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Olive is a skin undertone characterized by the presence of yellow, green, gold and/or green-brown hues. Though frequently associated with individuals who have warm and deep coloring, olive itself is a neutral undertone. People with olive skin can additionally have cool or warm undertones, and shades of olive skin can range from fair to deep.
Olive skin undertones tend to be prevalent in individuals with Eastern European, Celtic, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Indigenous American, Latin American, Indian, West and South Asian, or Northern African ancestry, but are not confined to them. South Asian, Eastern European, Northern Italians and Celtic individuals tend to have lighter olive tones, while Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Latin American and indigenous Americans typically have darker olive tones.
Olive undertones may lend "dusky", "ruddy", "sallow" or "muted gold" qualities to the skin. The best color combinations give olive skin a beautiful earthy glow!
How to Tell:[]
- To identify olive undertones; mix of green and blue veins with yellow and green or green-brown skin tones.
- Check to see if you have a greenish-brown cast to your skin. Looking at your skin in natural daylight while wearing a pure white shirt can help with this.
- When exposed to UV light, deep olive skin tends to tan without burning. Fair olive skin may burn but usually develops a rich tan afterwards. It is still important for people with olive-toned skin to use sunscreen to prevent skin damage!
Tips for determining additional undertones:[]
- Many people with olive skin will tend to have a neutral skin tone, and only lean slightly warm or cool.
- To determine whether you lean warm or cool, drape a piece of clothing or fabric around your neck and chest to see if you look better in pure white (cool) or ivory, peachy white, or vanilla (warm). You can also check with jewelry - whether you look better in silver and white gold (cool), or gold (warm). What you are looking for is the appearance of a natural glow in your skin, for the shadows and highlights in your skin to look soft and well-balanced, and for the natural color of your lips to look healthy and attractive.
- It is very possible to have a mix of warm and cool tones in your hair, skin, and eyes, or for your hair, skin, and eyes to all be neutral. If you can't tell whether you are more warm or cool, you are mainly neutral! If you decide to color your hair, you may lean your appearance warmer or cooler.
Hair color tips for people with olive toned skin[]
Neutral Hair Tones[]
Neutral hair colors including nude blonde, latte, blonde, medium chocolate brown, and ink black will almost always be flattering on olive-toned skin. If you are unsure of where to start with hair color, stay within 2-3 levels of your natural lightness level and choose a neutral tone!
Cool Hair Tones[]
People with olive skin that leans cool will often be best suited by colors including pure white, royal blue, emerald, indigo, wine, ruby, and other jewel tones. For hair color, this includes platinum, beige blondes, ash blondes, mushroom browns, cocoa browns, burgundy, auburn, chestnut, gray, and cool blacks.
Warm Hair Tones[]
People with olive skin that leans warm will likely be best suited by colors including orange, brick red, golden yellow, olive green, plum purple, camel, and other autumn tones. For hair color, this includes golden blondes, caramel, bronze, ginger, copper, honey browns, amber browns, and brown-black.
Contrasting Tones[]
Some experts advise that contrasting skin and hair tones can provide more interest and balance - i.e. pairing a warm skin tone with cool hair color, or a cool skin tone with warm hair color. If you want to give this a try, it would probably be best to start with a subtle shade, and then increase the level of contrast if you like the effect.
Level of Contrast[]
Assessing the level of contrast between your hair, eyes and skin can also be useful for color choices.
- If your skin, hair and eyes are all around the same lightness, then you have low contrast (for example: medium-deep olive skin, chocolate brown hair and charcoal eyes). Your overall appearance will tend to seem softer and more muted if this is the case.
- If your skin, hair and eyes have some variation, then you have medium contrast (for example: fair olive skin, dark golden blonde hair and light hazel eyes).
- If your skin, hair and eyes have very different levels of lightness, then you are high contrast (for example: light olive skin, very dark brown-black hair and chestnut brown eyes). Your overall appearance will tend to seem bolder and more striking if this is the case.
