Depth and undertone, side by side

Skin tone chart: names, undertones and hex codes

Twenty-four shades, six depths by four undertones, each with a name and a hex code.

Updated October 2026 · By the VisageMap team

A skin tone is two readings, not one. Depth is how light or deep the skin is. Undertone is the color under the surface: cool, neutral, warm or olive. The chart below crosses the two, so every cell answers both questions at once.

Most skin tone charts sort shades on a single line from light to dark. That hides the part that decides which colors suit you. A fair cool tone and a fair warm tone sit next to each other on a single line, yet they need different whites, different metals and different palettes. Two axes keep them apart.

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The chart

Skin tone color chart with hex codes

Six depths by four undertones. Each cell is an illustration of that combination on a screen, not a measurement of anyone's skin.

Skin tone chart by depth and undertone, with hex codes
Depth	Cool	Neutral	Warm	Olive
Fair	Porcelain#F6DCD6	Ivory#F3DCCC	Fair cream#F5DCC2	Fair olive#EADCC0
Light	Light rose#E8C0B4	Light beige#E6C2AA	Light golden#E9C39E	Light olive#D9C4A0
Medium	Medium rose#CF9C8E	Sand#CC9E84	Honey#D0A078	Medium olive#BBA27C
Tan	Cool tan#B07A6C	Natural tan#AD7C62	Caramel#B47F55	Tan olive#9C8258
Deep	Deep rosewood#80524A	Mocha#7E5442	Chestnut#855836	Deep olive#6E5A3C
Very deep	Very deep rose#4E302C	Espresso#4C3126	Cocoa#52341F	Very deep olive#433724

Full guides: olive skin tone.

Names

Skin tone names and where they sit on the chart

Name	Usually describes	Note
Porcelain	Fair, cool	The palest skin with a pink or rosy cast. Usually looks clearest next to crisp white.
Alabaster	Fair, coolFair, neutral	Used for very fair skin with little visible color. Usually cool or neutral rather than golden.
Ivory	Fair, neutralFair, warm	Fair with a soft yellow or creamy base. One step warmer than porcelain.
Pale	Fair, coolFair, neutralFair, warmFair, olive	A depth word, not an undertone. Pale skin can sit in any of the four columns.
Beige	Light, neutralMedium, neutral	Light to medium skin that reads neither pink nor golden. A word often used for a neutral base.
Peach	Light, warmLight, cool	Light skin with a pink and yellow mix. Leans warm when the yellow wins, cool when the pink does.
Golden	Light, warmMedium, warm	Light to medium skin with a clear yellow base that glows in warm light.
Sand	Medium, neutral	Medium skin with a muted, even beige. Sits between rose and honey.
Honey	Medium, warm	Medium skin with a golden base that looks even next to gold and cream.
Olive	Light, oliveMedium, oliveTan, olive	A green or gray cast over a warm or cool base. Covers a wide depth range, not one shade.
Caramel	Tan, warm	Tan skin with a warm golden or orange base. Sometimes called light brown.
Tan	Tan, coolTan, neutralTan, warmTan, olive	Like pale, a depth word. A natural tan tone can carry any of the four undertones.
Bronze	Tan, warmDeep, warm	Tan to deep skin with a warm, slightly metallic glow. A warm undertone word.
Mocha	Deep, neutral	Deep brown that is neither red nor golden. A neutral deep tone.
Chestnut	Deep, warm	Deep brown with a red-gold warmth, like the nut it is named for.
Mahogany	Deep, coolVery deep, cool	Deep to very deep skin with a red or rosy base. Reads cool next to gold-based browns.
Espresso	Very deep, neutral	Very deep brown with an even base. Looks rich next to both silver and gold.
Ebony	Very deep, coolVery deep, neutral	The deepest skin tones, usually described with a cool or neutral base.

Skin tone vs undertone: two different readings

Depth, sometimes called the surface tone or overtone level, is the part a stranger would describe first: fair, light, medium, tan, deep or very deep. It changes with sun. A summer tan can move you one row down the chart and the winter months can bring you back up.

Undertone is the color that shows through underneath, and it changes very little. Cool skin has a pink, red or blue cast. Warm skin has a yellow, golden or peach cast. Neutral skin has neither clearly. Olive skin has a green or gray cast sitting over a warm or cool base, which is why it gets its own column here instead of being folded into warm.

The two readings are independent. Any depth can carry any undertone, so a very deep cool tone and a fair cool tone share more about which colors flatter them than a fair cool tone and a fair warm tone do. That is the main reason this chart has columns.

How to read the skin tone color chart

Find your row first, because depth is easier to judge. Hold the inside of your forearm or your jaw next to a sheet of white paper in daylight and compare it with the rows. If you sit between two rows, take the one closer to your jaw rather than your arm, since faces often get more sun.

Then find your column. The cool cells lean pink, the neutral cells lean beige, the warm cells lean golden or peach, and the olive cells look slightly green or gray beside the others. If two columns both look close, you are probably near the line between them, which is common and useful to know: neutral readings can borrow from both sides.

Every cell is one illustration of a range. Real skin is not a flat color. It has freckles, redness around the nose, darker areas at the jaw and lighter areas under the arm. Read the chart as a neighborhood, not an address.

