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The most stylish man considers many things.
They look for the most stylish clothing items that work for their body type, the hairstyle that suits their face shape, and colours that compliment each other.
That being said, not all colours work for everybody.
Some colours might make you look terrific, while others shine a light on the flaws of your skin.
So to help you out, I’ve created this article. Here you’ll learn how to determine your skin tone and which colours suit you the best.
So if that interests you, then keep on reading.
Determining Your Skin Tone
First and foremost, we need to determine what skin tone you are. That will help us to see which colours suit you the best. There are three steps to defining your skin tone.
Step #1 – Identify Your Darkness
First and foremost, we’ll have to identify your skin darkness. There are three different darknesses: light, medium, dark. Determining skin lightness should be pretty straightforward. All you have to do is look at your wrist.
- If you have dark skin, your skin darkness is dark
- If you see light skin, your skin darkness is light
- And if you cannot decide if you’re pale or dark, your skin darkness is medium.
Step #2 – Determine Your Skin Undertone
Identifying your undertone is a bit more complicated but should be identifiable in a matter of seconds. The best method is to look at the mirror with a piece of paper by your side.
You want to look at the tone differences between your skin and paper. There are three different undertones:
- Warm – You’ve got a warm undertone when you see your skin having a slight orange or yellow tint.
- Cold – However, if you see a subtle blue or green tone on your skin, you’ve probably got a colder undertone
- Neutral – Once again, if you’re not sure if you’ve got a warm or cold undertone, then you’ve got a neutral one.
P.S When doing this, remember to do it when the sun is out. Most lightbulbs have a bit warmer tint, meaning your undertone might be inaccurate.
Step #3 – Figure out your skin tone
Now that you’ve got your undertone and skin darkness figured out, it’s time to determine which skin tone you have. For the sake of simplicity, we have created four types:
- Pale Skin Tone – You’ve got this skin tone if you’ve got light skin and your undertone is cold.
- Light Skin Tone – A light-skinned person is someone who has light skin darkness with a warm undertone or a medium skin darkness person with a cold undertone
- Tan/Olive Skin Tone – If your skin has medium darkness and with a warm undertone, you’ve got olive skin
- Dark Skin Tone – You’re dark-skinned if your darkness is dark.
P.S Please don’t take this as an absolute reality. The fact is, everybody has a bit of a different skin. That means the colours we will recommend you might not work as well and vice versa.
Pale Skin Tone
If you’ve got pale skin, then I have some bad news. Your skin tone is the most difficult to dress well! That’s because your skin tone doesn’t work with bright and too dark colours.
For example, wearing a white shirt is too similar to your skin tone and shows off your paleness. And when you go with a black shirt, your skin will contrast too much with it, making your skin look paler than it actually is.
Colours to Avoid
Try to avoid anything that is too similar to your skin tone. These include whites, lighter neutrals, and pastel colours. These will make you look even paler!
Colours to Wear
As a rule of thumb, you want to go with darker colours! These will give your skin a bit more colour. For example, some great colours include beige, brown, and navy blue. You could also wear some earthy tones, especially when you’ve got darker hair.
Light Skin Tone
However, if you’ve got a light skin tone, then you’ve got a bit more options. Now, the whites and blacks work better on you. And additionally to that, some pastels might suit you as well.
Colours to Avoid
So what colours should you avoid? Well, just like last time, you should avoid any colours that are too similar to your skin tone. For example, beiges and some lighter browns might not work for you. Also, while you can wear some pastel colours, they generally won’t look as good as neutrals.
Colours to Wear
With light skin, a lot of colours work for you! You can wear neutral tones, black, white, and even a few lighter colours like baby pink or mint green.
Tan/Olive Skin Tone
Congratulations, you’re pretty lucky! That’s because you’ve got the perfect skin. Almost all colours work for you! And yes, even pastel colours suit you.
Just remember not to create too colourful outfits! They’ll make you look like a show-off, and that’s not attractive.
Colours to Avoid
There are very few colours that don’t work for you. The only colours you want to look out for is the ones that are very similar to your overall skin tone. That means some neutral browns or beiges might not work for you.
Colours to Wear
While almost every colour works, I recommend you to wear a bit lighter colours. That will help you to show off the beautiful tan skin you have. Great colours include white, pastel colours, light grey, beige, and yellows!
Dark Skin Tone
And lastly, let’s talk to those who have darker skin. Fortunately, you won’t have to worry about colours at all. You’ve got the darkest skin on the list, which means basically everything works for you. That includes all the brightest and the darkest colours.
Colours to Avoid
Like with every other skin tone on the list, the colours that don’t work for you are the ones that look very similar to your skin tone. That means browns and darker beiges might not work for you.
Colours to Wear
If it’s not on the “Colours to Avoid list”, then wear it. Since your skin is so dark, the bright colours don’t make you look paler. Instead, they’ll give a great contrast. Just make sure you match the colours well, or you’ll look like a rainbow.
A few things to keep in mind
So as you should see with our recommendations, the darker your skin is, the more options you have. And also, when in doubt, wear neutrals, that’s because of two things:
- It looks good on everybody.
- And you won’t look like a show-off.
And one more thing. The colour topic isn’t as black and white as it might seem in this article. Actually, in many ways, it’s more grey than it looks. The thing is, you can wear whatever colour you want, no matter if we recommend it or not.
Having a complimenting colour is one aspect of a good outfit. The other elements are colour matching and your confidence. That means you’ll be able to wear one that doesn’t work for you if you feel confident wearing it and you find a way to balance it with some other colours.
P.S You should also know that your skin changes all the time. In the summers, your skin is darker, while it will look paler in the winter. So you can use all the colours if you want.
Conclusion
And that’s how you pick your skin tone! All you have to do is determine your skin darkness and undertone! Then just choose the colours that work on this article, and you’re done!
Do you have any other tips on picking colours based on your skin type? If so, then comment down below. This way, all of us can become better-dressed men.
