Gold, silver, white, black, or colored stones: discover how to identify your skin's undertone and choose jewelry colors that naturally enhance your complexion.
Gold or silver? Colored stones or neutral tones? When it comes to choosing jewelry, we naturally tend to let our tastes guide us. However, certain colors can particularly enhance our skin.
The reason lies notably in your skin's undertone.
Warm, cool, neutral, or olive, it can influence how metals and colors interact with your complexion. Knowing your undertone can therefore be an excellent starting point for choosing a necklace, ring, or pair of earrings.
But be careful: these are not absolute rules. Jewelry remains, above all, a personal expression. This guide will instead help you understand which combinations naturally create harmony—and how to play with them according to your style.
Complexion and undertone: what's the difference?
Before choosing your jewelry, you must distinguish between two often-confused concepts.
Your complexion corresponds to the visible color of your skin. It can be fair, medium, tan, dark, or very dark and can evolve, particularly with sun exposure.
Your undertone corresponds to the natural hue situated beneath the skin's surface.
We generally distinguish between:
- warm undertone;
- cool undertone;
- neutral undertone;
- olive undertone.
Two people with a similar skin tone can therefore have completely different undertones.
It is primarily this undertone that can help you determine the jewelry colors that most naturally harmonize with your skin.
How to know your skin's undertone?
There are several small tricks to better identify your undertone.
None is perfect when used alone. It is best to cross-reference several observations.
Observe your veins
Stand in natural light and look at the veins on the inside of your wrist.
If they appear mainly blue or purple, your undertone may be cool.
If they appear more green, it may be warm.
If you have trouble clearly distinguishing one color or the other, you may have a neutral or olive undertone.
Compare gold and silver
Try on a gold piece of jewelry and then a silver one near your face.
If gold seems to bring more light to your skin, your undertone may be warm.
If silver seems particularly harmonious, it may be cool.
And if both naturally enhance you, you likely have a rather neutral undertone.
This method also has an advantage: it directly allows you to determine what you really like when you wear the jewelry.
Which jewelry for a warm undertone?
Warm undertones generally feature golden, yellow, or peach nuances.
Warm-colored metals naturally create a beautiful harmony with these complexions.
Prefer gold
Yellow gold is one of the most classic choices for warm undertones.
Its color echoes the golden nuances of the skin and can give a lot of radiance to the complexion.
Rose gold can also be interesting thanks to its slightly coppery tone.
Which stone colors to choose?
You can look toward:
- red;
- coral;
- orange;
- yellow;
- brown;
- certain warm greens;
- stones with earthy nuances.
These hues naturally extend the warmth of the skin.
The gold jewelry offered by Semurian Angkor, inspired by Khmer artistic heritage, for example, constitutes an interesting way to explore these tones while discovering contemporary Cambodian creation.
Which jewelry for a cool undertone?
Cool undertones generally possess more pink, red, or bluish nuances.
In this case, white metals tend to create a particularly harmonious combination.
Silver and white metals
Silver is a natural choice.
Its cool brightness can highlight the freshness of the complexion without introducing too much warm contrast.
This is notably one of the signatures of Chhin Jewelry, a house founded in Phnom Penh by designer and gemologist Thorng Chhin, whose collections are designed around silver.
Which stone colors to choose?
Cool undertones can pair particularly well with:
- blue;
- purple;
- cool pink;
- white;
- greens with cool nuances;
- transparent or crystalline stones.
Jewelry combining silver and white stones, for example, offers a particularly luminous and elegant result.
Which jewelry for a neutral undertone?
Good news: neutral undertones generally allow for great freedom.
Your skin does not have a clearly warm or cool dominance, which allows you to play with both gold and silver.
You can therefore alternate between the two according to:
- your outfit;
- the season;
- the occasion;
- your personal style.
It is also the ideal ground to experiment with mix & match by combining several metals in the same outfit.
Regarding stones, almost all colors can work. The question then becomes less about your complexion and more about the desired effect.
A colored stone will immediately draw the eye, while a white or black stone will generally offer a more minimalist result.
And for olive undertones?
The olive undertone often possesses a particular combination of green, golden, and sometimes slightly gray nuances.
It can be present on various skin tones, from the lightest to the darkest.
One of its great advantages is its versatility.
Gold generally works very well thanks to the warm nuances present in the skin, but silver can also create an elegant contrast.
Deep greens, earthy tones, reds, whites, and blacks also constitute interesting options.
Here again, it is better to test the jewelry directly rather than trying to follow a too-strict rule.
