of the epidermis are exposed to less radiation in the winter and thus have less pigment making them lighter in color. This gradual change in skin cells is responsible for lighter winter skin colors.
Trotter continues, “If you've got blue eyes and fair skin, try combos based on pink undertones, like milk chocolate, taupe, mauve and blush. These shades look lovely and really enhance blue eyes without overpowering a fair complexion.
If you have dark skin or tan easily, more options are open to you – bold colours, pastels, whites. But if your skin is pale, perhaps freckly, and doesn't tan so readily, then pastels can wash you out. The same is true of stark tones such as black and bright white.
Pale or fair skin
In general, permanent makeup specialist Jennifer Calderon of Dermatology Depot Medical Spa in West Palm Beach, Florida, agrees that dark neon colors like purple tend to work well on lighter skin.