What is dark skin called? Five tests to find out your skin tone. What pigment determines the intensity?

Skin tone (or undertone as it is sometimes called) is an additional characteristic of skin type, which can be light, medium or dark. Your skin tone will remain the same no matter how much time you spend in the sun (even if you look pale in winter and wear a tan in summer). There are three different skin tones: cool, warm and neutral. If you know your own skin tone, then this knowledge will help you in a variety of ways: you can choose the right lipstick color, choose the most suitable hair dye and figure out what color clothes suit you so that you always look simply stunning.

Steps

Determine your skin tone

Wash and wait 15 minutes. Your skin should be completely clean and free of any traces of makeup, lotion or foundation. After washing your face, allow your skin to rest for 15 minutes before proceeding, as it may turn pink from the friction of washing and the correct tone will be more difficult to determine.

Find a natural light source. Different lamps can tint your skin differently, making it yellowish or greenish, making it difficult to reveal your true skin tone. Working in natural sunlight will prevent you from making a mistake and misjudging your skin tone.

Try positioning yourself in front of a window.
If there's an open-air place nearby where you can sit, go there.

Look at the color of the veins on the inside of your wrists. If veins are visible on the wrists, then you have the opportunity to assess skin tone in a fast way. Hold your hand under natural light and determine the dominant color of the veins.

Consider your skin's normal response to sun exposure. Is it easy for your skin to tan? Do you get sunburned or suffer from freckles? The amount of melanin contained in the skin determines its response to exposure. sunlight, which also helps determine skin tone.

Hold a white sheet of paper to your face. When looking in the mirror, try to understand how your face looks in contrast to the white sheet. It may appear yellowish or pinkish, or not at all, but rather greyish.

Use gold or silver foil or jewelry to find out your skin tone. Hold a sheet of gold foil close to your face so that it reflects the reflected light onto your face. See if this makes your face look grayish or faded, or if your skin looks even better. Then repeat the test with silver foil.

Ask a friend to examine the skin behind your ear. If you have pimples, acne, or other skin problems that may distort your natural tone, ask a friend to examine the skin directly behind the ear, as it is unlikely that your skin tone will be distorted in this area.
- Pay attention to the skin tone in the skin fold behind the ear.
- If the skin is yellowish, then the skin tone is warm.
- If the skin is pink, then it has a cool tone.
- If in doubt, hold a white piece of paper to your skin. This will help reveal the yellowish or pinkish tint.
Pay attention to the color of your eyes. Eye color can be a clue to your skin tone. More light eyes(such as blue or pale brown) usually indicate a cool skin tone, while the presence of golden veins in the iris is usually characteristic of people with a warm skin tone.
- For example, pale blue eyes often go with a cool skin tone, while honey brown eyes go with a warm skin tone.
Choose a lipstick to match your skin tone
1. If you have a cool skin tone, try using lipstick in bluish or purple shades. For example, opt for a lipstick that is blue-red, purple-brown, or fuchsia. Avoid orange and too pale shades, because with them you will look dull.
  
  If you have a warm skin tone, choose red or orange lipstick. Shades like coral, peach and bright red will suit you perfectly.
  
  Experiment with different lipstick colors if you have a neutral skin tone. If you have a neutral skin tone, almost any color of lipstick will look good on you.
Choose the right blush

How are people living on our planet different? To answer this question is not so difficult. Of course, by physique, religion, race, gender, worldview, temperament and, most importantly, skin color. It can be white, black, dark, or have a reddish tint.

What is this connected with?

Let's start with the fact that people with a certain skin color could only be found in certain areas of our planet. Redskins - in America, blacks - in the countries of the African continent, whiteskins - in Europe. In this case, we are talking about the territories where their ancestors lived, since in modern world, thanks to the migration process, people with different colors skins can be found anywhere.

Of course, the place of residence left its mark on the skin color of the people living there. Climate features, solar activity, zonality - all these factors, one way or another, affect the amount of melanin produced by special cells of the human body - melanocytes. But the color of a person’s skin depends on the amount of melanin in the epidermis. The more of this pigment, the darker the skin.

