I just want to highlight, for any fellow fair-olive girls, sometimes colour analysts say the opposite of what works for you. For example, I have jet black hair (blue-black, naturally) that stays very black even in the sun, fair-ish skin that tans every easily, and neutral-warm brown eyes. I would look like a corpse in 'nude' lipstick'...... Merriam's report said I was cool+bright, but the colours that are recommended clash horribly with my skin - for example cobalt blue and magenta!! It looks terrible against the yellow tones. Just because one person thinks it looks good on you, doesn't mean it does. These things are way more nuanced and individual, and that was a hard pill for me to swallow. I thought I would fit neatly into a category and the more I watched these videos, the more frustrated I became trying to! Now, I have realised that no one knows except you, and you need to experiment alone. Listening to colour-theory analysts will drive you insane, trust me. I have learned these things: the colors natrually found in my body are the most flattering. For example, the colour of my eyes (neutral-warm brown), the jet black of my hair, the colour of my blood, the colour of my skin, all look AMAZING, because it looks harmonious. I've heard color analysts say neutral doesn't exist, which is definitely bullshit, since everything that looks good on me is super neutral. I have tried olive foundations, warm, cool, ashy, etc. The only shades that ever work are neutral red lipstick, neutral skin foundation, neutral eyeshadow, etc. If I go ever so slightly too warm or cool, I look ill. I have been researching this for 7 years, trying to figure out what works on me, and the worse advice is listening to other people at the expense of your own intuition. I knew, before looking into RUclipsrs, that black and white were amazIng, and that soft peach made me glow, or that mustard was amazing, and that pastel washed me out, except if it was a richer cornflower blue. These don't fit into any category neatly!!!! RUclipsrs would tell me that mustard yellow is a warm colour, and that 24k gold would wash me out but it's the opposite. Turns out, 24k gold and shiny sterling silver look equally good!!!! Nothing is as binary as these people make out. So don't get discouraged or frustrated trying to fit into a box. More than likely, you know best.
As a fair olive I have found that using extremely purple- leaning sort of lavender blush can give me a very natural color to my cheeks. For my lips I use mostly brown-red leaning nudes.
@@Spikypotato. I looove Clinique's Cheek pop in Pansy Pop. There is a lot of product in the pan and it doesnt seem to have a white base, which makes it more buildable and flattering on darker skintones too
Olive often can present "grayish" and that is how I picture olive, because it has the aspects of coolish melanin that someone who is fully warm just won't have.
Can you please do a video about having olive skin (green) and grey hair? Black with white areas/streaks. I'm finding it very challenging! Many thanks for your videos🎉
Yes, great idea! As a fair, warm leaning olive with warm brown hair with white (grey) streaks, I wonder if my hair color is going to flatter my skin tone when I have more white and less warmth to my hair color.
Ah, now. That explains why all innocuous-looking lipsticks would scream 'LIPSTICK' on me. Just mixed one with some green colouring pencil and already it looks more not-screamy.
im a pale warm olive and i love the most about my complexion that i can get away with all these hard to wear super rich inbetween warm and cool colours. colours where there is a lot of super intense vintage gold but a bit more dirty with a little green, and super intense midnight blue but more dirty with a black, a super intense dark burgundy but made a little dirty with some black. i really enjoy that i can wear such a wide array of colours, dark and soft autumn work equally well for me. like how can dusty earthy vintage pink be one of my best colours but also super intense dark rich colours aswell. i feel like almost no season can do that. also how come i dont have too much contrast but somehow i look super high contrast, but im way too muted to appear high contrast. but i need so much contrast in my clothes. i came to love my olive skin since i dont care to put myself in one season and accept that i can never finally say if warm or cool colours work better. muted shades of blue and purple look really cool on me especially in summer. id say i am an autumn more or less who can also pick from dark winter and soft summer - depending on my yellowness. i can rock some bolt shit and colour combos that other people cant. the only ccolours i struggle with are either too light and bright or too bright. everything mixed with too much white is plain awful.
Yess!! I just gave up on lipsticks entirely and only use lipgloss now, lipsticks never look right on me (green/yellow pale olive skin here) I used to try reds, light and dark pinks and oranges, tried with browns but they dont seem to work either. On the other hand smoky eye looks great on me, but making my skin look "healthy" is a strugle, kind of end up looking like jenna ortega, nice eyes but kind of sick looking
Warm delicate olive pale skin here! Same struggles. I found a couple of shades that work worders for me: Velvet ink by bourjois shades Mauve sweet mauve and Taupecchino.
Actually, you can have olive skin and red hair. I once knew a Hispanic guy who had pale red hair, dark eyes, dark olive skin, and freckles. It was an odd combination, but he had it!
Good video. I feel like my cool muted olive skin cannot handle a variety of different eyeshadow colors. Cool deep brown and soft black look good. Other colors look clownish.
SAME! I honestly gave up with eyeshadow in my early twenties, I exclusively wear winged eyeliner and mascara… it’s too upsetting whenever I try different eyeshadows and I look insane.
I am a bright spring with olive skin, but I have a reddish tint to my medium brown hair. For me, I have to use a bright red lipstick such as Mac Lady Danger for it to not wash me out or make me look sick but I feel like maybe the red works because I need the contrast because I'm a bright spring and naturally have a hint of red to my hair?
I am also a bright spring with light to medium olive skin. I think things read on olive skin tones differently. For example, the Lisa Eldridge Painterly lipstick, which is supposedly an ambiguous color between red, mauve, and brown, reads like a dark red on me. I have never found other reds that do not look neon bright on me.
Such a good video on a much needed topic. It's so incredibly frustrating picking out blush and lipstick. The color never appears as it does in the tube or pan. Needless to say I have quite a collection of makeup that I either can't wear or have to mix with something else. Anyway, thanks for the info and I appreciate your efforts, Meriam!
she's rosy, not olive. but I should clarify that the redheads I'm talking about in this video are the likes of Julianne Moore, usually found in Ireland and surrounding regions. Of course there must be people out there somewhere with genetics that call for red hair and olive skin. This is incredibly rare.
I definitely have light medium neutral cool olive skin. I do look green. strong darker pinks and true and blueish leaning reds make me look amazing. I also find that this lipstick she is using is very nudey and a but orangey looking on her, its by no means “out there” or strong. Nude lipsticks make me washed out, there is only 2 I found so far that are doing ok for daytime, those are my go to lipsticks for every day, but they by no means make me glow like the reds
This is so true! I always focus on my brows' and eyes' definition when I'm doing my makeup, even though my undertone is bright. Makes so much sense now!
Redheads can absolutely be olive. I am Middle Eastern and have a definite green tint to my skin and flaming red hair. It is rare, though. I am 40yrs old and have only ever seen one other redheaded child with the same definite green tinge to their skin (another Middle Easterner).
@@hannahgarfield4046 Right?! I honestly love Merriam, but the fact that she mentions this in a couple videos and it is so not correct, makes me hesitate trying a color analysis with her. Your mother sounds beautiful :)
Yep. Immediately thought of Lebanese actress Daniella Rahme in the series Till Death. Olive and red hair looks stunning on her! Im not sure if it’s natural but regardless it’s a striking look.
My hair had strong red tints as a child as my dad is Irish with red beard. I’m cool pale olive with high contrast, and I still look pretty good with a deep shade of red in my hair.
This also made me frown. I’m not a redhead but have natural red highlights in my hair, and I am certainly olive skin (cool). Lisa Eldridge light olive foundation being a perfect match. I have Irish and Mediterranean ancestry.
Thanks. I like the way red lippy looks on other people, but I can't wear it and now I know why. My lips are a mauve colour and I like pink or mauve toned lipstick. I can wear gloss with some red in it. In winter I don't look pale so much as I look grey. It gets hard to find clothes the right colour. As I age, it's even harder.
ugh struggle with this so much. this is why I never dye my hair. I have black hair and all the other colours just make my skin look muddy. thx for making this!
This is the best all encompassing video and theory about hair color for olives. I love the distinction between hair that will look GOOD on olive skin versus good AND natural on olive skin. Everything you said makes so much sense its insane. I just used green semi permanent dye on my brown hair after watching lol.
Medium light cool olive skin tone here, who was categorised as deep (soft) winter. I use deep magenta shades of lip colors and cheeks blushes. Ultimately i found a pretty rosy balm that was actually darker in the tube and looks rose on me. 😮 but i do also have a medium brown gloss lipstick that looks like a perfect nude shade! And i also found a perfect - i really mean perfect - shade of foundation! It is a n 2 (omg so pale! ❤) which have greysh green drops but maintaining the yellow overtone! 😊 no more struggles between pink and orange guys!❤🎉🎉🎉
I'm light olive but nudes lipstick never looks right on me, my lips are very pale almost a blueish purple color, I also have roseaca on my face so I get really red on my cheeks & around my nose, it sounds like she is saying that we can't get roseaca, now I'm really confused. I always go for mauves & pinks they seem to brighten me up.
