Colours for a cool undertone: what to try first

Recognising a cool undertone

Undertone is separate from depth: there are cool undertones in fair, medium and deep skin alike. A few rough clues people use, none of them conclusive:

• Veins on the inner wrist look blue or purple rather than green.
• Silver and white metals look more natural on you than yellow gold.
• Pure white looks crisp next to your face, while cream looks slightly yellow.
• Your skin flushes pink easily, or burns more readily than it tans.
• Mixed signals may point to a neutral or olive undertone; our guide to olive undertones covers that.

Colours to try first

Each of the shades below has blue in its base. Try them in pairs against a warmer alternative, such as navy against brown or lilac against peach, to see the difference.

Pure white and soft grey are the clean neutrals; a blue-grey such as zinc is a softer option than black. Navy and sapphire are the cool alternatives to black for work. Emerald and bottle green lean blue rather than yellow, unlike olive or mehndi. Berry pinks, from raspberry to fuchsia and cool rose, are often the liveliest choice. Lilac, lavender and plum cover the range from soft to deep. Cherry red, a red with blue in it, is the cool version of a classic. Icy pastels, such as powder blue and mint, are the gentle end of the list.

Our shirt dress, which comes in navy and emerald green among its five colours, shows how a cool shade carries a simple design.

Keeping a warm colour away from your face

Mustard, orange, rust, camel and golden beige are the colours that most often look less comfortable beside cool skin. If you love one, put it lower: warm-coloured trousers under a cool kameez, a warm print where cooler colours also appear, or a warm dupatta draped below the shoulders rather than around the neck.

You can also put a cool colour between the warm one and your face. A navy or berry piping on the neckline of a mustard kameez, or a grey dupatta over a rust suit, keeps the warm colour in the outfit while the cool one frames you. Red works the same way; our guide to dupatta colours for a red suit explains how to tell a cool red from a warm one.

Putting it into an order

Silver, pewter or white thread for embroidery and trims will usually echo a cool palette, while gold adds warmth. Describe your shades with a daylight photo, say where each colour goes, and see Send Your Design for how your own idea becomes an outfit. Then start a custom quote; the fabric, colours and design are agreed in writing before anything is cut. Our rule-free colour guide has more on testing.