"Ethnic" magazines always confuse olive skin with golden or tanned.

[Jeana Marie]

Fun tip for really pale girls: you know that sickly green cast you get in cheap fluorescent lighting? If you still have that when you go outside, you're probably olive!

Now, I don't mean just kinda fair. I mean you'd make Zooey Deschanel look like a tanning fiend if you stood next to her. Since olive is an undertone, like yellow, red, peach, or rose (a sort of bluish-pink) you can find it on ANY depth of skin. Prescriptives custom blend foundations are great at pinpointing your exact shade (they hand mix them for you, and save the recipe for later).

I personally almost never go out in the sun, due to a mixture of lupus-induced photo-sensitivity and the fact that I like sitting on my butt all day reading more than I like interacting with real live humans. As a child though, when I would stay fair yet not have the complexion of a mildly soiled sheet as I do today, my skin would take on the wheat color common to many fair olive skinned gals. Actually, in places like India, the Mediterranean, and Asia, fair olive is usually called wheaten because of it's neutral tone with a hint of gold, just like a wheat stalk. Yes, you may lean a bit warmer or a bit cooler but olive skin is considered a neutral undertone. That said, more girls can get away with yellow-based makeup if neutral or olive is not available. I implore you not to go pink. It will make your face look grey. I think a lot of Asian girls who have had the misfortune of tangling with Cover Girl can attest.

Anyways, if you're really screwed when it comes to finding foundation and the only place you have to shop is Walmart or something just find a brand like Loreal that offers multiple undertones and grab a neutral and a warm in your depth and blend them together in different ratios until you find your balance. You won't need too much of the warm. Some brands also sell pigment to mix with your foundation. Try adding greens and pale golds to get the right blend.

Yup I'm half a shade darker than you or Anne Hathaway, and I have that same olive/green undertone. It irks me when big top mags like Glamor or Cosmo will use recommendations for olive skin, (as a skin tone), and their examples are someone like Frieda Pinto, Eva Longoria or Jessica Alba. Just because I'm fair/light complected does NOT change the fact that I have the exact same undertones as those three women. And that those same big top magazines think all fair girls have pink undertones to their skin. I've seen Sofia Vergara being used as an example of olive too. I'm sorry, but Sofia is NOT olive. She is very obviously pink toned, AND the cookie cutter example of fair skin. She tans and darkens her hair for her roles and to look more "Latina." Just watch the early Modern Family episodes, when she had that deep brown color. It was so harsh against her skin tone, and you can see the pink in her skin highlighted in a bad way. She LITERALLY looks like if she were to lay out in the sun, with tanning oil all over her she'd turn into a lobster.

 

[Jeana Marie]

^^^

I agree. I'm olive, but Selena Gomez' shade of olive. I'm about the same skin tone as Megan Fox (very fair, but not Bella Swan fair) but I definatly have an olive/green undertone to my skin. It bugs me when Sephora doesn't cater to that. A couple days ago, I found Lush's color suppliments in Dark Yellow to be an affordable, but perfect match for my skin tone/undertone. The January 2013 issue of glamor did lip colors for skin tone, and it really irked me that the "olive" example was two-three shades darker than my skin tone. "Medium" was a light complected girl with olive/green undertones and fair, was no lighter than the medium example, but with pink undertones to her skin. I mentioned THOUSANDS of times that Sofia Vergara is a frequent example of "olive" time and again despite the fact that she is blonde with pink undertones by nature. I believe Eva Mendez is also a poor example of "olive skin" because she has GOLDEN undertones, not one hint of green on her.

By magazine standards of one's skin tone goes a little something like this:

Fair Skin= Light complected with cool/pink undertones
Medium Skin= Light complected with warm yellow/golden or olive/green undertones
Olive= Medium/tan skin of any undertone
Dark= Any woman of color reguardless of how fair they are by their community standards

I believe that this sort of formula is inaccurate, narrow and misleading. Just because you have fair skin does not mean you have pink undertones to your skin. And medium doesn't equal yellow based skin tone.

 

[brittbby]

Eva mendes definitely has olive tones to her. When she fake tans they definitely don't show through as much but you can definitely see a green tint to her skin.

It's incredibly obvious in this picture. Medium/tan olives looks very different from pale olives but the olive/green cast is still there.

 

[brittbby]

Now they like to use Halle Berry for olive skin and that I don't see one bit. I've looked at so many pictures and cannot see the olive in her skin but I may be wrong. Lol

 

[Jeana Marie]

Now they like to use Halle Berry for olive skin and that I don't see one bit. I've looked at so many pictures and cannot see the olive in her skin but I may be wrong. Lol

Here is another poor example of olive skin. Yes, Sofia Vergara. It's untouched and taken in the natural daylight by her. Not one hint of green OR gold on her.