Totally agree I look awful in nudes truly awful. I have finally found my colour and it’s a deep brown/red. I use it on my cheeks as well. That is my ‘nude’. I only wish I knew this sooner I’m now too old to make much use of this fantastic new information. I do wonder why so many makeup artists made me look so terrible! Even when they were experts. They had no ‘eye’ for colour.
Oh I am a medium warm olive, never ever matched a foundation to my face without the added green pigment AND I have (mild) rosacea. My cheeks are flushed so easily and around my nose. It gets worse when I go out in the sun. But just on my face. I never ever turn red in the sun on my body. I just get more golden.
@@atlantis315 I'm starting to think I'm olive on certain parts of my body my face burns easily but my arms and legs get that golden tan. It's really weird 😂 , people even tell me I'm olive.
You could have a soft coloring without being olive. For example, im cool toned but i have more like a pale pink hue rather than straight up red or peach. Most nude lipsticks are warm toned, maybe go for something much more muted like Angel from Mac.
Iam a cool and muded pail olive i died my hair black with a hint of cool red i really liked how it made my skin look it made my skin look a little lighter iam also a soft gamine so i can probably pull of artificial hair colors Thanks for the video i really know the lip stick problem i always thought that it had to do with my skin being muded
I’m a warm olive and I love a red lip from time to time, I definitely stand out more but I only wear it on some occasions. I’m Latina and my features are a little darker, I need darker nudes or my trusty brown lip liner, purple and greens (forest or blue green mixed) look good on me. Foundations are a struggle and need to mix shades to get my shade 😩
Girls please help out: From what I understand in the video and from some comments: If your skin is pale cool olive, and brown colours become burgundy, mauves and purples become pink and nudes become mauves on the skin, it means we have to not buy makeup by what it looks but by what it will turn out on the skin. So, when Im looking for a very natural lip colour close to mine (mine are pale rose), I need a nude lip liner and a nude lipstick? which will look like a mauve then but it has to be a soft light mauve.. What kind of nude colour has it to be to turn out pale /light rose? For eyeshadow: If I want a brown colour, can't take browns because they'll turn burgundy. Not even cool browns? So which colour do we take to achieve brown? I have a palette with dusty pinks and they all turn slightly peachy-pink = too warm
I loved your point about "good" vs "natural". I have done red gair before and some versions looks really good on me. But you're right it doesnt look natural, it gives my appearance a more edgy look.
I am a bright spring with light to medium olive skin. I agree with Median that things read on olive skin tones differently. For example, the Lisa Eldridge Painterly lipstick, which is supposedly an ambiguous color between red, mauve, and brown, reads like a dark red on me. But this red does not wash me out and make my mouth the only thing you look at when you see me. I have never found other reds that do not look neon bright on me. But not only nudes (nudes sometimes wash me out) look good on me, I find dusty rose or mauve could be my pink. And peachy nudes (this one is tricky one has to try it on) can sometimes read as warm pink. I like peachy nude blushes like NARS sex appeal. And berry tones (especially the sheer ones) look terrific on me, too. This is for olive people who need more color and vibrancy to their looks. But sometimes just contrast between light and dark, just as Merriam says, can work too.
You classified me as warm and radiant and olive. And looking back I remember a couple times people liked my lip color and wanted to know what I was wearing. One time was Burt’s Bees caramel lip shimmer. And another time was a clear lip gloss. And I remember one time a male coworker noticed I was wearing color on my lips and made a big deal about it! It was a pink color…Now I just wear Burts bees ultra conditioning lip balm which has no color and my lips sometimes look pink or mauve in pictures.
Thanks for an interesting video 😊One of my best friend is a very fair olive and she has freckles and strawberry blonde/copperish hair and it looks nice on her. But I get what you're speaking about might be more generally speaking and especially when someone is a cool olive red hair would look quite unnatural
Yeah, I definitely know people with reddish hair who have fair / light olive toned skin. There are a lot of Eastern European people who are naturally colored this way. So, she lost me a little with saying that you can't be that 🤷♀️
No kidding. Everything you’ve said is so true. I now know why I could never find a foundation that worked for me. It always looked like I was wearing a mask. I’m now 77 with pretty good skin. I think the olive skin ages well. I’m very fair skinned and had nearly black hair with hazel eyes. I’ve finally given up on getting the right hair color,so I’m going to go gray. At least that will go with my coloring. I’m probably delicate but I can’t wear truly muted colors. I also can’t wear really bright ones. I’m not sure if I’m neutral warm or cool. I’ll know better once my hair grows out.
Puts on mauve lipstick "What does that look like?" It looks like every single pink lipstick on me!! Been getting browns and nudes in different hues for a while, and that's definitely the play for me.
I would love more videos on skin that’s more rosey (red). Olive (green) gets talked about a lot but I haven’t seen much content on people that have more red in their skin. Great video as always
This video was so helpful! Now I understand why I feel I can’t wear certain lipstick and eyeshadow colors and why I opted for a more contrasting and glowing look to look healthier instead of blush for example
Suggest everyone gets the Danessa Myricks The Nudist crème palette for lips and cheeks. Browny reds are my ‘nude’ as I cannot wear traditional nudes they make me look dead. This palette allows me to custom mix my own version of a nude and I can use the entire palette by mixing. It has some peachy and pinky shades I could never wear alone but in the palette I mix them with the deep aubergines and I get a perfect deep ‘nude’. I use it to contour eyes as well just on the brow bone. For olives I don’t believe our clothing pallette can translate directly to a makeup pallette as the colours are impacted by the amount of green in the skin. This is the first time I’ve seen this addressed in a video on olive skin so bravo Merriam!
you can't really be light olive and rosy, that means you're green and red at the same time which doesn't make sense because they are complementary. you may be someone who changes skin undertones. I have a video on that called the lightest skin tones. And I may even have another one about changing skin undertones that you could check out. maybe you are cool toned in winter and warm toned in summer.
I know you said you couldn't have red hair with olive skin, but what about brown with copper notes? I struggle with every olive skin problem mentioned in your video, but in summer, my hair will take on some coppery highlights.
I’m cool pale olive and I look good with deep reds and “natural copper” but the struggle is real, its the only hair colour, or I surmise platinum with my dark brown eyebrows that could be flattering to my skin.
I had a friend at school with similar features as you and i remember how she was always struggling with lipstick shades. Her only option was nude colours. She couldnt pull off bright colours.
Olive here! Gray hair with matching brows, rounded bangs, and a blueish/red lipstick.. totally ethereal because it looks - too bright! Nudes work and the skin like that too, but peach/coral.. can confirm not!! Purple (blueish) and green-gray lipstick also works well! (I think!) Kinda alt./goth Mixed-Taut!
I’ve been wearing gold jewelry for as long as I can remember and omg :/ I also really like wearing gray and I just avoid wearing jewelry when I wear gray bc it looks off but… I started wearing silver jewelry recently and lol 😭 I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out until 29 yrs old
It's strange. I believe I AM olive, but kind of subtly so. So for example I pull off a red lip very well (I think), but if I try to wear any kind of red/pink blush, I look like a clown... Insightful as always, Merriam. :) And by the way, you are saying Audrey Tautou's name correctly. It sounds like "toe-two", in English. ;)
Can you please explain the fact of being olive and bright? I know there is already a video on the topic but i find it confusing... sorry. A armochromatic analyst told me i am soft deep winter and the other inserted me on her deep winter list 😅😅 I just wanted to explain why i feel ok in dark and medium cool magenta reds, berries shades but less good on blues😅 Btw i prefer my look on winter, i love feel pale, i feel like i am clear against many colors. Instead diring summer i feel like yellow, very yellow...
I am even worse off regarding the lipsticks. I have naturally already very pink lips, and I am light cool olive. If I wear anything brighter than my natural lip tone, it screams. If I wear anything nude/brownish, it clashes with my really cool skin tone and just looks completely OFF. If I wear anything lighter/creamy-white-rosy, it also clashes with my skin tone and just looks like I put on a sun protect lipstick and used way too much. It simply sucks. The only thing I can do is vary my natural lip color a BIT or just use a slightly toned gloss or I go bright magenta and just accept it is bright and just go for the intense look. No other options.
I’m exactly the same. I’m also light cool olive, and also have high contrast. So I would have thought at least 1 of the deep coloured lips would work on me but no. None of them do. Same as you my lipstick choice has to be carbon copy of my lips, as if I can only slightly increase the saturation of them or I look like a clown/very unnatural. Especially if I already have (literally even the simplest) eyeliner and mascara on. Immediately clown.
@@nicholev Its funny, I can only go just a tiny bit more intense and warmer/more neutral... a touch more in the direction of coral instead of cool pink (what my lips usually are). But not much. Makes me more lively and awake, especially if its more a gloss, not creamy. I am using NYX Strawberry Horchata (product is called this is milky gloss).
