How to choose jewelry that matches your skin tone

When most people buy jewelry, they focus on their preferences. You might choose a topaz necklace because you love blue or buy a rose gold watch because you saw someone else wearing it and it looked fabulous on them.

And why not? As long as you feel confident in your appearance, then it doesn’t really matter. But there may be times when you bought a piece of jewelry that looked really great but didn’t have the same vibe when you wore it. This can make shopping for jewelry difficult and you could end up with a jewelry box full of items that you don’t really use.

Because jewelry generally rests against your skin, the contrast of the item with your skin will be easily seen. And hence, one of the biggest factors that affect how jewelry looks on you is your skin tone. So how does knowing your skin tone help you to find awesome pieces of jewelry? Because certain skin tones look good with certain metals and gemstones. By identifying your skin tone and season type, you can then find complementary colors to go with it. So let’s get right into this!

Find Your Skin Tone

Bear in mind that skin tone is not the same as skin color. Skin color (the overtone) is affected by the environment and is the surface layer of the skin. For example, when you get sun-burnt your skin color will change to a deeper shade. The skin tone (the undertone), however, remains the same regardless of the environment. It can be traced to your ethnicity and biological make up (consisting of the amount of melanin, or pigment).

There are three main skin tones – warm, neutral and cool – and lots of ways to determine your particular tone. One of the easiest ways is by observing the veins on your wrist. If they look either blue or purple, you probably have a cool tone while greenish veins means you have a warm skin tone. If you cannot determine if they are green or blue, then you probably have a neutral skin tone. Just remember to check under natural light.

Another factor that will assist you is in how your skin reacts to the sun. If your skin deepens in color but does not burn, then you likely have more melanin in your skin and therefore a warm/neutral skin tone. If, however, you find that your skin reddens and burns but does not tan, then you have a cool skin tone due to a lower count of melanin.

Now that you have hopefully determined your skin tone, let’s look at what type of season you are.

What Season Are You?

Knowing your season type will help you to delve a little further into the colors that match you best which can be used when selecting clothes, accessories and jewelry.

• If you have a cool skin tone – you are either a summer or a winter type.
• If you have a dark skin tone – you are either a spring or autumn type.

Winter

Crisp and clear colors work best for this complexion. Neutral colors like black, white, gray, navy, red, shocking pink and icy tones suit winter types. When selecting jewelry, it’s best to keep it simple. Silver looks best for this type.

Summer

For this type of complexion, pastels, neutrals and flowery colors like lilac, baby blue and powder pink suit well. Colors like black and golden tones like orange do not complement summer types. Summer types can pull off statement jewelry, and really rock it when they wear lots of jewelry, especially silver.

Autumn

For those with autumn complexions, golden hues like orange, beige, browns and gold go beautifully. Avoid dark colors like navy or black. Autumn types look great in gold and can be really daring with their jewelry choices, as they can pull it off!

Spring

Warm colors such as peach, greens, beiges and colors with gold undertones are ideal for spring types. Dark colors such as navy do not complement this type of complexion. Spring types don’t need to wear a lot of jewelry but when they do, gold complements them the best.

Find Your Matching Metal

As mentioned above, certain metals look better depending on your skin tone. White gold, silver and platinum flatter those with cool tones. For those with warm tones, classic gold, rose gold and copper-toned metals work the best. If you have a neutral tone, then you’re in luck! Both white and yellow metals will suit you perfectly!

Finding Your Compatible Gemstone

By now you will have an idea of what sort of colors will complement your tone. As we know, while selecting the right metal is important, most times it is the gemstone in the jewelry that steals the limelight. Selecting a gemstone that matches your skin tone will create a more flattering and lively look and really stand out on you! Conversely, an unmatching stone can cause your skin to look dull and drained.

For cool skin tones, think reds, blues, purples and greens.

Ideal stones include: topaz, blue sapphire, turquoise, tanzanite, aquamarine, amethyst, ruby, garnet, emerald, tourmaline and opal.

For warm skin tones, focus on earthy colors – oranges, yellows and browns.

Ideal stones include: citrine, agate, alexandrite, morganite, yellow diamonds, peridot, imperial topaz and brown zircon.

While it is always useful to have color theory information in your toolkit, remember that these are just guidelines after all. As most people generally fall into the neutral category, it is easy to bend the color rules to suit your preferences. Also, skin tone is not the only factor that affects the suitability of your jewelry. You should also consider your face shape and hair color. Not everyone prefers to shop according to matching colors, but it may be something that you could bear in mind next time you go jewelry shopping. It could also help you to avoid impulsive buying and take a lot of the guesswork out of the job.