The Science Behind “Warm” and “Cool” Skin

Understanding skin pigmentation is vital to artists, beauticians, fashion experts, and color analysts. In my last post, I explained why picking whether your skin is pink or yellow will not help you determine whether warm or cool colors are right for you. Instead, I suggested you try to determine whether your skin is blue or orange, which kind of sounds ridiculous, but is actually based on the realities of melanin in the skin.

• Blue = Very little melanin: Skin with very little melanin will appear bluish from the light reflecting off blood veins and diffused through the skin. Color for Men calls this a “blue undertone” and assigns people of this skin type to Winter (dark hair) and Summer (light hair) color schemes, which include cool colors to go with the cool blue of your skin.
• Orange = Pheomelanin: Pheomelanin is the more rare of two types of melanin and creates a pigmentation in the skin ranging from yellow to red-brown. In very limited quantities, pheomelanin will combine with the blue vascular layer to create a cool, greenish yellow skin tone (sallow). However, with any intensity, it will overwhelm the coloration of blood vessels and create the warm “golden undertone” that is the signature of Autumn and Spring color types. Indeed, on the spectrum between yellow and red-brown lies orange, which my last post noted is the very definition of a warm color. Unlike the far more common eumelanin, pheomelanin does not create a UV-protecting tan, which is why Color for Men notes that Autumns burn easily.

Unfortunately, this blue/orange dichotomy works for only a small fraction of the world’s population. Eumelanin provides the black to brown pigment that colors the skin of most non-European people, for whom Color Me Beautiful provides very little coverage. In fact, 90% of the men photographed in Color for Men are white as are all of the models used as examples on the Color Me Beautiful website. Even more recent varieties of this approach to color coordination come off as racist, as evidenced by the comments on this article. People of color interested in learning more about selecting the right color palette for them might be interested in Darlene Mathis’s Women of Color.

Color Analysts, Pink Is not Cool

Most experts advise that people with pink undertones have “cool” skin while those with yellow undertones have “warm” skin, but this advice is so misleading that even color “experts” get confused.  For example, the color analyst behind Style Makeover claims that most people have “warm” skin, while Mineral Makeup Reviews argues the opposite is true. Part of the problem is that both yellow and pink are on the whole warm colors, and some yellows can be cooler than some pinks. Therefore, ascertaining whether you have a pink or yellow undertone does not help you determine whether you have warm or cool skin.

• Pink Is not (Always) Cool. Some experts would have you believe that simply seeing pink in your skin means that your skin is “cool” and therefore you are a “Summer” or a “Winter” color type for the sake of color coordination in clothing and make-up. Indeed, articles around the internet almost universally describe cool Winters as having pink undertones to their skin (Widipedia, Associated Content,TheSoko.com). However, Color for Men says that most “Winters…are those with gray-beige skin…usually with no visible pink.” Color for Men also explains that Autumns can be pink, “but the pink is more peachy than blue.”
• Yellow Is not (Always) Warm. One testimonial on Yahoo! Answers nicely summarizes the prevailing wisdom of color analysts (pink vs yellow) while also pointing to why it’s a mistake to use yellow as the defining color for “warm” skin tones.

“Warm means you have yellow undertones, cool means you have pink undertones. However, extremely yellow undertones and olive tones (which are kind of greenish-yellow) can still be considered cool. Think of lemony yellow vs. golden yellow — the lemony yellow would be cool while the golden is warm. That’s why many Asians are cool even though they have yellow undertones.” – Yahoo! Answers

On your average color wheel, like the one below, it’s pretty clear that blue is the most quintessentially “cool” color while orange, its complement, is quintessentially “warm.” Some reds are warmer than others; some yellows are too. Likewise, both purple and green can get cooler. However, orange can get no warmer and blue no cooler–they are the definitions of the terms.

Why Pink and Yellow? After all, blue and orange are the very definitions of a cool and warm color, respectively.

Just to further prove the point, check out the confusion over the skin type of various celebrities on Pretty Your World and Mineral Makeup Reviews, both of which subscribe to the idea that pink is cool and yellow is warm. Pretty Your World has Gloria Estefan and Sophia Loren as Autumns (warm), but Mineral Makeup Reviews has them as a cool skin types. Meanwhile, Pretty Your World calls Aishwarya Rai a Winter (cool) while Mineral Makeup Reviews has her as an Autumn (warm).

I’m no expert myself, but it seems like people should instead be looking for whether they have blue or orange skin, not pink or yellow skin, to determine whether cool or warm colors suit them best. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I’ll cover the notion in my next post.

