Skin Tone Chart for color analysis

Names

Skin tone names, from porcelain to espresso

Searching the name of skin tones usually means one list: the common-language shades people match at a counter — porcelain, ivory, fair, beige, sand, honey, caramel, bronze, cocoa, mahogany, espresso, ebony — plus the variants search keeps asking for: beige undertones, Black skin tones, and olive. Those names are depths, not seasons. Two people on the same honey row can still be different palettes once hair and eyes vote.

The 12 named shades on this chart, light to deep:

1. Porcelain — palest cool pink-white
2. Ivory — light warm peach glow
3. Fair — light neutral soft beige
4. Light Beige — pale warm creamy beige
5. Beige — balanced neutral mid-tone
6. Sand — warm golden light tan
7. Honey — rich warm golden glow
8. Caramel — deep warm bronze brown
9. Bronze — sun-deep warm brown
10. Cocoa — deep neutral cool brown
11. Mahogany — rich red-brown deep warmth
12. Espresso — deepest neutral dark brown

1. Fair — porcelain, ivory. The lightest rows (about Fitzpatrick I–II). Cool porcelain leans Light or Cool Summer; peach-ivory leans Light Spring.
2. Light beige — fair beige, rose beige, light beige, beige. Beige is a family, not one tube: rose beige reads cool, peach beige reads warm, true beige sits neutral. The middle of this family is where olive often hides — see the olive skin tone chart.
3. Medium — sand, honey, true beige, olive. Warm sand and honey usually sit with Soft or Warm Autumn; muted olive-beige can sit with Soft Autumn or Light Spring depending on contrast.
4. Tan — caramel, bronze. Warm caramel and bronze take rust, camel, forest, and gold — Warm or Deep Autumn unless contrast with hair is high.
5. Deep — cocoa, mahogany, espresso. Cocoa through espresso (about Fitzpatrick V–VI) split by temperature: golden mahogany reads Autumn; ashy-cool espresso reads Winter. The dedicated Black skin tone chart names caramel through ebony with that split.
6. Very deep — ebony, rich olive. Ebony with cool or neutral undertone usually takes jewel tones, true white, and silver — Cool or Deep Winter.

Regional depth names overlap this list: wheatish is lighter (honey-to-caramel), dusky is medium-to-deep (caramel-to-cocoa) — see the dusky skin tone chart. Olive is the green-gold undertone column that can sit on any of these rows. The full vocabulary with hex swatches is on the skin tone chart with names; foundation matching by depth-then-undertone is on the skin tone chart for foundation.

The definition

What is a skin tone chart?

A skin tone chart is a visual map of human complexion along two axes. Depth is how light or deep the skin looks in daylight — porcelain, ivory, beige, honey, caramel, cocoa, espresso. Undertone is the hue underneath that does not change when you tan: cool (pink, rose), warm (peach, gold), neutral, or olive (muted green-gold). Named shades exist so two people can point at the same cell. Fitzpatrick types I–VI describe UV response, not a makeup match, which is why this chart lists both. A chart cannot assign your color season by itself. Hair value and eye color still decide whether camel or charcoal belongs near your face. That is the difference between reading this page and taking a photo in the Season Palette app.