As olive skin I really only like my hair dark/ashy brown - red undertones don’t work for me. I cannot pull off a red lip - only neutral pinks/mauves - I can wear coral colors if I apply it lightly.
I don't really relate to this. I'm an Olive, Bright Winter and so I guess I'm Cool and Radiant in this system. I am very clear/bright. I can't do these mauves she's recommending. I'm like Beyoncé/ Halle Berry level of shade, but olive. Everything looks less bright and almost muted on me. I can handle a significant amount of saturation. Fuchsia, Magenta, Violet purple and a blue based lipstick like cherries in the snow just look normal on me. The lipsticks used in this video will look bad on me. Like casket ready. I have bright, dark eyes too. Wearing the bold cool lip color on my lips actually is the only thing I need to look fresh. Don’t need the rosy cheeks, and that bright and rich contrast of the lipstick just mirrors the brightness and contrast in my skin. I can never do nudes. Now the hair, I can do a cherry red or violet red, violet purple hair, navy blue hair. I’ve even done a short bright true red. The hardest thing for me as an olive is wearing red because most reds lean warm and make me look even more green than I am because of complimentary color aspect of color theory. I can only wear reds that lean towards magenta.
Something's not adding up. I really would have to see photos of you to see what you mean. If you're interested, you can submit photos for use in youtube videos (if you don't mind them being used) through my website. I hope you end up booking a consult of some kind (consult photos are always private) or submitting photos in some form for use in videos bc I would really want to see what you mean. Or if you have an instagram maybe you can link it in a comment (don't know if youtube allows stuff like that).
Remember when Kim K had that honey caramel golden blonde hair and wore the white dress years ago. Why did that look good? IMO she looked better with that than the platinum bleached look. Please google image it was teen choice awards 2009 Please let me know your thoughts 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
it depends on the body type. if you are a body type that is flattered by unnatural hair colors, then it'll look great. sometimes it may look good on other body types too, just a little artificial, but that's not always a bad thing anyway unless it's not what you're going for.
Audrie Tautou is by no means olive, she has pink undertones. I am a very pale and contrasted olive (a bright spring) with dark hair and dark brows, and green eyes and corals look amazing as my makeup colours, especially those kind of orangey-corals, they make my skin really glow and eyes pop. Neutrals will totally wash me out! Find you recommendations there for strange😢
This is a great question! I’m a cool olive and whenever I try to wear like a true red eyeshadow it always pulls purple which is frustrating. I’m not sure if that has to do with being olive but I’m guessing it might
Yep, can’t do it basically. I’m cool pale olive with high contrast. Can only do black eyeliner and maybe smokey eye, otherwise I look sickly, clownish or the colours are just wrong.
Definitely. It's so hard to find eyeshadows that work on me. The best brown eyeshadow match for me ( olive with yellow tones) and my sister who's olive neutral is the discontinued brown quad color of Estee Lauder gifted to us a long time ago😢😅 the ones with other colors just gets me frustrated 😂 like do I have to buy all of them just to find what works😂
The cool and warm rosy types are almost exclusively found in Europe only. Extreme warm undertones are usually found in Europe only too. Extreme cool undertones are usually found in anywhere but Europe. Cool olive types are almost always found more frequently in non Europeans.
@@DJFreeway-DJDeltoid-DJZales this absolutely wrong. Cool olives are much more frequent in Europe and the Middle East. Warm olives are very prevalent in places like India, China and South east Asia.
@@di3486 How come those of us mixed with European (I am Irish and Aztec/Mexica/Native/, I am Mestizo) and actual Europeans have to almost always have the ugly cool undertones? Warm undertones are more beautiful and unfortunately we rarely have that at least.
@@di3486 Very rarely do non Europeans have the combo of gold skin and gold hair though. Also in general they don’t have warmer hair colors and they don’t have warmer eye colors (warm blues, warm hazels, warm browns, warm greens even warmer greys) they usually just have cool brown eyes not warm brown as much
Any idea what it means that every red lipstick in existence turns magenta on me? Even Mac ruby woo. Same problem where lip colors turn bright. I usually do well with a deep berry. I'm definitely cool, some say I'm pale olive but I don't see it. I might be, or I'm very neutral.
Is Mac Soar a "nude" lipstick? I'm Warm and Delicate, possibly olive, and I wanted a true nude lipstick so I went for Velvet Teddy and ended up looking like a corpse. The MAC employee suggested Soar, which is clearly mauve, but on me looks very neutral nude. Could my skin have neutralized the pigment? On the other hand, all red lipsticks make me look like a clown
Probably a cool and delicate olive here. I am a fair Italian with grey eyes and dark ashy blond hair. Would my ‘report’ be different from yours? (Even though you are also soft and delicate?) because I can’t wear the colors I see you wear (basically can’t wear anything bright or dark)
People of color more often than not don’t have extreme warm undertones usually the opposite. I am both a poc (Mexican and New Mexican Amerindian) and European and my skin seems to transition between warm pink and cool olive.
no, darker skin tones have all kinds of different undertones including very warm and very cool. the amount of melanin doesn't affect the shade of the melanin.
plenty of light skin tones are warm, and warm and bright, but the lightest skin tones of all are always cool and bright. i made a video on it called 'the lightest skin tones'. the absolute darkest skin tones may also be only cool but I'm still exploring that. I suspect that's true but for a different reason than why the light skin tones are cool.
I literally can't tell you put on that lip color at all, and I am analyzing colors on you tube all the time, watching painting videos mostly, but I watch all other color related videos also, like this one for example and and my observations are always consistent with what is being illustrated, and the few times it did not, there would be an added notation to the video with the creator stating their monitor dis not accurately pick up the color, so I knew it wasn't on my end. Is everyone seeing a bright pink on her lips like she describes, or does it look barely there, or not really even there at all, like I am seeing?
I think I am neutral light medium olive. I use shade 10 in Lisa Eldridge's foundation and T6 in her skin tint. I recently bought the rms blush in Maiden's Blush thinking it was a muted neutral color and it pulls like a brick orange. I also bought Hanky Panky and it looks more neutral pink, not purple. What does that mean? Am I leaning warmer or cooler? Pls help 😅❤
it is possible but very unlikely. it could be that in the summer you gain more pigment so in general all colors look better on you. and there is a chance that you change undertone, but really it's very slim. if you are extremely extremely light, you can tan warmer, but again, you have to be anne hathaway light.
@@merriamstyle thank you so much for your reply! I have been watching your videos for years 🧡 and I keep coming back to them. A while ago I concluded I am warm and delicate (hence the occasional confusion). Looking forward to more content!
merriam, makes totally sense for me that, as warm olive, reds and pinks look really bright, contrasted and separated from me. However, I get compliments always that I am using blue (warm blues, but also less warm and bright blues). Why is that If I'm warm? Is it bc people like It when we olives get this yellowy look when we use blue? I dont understand.
Struggle #2 missed the mark for me...olive skintones CAN have red/pink tones as well, especially at the surface. It's a whole different battle to get a "healthy" look when trying to get your makeup to look balanced when you have a permanent red flush and pale green skin 👽😚 And ditto on the hair bit...this video was alienating, tbh.
Merriam, I hope you can help me with this 🙏 I’m warm and delicate olive, rounded mixed -typed by you- . I’m tired of buying lipsticks. Al nudes when I first apply them, they initially look alright and after 3 hours or so they turn grey. I’m struggling to find a nice pink or peach shade for me! Same thing goes for foundation even tho I add green primer but I still get the same problem. My skin turns grey! Color correction over my hyperpigmentation spots -I used orange, red, peach- didn’t help than much. I stopped wearing foundation. I only use a glowy cream on my skin and I wear red lipstick or sometimes I apply orange lip balm that turns into a nice fresh red after 3 hours or so! I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do!
Merriam, I did an analysis with you and it was pretty good. I got confused about my bone structure, because you said that is “mixed”, something hard to identify, and you were unsure. After I got pregnant, my body got a bit different and I can’t see exactly those mixed features. Do you think you could help me figure out? My color was told as a warm vibrant, but I don’t feel pretty in warm and vibrant colors, my skin is so yellow :(
I'm sorry you're having that experience. Please feel free to contact tech.support.and.billing@merriamstyle.com. I do offer a second look on a case by case basis.
Hi Merriam, at 4:57 you say that red is going to contrast with the greens in the skin, and according to your other videos, a color indeed "pops" more when put next to its complementary color. But how is that a good thing? like who wants to look green?? I would love to have your take on this because I don't understand why you say that "simultaneous contrast" is not a thing for cool tones (cause we don't want to look blue/grey) but it seems to be okay for olives...? is the red/green balance different from the yellow/blue balance in that regard? Thank you!
no, it's not different. I'd say some people do want to look more 'olive' because sometimes that can read as more golden. and also because they can look washed out without contrast if they are very high contrast.
