Skin Colors

The origin of skin color is melanin which serves predominantly as a pigment. The pale skin turns dark in the sun due to the production of more melanin. Melanin is also the reason freckles and moles are darker that the skin itself. Basically there are two kinds of melanin: eumelanin (black and brown) and pheomelanin (red).

Human skin has about 60,000 melanocytes (pigment-producing cells in skin) per square inch. Different colors of skin result from a variety of factors, including:

· The amount of melanin each melanocyte produces

· How fast the pigment is made

· How the pigment is arranged in the cells

· The type of melanin

· The depth at which the melanin granules lie

Melanocytes are more active in dark-skinned people than in light-skinned people and it is because they produce more melanin. This gives people with darker skin the advantage of lesser rate of skin cancer and fewer wrinkles.

There are basically 8 skin tones which include:

White Skin— The lightest human skin which is without color pigmentation (albino). These people have a milky, translucent skin.

Light Creamy Skin – In other words, fair skin that may have light creamy or slightly pink undertones.

Golden Skin – This skin color has a distinct yellow cast if light, and if tan, it would have Golden tone. Many people are in this tone category.

Pink Skin – Those with this skin tone are not completely pink but have faintly pink skin tone and they are usually flushed with redness.

Tan Skin – This skin tone can range from light to dark brown. The undertone of the skin is mostly red or yellow or more clearly brown.

Olive Skin – This skin tone resembles the color of olive and is described as having a dull, yellowish-green color or a rather brown complexion with a hint of yellow green.

Brown Skin – This skin color may range from light to dark and is classified as clear brown, light, medium, or dark, or with red or yellow undertone.

Ebony— Ebony is the name a wood that is just about black. A dark skin ranges from dark olive to dark brown, deep amber, or deep auburn. For care instruction designed for dark skin tone click here.

How to enhance your skin color

Understanding the fundamental philosophy of colors would help in selecting colors that improve your personal coloring. The primary colors are identified as red, yellow, and blue from which all the other colors are created. The secondary colors are created by mixing equal amounts of two of the primary colors. For instance, yellow + blue = green. The tertiary colors are created by mixing a secondary color and a primary color (yellow + green = chartreuse).

Bright colors essentially advance and make covered area appear larger. Dull and dark colors, on the other hand, recede and make the covered area appear smaller. This color rule is very importance in applying make up, concealing an area or creating an illusion. Light emphasizes; dark minimizes.

The other characteristic of color is the fact that colors tend to reflect more color than they carry off. For instance, a red scarf near a rosy complexion will mimic additional ruddiness.

Moreover, color steals meaning darker and brighter colors will steal color from a lighter color. A person with blue eyes, for instance, can intensify the eye color by wearing a lighter blue than his/her exact eye color. A darker blue worn near the face would conversely make they eye color emerge lighter.

Furthermore, colors are classified as warm or cool. Some colors combine better with others.

Pink is thought of as a warm color but a pink tint is actually a cool color. The more red added to white makes the pink color warmer. This color is flattering to most skin tones but ruddy. It combines well with other shades and tints of pink, blue, black, green, gray, orange, yellow, purple, brown, beige, and white.

Blue is a cool color and complementary to most skin tones. Lighter blues enhance darker skins while darker blue elicit color in a lighter skin.

Purple is both cool (pale tints of orchid and lavender) and warm (darker shades with plum undertones). This color is not very kind to blemished or reddish skin tones. It combines well with pink, white, gray, soft blue, beige, black and pale yellow.

Gray is a cool neutral color and it combines well with many other colors especially with warm colors such as yellow, red, orange and gold.

Red is a warm color and except on a rosy undertone, looks exciting on any complexion. Freckles would look darker when red is reflected into the face. Red combines well with black, white, beige, gray, navy, green and yellow.

Green is a cool color except for bright yellow green color which is a warm color. The greater the yellow tint in a green color, the warmer the color would be. This color is easy on the eyes and pleasing to most skin tones. Bright green intensifies red in the skin. Blue greens are cooling and very attractive for light or dark skinned people. Green mingles well with other green colors, pink, blue, yellow, orange, brown, white, black and beige.

Brown is of the warm family and kind to almost all skin tones. Anyone with a dark brown skin tone can wear almost any accent color near the face.

Black is one of the neutral colors and it combines well with all colors. For those with darker skin, creating a color contrast near the face would act as a frame or highlight for the face.

White is the other neutral color. This color is easy to wear although one should be vigilant of the undertone of white. Some materials reflect a yellow or beige undertone whereas other materials will appear to be slightly blue or pure white.

When selecting colors, it is important to take hair color, lip color, and skin tone into consideration in order to harmonize and not clash.