How to nail Dopamine Dressing for your Complexion

Danielle Whiteman shares her tips on how to find out what colours are best suited to your tone for the ultimate mood-boosting wardrobe. Stylist to the stars, Danielle has partnered with SmileDirectClub as a member of its Confidence Council, to offer her advice in a bid to boost the nation’s confidence levels.

With the festive season upon us, it’s a chance to get together with family, friends and colleagues to celebrate the months prior and toast to the year coming. It also doubles up as an opportunity to put our best fashion foot forward. Sparkles are usually the go-to choice this time of the year but a trend that’s far more satisfying – not just when you look in the mirror but for your overall mood – is dopamine dressing.  

Dopamine dressing at its core is wearing clothes that make you feel good, but to take the trend a stylish step further, it’s dressing in colourful clothes to instantly elevate your spirit, mood and confidence. What colours you choose to activate your dopamine levels is entirely up to you but correctly identifying which colours best flatter your specific skin tone can ensure you not only radiate from the inside out but do so to the best of your ability. 

To nail dopamine dressing for your skin tone, you’ll need to first determine whether your skin has a warm, cool or neutral undertone, and it’s important to note that your skin shade (i.e. pale skin, olive skin, or dark skin) doesn’t necessarily determine the undertones of your skin. The simplest way to do this is by looking at your veins – yes, really, your veins hold the keys to mastering stop and stare style. If the veins on your wrist are more green, your skin is warm-toned. If they’re more blueish, you have cool-toned skin. If it’s hard to tell, you probably have a neutral skin tone. 

So, now that you’ve successfully completed the vein test, here’s a guide with celeb inspo on what colours you should try and avoid to take dopamine dressing by storm, according to your complexion: 

Colours for Warmer Skin Tones 

Celebrity Inspo: Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and Katie Holmes 

Colours To Try: Warm skin tones should be paired with warm colours, like orange, yellow, gold or even bright colours such as magenta. Natural earth tones such as browns, deep tonal reds, and rich shades of green can also work. 

Colours To Avoid: People with warmer skin tones can get away with a variety of colours but would be wise to avoid pistachio, mustard, olive and mocha brown as they can sometimes look nude against your tone. 

Colours for Cooler Skin Tones 

Celebrity Inspo: Lupita Nyong’o, Lucy Liu and Nicole Kidman 

Colours To Try: Hues that directly contrast with your skin tone will bring some colour to your complexion. Cooler tones look amazing in cool or deep blues, violet, pink, brown, burgundy, pastel colours, soft shades of yellow or green as well as charcoal.  

Colours To Avoid: Bold, strong colours, such as electric blue or green grass, oranges and super bright yellows, the reason for this is that strong colours can make cool skin tones look paler or washed out. Also, neutrals such as white, light beige or stone, should be swapped out for richer shades such as sand, camel or khaki. 

Colours for Neutral Skin Tones 

Celebrity Inspo: Kerry Washington, Amal Clooney and Angelina Jolie 

Colours To Try: Simply put, neutral tones look great in neutral colours. Be sure to pick shades in the middle of the colour spectrum but don’t shy away from dusty pinks, soft rose, peony pink, plush peach, ocean blue and jade green. Bright red is also a win for people with neutral tones. 

Colours To Avoid: Yellows and anything too bright or vibrant that can be overwhelming for neutral skin tones and therefore are a no-go. Also, be sure to choose colours that complement rather than compete with each other when it comes to striking statement outfits.