But let's return to the territory of residence and how it affects the production of melanin. Let's give a simple example. The body of a person sunbathing in the sun acquires a dark tint. This happens because, under the influence of sunlight, melanocytes begin to produce more melanin, which makes the skin darker. This is why people living in hot countries may have black skin. The thing is that they spend a lot of time in the sun, and their epidermis is maximally saturated with melanin. That's the whole secret of black leather.

In white people, melanin is either completely absent or contained in minimal quantities. Hence, the color of their skin can be white or have a pinkish tint, which is due to the presence of large quantities blood vessels. So, for example, albinos not only have absolutely White skin and hair of the same color, but also a completely colorless iris.

And yet, what role does melanin play in the human body?

As it turns out, its main function is to protect the skin from ultraviolet solar radiation. It is no secret that a person who has received an increased dose of solar radiation runs the risk of developing skin cancer. Melanin, in this case, is a protective filter. It darkens the skin and thereby changes its reflectivity. It turns out that dark skin is less susceptible to ultraviolet rays.

But how did dark-skinned and white-skinned people appear?

The body of the ancient man was covered with a thick layer of wool, which protected his skin from ultraviolet rays of the sun. In the process of evolution, hair on the human body began to disappear. Why this happened is not known for certain. One way or another, their skin was unprotected from solar radiation.

People living in hot countries were at particular risk. Representatives with dark and dark skin were in a more advantageous position. They were the ones who were able to survive in such extreme conditions. A real natural selection took place, as a result of which the Negroid race appeared.

The exact opposite situation occurred in people with white skin. They lived in cold northern regions, with little ultraviolet radiation. With its deficiency, human bones become fragile, and vitamin deficiency occurs in the body. In such conditions, only people with lighter skin that could absorb more ultraviolet radiation could exist. It was they who supplanted dark-skinned people whose skin blocked ultraviolet rays. For this reason, their offspring suffered from rickets, and the bones could not withstand the load and broke. As a result, only people with light skin, whom we call white-skinned, were able to survive in these places.

Health

The structure of human skin

1. Skin – largest organ in the human body

2. If you stretch the skin of an average person, it will cover an area of 2 square meters

3. Leather is approx. 15 percent of your body weight.

4. There are two types of skin: hairy and hairless

5. Your skin has three layers:

We developed melanin to protect us from the sun. Was skin cancer the main problem? This was probably not the main problem, although ultraviolet radiation can certainly lead to serious and fatal skin cancer. But this rarely happens in humans during their reproductive years, so when we think about the mechanisms of evolution, we have to think about what will be affected during the reproductive years. It turns out that ultraviolet radiation has the ability to damage folic acid and some folate-related molecules that are important for our metabolism.

Epidermis - water-repellent and dead layer

Dermis – hair and sweat glands

Subcutaneous fat - fat and large blood vessels

6. Every inch of your skin has a certain elasticity and strength, depending on its location. So the skin on your knuckles is different from the skin on your stomach.

7. Scar tissue lacks hair and sweat glands

Acne and skin treatment

The key insight from our research is that the protective pigmentation of melanin evolved not primarily to protect us from skin cancer, but to preserve our folate so we could continue to reproduce. Given all the benefits of melanin, why doesn't everyone have dark skin today?

For most of human history, we have done this. It is in these populations that we begin to see real changes in the genetic makeup of pigmentation. What about the differences between the sexes? Don't men have darker skin than women?

8. The thinnest skin on your eyelids - about 0.2 mm

9. The thickest skin on your feet - about 1.4 mm

Human hair

10. In humans an average of 100,000 hairs per head. In people with blond hair about 140,000 hairs, dark-haired people have 110,000, and red-haired people have about 90,000.

Important functions of the skin

On average, men are darker than women in every population tested. Sometimes the difference is subtle; sometimes it's more. Of course, some of them are related to the physiological needs of the two sexes. Because of this they are probably lighter. But we also know that in many cultures around the world there is a preference for one gender, or even both genders, to be lighter. In Japan and India, it is important for a wife to have slightly pigmented or almost white skin.