A Full Quality Wardrobe for Under $2,000

I have relocated this post to Cheapskate Reviews. See you there!

Color Coordination in Men’s Fashion

I never would have imagined when I wrote this that it would become one of the top-three most viewed posts on my blog. If you can wade through the personal commentary about my own fashion faux pas, you will find a quick comparison of how women and men supposedly view color using me, a pasty white-skinned male with dark brown hair as an example. More important resources are linked to through out the post, with the eventual conclusion being that the seasonal (women’s) approach is probably best.

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I went on a little fashion kick a few months ago to up my style a notch. According to this article, my pale skin and brown hair look best with olive, gray, tan, brown, blue, medium gray and worst with dark gray, mustard, and orange. I have generally been going with this approach, since it had instructions for my specific skin tone and hair color and seem to have put together a couple new professional outfits. The most-complimented ones have been 1) a brown suit with a tan shirt and a tie with brown and blazes of orange and 2) a navy blazer worn with tan dress pants a matching goldish tan tie and a simple white shirt. I wore brown shoes and belt with both outfits. However, recently I’ve been getting knocked around for my business casual outfit consisting of a navy blazer + white shirt with blue pattern + tan/brown pants + brown shoes/belt combo, even though all of these colors are supposedly acceptable. Some people are saying I need more consistency in the colors as well as something with a bit more intensity. This has led me to revisit color coordination and discover…

• How Women See Color: Apparently, women see color differently. The most common lore is that all people fall into one of four “seasons” based on their skin tone and hair color. Since I have pale, pinkish skin that burns easily and a high contrast between my skin and my dark brown hair, I am a “Winter.” Based on this article, Winters look best in navy, black, white, gray, fuchsia, turquoise, purple, lemon yellow, burgundy, mauve, taupe and should stay away from orange, brown, beige, gold, rust, and peach. Filolog.com agrees, saying Winters should “never wear orange, gold, rust color, peach or salmon pink, coral, orange-red, yellowish-green, mustard color, camel fur color, or brown.” Even glancing at the articles above reveals substantial depth and sophistication from the women’s perspective, though the men’s article simplifies the options by having less colors for more types of people (10 types instead of 4).
• Agreement: Both approaches agree pretty strongly that blues and grays work for me and that I should stay away from mustard and orange. I did not read these articles until after I had gone out and bought the peachy shirt below. Oddly, the peach shirt also goes with the brown suit outfit described above, but I wussed out of wearing the loud shirt in favor of the tan. People love the suit; I probably could replace the tie and do even better. Interestingly, my dad (to the left) is rocking the bright, intense blue shirt, which goes quite well with his similarly “Wintery” complexion and is recommended for men with dark hair and pale skin.
  

• Disagreement: “How men see color” advocates tan and brown. Makes sense to me since I have brown, not black, hair, but the “Winter” is supposed to stay away from brown and other earth tones. In addition, Winters are supposed to look great in dark gray, but “How men see color” warns against it. Other minor contradictions exist simply in that one perspective does not expressly support a color choice suggested by the other perspective, including olive, black, white, fuchsia, turquoise, purple, lemon yellow, burgundy, mauve, taupe. All sorts of other color theories exist that seemingly add confusion to these conflicting perspectives. Supposedly, brown is out at night (What are “Autumns” supposed to do?). Also, since I’m tall, I’m advised to contrast the shade of my outfit from top to bottom, creating a horizontal line to break up the strong vertical my height creates. In addition, since I’m overweight, I should also make sure I wear darker colors on top to deflate my torso a bit, so that leaves the lighter colors for the trousers.
  

One thing is clear: no matter the contradictions I perceive above, I should go with the advice of the women once the sun goes down. As the photo below shows, my brown hair basically looks black at night, as does the charcoal suit I’m wearing. The main problem with my outfit below is the yellowish-green tie, a color Winters are to avoid. How much better would it have been were the tie burgundy?

In contrast, wearing dull, drab colors, even cool ones, does not work so well at night. I would have looked much better in an intense blue or just straight-up black in the picture below instead of the muted gray-blue. It probably would have been good to tuck in my shirt too; my torso looks enormous.

Of course, this research does nothing to address the concerns about the navy/tan/brown/white combo I’ve been wearing during the day. As noted previously, I got great compliments on both the blazer with tie combo and the brown suit, so I do not think it’s simply a matter of not wearing earth tones. I will keep the daytime wardrobe conservative with the blues and grays for now, and I’ll assume black shoes/belt and a white or light icy pastel shirt will be best.

I’ll experiment and get some pictures of the earth tones during the day at some point to see how they compare.

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