"Ethnic" magazines always confuse olive skin with golden or tanned.

I was shopping one day for some face products and a tan caucasian (blonde) woman came up to me and asked what powder she should pick up for her "olive" skin. I think she asked me because of my dark skin... I'm not really sure. I didn't have the heart to tell her she was just a golden tan color...not a true olive. Maybe she was associating olive skin with just being a bit tan? Its no wonder there's so much confusion thanks to magazines and generic makeup descriptions.

You can't associate Olive with tonality (the lightness or darkness of the shade of the skin). There are dark and light skinned olivey people. And don't forget the other color hues in skin can exist in different intensities from person to person - I think this is the hard part about olive skin foundation matching. Some people can get away with a drugstore yellow based foundation, but others might need one that needs the greenish color. Then there's the factor of how red/brown/tan a person is -- see! there are still a lot of factors when discussing Olive skin tones. Olive skin which is darker can still have red/brown in it. ( I think this is me. )

During the colder seasons: From a distance I look a yellowish brown, or even just brown. As I get real close to the mirror I can see that greenish tint of yellow-green. I think the brown overpowers it sometimes. (Im summer Im just full on orange tan!) However, when I swatch yellow foundations (or any foundation) on my face, the green really pops out on the clean skin right next to the swatch. And when I put the foundation on all over my skin, I just turn orange. Red foundations - well they don't work either, obviously.

I really wish I knew of a company that specialized in olivey foundations. Im don't much like the ones I've tried from mineral makeup. I'm certain I have to mix some colors --- but i always fail when I try to do this. The only time I have some small bit of success is when I use that physicians formula green color wheel powder. It tones down my reddish/brown and helps the yellow foundations to leave me less orangy looking. This is not an ideal situation in my opinion. And no, I don't like the green primers either.

If i had clear & even skin I wouldn't even be worrying about any of this. I'd buy whatever makeup I wanted but just use a tinted moisturizer and call it a day. =) So who has that secret?

Jeana Marie said:

I'm pretty sure Sephora employees have no proper formal training on color theory. They must have some sort of commission out of their paychecks, and are simply trying to get a sale out of you. I went one time, looking for foundation, and the person trying to sell me's example of "olive" was orange based. Orange based skin is not even a real thing. It's an artificial color you get from applying tanning lotion. I, as well as many fair olives have been mistaken for "golden" because of the dull yellowness in my skin, and have been told terra-cotta and coppers look good on me. I know for a FACT that I'm not golden or warm and those colors look dirty against my green undertones. My mom has said to me herself she doesn't think those colors look good on me.
EDIT: I found I look best in purples, plums, and other rich jewel tones. C2 from MAC is a good match for me. But it's expensive.

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I agree regarding cosmetic staff not knowing how to help. Too bad they don't realize that they make it worse by trying to sell us anything.