Where we actually see systematic preference is in sexual selection for people with lightly pigmented skin. Wouldn't it work just as well that women would find darker skinned men more attractive? Yes, in some cases this is probably true. In Japan, we know this to be true from sociological research. In India, however, most groups of men and women opt for the easiest mates. Thus we have where not only biological forces but also social forces lead to differences in pigmentation between the sexes or even between groups.

11. Each hair has a small muscle that lifts the hair in cold and various emotional states

12. Body hair grow 2 to 6 years

13. We we lose from 20 to 100 hairs per day

Dead skin

14. Keratin forms the outer dead layer of skin and nails

Skin color is evolving as we see all sorts of exciting new mixtures of people coming together and having children with new mixtures of skin color genes. If you go to any major city in the world, you will see children being produced through such fortunate interactions. Not only pigmentation genes are mixed, but also many other genes. We don't see a lot of natural selection for pigmentation like we did earlier in our history because we mostly protect ourselves from the harshest parts of the environment - from excess sun or cold or dryness.

15. More 50 percent of house dust is dead skin

16. Every 28 days your skin renews itself.

17. Lipids are natural fats that keep the outer layer of skin hydrated and healthy. Detergents and alcohol destroy lipids.

18. Skin loses more than 30,000 dead cells every minute

19. As we age, we begin to shed skin less often. In children, old cells are shed faster. That's why babies are so pink fresh color faces

We're good at wearing clothes and living in buildings as a buffer against the harshness of our environment. If we talk about skin color, we also need to talk about how we categorize people into racial categories. How should we understand race, scientifically? When we look at genetic diversity, we can see that there are no clean breaks between individuals. Individuals have different groups of genes, which is why we see gross and ready-made types biological groupings, but these drops of genetic variation overlap and weigh against each other.

There are no clear lines of demarcation. This is one of the reasons, the main reason, why geneticists say that there are no human races from a biological point of view. Each population is unique, and there are some geographic patterns within this variation. The most important of these is the African origin of our species. Only a tiny fraction of alleles and a small fraction of allelic combinations are limited to one geographic region and even less than one population. The diversity between members of the same population is also great.

Bacteria on the skin

20. The skin produces about 500 ml of sweat per day.

21. Sweat itself has no odor, and it is thanks to bacteria that body odor appears.

22. Your skin is a microcosm in which more than 1000 species of bacteria live and about 1 billion individual bacteria.

There is extensive exchange of alleles between continents and small genomic differences between populations. This is why attempts to identify races in humans have failed. The definition of race depends on what kind of scientist or observer you are. For most biologists who study races of plants or animals, a race is a population of organisms that may differ markedly from other such groups. Human races have been defined by combinations of anatomical, behavioral, and cultural criteria, and these definitions have changed over time, through history, and from place to place.

23. The glands that produce earwax are special sweat glands.

24. On average, you have about 14 types of fungi.

Melanin pigment and human skin color

25. Skin color is the result of the action of a protein called melanin. Huge tentacle-shaped skin cells - melanocytes - produce and distribute the pigment melanin.

For most people, races are creations of the mind that have a social reality and that often have physical traits associated with them. So is race strictly a social construction? Yes, but that doesn't make it any less real. When people are identified as belonging to a particular group, the biological or philosophical status of race is of little importance. Thus, race is a very strong construct, and people have strong racial identities, which are often related to physical appearance, but also include many cultural aspects.

26. People have the same number of melanin cells. Different skin colors are a result of their activity, not quantity.

46. Unlike moles, Freckles do not appear at birth, they appear after a person has been exposed to sunlight.

What vitamins are needed for the skin?

47. Vitamin A treats skin damaged by sun exposure and cellulite

48. Vitamin D– reduces rashes and neoplasms

49. Vitamin C– antioxidant, restores vitamin E and protects from the sun

50. Vitamin E– Antioxidant, protects against sun damage and aging.

Skin color depends on three elements - melanin (saturation, Brown), hemoglobin (reddish tint) and carotene (yellowish tint). Each person has a different combination of these three elements, which results in a unique skin tone. Men have slightly darker skin - hormonal levels also affect it. The skin on different parts of the body is unevenly colored.

