Knowing what category your skin, eyes and hair colour colour fall into can help you when choosing clothing and makeup. Colours can generally be divided into three categories - warm, cool and neutral.
WARM COLOURS
Eyes - Green and Brown
Hair - Golden, Red, Honey Blonde, Strawberry Blonde, Caramel, Auburn and Copper.
Skin - Peach and Gold tones. This is not restricted to fair skin, with olive skin that contains a hint of peach or yellow also falling into this category. (Note: the warmth or coolness of skin colour comes down to the undertones.)
COOL COLOURS
Eyes - Grey, Blue and Blue/Green
Hair - Ash Brown, Ash Blonde, Platinum Blonde and Blue/Black.
Skin - Pink tones such as flushed beige and chocolate brown.
NEUTRAL COLOURS
Hair - without noticeable gold, red or ash tones.
Skin - without noticeable peach, gold or pink tones.
MATCHING YOUR COLOUR
Once you have an idea of your colourings, you can use the information when shopping for makeup and clothing. If you fall into the neutral category, then generally you should look good in anything, but if you determine yourself as warm or cool, there are a few rules to follow.
Warm tones work really well with peach, gold, copper, olive green and red. Cool tones on the other hand work well with pink, blue, yellow, white and grey. When it comes to jewellery, warm tones work well with gold, while cool tones work well with silver. (Think yellow metals = warm tones, white metals = cool tones.)
HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR SKIN COLOURING
If glancing in the mirror isn't telling you enough to determine what category you fall into, there are several ways you can test your skin. Many people find it difficult to know what undertones lie within their skin, so don't panic.
One quick way to do a test is to take a look at the inside of your forearms at the colour of your veins. Do your veins appear green in colour or blue? If they appear green, then you are most likely rocking warm undertones, and if they look blue chances are you fall into the cool category. Why is this? Warm undertones carry a hint of yellow, so when blue veins are viewed through warm skin the veins appear green. Blue plus yellow equals green, right?
Another quick way to determine which category is to do the jewellery test. If you look better in gold, you're warm. If you look better in silver, your cool. Look great in both? You're neutral.
Still not sure? The next step is to test using clothes and make up. Try a range of colours and see what you feel most comfortable in. Borrow from a friend's wardrobe, or shop for a range of coloured scarfs and put each colour up to your face. If the rusty colours make you look peaked, you are most likely cool. If you look sun-kissed and healthy, it's warm tones your skin hides.
Once you've worked out what suits your skin, turn to your favourite celebrities for inspiration. In the warm corner sits stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston, Heidi Klum and Beyonce, all of whom understand what it is to dress to your undertones. The stars getting it right in the cool corner include Courtney Cox, Meg Ryan, Demi Moore and Dita Von Teese.