Most colour advice given to Indian shoppers is worthless, because it is organised around how fair or dark someone is. That is the wrong variable. Two people of identical depth can look entirely different in the same mustard kurta, and the reason is undertone.

Undertone is the colour beneath the surface of your skin, and it does not change with a tan. Once you know yours, choosing colours stops being guesswork.

Finding your undertone

Three tests, none of which requires anything you do not already own. Do all three, because any one of them can mislead.

The vein test

Look at the veins on the inside of your wrist in natural daylight. If they appear green, your undertone is warm. If they appear blue or purple, it is cool. If you genuinely cannot tell, you are probably neutral.

The metal test

Hold gold jewellery against your skin, then silver. One of them will make your skin look healthy and lit; the other will make it look slightly tired or ashen. Gold flatters warm undertones. Silver flatters cool ones. If both look equally good, you are neutral, which is a genuinely fortunate position.

The white test

Hold a pure white cloth against your face, then an off-white or cream one. If pure white looks crisp and cream looks dingy, you are cool. If cream looks warm and pure white looks harsh, you are warm.

If you are warm-toned

Your skin has golden, peachy or yellow undertones. Colours drawn from the same warm family will harmonise with it and make your skin look luminous.

Wear: mustard, ochre, rust, terracotta, coral, warm red, olive, moss green, bottle green, burnt orange, camel, chocolate brown, ivory, gold.

Be careful with: icy pastels, cool grey, blue-based pink, stark pure white, and the very cool blue-toned purples. These fight your undertone and can leave the face looking sallow.

Metal: gold, brass, antique gold.

If you are cool-toned

Your skin has pink, red or bluish undertones. Colours with a blue base will sit against it cleanly.

Wear: royal blue, navy, emerald, teal, sapphire, magenta, fuchsia, wine, plum, lavender, cool grey, pure white, blue-based red.

Be careful with: mustard, orange, warm browns and heavy gold, all of which can create a muddy contrast against cool skin.

Metal: silver, oxidised silver, platinum, white gold.

If you are neutral-toned

You have the widest range available and very few genuine restrictions. The colours that work best for you tend to be the medium-intensity ones: jade, teal, dusty rose, medium blue, soft coral, jewel tones generally. Both gold and silver work, and mixing them is entirely open to you.

The colours that work on almost everyone

A handful of shades are close enough to universal that they are safe purchases regardless of undertone.

• Teal and peacock blue, which sit exactly on the boundary between warm and cool.
• True red, which is why it has anchored Indian festive dressing for centuries.
• Emerald green.
• Deep purple and aubergine.
• Navy, which is the most underrated ethnic colour in the market and consistently more flattering than black.

Colours that require care

Some shades are difficult on most Indian skin tones, and they are worth approaching deliberately rather than avoiding entirely.

• Beige and nude that sit too close to your own skin depth will wash you out entirely. Take them either lighter or considerably deeper than your skin.
• Neon shades reflect coloured light onto the face and rarely flatter anyone. If you love them, keep them away from the neckline, on a bottom or a bag.
• Flat mid-grey drains most warm skin tones. Break it with a bright accent or heavy silver jewellery and it recovers immediately.

The one rule that matters most

The colour touching your face does more than any other part of the outfit, because it is reflecting light onto your skin. If you love a colour that does not love you, wear it on the bottom, on a bag or on a bag rather than at the neckline, and put a flattering shade beside your face.

This is also why the neckline and the dupatta are worth more thought than the rest of the outfit. They occupy the space the camera and the room are looking at.

And the exception

Colour theory is a tool, not a law. If you feel visibly better in a colour that the rules say should not work, you will carry it better than something technically correct that you dislike. Confidence is doing more work in that photograph than the undertone chart ever will.

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