The darkness of the skin depends on melanin. Two genes are responsible for the production of melanin, each of which carries two characteristics - dominant and recessive. The dominant characteristic is black skin, the recessive characteristic is white. But this does not mean that one is constantly dominant - they mix. Therefore, 16 combinations are possible.

Let the first gene be labeled with the number 1, and the second with the number 2. The dominant characteristic of black skin color will be M, and the recessive characteristic of white skin color will be m.

Let's decipher the picture

1 - M1M1M2M2 - all dominant characteristics - Black skin

2. MMMm - three dominant and one recessive characteristics - Dark brown skin.

3.MMmm - two dominant and two recessive characteristics - medium brown leather .

4. Mmmm - one dominant and three recessive characteristics - light brown skin color

5. mmmm - all characteristics are recessive - white skin color

There are transitional combinations between them.

If you wish, you can calculate how rich the skin your children may have if you are comfortable with combinatorics. Just like that - just for fun.
my type Mmmmm, my husband's type Mmmmm. We can pass on two genes to a child. I got several combinations. Of these, a little MMMm, a little Mmmm, and mostly MMmm. Everything is predictable with us. =) The most light color skin can be like mine, the darkest one can be like my husband’s. And it also happens much more interesting - when a child is darker or lighter than both parents.

Carotene and hemoglobin determine the dominant skin tone (undertone) - either pink (hemoglobin) (top line of the picture) or yellowish (carotene) (bottom line of the picture)

Usually these halftones are taken into account by foundation manufacturers, but this will be a separate topic.

Anthropologists often use the Von Luschan scale to describe skin color. (Von Luschan Chromatic Scale)
To find out your skin color, look at the skin under your forearm, which usually does not tan.

Here is a natural version of the scale

Here's a more convenient digital one

I cannot determine exactly my skin type - either 15 or 16. I can only say that it is clearly beige, i.e. not 14, and clearly not olive, i.e. not 17. 16 seems closer, because the skin is a little yellowish on the hands - but the color may depend on the monitor settings..

Skin saturation is closely related to phototype - skin reaction to ultraviolet radiation. I'll tell you about this next time.

Any person? A determines their ratio of three pigments: carotene (yellow), hemoglobin (red) and melanin (brown).

Their combinations make up all the different colors and shades of skin, hair and eyes. The skin is like a thin light filter, so the tone that prevails just under its surface and shines through the skin determines the color type - a very important characteristic of appearance. You can dye your hair, completely cover your face with a thick layer of makeup, and yet the skin tone will be visible, and you cannot change it, even by sunbathing in a solarium and taking carotene.

Can't determine your color type? Take the free test..

Melanin

The first pigment, melanin, is produced in the skin mainly in the sun, and its main function is to protect tissues from dangerous ultraviolet rays. In those parts of the world where the sun is most active, people have acquired a kind of “permanent tan” that is inherited. This is how nature took care of those who live under the scorching sun. Melanin absorbs ultraviolet radiation, which in large doses causes skin cancer. On the other hand, in regions where the sun does not shine as much, fair skin should allow as much ultraviolet rays as possible to pass through. This is necessary because they stimulate the production of vitamin D, required for normal height and bone condition. Therefore, among the fair-skinned peoples of Europe, only single granules of melanin are found in the epidermis, while among African blacks, Papuans and other southern peoples there is an excess of it. In dark-skinned people, even the lips have a dark, bluish tint due to the presence of melanin in the mucous membrane, which in light-skinned people is completely devoid of pigment.

In addition to multi-colored people, there are also individuals who are literally colorless - albinos. These are people with a hereditary disorder: melanin biosynthesis simply does not occur in them. Because of this, most albinos are not only very sensitive to the sun, but also have problems with vision and hearing and have weakened immunity. And if an ordinary person first acquires a tan naturally, and when he stops being in the sun, his skin gradually loses excess melanin and becomes lighter, then in albinos, due to the congenital absence of melanin, the skin does not darken at all.

Carotene

The second pigment is carotene. This substance yellow color, which is contained in carrots (and owes its name to it, from the English carrot - carrot), in the yolk of an egg. Like melanin, carotene is present in the skin of all people, but its presence is not so noticeable; melanin conceals it. People with no big amount melanin in the skin may have more or less carotene. For example, East Asian people with high amounts of carotene have a somewhat yellowish complexion.

