Wrong colors for your skin? 7 signs a color does not suit you

On the hanger it looked beautiful, but in the mirror something is off. Your face looks dull, your eyes have lost their sparkle and you look more tired than you feel. Chances are it is the color. Do you recognize the signs of wearing the wrong colors for your skin?

The good news: you can learn to recognize when a color does not suit you. Below we list the clearest signs, and what you can do about them.

7 signs of the wrong colors for your skin

1. You look tired or washed out

You slept perfectly well, yet someone asks if you are ill. A color that does not suit you takes the freshness out of your face. Your skin looks flat and you miss the natural color in your cheeks.

2. Dark circles and shadows stand out more

In fact, some colors seem to cast a shadow on your face. Bags under your eyes look deeper, lines around your mouth and eyes stand out more. Often these are colors that are too dark or too heavy for you.

3. Your skin looks blotchy, red or sallow

For example, a color that is too cool for you can make your skin look grey or ashen. A color that is too warm gives a yellowish or red glow instead. Redness and blemishes then come forward more strongly.

4. People see the color first, and only then you

However, when a color is too bright or too intense for you, it takes over. People remember your sweater, not you. With a color that suits you, it is your face that stands out.

5. Your lips and eyes disappear

Your lips look paler and your eyes less bright. Suddenly you feel you need more make-up just to look “normal”.

6. You feel insecure in it

Somehow it just does not feel comfortable, even if you cannot say why. So you change outfits once more, or you keep leaving the garment in the wardrobe. After all, your instinct is often smarter than you think.

7. It goes with nothing in your wardrobe

A garment that falls outside your color palette often clashes with the rest of your wardrobe too. As a result you hardly wear it, however much you liked it.

Why a color has so much effect

Clothing close to your face works like a reflector. The light falling on the fabric bounces back onto your skin. A color that suits you strengthens your natural coloring: your skin looks more even and your eyes brighter. A color that does not suit you works against your natural coloring.

That is why you mainly see the difference with tops, sweaters, scarves and collars. Trousers or shoes in a color that does not suit you have much less influence on your face.

Too warm, too cool, too bright or too heavy?

A color can be wrong for you in different ways. If you know what goes wrong, you also know better what you are looking for:

• Too cool: your skin looks grey, dull or ashen.
• Too warm: your skin gets a yellowish or orange glow.
• Overly bright: the color dominates and your skin looks restless.
• Too dark or heavy: shadows become deeper and your face looks harder.
• Overly soft or light: you disappear in it and look washed out.

Spotting the wrong colors for your skin: the mirror test

1. Stand in front of the mirror in daylight, without make-up and with your hair away from your face.
2. Hold the garment under your chin. Do not look at the color itself, but at your face.
3. Compare with a color you often get compliments in. Switch between them a few times. With which one does your skin look more even and do your eyes seem brighter?

Wrong colors: what can you do with them?

You do not have to get rid of a color that does not suit you straight away. What matters most is what is close to your face.

• Wear it further away from your face, for example as trousers, a skirt, a bag or shoes.
• Put a color from your palette next to it, such as a scarf, shirt or collar.
• From now on, choose a version that suits you. Love green but olive does not suit you? Maybe emerald or sage green does.
• Take a color fan with you when you go shopping, so you see it in the shop already.

Want to know which colors do suit you? Read what colors suit me?, take the free color test or get your colors analyzed.

Still unsure about a garment in the shop? Take your color fan with you, or take a photo of yourself by the fitting room window. In a photo you often see even better whether a color makes you look washed out.

Looking for inspiration? On our Pinterest page we collect outfits and color combinations for each seasonal type.

Frequently asked questions

Read also: Your personal contrast level and Warm or cool undertone?