ToneWise
Analysing your palette…

Three steps to your wardrobe palette

Built on the Fitzpatrick scale and seasonal colour theory — the same frameworks professional stylists use.

01

Upload or select your tone

Upload a selfie or pick your skin tone manually from the Fitzpatrick scale. Choose your undertone — warm, cool, or neutral.

02

We map you to a season

Your tone and undertone are matched to one of twelve seasonal palettes — Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter — each a unique colour world.

03

Get your outfit palette

Receive a curated colour palette, flattering outfit combinations, and colours to avoid — all tailored to your specific seasonal type.

The Fitzpatrick skin type scale

A six-point classification originally developed for dermatology, now widely used in colour analysis and inclusive fashion tech.

Type I
Very fair, always burns
Type II
Fair, usually burns
Type III
Medium, sometimes burns
Type IV
Olive, rarely burns
Type V
Brown, very rarely burns
Type VI
Deep brown, never burns

Understand your skin tone & undertone

Not sure which tone or undertone you are? This guide walks you through exactly how to find out — no guesswork needed.

What is skin tone?

Skin tone (also called skin colour or overtone) is the visible surface colour of your skin — what you can see with your eyes. It is primarily determined by the amount of melanin your skin produces. Unlike undertone, skin tone can change: it deepens with sun exposure, shifts with seasons, and lightens with age or illness.

Overtone vs undertone

Think of your complexion in two layers. The overtone is the outer visible colour — fair, medium, tan, or deep. The undertone is the hidden base beneath it — warm, cool, or neutral. Fashion styling primarily relies on undertone, because it doesn't change and dictates which colours will harmonise with your natural features.

Why melanin matters

Melanin is the pigment responsible for skin colour. People with more melanin have deeper skin tones; those with less have fairer tones. There are two types — eumelanin (brown/black) and pheomelanin (red/yellow) — and the ratio between them is what creates the full spectrum of human skin colours you see on the Fitzpatrick scale.

How to identify your skin tone

Use these simple methods in natural daylight — avoid yellow indoor lighting, which skews everything warmer. Remove makeup if possible.

1

The bare face look

In natural daylight, look at the overall colour of your skin without makeup. Hold a white sheet of paper next to your face. Compare how your skin looks against pure white — this reveals the depth and warmth of your visible tone clearly. Then compare with the Fitzpatrick swatches above to find your closest match.

Very Fair Light Medium Tan Brown Deep
2

The sun reaction test

How does your skin react when exposed to sunlight for the first time in summer? This correlates directly to your Fitzpatrick type — because melanin is the pigment that protects against UV, and is the same pigment that determines your visible skin depth.

Always burns, never tans → Type I–II (Fair) Burns then tans → Type III (Light-Medium) Rarely burns, tans easily → Type IV (Olive-Tan) Almost never burns → Type V–VI (Brown-Deep)
3

The photo comparison

Take a selfie in natural light with no makeup. Open the colour picker of any photo editing app and sample the skin colour from your cheek (avoid the forehead, which is often lighter, and the jaw, which is often darker). Note the RGB values. Then use the ToneWise analyser above — upload the photo and the canvas algorithm will sample those pixels automatically and suggest the closest match.

What is undertone?

Undertone is the underlying hue that sits beneath the surface of your skin. Unlike your skin tone, your undertone never changes — not with sun exposure, not with seasons, not with age. It comes from the mix of pigments (carotene and haemoglobin) beneath your skin's surface. Getting it right is the single most important step in colour analysis, because it determines which colours will make you look vibrant versus washed out.

Warm

Yellow, golden, or peachy hues beneath the skin. Most common in people with East Asian, South Asian, Latin American, and Mediterranean heritage — but found across all ethnicities.

  • Veins look green
  • Gold jewellery flatters
  • Sun gives golden tan
  • Off-white looks better than stark white

Cool

Pink, red, or blue-violet hues beneath the skin. Common in people of Northern European, East Asian, and many African heritage backgrounds.