@@merriamstyle I see, thank you. I'm really struggling right now to find out if I'm rosy or olive, would love more videos from you about that. Maybe "signs you're rosy and warm"? A lot of the "signs you're olive" resonate with me but I just went to sephora and the ladies were very strongly against it. I have rosacea and my face looks much paler than my body, which might be misguiding me or people. I know I'm a very delicate skintone, I thought warm and delicate but now I'm confused with this olive thing. Well in the meantime I'm watching all your Club Q&A videos!
@@merriamstyle sorry, I edited my comment cause I see that you already have a video about "signs you are rosy and cool". Waiting for rosy and warm :) also may I suggest using the playlist feature of youtube to make your videos even more accessible?
Hi, I have a situation, when I wear a nude, it looks grey, mauve colors look grey, I think I'm a warm and delicate palet, but I'm not sure, could you asses this? I have never seen anyone talking about it loooove your content, I have been here since forever, it might be 8 years or so
I have the same issue as you! I’m warm and delicate olive, rounded mixed. I’m tired of buying lipsticks. Al nudes when I first apply them, they initially look alright and after 3 hours or so they turn grey. Same thing goes for foundation even tho I add green primer but I still get the same problem. My skin turns grey! Color correction over my hyperpigmentation spots -I used orange, red, peach- didn’t help than much. I stopped wearing foundation. I only use a glowy cream on my skin and I wear red lipstick or sometimes I apply orange lip balm that turns into a nice fresh red after 3 hours or so! I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do!
Girl you can be olive and redheaded. Red hair exists in more that just Scottish/Irish ethnicities. And there are lots of mixed races/DNA. For instance, my best friend is quite warm olive part italian with the redest hair. She has no pink/red in her skin and almost never burns. Totally different from my burning, rosasea prone Dutch/Scottish skin with strawberry blonde hair. Plus there are many more darker skin tones that have red heads.
Yes I'm light olive my natural hair before turning gray was a reddish brown so is my daughter my mom is Italian I get my hair color from her mom and my dad is Spanish his ancestors are from Spain. We have light olive & rarely burn except for my face which does burn probably because I have sensitive skin and been diagnosed by a dermatologist with roseaca.
@josiekoerner5345 yes! What a ridiculous concept that your colouring in your hair is the same as in your skin! I'm not even completely convinced that I don't have a neutral or very delicately golden undertone with a pink/red overtone (rosasea/sensitive skin). Also depending on the opacity of the red makeup, green skin tones will cancel out the red/pink if they are sheer, will it not?
I should have been more precise. When I said redhead, in my mind I was thinking about a redhead's complexion. And those people cannot be olive. There are people out there with olive skin and red hair, but people who are usually known as 'redheads' (those from ireland and surrounding regions) are never olive. Keep in mind we have the tragedy that is some people calling Julianne Moore olive which is just ridiculous.
@merriamstyle thanks for acknowledging! Really respect that. ❤️ Though I do know of people with very pale desaturated olive skin and reddish hair. They tend to be red brown or more golden blonde. It's hard to tell with celebrities because you don't tend to see them in real life. There are some pictures where she does look olive but who knows what the lighting was, or filters or colour balance on whoever's computer, or if there is makeup involved. 🤣
Amazing video, I think my sister is olive! I apologize if this has been asked before but for figuring out my Kibbe type, how should I weigh the fact that my legs appear longer than my arms? I usually see those measurements lumped together online. Thank you so much!
I think merriam said you can split them into half points if they are different. Same with hands and feet. Though I recommend watching Merriam's body geometry quiz if you haven't already - it's a lot easier than the traditional one
I have no idea what my skin is other than warm delicate. but yes I know that lipstick problem🙄 but nudes are too light🤷♀️ theres almost none that works. I never wear blush, its just ridiculous how its clownish I go for brows indeed, and mascara.
@@merriamstyle A question I hold for a while now: Do olive skin people all wear olive well? or just those leaning warm? I wear it very well if its slightly cooler, its my best shade
do you have medium-deep skin? you still sound like olive. because the browns look brighter on you (red), this implies olive. if the reds look pink, I'm not sure what that means if you aren't deep.
@@merriamstyle I am slightly fair but not white nor red more yellow yet warm foundations are too yellow for me, neutral foundation suit me the best yet people assume I am warm 🤷🏻♀️ I have both blue, violet and green hues on my arm blood vessels like all at the same vessel
Is it possible to be pale olive skin tone? I'm extra pale so I never would have questioned that I may have an olive skin tone until I started hearing videos about olive skin tones. I'm so very confused about it still. My undertone is very cool I'm a true cool palette and warm colors wash me out badly, but a lady at ulta told me Neutral foundations look better on my because my skin tone appeared yellow. However I have colored my hair red cool toned true red and everyone tells me it's a good color on me, and the only lipstick shades I can wear are cool red's, neutral reds, burgundy, and fushia like shades. I have the hardest time finding nude shades! Nude shades make me look so dull, and I can't find one that works for me. I also have a problem where warm foundations look way too warm and cool foundations look too pink but my undetone is cool, colors like orangy tones, rust, or just any color with a yellow base really makes me look sallow and brings out all the yellow in my skin and I look sick. Blues, turquoise, burgundy's and true colors look best on me. I'm just now starting to wonder if maybe I have an olive skin tone but I'm not 100% sure, I'm definitely cool in undertone though because warm tones make me look sick!
The biggest mistake with olive skin is to lighten your dark hair too much in the front. I stopped doing that but I have to wait now because it has to grow out and I look washed out.😊
![Stromae, Pomme - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1F3OGIFnW1k/mqdefault.jpg)
I just want to highlight, for any fellow fair-olive girls, sometimes colour analysts say the opposite of what works for you. For example, I have jet black hair (blue-black, naturally) that stays very black even in the sun, fair-ish skin that tans every easily, and neutral-warm brown eyes. I would look like a corpse in 'nude' lipstick'...... Merriam's report said I was cool+bright, but the colours that are recommended clash horribly with my skin - for example cobalt blue and magenta!! It looks terrible against the yellow tones. Just because one person thinks it looks good on you, doesn't mean it does. These things are way more nuanced and individual, and that was a hard pill for me to swallow. I thought I would fit neatly into a category and the more I watched these videos, the more frustrated I became trying to! Now, I have realised that no one knows except you, and you need to experiment alone. Listening to colour-theory analysts will drive you insane, trust me. I have learned these things: the colors natrually found in my body are the most flattering. For example, the colour of my eyes (neutral-warm brown), the jet black of my hair, the colour of my blood, the colour of my skin, all look AMAZING, because it looks harmonious. I've heard color analysts say neutral doesn't exist, which is definitely bullshit, since everything that looks good on me is super neutral. I have tried olive foundations, warm, cool, ashy, etc. The only shades that ever work are neutral red lipstick, neutral skin foundation, neutral eyeshadow, etc. If I go ever so slightly too warm or cool, I look ill. I have been researching this for 7 years, trying to figure out what works on me, and the worse advice is listening to other people at the expense of your own intuition. I knew, before looking into RUclipsrs, that black and white were amazIng, and that soft peach made me glow, or that mustard was amazing, and that pastel washed me out, except if it was a richer cornflower blue. These don't fit into any category neatly!!!! RUclipsrs would tell me that mustard yellow is a warm colour, and that 24k gold would wash me out but it's the opposite. Turns out, 24k gold and shiny sterling silver look equally good!!!! Nothing is as binary as these people make out. So don't get discouraged or frustrated trying to fit into a box. More than likely, you know best.
It could be your eyes too.
Merriam is the best on the internet when it comes colour analysis. Hands-down
I agree❤
As a fair olive I have found that using extremely purple- leaning sort of lavender blush can give me a very natural color to my cheeks. For my lips I use mostly brown-red leaning nudes.
Same with me
Interesting blush note! Do you have any favourite to reccommend? 😀
@@Spikypotato.Romand Blueberry chip is nice and purpley
@@Jennifer_Ann thank you😀🫐🫐
@@Spikypotato. I looove Clinique's Cheek pop in Pansy Pop. There is a lot of product in the pan and it doesnt seem to have a white base, which makes it more buildable and flattering on darker skintones too
Olive often can present "grayish" and that is how I picture olive, because it has the aspects of coolish melanin that someone who is fully warm just won't have.
This is the first time someone’s explained why I feel that wearing black makes me look more vibrant! Thank you!
Can you please do a video about having olive skin (green) and grey hair? Black with white areas/streaks.
I'm finding it very challenging!
Many thanks for your videos🎉
Omg yesss
Yes, great idea! As a fair, warm leaning olive with warm brown hair with white (grey) streaks, I wonder if my hair color is going to flatter my skin tone when I have more white and less warmth to my hair color.
Same. Light medium olive skin with salt and pepper hair.
I think is a problem if you are warm. If cool olive it actually looks great.
@@di3486 I started doing henna and love it!