Perhaps in the tan to dark part of the shade spectrum it would be easier to see someone with yellow skin who tans or burns, having redness in their skin. Yellow + red = orange. Plus there are some folks with darker golden skin who have subtle red undertones (Sanna Lathan is one actress I can think of--fairer skin like this is less likely). I think sales ppl who try to sell orange foundations to those with olive skin are "trying" to counteract the sallowness that olive skin sometimes gets (though bronzer with neutral tones does it best). Which goes back to why a lot of celebs who have been classified as "olive" but look golden in red carpet pics-- it is because their makeup artists have warmed up their skin with makeup so they don't look sick or ashy or to match their body tans. Look at someone like Jessica Alba or Kim K. without makeup on and it is a different story.

~~~

In general I think a lot of confusion comes from the difference between depth of skin color vs. skin undertones. There are cool olives and warm olives too. Cool ones look more beige/more green and tend to be paler and warmer ones look richer/more golden, but not as much as a yellow/warm skin tone which might have red in it (so we do better with companies that do neutral foundations - except MAC where we would be C shades). Golden or yellow-toned foundations mostly tend to be a mix of yellow/red/orange pigment so on olive skin they look orange because we have the yellow in our skin but not the orange--we need more green in our mix. Look on a color wheel and it might be more clear (it certainly was for me)--there are different shades and undertones of all colors, cool and warm, light and dark. But remember as depth of color increases in skin the variance in shades increases. Not saying that fairer skin cannot be olive, they totally can be. I read in Jemma Kidd's makeup book that light olive skin is the equivalent to fair/porcelain skin that has the English Rose look, so those olives need the same colors as the darker olives but paler tints of the same colors (so lighter versions of golden bronzers would work but not red based kind). There are so many combinations out there it is just incorrect to say "olive" can only be one way. It's simply an undertone of skin color, so it can appear in any shade of skin of any depth or lightness, and in any amount--just like any other undertone that exists in skin.

Ultimately though if you have olive undertones in your skin (no matter how light or dark your skin is), start with makeup colors that are neutral in undertones. So for example if you want to wear red lipstick, start with depth of color based on if you have light, med, dark skin, etc. Then look at undertone--don't pick one that has a ton of blue or a ton or orange in it--go for a neutral balanced red. And then with other more subtle undertones beside olive that are in your skin you may be able to try reds that are slightly warmer or slightly cooler, too. All that matters is what looks good on you when you try it on, not where you're from or what category someone else puts you in. Hope my ramble helps someone one...

lyrastar said:

I was shopping one day for some face products and a tan caucasian (blonde) woman came up to me and asked what powder she should pick up for her "olive" skin. I think she asked me because of my dark skin... I'm not really sure. I didn't have the heart to tell her she was just a golden tan color...not a true olive. Maybe she was associating olive skin with just being a bit tan? Its no wonder there's so much confusion thanks to magazines and generic makeup descriptions.

You can't associate Olive with tonality (the lightness or darkness of the shade of the skin). There are dark and light skinned olivey people. And don't forget the other color hues in skin can exist in different intensities from person to person - I think this is the hard part about olive skin foundation matching. Some people can get away with a drugstore yellow based foundation, but others might need one that needs the greenish color. Then there's the factor of how red/brown/tan a person is -- see! there are still a lot of factors when discussing Olive skin tones. Olive skin which is darker can still have red/brown in it. ( I think this is me. )

During the colder seasons: From a distance I look a yellowish brown, or even just brown. As I get real close to the mirror I can see that greenish tint of yellow-green. I think the brown overpowers it sometimes. (Im summer Im just full on orange tan!) However, when I swatch yellow foundations (or any foundation) on my face, the green really pops out on the clean skin right next to the swatch. And when I put the foundation on all over my skin, I just turn orange. Red foundations - well they don't work either, obviously.

I really wish I knew of a company that specialized in olivey foundations. Im don't much like the ones I've tried from mineral makeup. I'm certain I have to mix some colors --- but i always fail when I try to do this. The only time I have some small bit of success is when I use that physicians formula green color wheel powder. It tones down my reddish/brown and helps the yellow foundations to leave me less orangy looking. This is not an ideal situation in my opinion. And no, I don't like the green primers either.