Rows. Six depths, fair at the top to very deep at the bottom. Lightness falls steadily down each column.
Columns. Four undertones, cool on the left through neutral and warm to olive on the right.
Cell names. Descriptive labels for this chart. Everyday names like honey or espresso are mapped in the table above.

Hex codes for skin tones

Each cell has a hex code so designers, illustrators and anyone building an avatar or a palette can use the shade directly. The values were chosen so that lightness falls down every column and hue moves from pink toward yellow-green across every row, which is how the four undertones differ when measured in the CIELAB color space.

A hex code is a screen color, not a description of a person. If you sample your own cheek from a photo, the number you get depends on the light, the camera's automatic white balance and any filter or makeup. The same face can read three or four cells apart between a window at noon and a bathroom bulb at night. That is why the free tools on this site pair a photo sample with questions a camera cannot answer.

Depth	Cool	Neutral	Warm	Olive
Fair	#F6DCD6	#F3DCCC	#F5DCC2	#EADCC0
Light	#E8C0B4	#E6C2AA	#E9C39E	#D9C4A0
Medium	#CF9C8E	#CC9E84	#D0A078	#BBA27C
Tan	#B07A6C	#AD7C62	#B47F55	#9C8258
Deep	#80524A	#7E5442	#855836	#6E5A3C
Very deep	#4E302C	#4C3126	#52341F	#433724

How to find your skin tone and undertone

The skin undertone test on this site samples the side of your cheek from a photo, on your device, and asks four questions: vein color, which metal looks better, how your skin reacts to sun, and whether crisp white or cream suits you. It returns cool, warm, neutral or olive. The answers matter most for neutral and olive, which a camera alone often reads as plain warm.

The free color analysis goes one step further. It adds hair and eye samples and questions about contrast, then places you in one of twelve color seasons, each with its own palette. Start with the undertone test if you only want the column; use the color test if you want the colors that follow from it.

Without any tool, the quickest checks are daylight and paper. Hold pure white and cream paper under your chin by a window. Skin that looks clearer with white leans cool; skin that looks healthier with cream leans warm; skin that looks fine with both is likely neutral; skin that looks slightly gray with both may be olive.

Veins. Blue or purple leans cool, green leans warm, a mix leans neutral, green with a gray cast suggests olive.
Metals. Silver brighter leans cool, gold brighter leans warm, both fine leans neutral.
Sun. Burning before tanning leans cool; tanning easily leans warm; tanning to a greenish olive suggests olive.

Types of skin tones, and what they are not

The six depths and four undertones give 24 combinations, which is enough to choose colors with and small enough to remember. Some systems use more depth steps or split warm into yellow, golden and peach. They describe the same space in finer slices.

Dermatologists use the Fitzpatrick scale, which sorts skin by how it reacts to sun exposure; it is a medical scale for burning and tanning, not a color system, and it says nothing about undertone.

No cell is better than another. The chart does not rank skin, and it does not say anything about where a person comes from. It describes two things you can see in a mirror and uses them to choose colors.

From skin tone to colors that suit you

Undertone decides the direction of the palette and depth decides how far it can go. Cool skin is flattered by blue-based colors and silver; warm skin by golden colors and gold; neutral skin by softened versions of both; olive skin by muted and earthy colors that share its gray-green cast.

Depth then sets contrast. Fair skin often looks best when the color near the face is not much darker than the skin, unless the hair is dark. Deep skin carries saturated and very dark colors without being overwhelmed, and pastels can look chalky unless they are clear. The twelve color seasons combine these readings with hair and eye color to give a palette for each combination.

Questions

Skin tone questions

What are the main skin tone types?

This chart uses six depths (fair, light, medium, tan, deep and very deep) and four undertones (cool, neutral, warm and olive). Every skin tone sits somewhere in that grid, often near the line between two cells.

What is the difference between skin tone and undertone?

Skin tone usually means depth, how light or deep the skin is, and it changes with sun. Undertone is the cast underneath, cool, warm, neutral or olive, and it stays about the same all year.

What is the hex code for a skin tone?

There is no single code for a person, but each cell of the chart has one, from #F6DCD6 for porcelain to #433724 for very deep olive. Use them as illustrations; a photo sample of real skin varies with light and camera.

Can a deep skin tone have a cool undertone?

Yes. Undertone and depth are separate. Deep and very deep skin can be cool, neutral, warm or olive, and the right colors depend on that column as much as on depth.

Is olive a skin tone or an undertone?

Both words are used. On this chart olive is an undertone column, because it describes a green or gray cast rather than a depth, and it runs from fair olive to very deep olive.

How do I find my skin tone at home?

Compare your jaw with white and cream paper in daylight for undertone, and with the chart rows for depth. The free skin undertone test does the undertone part from a photo and four questions, on your device.

Does my skin tone change in winter?

Depth does: most people get lighter without sun. Undertone barely moves, though olive and neutral skin can look more gray or sallow in winter because the surface warmth from sun fades.

How we measure. The seasons on this site come from fixed positions for warmth, depth and clarity, and the free test matches you to the nearest one. Read the method