Very helpful! I was just thinking last night that really my only beauty goal is to figure out how to look "healthy," so this is great timing.
Ah, now. That explains why all innocuous-looking lipsticks would scream 'LIPSTICK' on me. Just mixed one with some green colouring pencil and already it looks more not-screamy.
I´m olive, cool pale olive. There are some colors that make me look yellow, and sometimes greenish-grey.
Same, the struggle is real
This is me as well :/
im a pale warm olive and i love the most about my complexion that i can get away with all these hard to wear super rich inbetween warm and cool colours. colours where there is a lot of super intense vintage gold but a bit more dirty with a little green, and super intense midnight blue but more dirty with a black, a super intense dark burgundy but made a little dirty with some black. i really enjoy that i can wear such a wide array of colours, dark and soft autumn work equally well for me. like how can dusty earthy vintage pink be one of my best colours but also super intense dark rich colours aswell. i feel like almost no season can do that. also how come i dont have too much contrast but somehow i look super high contrast, but im way too muted to appear high contrast. but i need so much contrast in my clothes. i came to love my olive skin since i dont care to put myself in one season and accept that i can never finally say if warm or cool colours work better. muted shades of blue and purple look really cool on me especially in summer. id say i am an autumn more or less who can also pick from dark winter and soft summer - depending on my yellowness. i can rock some bolt shit and colour combos that other people cant. the only ccolours i struggle with are either too light and bright or too bright. everything mixed with too much white is plain awful.
Thanks!! Warm and delicate olive here and the way lipsticks change color is wild!
yes true!!!👍
Very
Yess!! I just gave up on lipsticks entirely and only use lipgloss now, lipsticks never look right on me (green/yellow pale olive skin here) I used to try reds, light and dark pinks and oranges, tried with browns but they dont seem to work either. On the other hand smoky eye looks great on me, but making my skin look "healthy" is a strugle, kind of end up looking like jenna ortega, nice eyes but kind of sick looking
@@micolevi it does depend because every olive is made differently. I need cool slightly bright colors.
Warm delicate olive pale skin here! Same struggles. I found a couple of shades that work worders for me: Velvet ink by bourjois shades Mauve sweet mauve and Taupecchino.
Actually, you can have olive skin and red hair. I once knew a Hispanic guy who had pale red hair, dark eyes, dark olive skin, and freckles. It was an odd combination, but he had it!
Thank you. The more videos with info about olive skin the better!
Hi Merriam, could you make a do's/ don'ts video about rosy skin? I'm happy that you're posting videos more often bc I learn a lot watching them ❤
Merriam I kid you not this is the most helpful video EVERRR❤ Oh how I have struggled with this!
Good video. I feel like my cool muted olive skin cannot handle a variety of different eyeshadow colors. Cool deep brown and soft black look good. Other colors look clownish.
Sameeee am slight warm neutral olive but soooooo muted.
Oh totally. I just don’t even try to find colors anymore. I like champagne toned to brighten my hooded eyes.
SAME! I honestly gave up with eyeshadow in my early twenties, I exclusively wear winged eyeliner and mascara… it’s too upsetting whenever I try different eyeshadows and I look insane.
I am a bright spring with olive skin, but I have a reddish tint to my medium brown hair. For me, I have to use a bright red lipstick such as Mac Lady Danger for it to not wash me out or make me look sick but I feel like maybe the red works because I need the contrast because I'm a bright spring and naturally have a hint of red to my hair?
I am also a bright spring with light to medium olive skin. I think things read on olive skin tones differently. For example, the Lisa Eldridge Painterly lipstick, which is supposedly an ambiguous color between red, mauve, and brown, reads like a dark red on me. I have never found other reds that do not look neon bright on me.
Such a good video on a much needed topic.
It's so incredibly frustrating picking out blush and lipstick. The color never appears as it does in the tube or pan. Needless to say I have quite a collection of makeup that I either can't wear or have to mix with something else.
Anyway, thanks for the info and I appreciate your efforts, Meriam!
Exactly this ! And I haven’t found yet what suits my skin very well 😩
Hannah Louise Poston, here on RUclips, she is a natural red head and has an olive skin tone. Check her out.
she's rosy, not olive. but I should clarify that the redheads I'm talking about in this video are the likes of Julianne Moore, usually found in Ireland and surrounding regions. Of course there must be people out there somewhere with genetics that call for red hair and olive skin. This is incredibly rare.
I definitely have light medium neutral cool olive skin. I do look green. strong darker pinks and true and blueish leaning reds make me look amazing. I also find that this lipstick she is using is very nudey and a but orangey looking on her, its by no means “out there” or strong. Nude lipsticks make me washed out, there is only 2 I found so far that are doing ok for daytime, those are my go to lipsticks for every day, but they by no means make me glow like the reds
This is so true!
I always focus on my brows' and eyes' definition when I'm doing my makeup, even though my undertone is bright.
Makes so much sense now!
Redheads can absolutely be olive. I am Middle Eastern and have a definite green tint to my skin and flaming red hair. It is rare, though. I am 40yrs old and have only ever seen one other redheaded child with the same definite green tinge to their skin (another Middle Easterner).
My mother was a light-medium olive strawberry blonde from Southeast Europe, and I wholeheartedly agree with your comment.
@@hannahgarfield4046 Right?! I honestly love Merriam, but the fact that she mentions this in a couple videos and it is so not correct, makes me hesitate trying a color analysis with her. Your mother sounds beautiful :)
Yep. Immediately thought of Lebanese actress Daniella Rahme in the series Till Death. Olive and red hair looks stunning on her! Im not sure if it’s natural but regardless it’s a striking look.
My hair had strong red tints as a child as my dad is Irish with red beard. I’m cool pale olive with high contrast, and I still look pretty good with a deep shade of red in my hair.
This also made me frown. I’m not a redhead but have natural red highlights in my hair, and I am certainly olive skin (cool). Lisa Eldridge light olive foundation being a perfect match. I have Irish and Mediterranean ancestry.
Thanks. I like the way red lippy looks on other people, but I can't wear it and now I know why. My lips are a mauve colour and I like pink or mauve toned lipstick. I can wear gloss with some red in it.
In winter I don't look pale so much as I look grey. It gets hard to find clothes the right colour. As I age, it's even harder.
ugh struggle with this so much. this is why I never dye my hair. I have black hair and all the other colours just make my skin look muddy. thx for making this!
This is the best all encompassing video and theory about hair color for olives. I love the distinction between hair that will look GOOD on olive skin versus good AND natural on olive skin. Everything you said makes so much sense its insane. I just used green semi permanent dye on my brown hair after watching lol.
Medium light cool olive skin tone here, who was categorised as deep (soft) winter.
I use deep magenta shades of lip colors and cheeks blushes. Ultimately i found a pretty rosy balm that was actually darker in the tube and looks rose on me. 😮 but i do also have a medium brown gloss lipstick that looks like a perfect nude shade!
And i also found a perfect - i really mean perfect - shade of foundation! It is a n 2 (omg so pale! ❤) which have greysh green drops but maintaining the yellow overtone! 😊 no more struggles between pink and orange guys!❤🎉🎉🎉
Yeah all depends on the undertones. I am also a medium light cool olive and I am a true summer.
@dysdaffy6905, what brand/line is the foundation you use?
Even me as a faire olive; red and pink lipstick looks crazy on me !!! I only wear dark red, brick red, orange, dark mauve , brown etc
I'm light olive but nudes lipstick never looks right on me, my lips are very pale almost a blueish purple color, I also have roseaca on my face so I get really red on my cheeks & around my nose, it sounds like she is saying that we can't get roseaca, now I'm really confused. I always go for mauves & pinks they seem to brighten me up.
Rosacea is a condition, being rosy in tone means red is a pigment that is naturally present in your whole skin.
Totally agree I look awful in nudes truly awful. I have finally found my colour and it’s a deep brown/red. I use it on my cheeks as well. That is my ‘nude’. I only wish I knew this sooner I’m now too old to make much use of this fantastic new information. I do wonder why so many makeup artists made me look so terrible! Even when they were experts. They had no ‘eye’ for colour.
Oh I am a medium warm olive, never ever matched a foundation to my face without the added green pigment AND I have (mild) rosacea. My cheeks are flushed so easily and around my nose. It gets worse when I go out in the sun. But just on my face. I never ever turn red in the sun on my body. I just get more golden.
@@atlantis315 I'm starting to think I'm olive on certain parts of my body my face burns easily but my arms and legs get that golden tan. It's really weird 😂 , people even tell me I'm olive.
You could have a soft coloring without being olive.
For example, im cool toned but i have more like a pale pink hue rather than straight up red or peach.
Most nude lipsticks are warm toned, maybe go for something much more muted like Angel from Mac.
