“’DI bagay sa’yo ang kulay”, “mukha kang pumuti.” These are some remarks you may hear when you wear clothes with colors that don’t match your skin tone.

Whether you’re a real fashionista, wearing colors that work with your skin tone and hair color is very important.

Focus primarily on your skin tones when determining the right colors for you to wear. Don’t fight your natural skin tone; work with it to achieve your best look.

You can’t figure out what color’s  best for you without first determining your skin tone? Examine your skin closely without wearing any makeup.

Next, you need the right lighting. Avoid fluorescent bulbs as fluorescent lighting will affect the quality and look of the colors. Put a white towel around your shoulders and avoid bold colors in the background when looking in a mirror. You don’t want any distracting outside colors.

Discounting any suntan that you might have, look at the fundamental tones of your complexion. You may either have red, blue, pink or yellow undertones. If your skin looks pinkish, try for cool colors. If you have yellow or red undertones, stick with warm colors.

Warm colors are like fire and the sun; shades of reds, oranges, yellows should work nicely. This also includes yellow green, brown and ivory.

On the other hand, cool colors should bring to mind the sky, water and ice. Most blue and green colors should be great choices for you. Other cool colors are bluish-gray, black, pure white, bright pink and burgundy.

In case the white towel experiment didn’t help you to determine your complexion’s undertones or the warm-cool formula isn’t helping you determine which colors work best for you, here’s another solution to try.

Grab a bunch of your clothes in a range of colors. Go back to the mirror, again without any makeup, put a color next to your face, one piece at a time and see how your skin changes with each color match.

Observe the change of your color. A good color match should:

* Make your skin and eyes appear bright;

* Reduce the appearance of  any wrinkles; and

* Diminish the appearance of skin blemishes.

A bad color match will give you this:

* Make shadows in your skin look more pronounced;

* Make your skin look dull; and

* Make your skin look washed out.

You can also work with color intensity. Color intensity might be defined as the concentration or force of a color. For example, emerald green is an intense shade of green. Going back to the example of red hair, a bright red ruby brooch might be a terrific accessory.   (My Daily Moment)