With a low level of contrast, even small changes to hair lightness level will seem very light or dark and may tend to draw attention away from your natural features. With a higher level of contrast, you can more easily carry very bright and bold colors without risking attention being drawn away from your other features. Remember that changes more than 2-3 lightness levels of your natural hair color may require frequent upkeep and/or salon visits to maintain.
Hair Level[]
It can be useful to determine the overall level of change when selecting a new hair color. If you are cool-toned and dark-haired, such as having cool olive skin and natural cool deep chocolate hair, then changing to a light warm color like honey blonde will be a very substantial change because it involves both tone (cool/warm) and lightness level (dark/light). One less dramatic option would be to go to another cool, dark color (such as burgundy). Alternatively, keep the same tone (cool) but increase lightness level (such as going to a mushroom brown), or stay deep but add copper tones to get a warm espresso brown. Of course, it can be exciting to have a drastic change!
Reds[]
Reds can be especially striking on olive-toned skin due to the contrast between the natural greenness in olive skin and the red in the hair but this is usually cautioned or avoided. There are both warm reds (chestnut, ginger, cinnamon, copper, strawberry blonde, burnt orange) and cool reds (burgundy, violet-red, chocolate cherry, auburn, ruby, rose gold). Bear in mind that reds tend to fade quickly but often leave some residual color for a long time. A red tone that doesn't pair well with your skin tone could cause it to appear sallow or waxy. However, the right red tone could make your olive skin glow!
Nude makeup for olive toned skin[]
Nude makeup is a must have for some or too boring for others—it is however, universally flattering. But venturing into nude for the first time might be something that holds first timers back. For example, why spend on makeup that looks like no or low makeup, especially if it looks like it doesn't suit your skin tone.
- Are you willing to embrace rich browns? Olive toned skin probably looks the best in rich browns compared to the other skin tones.
- Are you willing to lean cool, warm or neutral? If you favour or lean cool or warm make that selection, or stick to neutral.
Nude Eyeshadow[]
Determine the nude effect you want first then you have a start point:
- Are you wanting natural, low or no makeup looks? Then you may want to consider mattes and satins and stay away from shimmers and glitters.
- Are you wanting a "one stop palette" or hand selecting each shadow? Nude palettes are made very easy these days just be sure you select either a universal neutral, rich brown nudes, or if you lean warm or cool—their corresponding nude palette.
Nude Lipstick[]
Determine the nude effect you want first then you have a start point:
- Are you trying to exact lip match (or MLBB: My Lips But Better)? This can be harder unless you can test multiple products.
Neutral Nude Lipstick[]
Cool Nude Lipstick[]
Warm Nude Lipstick[]
Nude Nail Polish[]
Determine the nude effect you want first then you have a start point:
- Are you trying to exact skin match? This can be harder unless you can go to a nail salon and actually do multiple tests.
- Are you trying to go lighter than skin tone or darker? This can be fairly easy, comparing skin to a bottle, and understanding nail lacquer tends to dry slightly darker compared to bottle/wet.
Red makeup for olive toned skin[]
A wonderful thing about red makeup—particularly lipstick and nail polish, especially a "true red"—is that it compliments all skin undertones but when it comes to olive toned skin a true red or classic red probably looks the best of all. Contrary to when it comes to hair colour where red is cautioned or avoided, a pop of red lips and/or nail polish is emphasized with olive skin—without overpowering the skin tone. If your olive skin leans cool or warm you cool use cooler or warmer reds but it may not look as good as a clean, classic, true or yellow undertone red—if anything the brighter or bolder the red the better!
Red Lipstick[]
Red Nail Polish[]
When it comes to nail polishes usually they tend to have more neutral or "true reds" and they are perhaps the most striking on olive toned skin.
Foundation Examples[]
The following examples are brands' versions of olive skin, usually leaning warm or yellow. In some of the examples below you can see some true olive skin can be more neutral but the foundation used warms up their complexion instead of showing that, even if one's olive tone is more cool or neutral, some brands choose a more neutral-warming correction in concealers and foundations. Cool or neutral olive tone options can be available but are less available. For more information on foundations and olive undertones go here.