Iam a cool and muded pail olive i died my hair black with a hint of cool red i really liked how it made my skin look it made my skin look a little lighter iam also a soft gamine so i can probably pull of artificial hair colors
Thanks for the video i really know the lip stick problem i always thought that it had to do with my skin being muded
This was brilliant! and perfectly explains my struggles with lipstick!
I’m a warm olive and I love a red lip from time to time, I definitely stand out more but I only wear it on some occasions. I’m Latina and my features are a little darker, I need darker nudes or my trusty brown lip liner, purple and greens (forest or blue green mixed) look good on me. Foundations are a struggle and need to mix shades to get my shade 😩
Having warm instead a cool olive skin is a game changer. I am also Hispanic but I am cool toned, very tricky.
Girls please help out:
From what I understand in the video and from some comments:
If your skin is pale cool olive, and brown colours become burgundy, mauves and purples become pink and nudes become mauves on the skin,
it means we have to not buy makeup by what it looks but by what it will turn out on the skin.
So, when Im looking for a very natural lip colour close to mine (mine are pale rose), I need a nude lip liner and a nude lipstick? which will look like a mauve then but it has to be a soft light mauve..
What kind of nude colour has it to be to turn out pale /light rose?
For eyeshadow:
If I want a brown colour, can't take browns because they'll turn burgundy. Not even cool browns?
So which colour do we take to achieve brown?
I have a palette with dusty pinks and they all turn slightly peachy-pink = too warm
my skin is more like pale cool delicate olive (transparent, greyish, greenish). Not radiant enough
I'm a fair-light, cool-neutral olive (with ashy and golden light brown hair) and I can attest to this! It took me SO LONG to figure out my skin tone.
Velvet Muse by Lisa Eldridge is the most perfect nude for cool olives! It is my holy grail.
I loved your point about "good" vs "natural". I have done red gair before and some versions looks really good on me. But you're right it doesnt look natural, it gives my appearance a more edgy look.
I am a bright spring with light to medium olive skin. I agree with Median that things read on olive skin tones differently. For example, the Lisa Eldridge Painterly lipstick, which is supposedly an ambiguous color between red, mauve, and brown, reads like a dark red on me. But this red does not wash me out and make my mouth the only thing you look at when you see me. I have never found other reds that do not look neon bright on me.
But not only nudes (nudes sometimes wash me out) look good on me, I find dusty rose or mauve could be my pink. And peachy nudes (this one is tricky one has to try it on) can sometimes read as warm pink. I like peachy nude blushes like NARS sex appeal. And berry tones (especially the sheer ones) look terrific on me, too. This is for olive people who need more color and vibrancy to their looks. But sometimes just contrast between light and dark, just as Merriam says, can work too.
You classified me as warm and radiant and olive. And looking back I remember a couple times people liked my lip color and wanted to know what I was wearing. One time was Burt’s Bees caramel lip shimmer. And another time was a clear lip gloss. And I remember one time a male coworker noticed I was wearing color on my lips and made a big deal about it! It was a pink color…Now I just wear Burts bees ultra conditioning lip balm which has no color and my lips sometimes look pink or mauve in pictures.
Thanks for an interesting video 😊One of my best friend is a very fair olive and she has freckles and strawberry blonde/copperish hair and it looks nice on her. But I get what you're speaking about might be more generally speaking and especially when someone is a cool olive red hair would look quite unnatural
Yeah, I definitely know people with reddish hair who have fair / light olive toned skin. There are a lot of Eastern European people who are naturally colored this way. So, she lost me a little with saying that you can't be that 🤷♀️
You so professionel and passionate i don't evdn watch other colour analysts of RUclips so happy found u ! They're so confusing 😢
No kidding. Everything you’ve said is so true. I now know why I could never find a foundation that worked for me. It always looked like I was wearing a mask. I’m now 77 with pretty good skin. I think the olive skin ages well. I’m very fair skinned and had nearly black hair with hazel eyes. I’ve finally given up on getting the right hair color,so I’m going to go gray. At least that will go with my coloring. I’m probably delicate but I can’t wear truly muted colors. I also can’t wear really bright ones. I’m not sure if I’m neutral warm or cool. I’ll know better once my hair grows out.
Puts on mauve lipstick
"What does that look like?"
It looks like every single pink lipstick on me!! Been getting browns and nudes in different hues for a while, and that's definitely the play for me.
I would love more videos on skin that’s more rosey (red). Olive (green) gets talked about a lot but I haven’t seen much content on people that have more red in their skin.
Great video as always
I would love that too! it might help me understand if I'm rosey or olive...
This video was so helpful! Now I understand why I feel I can’t wear certain lipstick and eyeshadow colors and why I opted for a more contrasting and glowing look to look healthier instead of blush for example
I have to use true reds that lean blue. But they look fab on me. I'm yellow olive light tan. Very olive, very yellow
Suggest everyone gets the Danessa Myricks The Nudist crème palette for lips and cheeks. Browny reds are my ‘nude’ as I cannot wear traditional nudes they make me look dead. This palette allows me to custom mix my own version of a nude and I can use the entire palette by mixing. It has some peachy and pinky shades I could never wear alone but in the palette I mix them with the deep aubergines and I get a perfect deep ‘nude’. I use it to contour eyes as well just on the brow bone. For olives I don’t believe our clothing pallette can translate directly to a makeup pallette as the colours are impacted by the amount of green in the skin. This is the first time I’ve seen this addressed in a video on olive skin so bravo Merriam!
@@kpops168 my browns have to be taupe, very cool or I look dead.
I find I can get away with some red tones in dark brown hair!
Great video. Thanks for posting.
Great info advice, as always. I am warm delicate with some mild rosacea. Does that alter anything in terms of colors to wear near the face?
What if you have green and purple veins. And light olive but also rosy in winter, and yellowish olive in summer? 🥲
This
you can't really be light olive and rosy, that means you're green and red at the same time which doesn't make sense because they are complementary. you may be someone who changes skin undertones. I have a video on that called the lightest skin tones. And I may even have another one about changing skin undertones that you could check out. maybe you are cool toned in winter and warm toned in summer.
How do you know if you are rosy? An olive can have some pink in the overtone right? What is rosy?
I know you said you couldn't have red hair with olive skin, but what about brown with copper notes? I struggle with every olive skin problem mentioned in your video, but in summer, my hair will take on some coppery highlights.
I’m cool pale olive and I look good with deep reds and “natural copper” but the struggle is real, its the only hair colour, or I surmise platinum with my dark brown eyebrows that could be flattering to my skin.
No, but u could put on a peach or coral one of those is considered nuetral blush. It wouldn't look to warm for u, olives can wear alot of colors!🎉😊
I had a friend at school with similar features as you and i remember how she was always struggling with lipstick shades. Her only option was nude colours. She couldnt pull off bright colours.
That’s exactly what happens to me every time I go buy nude colour and then I end up looking like I’m wearing pink😭but now I at least know why
I’m olive skin and the red lipstick looks good on me !! Unlike my friends
I will keep watching the olive videos
Olive here! Gray hair with matching brows, rounded bangs, and a blueish/red lipstick.. totally ethereal because it looks - too bright! Nudes work and the skin like that too, but peach/coral.. can confirm not!! Purple (blueish) and green-gray lipstick also works well! (I think!) Kinda alt./goth Mixed-Taut!
I’ve been wearing gold jewelry for as long as I can remember and omg :/ I also really like wearing gray and I just avoid wearing jewelry when I wear gray bc it looks off but… I started wearing silver jewelry recently and lol 😭 I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out until 29 yrs old
It's strange. I believe I AM olive, but kind of subtly so. So for example I pull off a red lip very well (I think), but if I try to wear any kind of red/pink blush, I look like a clown... Insightful as always, Merriam. :)
And by the way, you are saying Audrey Tautou's name correctly. It sounds like "toe-two", in English. ;)
Can you please explain the fact of being olive and bright? I know there is already a video on the topic but i find it confusing... sorry.
A armochromatic analyst told me i am soft deep winter and the other inserted me on her deep winter list 😅😅
I just wanted to explain why i feel ok in dark and medium cool magenta reds, berries shades but less good on blues😅
Btw i prefer my look on winter, i love feel pale, i feel like i am clear against many colors. Instead diring summer i feel like yellow, very yellow...
I am even worse off regarding the lipsticks. I have naturally already very pink lips, and I am light cool olive. If I wear anything brighter than my natural lip tone, it screams. If I wear anything nude/brownish, it clashes with my really cool skin tone and just looks completely OFF. If I wear anything lighter/creamy-white-rosy, it also clashes with my skin tone and just looks like I put on a sun protect lipstick and used way too much. It simply sucks. The only thing I can do is vary my natural lip color a BIT or just use a slightly toned gloss or I go bright magenta and just accept it is bright and just go for the intense look. No other options.
I’m exactly the same. I’m also light cool olive, and also have high contrast. So I would have thought at least 1 of the deep coloured lips would work on me but no. None of them do. Same as you my lipstick choice has to be carbon copy of my lips, as if I can only slightly increase the saturation of them or I look like a clown/very unnatural. Especially if I already have (literally even the simplest) eyeliner and mascara on. Immediately clown.