 

[Jeana Marie]

Also, I think Lucy Hale is VERY underused as an example of olive skin. Maybe because she is very fair skinned with light eyes. But you can see that despite this, shes still very much olive:

Yes she is a lot more fair than Shay Mitchell but despite their skin tone differences, there is no clashing between them. And comparing Lucy Hale to Megan Fox:

While they are the same skin tone wise, (dark hair light eyes and fair skinned) there is very obvious difference. Megan is a lot cooler with a pink undertone. While Lucy does look a bit pinker, you can see a green tinge poking through.

 

[MintyPanda]

Yes yes yes! Lucy Hale is a fabulous example of a fair olive skin tone.

I think something a lot of people also fail to realize it that any kind of fair skin is going to look extra pink despite undertones thanks to the skin's translucence. You're going to see a lot more blood through the skin which is going to cool you down a lot. The key is to look at a place with either thicker skin or that's just less prone to redness. I know that if I've just washed my face I look bright pink. Just the act of touching my skin inflames it just enough to be visible.

Your decolletage is a good place to match foundation: if you want to see a pure, pale and unaffected version of you skin, look right below your tan line on your chest (the ladies are typically paler than your chest) and for a neutral area that has minimal sun exposure to best match your face to the rest of your body, check your neck.

 

[Jeana Marie]

^^^^ I agree!

 

[Jeana Marie]

I truly disagree with the bold. I am classified as African-American in the US, but I do not fit into the golden brown/caramel (NC45) category whatsoever, my skin is golden but it also very clearly holds olive undertones and that's why finding foundations that match me has been a long journey (C7 has been good for me, but NC anything is a disaster that's how I can tell the difference). Considering Africa is so close to the Mediterranean it simply doesn't make sense that someone of African descent cannot be olive skinned. Living in the US, seeing them might be more rare, but it is not impossible by any means. Saying skin colors of African descent are 'just brown' really bothers me because imo that is wear the most variance in skin tones exist. Especially in the medium to dark part of the spectrum. Just because you are darker doesn't mean your undertones just disappear completely. You can be dark and warm or dark and cool, why couldn't someone be dark and olive? Smh. A bunch of women named here are golden tan/brown or shades of caramel, I agree with that but Zoe Saldana would not be considered golden brown or caramel. She (esp being Latina) would be considered olive and you can see a difference between her skin vs someone like Beyonce' or Rihanna who are both yellow brown, not gold or gold/olive. That would be due to a mixing of specific ethnic backgrounds--ex. Beyonce' has creole ancestry (French). A quick Google search on the difference between yellow and gold and you will see that green has a big hand in what our eyes see or do not see... I think a lot of women who are considered olive who look "golden" to us are just using their makeup to warm up their skin and hide the sallow. If I am wearing colors that match me, in the winter I look sickly (w/o bronzer), in the summer I turn an antique bronze color naturally (which most MA's mistakenly read as red).

Actually, speaking of which, this girl is a perfect example of African American/Black girl with olive undertone skin: and shes a lot darker than Beyonce, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj

She was on that MTV show catfish LOL! But the faded out Rihanna red hair red dress and red lipstick actually make it MORE obvious. When an olive toned person wears a red shirt or red lipstick--the undertones become especially obvious!

 

[elektra513]

Haha she looks totally green in that pic! Yikes!

I agree. I notice that too when I wear pure bright reds, whites, or light greys alone. She should have worn a deeper red and it wouldn't look so bad. I recently got in to "color seasons" and now I pay attention to that kind of stuff more. I'd been wearing all the wrong colors in my clothes and it'd been competing with my makeup choices, sigh.

No comment on the hair, other than...smh,lol.

 

[keridabeenfabb]

although this is something i notice and it bothered me at a point.,i cant stand talking about it because it wont change what we see. i just will teach my daughter there are all kinds of people and skin tones and don't let magazines decide what shade is right or not. there are so many many beautiful shades........how much people say times change they really haven't.
but hey it all comes down to what sells magazines. and true olive and dark shades just don't and that's the truth.