  • Veins look blue or purple
  • Silver jewellery flatters
  • Skin looks pinkish or rosy
  • Crisp white looks best on you

Neutral

A balance of both warm and cool — neither dominates. Neutral undertones are flexible, and both gold and silver look equally good. The most forgiving undertone for colour mixing.

  • Veins look blue-green
  • Both metals look good
  • Skin is neither pink nor yellow
  • Most colours work well

Olive

A greenish or grey-green cast beneath the skin. Common in South Asian, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and some East Asian complexions. Often tan-toned on the surface but with a distinctly muted, green-grey base.

  • Veins look dark green
  • Skin has a khaki or grey-green tint
  • Both warm and earthy colours work
  • Cool pastels can look muddy

Five tests to find your undertone

No single test is definitive. Use 3 or more — and go with whichever result appears the most often.

Test Warm result Cool result Neutral / Olive result
Vein colour
Look at the inside of your wrist in natural light
Veins look green or olive Veins look blue or purple Blue-green, can't tell
Jewellery
Hold gold and silver next to your bare face
Gold makes skin glow Silver makes skin glow Both look equally good
Sun reaction
What happens when you tan?
Golden, honey, or bronze tan Skin burns or turns pink first Tans with slight grey cast
White clothing
Hold pure white and off-white fabric to your face
Off-white or cream looks more natural Stark white looks crisper and brighter Both look fine
Eye whites
Look at the whites of your eyes
Slightly yellow or warm tint Noticeably blue or white Neither — clear white

A note for deeper skin tones: The vein test can be harder to read on deeper complexions — the overlaying melanin makes it difficult to see vein colour clearly. In that case, lean on the jewellery test and the sun reaction test, which tend to be more reliable across all skin depths.

Answer these 5 questions to get a suggested undertone. Pick the answer that feels most true — if you're unsure, pick the closest one.

Undertone finder quiz

Answer all five questions, then tap "See my undertone"

1. Look at the inside of your wrist. What colour are your veins?

2. Which jewellery makes your skin look more radiant?

3. After sun exposure, your skin tends to…

4. Hold pure white and cream fabric to your bare face. Which looks more natural?

5. Which set of colours makes your face look most alive when you hold them up?

Quiz tip: The quiz gives a strong indication, not a definitive answer. Your undertone is most accurately identified in person in natural daylight. If the result feels off — trust your gut. Many people sit on the border between two undertones.

Find your colour palette

Upload a selfie or manually select your skin tone to get personalised outfit recommendations.

Your skin tone

Upload a selfie or drag it here

JPG, PNG, WebP — for best results use good lighting

Your uploaded photo
or choose manually

Select your skin tone

Your undertone

Your results will appear here

Select your skin tone and undertone, then click "Get my outfit palette" to see your personalised colour guide.

Rooted in colour theory & research

ToneWise draws from seasonal colour analysis, the Fitzpatrick classification, and open-source research to make personalised styling accessible to everyone.

Seasonal colour theory

Seasonal analysis classifies appearance into twelve types across the Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter families — each defined by hue temperature (warm/cool), value (light/deep), and chroma (bright/muted).

Your undertone is the primary filter: warm undertones (yellow-gold) pair with Autumn and Spring palettes; cool undertones (pink-blue) with Summer and Winter. Neutral undertones give you flexibility across both.

Warm Spring True Spring Light Summer True Summer Warm Autumn Deep Autumn Cool Winter True Winter

How undertone works

Your undertone — the underlying colour beneath your skin's surface — doesn't change with tanning or seasons. Warm undertones show golden, peach, or yellow hues. Cool undertones reveal pink, red, or blue hues.

Universal colours that work for most skin tones include charcoal, navy, jade green, teal, cobalt blue, and warm pink — they sit at the neutral intersection of temperature and value.