@@nicholev Its funny, I can only go just a tiny bit more intense and warmer/more neutral... a touch more in the direction of coral instead of cool pink (what my lips usually are). But not much. Makes me more lively and awake, especially if its more a gloss, not creamy. I am using NYX Strawberry Horchata (product is called this is milky gloss).
As olive skin I really only like my hair dark/ashy brown - red undertones don’t work for me. I cannot pull off a red lip - only neutral pinks/mauves - I can wear coral colors if I apply it lightly.
Yellow blond is the worse thing for me because it matches my skin too much.😢
I have made this mistake. I dyed my hair pink shortly after. 😂
I don't really relate to this. I'm an Olive, Bright Winter and so I guess I'm Cool and Radiant in this system. I am very clear/bright. I can't do these mauves she's recommending. I'm like Beyoncé/ Halle Berry level of shade, but olive. Everything looks less bright and almost muted on me. I can handle a significant amount of saturation. Fuchsia, Magenta, Violet purple and a blue based lipstick like cherries in the snow just look normal on me. The lipsticks used in this video will look bad on me. Like casket ready. I have bright, dark eyes too. Wearing the bold cool lip color on my lips actually is the only thing I need to look fresh. Don’t need the rosy cheeks, and that bright and rich contrast of the lipstick just mirrors the brightness and contrast in my skin. I can never do nudes. Now the hair, I can do a cherry red or violet red, violet purple hair, navy blue hair. I’ve even done a short bright true red. The hardest thing for me as an olive is wearing red because most reds lean warm and make me look even more green than I am because of complimentary color aspect of color theory. I can only wear reds that lean towards magenta.
Something's not adding up. I really would have to see photos of you to see what you mean. If you're interested, you can submit photos for use in youtube videos (if you don't mind them being used) through my website. I hope you end up booking a consult of some kind (consult photos are always private) or submitting photos in some form for use in videos bc I would really want to see what you mean. Or if you have an instagram maybe you can link it in a comment (don't know if youtube allows stuff like that).
Remember when Kim K had that honey caramel golden blonde hair and wore the white dress years ago. Why did that look good? IMO she looked better with that than the platinum bleached look.
Please google image it was teen choice awards 2009
Please let me know your thoughts 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
what do you think of red and burgundy hair on olive skin tones? i know it wont look natural but still
it depends on the body type. if you are a body type that is flattered by unnatural hair colors, then it'll look great. sometimes it may look good on other body types too, just a little artificial, but that's not always a bad thing anyway unless it's not what you're going for.
Audrie Tautou is by no means olive, she has pink undertones. I am a very pale and contrasted olive (a bright spring) with dark hair and dark brows, and green eyes and corals look amazing as my makeup colours, especially those kind of orangey-corals, they make my skin really glow and eyes pop. Neutrals will totally wash me out! Find you recommendations there for strange😢
Does eyeshadow also translate differently on us olives….?
This is a great question! I’m a cool olive and whenever I try to wear like a true red eyeshadow it always pulls purple which is frustrating. I’m not sure if that has to do with being olive but I’m guessing it might
Oh yes...so much yes
Yep, can’t do it basically. I’m cool pale olive with high contrast. Can only do black eyeliner and maybe smokey eye, otherwise I look sickly, clownish or the colours are just wrong.
Definitely. It's so hard to find eyeshadows that work on me. The best brown eyeshadow match for me ( olive with yellow tones) and my sister who's olive neutral is the discontinued brown quad color of Estee Lauder gifted to us a long time ago😢😅 the ones with other colors just gets me frustrated 😂 like do I have to buy all of them just to find what works😂
@@silynita is it that brown that is almost leaning plum? …and OF COURSE it is discontinued, isn’t that typical when something is just perfect😫😂😂🙈
The cool and warm rosy types are almost exclusively found in Europe only. Extreme warm undertones are usually found in Europe only too. Extreme cool undertones are usually found in anywhere but Europe. Cool olive types are almost always found more frequently in non Europeans.
@@DJFreeway-DJDeltoid-DJZales this absolutely wrong. Cool olives are much more frequent in Europe and the Middle East. Warm olives are very prevalent in places like India, China and South east Asia.
@@di3486 How come those of us mixed with European (I am Irish and Aztec/Mexica/Native/, I am Mestizo) and actual Europeans have to almost always have the ugly cool undertones? Warm undertones are more beautiful and unfortunately we rarely have that at least.
@@di3486 Well let me have their warm olive instead of mine so I can be tall dark and handsome.
@@di3486 Very rarely do non Europeans have the combo of gold skin and gold hair though. Also in general they don’t have warmer hair colors and they don’t have warmer eye colors (warm blues, warm hazels, warm browns, warm greens even warmer greys) they usually just have cool brown eyes not warm brown as much
@@DJFreeway-DJDeltoid-DJZales I actually love my cool olive undertone.
Any idea what it means that every red lipstick in existence turns magenta on me? Even Mac ruby woo. Same problem where lip colors turn bright. I usually do well with a deep berry. I'm definitely cool, some say I'm pale olive but I don't see it. I might be, or I'm very neutral.
Born French speaker here, you got it right, Tautou is pronounced "tohtoo".
What about bronzer for the problem of looking too pale as a warm and delicate?
It looks peachy light on my phone but things look warm on my phone.
Is Mac Soar a "nude" lipstick? I'm Warm and Delicate, possibly olive, and I wanted a true nude lipstick so I went for Velvet Teddy and ended up looking like a corpse. The MAC employee suggested Soar, which is clearly mauve, but on me looks very neutral nude. Could my skin have neutralized the pigment? On the other hand, all red lipsticks make me look like a clown
Probably a cool and delicate olive here. I am a fair Italian with grey eyes and dark ashy blond hair. Would my ‘report’ be different from yours? (Even though you are also soft and delicate?)
because I can’t wear the colors I see you wear (basically can’t wear anything bright or dark)
People of color more often than not don’t have extreme warm undertones usually the opposite. I am both a poc (Mexican and New Mexican Amerindian) and European and my skin seems to transition between warm pink and cool olive.
no, darker skin tones have all kinds of different undertones including very warm and very cool. the amount of melanin doesn't affect the shade of the melanin.
@@merriamstyle Light skin tones as well. Dark skin tones don’t have a patent on the beautiful warm undertones
plenty of light skin tones are warm, and warm and bright, but the lightest skin tones of all are always cool and bright. i made a video on it called 'the lightest skin tones'. the absolute darkest skin tones may also be only cool but I'm still exploring that. I suspect that's true but for a different reason than why the light skin tones are cool.
I literally can't tell you put on that lip color at all, and I am analyzing colors on you tube all the time, watching painting videos mostly, but I watch all other color related videos also, like this one for example and and my observations are always consistent with what is being illustrated, and the few times it did not, there would be an added notation to the video with the creator stating their monitor dis not accurately pick up the color, so I knew it wasn't on my end. Is everyone seeing a bright pink on her lips like she describes, or does it look barely there, or not really even there at all, like I am seeing?
Please can you consider creating a pure blended lookbook :)
I have seen a few videos where they classify Julienne Moore as olive. Red and olive. Would you please share your thoughts. Thank you.😊
Anyone who says Julianne Moore is olive, I'm sorry, they don't understand really anything at all about how colors work.
I think I am neutral light medium olive. I use shade 10 in Lisa Eldridge's foundation and T6 in her skin tint. I recently bought the rms blush in Maiden's Blush thinking it was a muted neutral color and it pulls like a brick orange. I also bought Hanky Panky and it looks more neutral pink, not purple. What does that mean? Am I leaning warmer or cooler? Pls help 😅❤
Can you do one on darker, medium brown olive skin tones
Meeeeee me I am yellow literally I am
Excellent content as always 🍒 Is it possible to be warm olive in the summer and cool olive in the winter? 🤔
it is possible but very unlikely. it could be that in the summer you gain more pigment so in general all colors look better on you. and there is a chance that you change undertone, but really it's very slim. if you are extremely extremely light, you can tan warmer, but again, you have to be anne hathaway light.
@@merriamstyle thank you so much for your reply! I have been watching your videos for years 🧡 and I keep coming back to them. A while ago I concluded I am warm and delicate (hence the occasional confusion). Looking forward to more content!
Very unlikely, like Merriam said. If you are cool toned and tan in the summer, your tan is not warm.
Love your videos. I think I’m a light olive, warm and delicate. But I’m pretty sure my hair is ashy. Do you see that often?
merriam, makes totally sense for me that, as warm olive, reds and pinks look really bright, contrasted and separated from me. However, I get compliments always that I am using blue (warm blues, but also less warm and bright blues). Why is that If I'm warm? Is it bc people like It when we olives get this yellowy look when we use blue? I dont understand.
