Cool Undertone With Olive Skin: Colors and Seasons

5 min read · Swatch Fan

Yes, you can have a cool undertone with olive skin. It means your base is pink or bluish, but a green or gray cast sits on top. Cool olives usually look best in muted, cool, medium-to-deep colors like plum, teal, navy, soft berry and charcoal, and they often look sallow in orange, mustard and bright warm yellow.

If you suspect you are cool olive but keep getting typed as warm, Swatch Fan names your season from quick questions, not a selfie: Find my colors.

Signs your olive skin is cool

A cool undertone olive skin tone can be confusing, because the olive part makes you look warm-ish and the undertone says cool. Look for several of these together:

• Silver or rose gold looks slightly better than yellow gold, even if neither is perfect.
• Orange and mustard make you look gray or tired, not glowy.
• You look pink and gray at the same time in some lights.
• Your cheeks flush rosy, not peach.
• Pink foundations look too pink, and yellow ones look too yellow.
• Your natural hair is ash-toned, like ash brown or dark ash blond, with little gold.
• Emerald looks better on you than olive green.

If you are not sure you are olive at all, start with is olive skin warm or cool, which explains the three types of olive.

Cool toned olive skin, pale or fair

Cool toned fair olive skin is especially easy to mistype. The green is subtle on light skin, so people get called neutral or even Summer with no mention of olive. Clues for cool toned olive skin pale types: bright white looks harsh, icy pastels look ashy, and soft rose or dusty blue look surprisingly good.

Best colors for cool olive

Here is a practical cool olive skin colors list. The pattern: cool, slightly muted, and not too pale.

Tops and dresses

• Plum, eggplant and blackberry
• Deep teal and peacock blue
• Navy and slate blue
• Emerald, pine and forest green
• Soft burgundy and wine
• Charcoal and cool taupe
• Dusty rose and mauve
• Soft white or oyster instead of stark white

Cool olive skin lipstick

• Berry and raspberry
• Rosewood and mauve
• Plum
• Blue-red, slightly muted rather than neon
• Cool nude with a rosy base

Blush for cool olive skin

Rose, soft berry and muted mauve are the easiest. Apply lightly and blend well. Very bright pink can sit on top of olive skin instead of looking like a natural flush.

Colors that turn cool olive sallow

These colors can bring out the green or gray and make you look tired. They are the main colors to avoid for cool olive near your face:

You can still wear these in pants, shoes or bags. It is only near your face that they cause trouble.

The hard part with cool olive is that many "cool" palettes are too icy and many "olive" palettes are too warm, so you end up judging every shirt yourself in store lighting. Swatch Fan's color check reads a top, dress or lipstick from your camera or a shop screenshot and says yes, close or skip for your season, plus the palette color it is nearest to. Find my colors

Seasons cool olives are typed as

In the 12-season system, a cool undertone but olive skin person usually lands in a cool season that is muted or deep:

• Soft Summer: the most common. Cool, muted, medium contrast. Ash-brown hair, gray-green or soft brown eyes.
• Deep Winter: cool olive with dark hair and eyes and higher contrast.
• True (Cool) Summer: clearly cool, medium coloring, when the olive is subtle.
• Soft Autumn (sometimes): if you are really neutral olive rather than fully cool.

How to choose between Soft Summer and Deep Winter

1. Put on a dusty rose top, then a deep plum top.
2. If dusty rose makes you look calm and polished, lean Soft Summer.
3. If plum makes you look sharper and dusty rose makes you look faded, lean Deep Winter.

For a full walkthrough from undertone to depth to chroma, see color season for olive skin.

Makeup and jewelry tips

Cool toned olive skin foundation

1. Look for shades labeled "olive," "neutral" or "neutral-cool." Standard "cool" shades are often too pink.
2. Swatch three shades along your jawline, not your hand.
3. Check them in daylight after 10 minutes, since some formulas turn darker as they dry.
4. If everything looks too pink, try a neutral shade before you jump to warm.

Cool olive makeup tips

• Eyes: taupe, plum, charcoal, soft navy liner.
• Brows: ash brown rather than golden brown.
• Highlighter: pearl or soft champagne, not yellow gold.
• Bronzer: a neutral or cool-brown contour shade, not orange bronzer.

Cool olive jewelry

Silver, white gold, rose gold and gunmetal usually look best. If you love yellow gold, try brushed or antique gold, which is softer than shiny yellow.

Cool olive hair color

Ash brown, mushroom brown, cool dark brown and soft black tend to work. Very golden, copper or orange tones can bring out the green in your skin.

Get a palette built for cool undertone with olive skin

In the next minute, Swatch Fan turns your answers about veins, jewelry, hair, eyes and tanning into a named season, with 12 colors and hex codes, 6 lipsticks, 6 hair colors and a daily 3-color outfit. It needs no selfie and uploads no photo, and it is free to start.

Find my colors

FAQ

Can you have cool undertones with olive skin?

Yes. Olive is a surface cast, and it can sit on a cool, pink or bluish base. Cool olives often suit silver, plum, teal and navy and look sallow in orange.

What season is cool toned olive skin?

Most often Soft Summer, with Deep Winter for people with dark hair and higher contrast. True Summer is possible when the olive cast is subtle. Test muted rose against deep plum to choose between them.

What blush is best for cool olive skin?

Rose, soft berry and muted mauve blush usually look most natural. Blend well and go lighter than you think. Avoid peach and orange blush, which can make the green in your skin stand out.

What foundation works for cool toned olive skin?

Start with olive, neutral or neutral-cool shades, since many standard cool shades are too pink. Swatch on your jawline and check in daylight after the formula dries.

What colors should cool olive skin avoid?

Orange, mustard, camel, peach and olive green near your face are the usual problem colors. Very icy pastels and neon shades can also look off. Keep them away from your face or skip them.