If i had clear & even skin I wouldn't even be worrying about any of this. I'd buy whatever makeup I wanted but just use a tinted moisturizer and call it a day. =) So who has that secret?

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To the bold, I google for this all the time, so I know how you feel. The more professional brands do them though, like RCMA and Ben Nye...as far as consumer level, it's hard to find but Lancome and MUFE have been stepping their shade game up. I think it will take more time for the department stores to really value the uniqueness of skin tones in general. But if Chanel and Dior can expand their shade range (and not immediately discontinue any of them lol!) then anything is possible

lyrastar said:

I was shopping one day for some face products and a tan caucasian (blonde) woman came up to me and asked what powder she should pick up for her "olive" skin. I think she asked me because of my dark skin... I'm not really sure. I didn't have the heart to tell her she was just a golden tan color...not a true olive. Maybe she was associating olive skin with just being a bit tan? Its no wonder there's so much confusion thanks to magazines and generic makeup descriptions.

You can't associate Olive with tonality (the lightness or darkness of the shade of the skin). There are dark and light skinned olivey people. And don't forget the other color hues in skin can exist in different intensities from person to person - I think this is the hard part about olive skin foundation matching. Some people can get away with a drugstore yellow based foundation, but others might need one that needs the greenish color. Then there's the factor of how red/brown/tan a person is -- see! there are still a lot of factors when discussing Olive skin tones. Olive skin which is darker can still have red/brown in it. ( I think this is me. )

During the colder seasons: From a distance I look a yellowish brown, or even just brown. As I get real close to the mirror I can see that greenish tint of yellow-green. I think the brown overpowers it sometimes. (Im summer Im just full on orange tan!) However, when I swatch yellow foundations (or any foundation) on my face, the green really pops out on the clean skin right next to the swatch. And when I put the foundation on all over my skin, I just turn orange. Red foundations - well they don't work either, obviously.

I really wish I knew of a company that specialized in olivey foundations. Im don't much like the ones I've tried from mineral makeup. I'm certain I have to mix some colors --- but i always fail when I try to do this. The only time I have some small bit of success is when I use that physicians formula green color wheel powder. It tones down my reddish/brown and helps the yellow foundations to leave me less orangy looking. This is not an ideal situation in my opinion. And no, I don't like the green primers either.

If i had clear & even skin I wouldn't even be worrying about any of this. I'd buy whatever makeup I wanted but just use a tinted moisturizer and call it a day. =) So who has that secret?

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OMG I absloutly agree with the bold! I'm fair olive, and it really irks me when people use the term "olive" as a skin tone, in fashion magazines, and use a medium or medium-dark skinned person as an example. Not all of us olives are naturally tanned! Some of us are just as fair as Anne Hathaway, Katy Perry and Kristen Stewart (the tattoo artist Kat von D has VERY obvious olive/green in her pale skin!).

I have dark hair and dark eyes, with a fair/light skin tone, (I don't know if I would be considered snow white, because of the olive in my skin). I think in general, I look normal fair to most people, since they think "olive" is a tan/brown skin tone. But in the natural daylight, I think you can really see the olive green undertones in my skin, though I'm no darker than a snow white person who is obviously pink toned. Next to a darker olive person, (same olive green undertones, more medium toned skin), there are no weird clashes, despite me being fair and the person being more tanned. My sister's friend who does my hair is darker olive, and I'm more fair olive, and when I get highlights done, you can see less of a difference in our skin tone/undertone, than you would if I kept my hair solid dark. I've had a few SA's at the makeup counter get butthurt, when I would correct them saying I'm a fair olive and not golden. The SA showed me an example of "olive skin" on their terms, and that person was simply medium skin with golden/yellow undertones. I have no pink/red in my skin, besides dry, rough and irritated patches on my skin, more so in the winter.

Drugstore makeup has always been too yellow or too orange, too pink, etc for me. So MAC has been the best option. The issue for me is finding a fair olive, and MAC seems to do the job well. C2 was my best match. Every other makeup company has dark olive or medium olive, but not fair olive. And I'm not paying double to mix two foundations together. Who wants to do that?