Struggle #2 missed the mark for me...olive skintones CAN have red/pink tones as well, especially at the surface. It's a whole different battle to get a "healthy" look when trying to get your makeup to look balanced when you have a permanent red flush and pale green skin 👽😚 And ditto on the hair bit...this video was alienating, tbh.
I developed red tones as I aged. I was very sallow green when I was younger but now I have much more red, particularly in my face.
That red on the surface are blood vessels not your skin tone
@@CW-rx2js you don't say
Merriam, I hope you can help me with this 🙏 I’m warm and delicate olive, rounded mixed -typed by you- . I’m tired of buying lipsticks. Al nudes when I first apply them, they initially look alright and after 3 hours or so they turn grey. I’m struggling to find a nice pink or peach shade for me! Same thing goes for foundation even tho I add green primer but I still get the same problem. My skin turns grey! Color correction over my hyperpigmentation spots -I used orange, red, peach- didn’t help than much. I stopped wearing foundation. I only use a glowy cream on my skin and I wear red lipstick or sometimes I apply orange lip balm that turns into a nice fresh red after 3 hours or so! I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do!
Is Gwen Stefanie olive skin tone ? She looks amazing with brown hair and defined eyes in her video I know we’re cool.
Luckily I love nude lipsticks!
Merriam, I did an analysis with you and it was pretty good. I got confused about my bone structure, because you said that is “mixed”, something hard to identify, and you were unsure. After I got pregnant, my body got a bit different and I can’t see exactly those mixed features. Do you think you could help me figure out? My color was told as a warm vibrant, but I don’t feel pretty in warm and vibrant colors, my skin is so yellow :(
I'm sorry you're having that experience. Please feel free to contact tech.support.and.billing@merriamstyle.com. I do offer a second look on a case by case basis.
Hi Merriam, at 4:57 you say that red is going to contrast with the greens in the skin, and according to your other videos, a color indeed "pops" more when put next to its complementary color. But how is that a good thing? like who wants to look green?? I would love to have your take on this because I don't understand why you say that "simultaneous contrast" is not a thing for cool tones (cause we don't want to look blue/grey) but it seems to be okay for olives...? is the red/green balance different from the yellow/blue balance in that regard? Thank you!
no, it's not different. I'd say some people do want to look more 'olive' because sometimes that can read as more golden. and also because they can look washed out without contrast if they are very high contrast.
@@merriamstyle I see, thank you. I'm really struggling right now to find out if I'm rosy or olive, would love more videos from you about that. Maybe "signs you're rosy and warm"? A lot of the "signs you're olive" resonate with me but I just went to sephora and the ladies were very strongly against it. I have rosacea and my face looks much paler than my body, which might be misguiding me or people. I know I'm a very delicate skintone, I thought warm and delicate but now I'm confused with this olive thing. Well in the meantime I'm watching all your Club Q&A videos!
@@merriamstyle sorry, I edited my comment cause I see that you already have a video about "signs you are rosy and cool". Waiting for rosy and warm :) also may I suggest using the playlist feature of youtube to make your videos even more accessible?
Hi,
I have a situation, when I wear a nude, it looks grey, mauve colors look grey, I think I'm a warm and delicate palet, but I'm not sure, could you asses this? I have never seen anyone talking about it
loooove your content, I have been here since forever, it might be 8 years or so
maybe you're very warm toned, and that in combination with the lip colors being too light can make them look gray. mostly being warm though.
I have the same issue as you! I’m warm and delicate olive, rounded mixed. I’m tired of buying lipsticks. Al nudes when I first apply them, they initially look alright and after 3 hours or so they turn grey. Same thing goes for foundation even tho I add green primer but I still get the same problem. My skin turns grey! Color correction over my hyperpigmentation spots -I used orange, red, peach- didn’t help than much. I stopped wearing foundation. I only use a glowy cream on my skin and I wear red lipstick or sometimes I apply orange lip balm that turns into a nice fresh red after 3 hours or so! I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do!
Girl you can be olive and redheaded. Red hair exists in more that just Scottish/Irish ethnicities. And there are lots of mixed races/DNA. For instance, my best friend is quite warm olive part italian with the redest hair. She has no pink/red in her skin and almost never burns. Totally different from my burning, rosasea prone Dutch/Scottish skin with strawberry blonde hair. Plus there are many more darker skin tones that have red heads.
Yes I'm light olive my natural hair before turning gray was a reddish brown so is my daughter my mom is Italian I get my hair color from her mom and my dad is Spanish his ancestors are from Spain. We have light olive & rarely burn except for my face which does burn probably because I have sensitive skin and been diagnosed by a dermatologist with roseaca.
@josiekoerner5345 yes! What a ridiculous concept that your colouring in your hair is the same as in your skin! I'm not even completely convinced that I don't have a neutral or very delicately golden undertone with a pink/red overtone (rosasea/sensitive skin).
Also depending on the opacity of the red makeup, green skin tones will cancel out the red/pink if they are sheer, will it not?
I should have been more precise. When I said redhead, in my mind I was thinking about a redhead's complexion. And those people cannot be olive. There are people out there with olive skin and red hair, but people who are usually known as 'redheads' (those from ireland and surrounding regions) are never olive. Keep in mind we have the tragedy that is some people calling Julianne Moore olive which is just ridiculous.
@merriamstyle thanks for acknowledging! Really respect that. ❤️
Though I do know of people with very pale desaturated olive skin and reddish hair. They tend to be red brown or more golden blonde.
It's hard to tell with celebrities because you don't tend to see them in real life. There are some pictures where she does look olive but who knows what the lighting was, or filters or colour balance on whoever's computer, or if there is makeup involved. 🤣
@@merriamstyle ok I get that
I have and feel each of these struggles. 😅
Amazing video, I think my sister is olive! I apologize if this has been asked before but for figuring out my Kibbe type, how should I weigh the fact that my legs appear longer than my arms? I usually see those measurements lumped together online. Thank you so much!
I think merriam said you can split them into half points if they are different. Same with hands and feet. Though I recommend watching Merriam's body geometry quiz if you haven't already - it's a lot easier than the traditional one
@@thehalfbloodserb Thank you so much, I definitely will!!
Why have I heard olives should always wear blush? 🧐 Because it makes the green neutralized?
Yes, and mauve is great on me, also reds and magenta. Nudes look like Im dead and also browns and Im a light possibly cool olive.
I have no idea what my skin is other than warm delicate. but yes I know that lipstick problem🙄 but nudes are too light🤷♀️
theres almost none that works.
I never wear blush, its just ridiculous how its clownish
I go for brows indeed, and mascara.
hm,, how about brownish shades?
yes if its a tiny bit, and not too much, to not go muddy
I still hope for a darker soft deep pink
@@merriamstyle A question I hold for a while now:
Do olive skin people all wear olive well? or just those leaning warm?
I wear it very well if its slightly cooler, its my best shade
What colors look good on medium brown olive skin tonr
Every red looks pink on me and browns look red on me does that mean I am not olive?
do you have medium-deep skin? you still sound like olive. because the browns look brighter on you (red), this implies olive. if the reds look pink, I'm not sure what that means if you aren't deep.
@@merriamstyle I am slightly fair but not white nor red more yellow yet warm foundations are too yellow for me, neutral foundation suit me the best yet people assume I am warm 🤷🏻♀️ I have both blue, violet and green hues on my arm blood vessels like all at the same vessel
Is it possible to be pale olive skin tone? I'm extra pale so I never would have questioned that I may have an olive skin tone until I started hearing videos about olive skin tones. I'm so very confused about it still. My undertone is very cool I'm a true cool palette and warm colors wash me out badly, but a lady at ulta told me Neutral foundations look better on my because my skin tone appeared yellow. However I have colored my hair red cool toned true red and everyone tells me it's a good color on me, and the only lipstick shades I can wear are cool red's, neutral reds, burgundy, and fushia like shades. I have the hardest time finding nude shades! Nude shades make me look so dull, and I can't find one that works for me. I also have a problem where warm foundations look way too warm and cool foundations look too pink but my undetone is cool, colors like orangy tones, rust, or just any color with a yellow base really makes me look sallow and brings out all the yellow in my skin and I look sick. Blues, turquoise, burgundy's and true colors look best on me. I'm just now starting to wonder if maybe I have an olive skin tone but I'm not 100% sure, I'm definitely cool in undertone though because warm tones make me look sick!
You can absolutely be a pale olive. I will try to link a youtuber
Your skin sound like mine I have the same issues. And bronzers look orange on me too.
@@atlantis315 interested too
Well the link is not working but her name is Alexandra anelle
@@atlantis315 oh yeah I know who she is, I like her but she is more of a warm tone, I have learned a lot from her videos. I'm a cooler tone olive.
The biggest mistake with olive skin is to lighten your dark hair too much in the front. I stopped doing that but I have to wait now because it has to grow out and I look washed out.😊