Skin tone charts for grey haired.

Hello everybody, I've been away for years I think! Now I'm ready to discuss such an important question as different skin tones in many sorts again!

Oh my God, I'm going grey! Is it awfully inglorious? Or is it trendy? Could grey hair be attractive and stylish? How to bring yourself to gracefully natural grey hair? How to match your skin tone to different shadows of grey hair? How to choose the right tone of clothes and accessories to your skin and grey hair? There are so many questions, so let's look at this matter in details with visual skin tone charts.  

There is no secret grey hairs appear even in youth, so grey hair can't be only the mature age sign in fact of genetic inheritance, global environmental influences and other matters. According to the recent famous fashion magazine Glamour more than 2500 persons poll 43%  of people that took part in it answered that they found grey haired women and men attractive. Only 4% of asked persons thought grey hair to be unattractive. The great power of public mind is on grey-haired people side.

Grey hair were in fashion in 18th century as we can see thanks to the paintings of famous art members like Thomas Gainsborough, Francois Boucher, and others. Duchess of Devonshire in her powdered silvering grey wig has a fresh complexioned skin tone with blue undertone like a garden rose. Grey hair were considered as a mark of high social status. Only quite well doing people could venture themselves the luxurious wigs in white, grey and lightly colored grey tones made of real human hairs. Moreover, those volume shaped grey hair wigs of 18th century should be generously powdered with oak powder or with starch. What a deepest relief  that we are not obliged to do something sophisticated this way!

 Grey hair is in fashion now: Karl Lagerfeld's and Calvin Klein's favorite supermodel Kristen McMenamy wears her naturally grey hair on the catwalks and says "You can get older and still be rock'n'roll". Even the style icon Kate Moss is going grey and she does it gracefully fashionable. Many of celebrities were driven by this trend: Pink, Kelly Osbourne, Nicole Kidman and Lady Gaga, of course.  

Let's imagine I'm finally encouraged enough to go gray. But would it match my complexion? I want my grey hair suits me very well, and I definitely do not want to look like just a person who've forget the way to stylist. Let's have a look at the charts by the example the celebrities such Jamie Lee Curtis, Helen Mirren, Maye Musk and Meryl Streep.

Superstar Jamie Lee Curtis has a medium skin tone with golden undertone. You can read about medium skin tones in my article about determining skin tones and undertones with charts. She's so lucky about her complexion! When she was a brown-haired person, she hadn't enough contrast of colors in her appearance. But recently Jamie Lee Curtis went grey haired, and we can see a striking change to impressive good-looking. The truth is in the science of colors: the warm tones are in contrast with cool tones. If you put warms and cools nearly, you can see them brighter and more vibrant then they are in itself. This quite clear principle is in use by the world artists and stylists. Hair tone is always opposite to skin tone or skin undertone in the matter of warmth.

I think Jamie Lee Curtis is much prettier with grey hair. Her skin looks vivid, and her expressive eyes are appreciable now. Her appearance gained some special dynamics of tones interaction. That's because of high contrast between very light grey hair and golden warm skin tone. We can see Jamie Lee in search of best matching tone of grey for her skin. In according to the science of tones, warm orange golden is opposite to blues. It doesn't mean Jamie Lee should have her hair in futuristic manga style. But the best matching tone of grey is cool silver for her. We can see in a chart that warm grey hair looks not very fresh on Jamie Lee Curtis.

Stay tuned, more articles with charts are coming soon!  

Determining dark skin tones and undertones

Dark skin tones from tan to bronze can be examined with the object to warmness or coolness and undertones the same way even the article “Determining your skintone and undertone”. Test your skin with silver and gold textile, and then try test with white towel. Remember about good diffused natural lighting, makeup and accessories absence to determine undertones and the “tone temperature” of your skin correctly enough. At first determine the main tone of your skin and then proceed to test your undertone.

It’s important to remember that skin tone and undertone aren’t the constant. They can change according to the health state, climate impact (sun rays, for example), even the age does matter. During the day the instability of undertone can show itself by the light surging from bluish to reddish hues within one color limit. Skin can look dull by the evening but quite fresh in the first half a day, so you’ll need some cosmetic features to correct not only one undertone.