How to choose the color of your stones?
The metal is only part of the equation.
Stones and decorative elements allow you to introduce color and create much more personal contrasts.
White stones: luminous and easy to wear
White or transparent stones are particularly versatile.
They bring light without imposing a dominant color and therefore work with a wide variety of skin tones.
At Chhin Jewelry, the collection inspired by the Romduol, the national flower of Cambodia, notably exists in different interpretations with white stones.
It is an interesting choice for those looking for a luminous and timeless piece of jewelry.
Black stones: playing with contrast
Black works differently.
Rather than seeking to blend with the complexion, it deliberately creates a contrast.
On fair skin, a black stone can immediately become very graphic.
On tan or dark skin, it can offer a more subtle and sophisticated result, especially when paired with a luminous metal.
The I.Rumdoul Black Stone creations by Chhin Jewelry illustrate this association between silver and dark stone particularly well.
Multicolor jewelry: forgetting the rules
Some creations use several colors simultaneously.
In this case, seeking a perfect match with your undertone becomes much less important.
Chhin Jewelry's multicolor creations, for example, allow you to play with different nuances in the same piece.
It is an excellent option when you consider jewelry as the central element of an outfit rather than just an accessory intended to blend in with the skin.
Fair, tan, or dark skin: should you follow the same rules?
The undertone is an interesting indicator, but the depth of the complexion also influences the visual rendering of a piece of jewelry.
On fair skin, dark or very colorful jewelry can create a marked contrast, while luminous shades generally give a more delicate result.
On tan skin, golden metals can accentuate warm nuances while silver allows for more contrast.
On dark skin, both gold and silver can offer a particularly luminous contrast. Intense colors and light stones also stand out very well.
Therefore, one should certainly not consider that a skin tone dictates only one color of metal.
Can you wear gold with a cool undertone or silver with a warm undertone?
Of course.
Colorimetric principles serve to identify naturally harmonious associations, not to establish prohibitions.
A person with a cool undertone can perfectly prefer gold. In the same way, silver can create a very interesting contrast on skin with warm nuances.
And contemporary trends go even further by encouraging the mixing of metals.
Wearing several silver and gold rings, layering different necklaces, or combining several bracelets allows you to turn this contrast into a real stylistic choice.
Your personal taste therefore always remains the primary criterion.
Also think about your clothes
A piece of jewelry is never worn alone.
The color of your clothes also influences how it stands out.
With a black or white outfit, almost all metals work and the jewelry can become the element that provides color.
With clothes in beige, camel, terracotta, or brown tones, gold often creates a warm continuity.
With blue, gray, or cool shades, silver generally allows you to extend this harmony.
You can also do exactly the opposite and use your jewelry to deliberately create a contrast.
How to choose your jewelry at TEVOA?
The selection of TEVOA jewelry allows you to explore several worlds.
Kaliane Jewelry offers minimalist and timeless creations designed in Phnom Penh, easy to integrate into daily jewelry compositions.
Chhin Jewelry works with silver in a contemporary approach to Cambodian jewelry and notably allows you to play with white, black, or colored stones.
Semurian Angkor offers creations available in silver and gold tones, inspired by Khmer and Angkor artistic heritage.
Three different worlds that allow you to choose jewelry not only according to your complexion but also according to your personality.
Summary table: which jewelry color for your complexion?
| Undertone | Metals to try | Interesting colors |
|---|---|---|
| Warm | Yellow gold, rose gold | Red, coral, orange, brown, warm green |
| Cool | Silver, white metals | Blue, purple, cool pink, white |
| Neutral | Gold and silver | Almost all colors |
| Olive | Gold and silver | Deep green, red, earthy tones, white, black |
This table should remain a starting point: if a color not theoretically associated with your undertone pleases you more, it is probably the one you should choose.
Conclusion
Choosing jewelry colors based on your complexion is primarily about understanding the combinations that naturally enhance your skin.
Warm undertones pair easily with gold and warm colors, while cool undertones often find a beautiful harmony with silver and cool shades. Neutral and olive undertones, meanwhile, offer great freedom.
But colorimetry should never become a constraint.
A piece of jewelry also has a story, a shape, a symbolism, and above all, a personality. The best choice is therefore the one that reflects you.
Through the creations of Kaliane Jewelry, Chhin Jewelry and Semurian Angkor, TEVOA invites you to discover different interpretations of contemporary Cambodian jewelry and to find the colors, materials, and designs that match your own style.