How Mother Nature decodes every skin tone.

It is a fact that some hues complement your features better than others.  A refined makeup palette can enliven your eye color, refine bone structure and reinvent your all-around beauty. 

Leatrice Eiseman, the director of the Pantone Color Institute, consults with industry leaders in fashion, design, and marketing to choose colors that will best enhance their brands.   Lucky for us her expertise also extends to individuals.  Eiseman's "color-time" system uses mother nature to decode flattering palettes for every skin type.  “The best way to judge your coloring is to think in terms of how color appears in nature at various times of the day,” says Eiseman, author of the palette-pleasing color guide More Alive With Color. 

She divides skin tones into three categories: sunrise, sunset, and sunlight.  The color range reflected off the sun at different times of the day dictate which hues are most flattering for each skin tone.  That, in turn, informs your wardrobe and makeup choices. 

To check which category you fall into, look at the veins in your wrist. If they’re green consider yourself a "sunset", if they’re blue you’re a "sunrise".  If you’re a mix of both you’re in the "sunlight" palette.

Sunrise: “In the morning, the sunrise palette colors are clear, clean and crisp,” says Eiseman. “Primarily blue undertones evolve into jewel tones.”
Coloring: Fair-skinned, dark-haired brunettes; fair-skinned silver-haired women; fair-skinned cool blondes; dark, blue-black skin tones with dark hair; and olive skin with dark hair.
Palette: Shimmering jewel-tones like emerald, sapphire, aquamarine and amethyst.


Sunset: An earthier, darker selection of colors reflect the waning day.
Coloring: Tawny redheads with fair to medium skin; golden blondes or brunettes with golden skin-tones; brunettes with mocha-colored skin.
Palette: Warm gold, russets, hot pinks, red-violets and twilight blues.  

Sunlight: “Between the two extremes is the sun-drenched palette, when sun or reflected light is strongest and colors are very subtle, muted and soft,” explains Eiseman.
Coloring: Light to mid skin-tones with hair that is medium in hue.
Palette: Peony pinks, hazy violets, placid blue and cameo greens.