Choose the right colours to look youthful

Colour is an important tool that can transform you. It also impacts how others respond to you. There are three key indicators that determine if the colours you are wearing complement your skin tone.
 
* Skin undertone:
We have two kinds of undertones - warm and cool. To determine yours, simply do a vein test. If your veins are greenish in colour, you have a warm undertone and if they appear blue, you have a cool undertone. Skin colours, such as olive, caramel, brown and ivory, fall under the warm undertone category. Similarly, skin tones that are porcelain white, where the blue veins are prominent or dark skin where the blue undertone is noticeable, are considered cool undertones.
 
* Value contrast:
Incorporate contrasting colours in your wardrobe. This depends on the contrast between your skin and hair colour. Let us take a fun quiz to identify flattering colour contrast for yourself:
With Black being 1 and Platinum Blonde being 10, give your hair colour a number on a scale of 1-10. For example, my hair colour would be 3. Similarly, with dark skin being 1 and very pale skin being 10, give your skin tone a number on a scale of 1-10. I would be a 7.
Now, subtract both the numbers that you have given to your hair and skin colour; the difference between these two numbers will give you your contrast range. For me, it would be 7 minus 3, which is 4.
Indian skin tones generally fall under two categories - 4-5: medium value contrast and 6-10: high value contrast. The higher the contrast between your skin tone and hair colour, the higher contrasting colour combinations you can incorporate in your clothing. Like navy and white or black and white for wardrobe neutrals or ivory and flame red for a more glamorous look. For medium value contrast, opt for more medium contrast colour combinations, like beige with white and ivory with brown for wardrobe neutrals and tangerine with olive for a more fun look.
 
* The intensity:
Your intensity comes from brightness or softness of your skin, eyes, teeth and hair.  We categorise colours as per four seasons - summer, autumn, spring and winter. Asians mostly fall under the autumn category. We usually have warm, caramelised or sun-kissed skin tones with naturally dark hair.
Our eyes are warm - mostly honey, brown and dark brown. And colours that are spicy shades, like the ones found in the Indian Masala Box, are ones that complement the autumn skin tone, for instance, tangerine, saffron, pistachio, cinnamon, teal and flame red.

* Colour combinations that never disappoint:
A good colour combination for warm skin tone would be:
- For Ladies: Olive with tangerine, navy with flame red, saffron with egg yolk colour, ivory instead of pure bluish white, flame red instead of burgundy red. For jewellery: rose gold instead of platinum or white gold.
- For Men:  Navy and ivory,
brown tweed with burnt orange, brown with muted yellow or turmeric, beige with powder blue or powder pink, grey with powder pink.
Remember, good colours make you look youthful.
wknd@khaleejtimes.com
Konkana Bakshi is Founder Savoir Faire Academie and former Miss Elegance World