Hemoglobin

The third pigment is hemoglobin, which colors the blood red. Naturally, everyone has it. However, hemoglobin is located in blood vessels and is practically invisible. Its presence can only be noticed in the skin of white people, especially with light color faces. It is hemoglobin that makes cheeks pink and allows people to blush when excited, when blood vessels dilate under the influence of the release of hormones.

Modern color analysis classifies a person's appearance into a certain season or color based on the result of mixing these three pigments.

How to determine skin tone?
Makeup for olive skin
Makeup for porcelain skin
Makeup for bronze skin
Do you need to change your usual makeup in winter or summer?

If when looking for skin care products the determining factor is skin type (normal, dry or, for example, oily), then decorative cosmetics should be selected taking into account its shade. Moreover, the determining factor is not whether your skin is pale or dark; “temperature” parameters are much more important - you need to know whether your tone is warm or cold. In the material we understand how to determine skin tone and how this knowledge is useful.

Skin tone color palette

Pale skin

It has a bluish tint. It seems as if a person with this type of skin is never exposed to the sun at all. It includes such shades as porcelain and “ivory” - very light, almost transparent.

Peachy pink skin

Slightly less light than the previous skin type. Another important difference is the delicate pinkish undertone, which makes the shade warmer overall. But despite this, it is better to choose makeup products in cooler tones.

Mid tone

These are mostly beige skin tones that have warm undertones. It seems that it has “browned” a little in the sun and turned slightly golden. Brown lipstick, bronzer and shadows in beige tones will look especially good in makeup.

Olive skin

The undertone of this skin type combines yellow and green shades. From the outside, she is both warm and pale. Owners of this skin tone often seem sallow - but this is due to a lack of hydration and radiance.

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Bronze skin

Tanned skin tends to have a warm undertone.

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Dark skin

It is distinguished by darker golden brown tones. Girls with dark skin are also characterized by a warm color type. For makeup, products in beige and brown tones are ideal: lipsticks, eye shadow and blush.

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How to determine skin tone?

To determine skin tone and determine whether it is warm or cold, girls can take a test that will be reliable even if you do it yourself at home. An important condition: this must be done in natural light. Electric lamps distort perception.

Look at the inside of your wrist - where the veins are visible. If they appear blue or purple, then your skin is cool toned. If they appear to be green, it means your skin tone is warm. Is it difficult to understand what color the veins are? In this case, the tone is most likely neutral - neither warm nor cold; This is typical for those with an olive skin tone.

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Hold a white sheet of paper to your face and look in the mirror. If a pinkish, reddish or bluish undertone appears on the skin, you can definitely say that the shade is cold. Yellowness, on the contrary, indicates a warm type. And those who see their skin appearing “grey” next to the leaf can rest assured that they have a neutral skin tone.

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Think about how your skin usually reacts to the sun in the first days of tanning. If she turns red after half an hour, it means she is a cold type. People who rarely suffer from sunburn and easily achieve an even golden tan and a warm skin tone.

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Makeup for olive skin

Foundations

The main characteristic of olive skin is neutrality: it combines both warm and cold pigments. Because of this, it may appear gray and earthy. Therefore, the foundation should have a glow effect (look for the word glow in the name). As for the shade, you should choose it depending on the purpose: if you want your skin tone to become brighter and warmer, take a product with a beige-yellow undertone. Ivory would also be a good choice.

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Eye makeup

You should not highlight your eyes with cool shades - this will make the skin duller than it actually is. The same goes for neutral taupe tones. It is better to use warm shadows with light shimmer, as well as eyeliners in classic colors.

Lip makeup

Flesh nude is not suitable for girls with olive skin. Cold pink shades will “argue” with the tone. Bright red-orange shades, red-brown, burgundy and coral will create a successful accent on the lips.

Makeup for porcelain skin

Foundations

To prevent porcelain skin from looking too pale, you need to opt for foundation with pink pigments - they will refresh the complexion and make it more “alive”. If you don’t have such a cream on hand, a cold pink blush will help out.