An additional way to determine the undertone is to look at your wrist veins. Greenish veins are coming with yellow with hint of green undertone in case of dark skin tones. This cool yellow undertone often looks like olive-colored skin. Caramel, lightly brownish colored veins are coming with golden undertone. It is warm yellow with hint of red. Brownish and reddish veins are coming with red undertone in case of dark skin. Usually red undertone comes with darker skin tones. Blue undertone is quite rare and comes with deeply dark skin.

Let’s look at celebrity examples of skin color intensity from tan to bronze/ebony:

• Tan. Pale among the dark skin colors. Olive, coffee, caramel hues. Has cool yellow with hint of green or warm yellow golden undertones. For example, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Halle Berry.
• Dark tan. More intensive color skin that looks quite warm, but rarely can be ashen. Undertones can be greenish yellow (that looks ashen) and golden to red, for example, Naomi Campbell, Chanel Iman, Sara Nuru.
• Brown. Naturally beige or lightly sun-tanned skin with yellow to golden undertones. For example, India Arie, Tais Araujo, Lauryn Hill.
• Bronze and ebony. Exotically rare for blue-black undertone. Usually comes with warm red undertone. Alek Wek, Viola Davis, Jeneil Williams for example.

Now we have the skin tones and undertones charts with celebrity examples for any occasion to compare. But remember celeb’s photos are usually from formal arrangements, so we can see only celebrities with make up features on their skin. It’s quite difficult to determine somebody’s natural color by photo. Naomi Campbell can look rather cooler in real life, but her make up artists correct her tone to warm hues, so we are to be satisfied with such unpretentious information as official photos.

Determining your skin tone and undertone

Don’t know what make up color to pick? The theory of color matching will help you to create a healthy harmonious make up suitable exactly for your skin tones, eye color and type of appearance. It's quite a basic knowledge in make up theory and practice! Some example charts with celebrity photos are applied to this article.

Remember, if your hair has been colored it would be slightly harder to determine your appearance type. Also, while determining you should not wear any make up on your face. It’s better to put on neutral colors clothes without accessory. The best lighting for real colors is a diffused day light.

At first you need to examine your skin tone: is it warm or cool? It’s quite easy; just try on some golden and silver textiles near your face. If silver fits you more, so you have cool skin tone. If golden better interacts with your skin, so your color harmony is in warm. Neutral skin tone owners usually have complex colors in their appearance, so they need to determine their undertone also. Do you think your skintone and undertone features look like Amanda Seyfried's? Just have a look on best and worst Amanda Seyfried's make-ups for her light skin tone with cool pink undertone to have your inspiration! It will help you finally to determine your skintone as cool or not.

The undertone color looks to shine through your skin. How to determine it? A good piece of something white, towel for example, will help you to test your skin undertone. Test it only with diffused day light because even small amount of artificial light, such a monitor or table lamp, will add hues to your real skin color. Bring the piece of something white close to your face. Does your skin look bluish, greenish or yellowish, or maybe pink? Blue and pink are cool undertones, yellow from peach to golden is about warm undertones, and people with green undertone usually have neutral skin tone.

Why does it important to determine your skin tone and undertone? It will help you to choose an ideal foundation, concealer, blush and powder, which will look absolutely natural on your face. Also the undertone is exactly the thing that helps match all make up perfectly by choosing the same undertone in eye shadows, lipsticks and lip glosses. You just need to choose foundation in according to your skin tone taking into account the undertone (blue, pink, yellow or green).

  

The last step would be determining the color intensity of your skin from light to light tan: 

• Light. Palest skin, often with freckles. Doesn’t tan at all or tans hardly, always with sun burns.  Have blue, pink or green undertones. For example, Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried, Anne Hathaway. You can have a look at the comparison between Amanda Seyfried's light cool skin tone with pink undertone and Penelope Cruz's warm olive light tan skin tone. 
• Fair. Pale skin that tans lightly and looks quite natural with small amount of bronzing. Fair skin tone has yellow, green or pink undertones, for example, Cate Blanchette, Haruka Ayase, Coco Rocha.
• Medium. Naturally beige or lightly sun-tanned skin with yellow to golden undertones. For example, Takei Emi, Gisele Bundchen, Natalie Portman.
• Light Tan. Often with a Mediterranean, Asian, Indian and Brazilian descent. Usually known as olive skin tone. Often seems unhealthy without sun because of greenesh undertone. Light tan skin tone goes with green, yellow and golden undertones. Aishwarya Rai, Penelope Cruz, Morena Baccarin for example.

You can read about how to determine skin tones from tan to bronze with undertones and celebrity’s examples in next article!