 

[Jeana Marie]

Yeah, it does bother me as a fair skinned Caucasian to only see Latina celebs with fake tan in the olive category. But not all Latinas are olive OR medium toned. And when they DO talk about Caucasian examples, it's only Kim Kardashian! What about Ariana Grande or Nina Dobrev? Or Lucy Hale? As for olive skin and red hair: sorry, but only LIGHTER OLIVES can pull off red hair! And this applies to both Caucasian AND African American types of fair olive skin. (it's all subjective) also only straight reds (no undertones) or purple/violet based reds if you want a Rihanna red. Natural shades of red (think Nicole Kidman or Julianne Moore) are a no no for us olives. PERIOD! If you want a natural looking red, a darker mahogany, burgundy or plum is the way to go! Just make sure its cool toned and not found by nature. Also red FADES!!!

 

[Jeana Marie]

although this is something i notice and it bothered me at a point.,i cant stand talking about it because it wont change what we see. i just will teach my daughter there are all kinds of people and skin tones and don't let magazines decide what shade is right or not. there are so many  many beautiful shades........how much people say times change they really haven't. but hey it all comes down to what sells magazines. and true olive and dark shades just don't and that's the truth.

I always thought magazines, internet articles and bloggers were very narrow when it comes to skin tones and undertones. They all fail to take into account that someone who is NC15 can still have the same undertone to their skin as someone who is NC45, just like two blondes with blue eyes and fair skin can have a totally different undertone to their hair and skin tone.

 

[Prettypackages]

Yes yes yes! Lucy Hale is a fabulous example of a fair olive skin tone.

I think something a lot of people also fail to realize it that any kind of fair skin is going to look extra pink despite undertones thanks to the skin's translucence. You're going to see a lot more blood through the skin which is going to cool you down a lot. The key is to look at a place with either thicker skin or that's just less prone to redness. I know that if I've just washed my face I look bright pink. Just the act of touching my skin inflames it just enough to be visible.

Your decolletage is a good place to match foundation: if you want to see a pure, pale and unaffected version of you skin, look right below your tan line on your chest (the ladies are typically paler than your chest) and for a neutral area that has minimal sun exposure to best match your face to the rest of your body, check your neck.

couldn't quote everyone but there's some good stuff in here.

What undertone causes someone to look red when they tan?

 

[Jeana Marie]

I would say pink/red undertones. But sometimes pale/fair-light skin tones (reguardless of their undertone) can get ruddy in sensitive areas that have less sun exposure.

 

[faithiscalling]

Actually, you forgot to mention the Portuguese people. Lots of Portuguese and also Brazilian have olive skin tone, and we( Brazilians) are latinos. Italian, Spanish AND Portuguese people have almost the same skin color. Look at Cristiano Ronaldo for instance, he is olive skinned. There is also the Victoria's Secret supermodel Sara Sampaio, whom i personally think has light olive skin, or maybe medium skin. We usually have ancestors from those three countries, but there are also French, German & African heritage present. I personally believe i am olive skinned, because i have a ''white''complexion that my friends usually joke it is fake because i am yellow. All or mostly of us here are olive skinned, but the thing about my skin tone is that nobody is as yellow as me lol and when i say yellow i don't mean Asian Yellow, i am just slightly more yellowish than the average people, while my friends seem to have different undertones but still, you look at me and you still think i am white, as Penelope, Cristiano and Jennifer Lopez are. The range of olive skin tones is big, so there is also that. I have 3/4 of Portuguese heritage, while the other 1/4 is Italian and Brazilian. I believe that is the main reason i am more ''yellow'' than my grandparents and mom( she is olive tho, and people often think she is Spanish or Turkish), because of my father who has also Italian heritage. you can see in this picture taken in Lima my fair(i think) skinned friend, me, my asian light brown skinned friend and my other friend who i also think has a certain type of olive skin going on.
Do you agree? maybe i am wrong, so if you want to vote your opinion and help me understand this complicated skin color i would be pleased.

 

[Prettypackages]

Is olive the same as neutral?

 

[AuroraKS]

Is olive the same as neutral?

Not necessarily.
It depends on the person as well as what a brand defines as "neutral"

Some olive people have very little yellow undertones and would be able to wear a "neutral beige" foundation if they have a smaller amount of olive tones.

If a "neutral peach" is used then it would look pink. (Some brands classify peach as neutral because the "not pink but not yellow" so they use both which makes peach)

I, personally, have a yellow/olive color and use the MAC shade C35 in studio fix powder and the shade "123 Desert" in MUFE HD (which swatches of on the old formula you can see it's actually an olive shade compared to "127 dark sand" which is the same depth but more yellow/golden)

when I wear neutral(beige) toned foundation it either looks gray/muddy or a bit pink.
When I wear a neutral(peach) foundation I either look pink or orange depending on how much pink or yellow the foundation uses.

Olive skintoned people are either neutral(beige)olive or they're yellow/golden olive.
So to answer your question, sometimes.