What does neutral undertone look like? Me apparently.

If you look best in silver jewelry, you are likely cool toned! If you look best in gold jewelry, you are likely warm toned!

If your veins look blue/purple, you’re cool toned! If you veins look green, you’re warm toned!

But no one talks about the neutral toned people out there! I’ve never been told I’m a neutral tone. Make up artists have sent me home with both cool and warm toned foundations and concealers. I look okay in all of them. Sometimes they’re always a little off.

And…when you look a colour charts put out by brands. I’m always looking at the lightest end of the spectrum and all these pretty white girls are always under the cool tones. And once the first Asian comes up in the picture, they’re a warm tone. So I have always assumed I’d be looking for more of the yellow leaning colours.

But clearly, I have not really looked at photos of myself very closely. I’m distinctly more pink than the Asian models in those charts. Them with their beautiful golden skin and me in comparison, pink like a spring chicken. But I’m not as pink as my truly pink toned friends… them with their blue veins… My sister is not pinky at all. But her winter shade is like my darkest summer shade…

This picture of Anna, Mara, and myself kind of sums up my conundrum. I’m pinker than my East Asian friends, but yellow-er than my white friends. When it comes to make up I never really considered neutral because NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IT MEANS.

I love that people are totally embracing diversity and whatnot. A foundation for every person! But when race is portrayed in these helpful little product pictures… it really throws me for a loop.

Because this is the shade that matches me best:

But I almost certainly would have bought this shade…because in my head this is me…

In this picture, under some bright, bright lights, I’m not that yellow! But I’m not that pink either. I’m neutral. Neutral is confusing.

In old photos my MAC foundation was always warmer… but I used to not my foundations on my forehead because it became an oily mess… and looking back on pictures, my forehead looks RED compared to the rest of my face. Very embarrassing.

And so today, I move forward embracing my new identity as a neutral toned person. I am embracing my slight pinkness.

Here are all the concealers I have:

These are all on my tanned left arm so while these might match my arm, they don’t match my face haha. Anyways, I bought the Glossier stretch concealer (HG status) in medium, because I just didn’t identify with the model wearing Light. And, like there are super pale people out there. According to Glossier, I am one of those super pale people. Gave the medium to my mom. She loves it.

I haven’t touched my EL ones for a while because they’re just too pink. If I was going to buy a new Doublewear concealer, I’d get the concealer in Warm Light. But am I warm light?!

Again, I was going to buy the Nars concealer in Custard, described as “yellow tone for light to medium complexion”. Until I tried it on at home and I was like noooppeee. The Vanilla one is perfect for me and is described as, “tiny cast of pink for the fair complexion”. I was worried it was going to be too pink…but you know, I’m embracing my pinkness now and it makes sense why this shade is perfect.

I’m still sporting my “summer tan” so the IT Cosmetics in neutral medium is my go-to full coverage concealer.

My foundations are a MESS. Some of these are samples I picked up from Sephora yesterday. The samples that have led to this identity crisis of sorts.

I went to Sephora and the sales associate matched me to BeautyBlender’s foundation in 2.4 (“medium with neutral olive undertones”). Which was perfect. Kind of. It was a tad too dark, too orangey when I looked in the mirror at home. Again, the 1.3 (“light with warm yellow undertones”) with the slightly peachier tones is just better. This range is super hard to find the right shade because it’s so undertone based. I think I’m going to try 1.4 (“light with neutral undertones”) next time I go in. Online it looks too pink for a neutral.

I like both the CoverFX Powerplay shades on me. They both work.

I guess all this means is that I can wear a foundation that leans either way and it won’t look absolutely terrible. More for me?