And besides the term "olive" used to decribe medium tan skin, I hate how magazines will assume all fair skinned women have pink undertones, and say "purple will highlight the cool pink undertones in your skin..." There are a lot of fair skinned women with warmer undertones.

I have spray tanned once or twice a year in the summer, and it does make me look more golden. I find that a lot of plums, violets, and rich neutrals do best on my skin. Purple seems to be the magical color, as well as metallics. But anything TOO warm, pink or pastels are AWFUL on my skin. I do really well with true red. As long as it's not too cool or too warm I'm good.

I've been told I was condradicting myself when i said fair/olive. I admit it sounds a little condradicting when you don't understand the different skin tones and undertones, but once you learn the difference between skin tone and undertone it's not at all. I think when you have a basic understanding how complex it is between a person's skin tone and undertone (ex: not all fair skinned women have pink undertones, you can have the fairest or darkest skin possible and still be olive), "olive skin tone" doesn't make sense and isn't really proper. LOL! It makes more sence as an undertone.

elektra513 said:

I agree regarding cosmetic staff not knowing how to help. Too bad they don't realize that they make it worse by trying to sell us anything.
Perhaps in the tan to dark part of the shade spectrum it would be easier to see someone with yellow skin who tans or burns, having redness in their skin. Yellow + red = orange. Plus there are some folks with darker golden skin who have subtle red undertones (Sanna Lathan is one actress I can think of--fairer skin like this is less likely). I think sales ppl who try to sell orange foundations to those with olive skin are "trying" to counteract the sallowness that olive skin sometimes gets (though bronzer with neutral tones does it best). Which goes back to why a lot of celebs who have been classified as "olive" but look golden in red carpet pics-- it is because their makeup artists have warmed up their skin with makeup so they don't look sick or ashy or to match their body tans. Look at someone like Jessica Alba or Kim K. without makeup on and it is a different story.

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You know, I've seen a lot of Sephora associates, even ULTA, (ULTA has both OTC and big brands), use the term "olive" on a simply golden tan person as a way to compliment them. "Oh I wish I had that nice tan olive color..." as people who don't understand "olive" use it as a positive thing.

That being said, I wonder how many people who are generally fair/light complected with olive undertones, don't realize they're olive, because of their skin tone. I don't think they know they're actually olive, and assume they're yellow, because they think olive is a medium tan color.

BBBB said:

I don't understand any of this. Fair is an Anglo-Saxon/ Red-head and Olive skinned and dark are dark Spaniards and Italians. Most Latinos are native American mixed with Spaniards so they're brown and black people are black. It's as simple as that ...

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Olive skin is very fair in color!white in the usa is defined by the us census bureau as people of middle eastern/northafrican​/european blood! many countries in europe originated in the middle east,,,dumb folks dont know that
!!Even racist sites like sormfront know that whites come in MANY shades!!! the majoirty of whites have brunette hair! whites have pink/olive/yellow/go​lden/red undertones and be darker or lighter!! fair skinned can be pink and olive! olive is very pale!
HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ANGLO SAXONS ARE FAIR!
FAIR SKIN COMES IN MANY CULTURES! Having blotchy pork skin doesnt make you "Fair" people with flawless skin are fair!

JUST LIKE YOU DONT HAVE TO BE BLACK TO HAVE DARK SKIN..DARK SKIN IS FOUND IN INDIA! AND INDIANS ARENT "BLACK"
FAIRS KIN ISNT OWNED BY ANGLO SAXONS!
plus, Im sick of idiots lumping everyone into the "Dark" category. Because someone doesnt look like Nicole Kidman,doesnt mean therye "dark".
Magazines and these "beauty" sites are despicable

THANK YOU! thanks for the list of fair skin women with olive UNDERTONES! Middle eastern/European,Latino.
Im sick and tired of people thinking you have to be freaken blonde with blue eyes to be "Fair". EVEN THOUGH SNOW WHITE WASNT BLONDE WITH BLUE EYES AND NEITHER IS DITA VON TEESE,ETC! I hate when these stupid people spill their insecurities!
a person can have pink/red/yellow/golden,etc undertones! aka the TEMPERATURE of your skin "skintone"
Im caucasian, and I have to call a spade a spade and say that this is a caucasian problem! we like to be exclusive,it doesnt matter how light an african american is..she can be whiter than white, but because shes african american..shes "tar" so these attitudes go into the beauty industry as well!
the world is a huge place! white around the world is people of a light skintone! in all cultures! I dont know why in America...its people of ANGO SAXON blood!
Fair skin is in every culture! and some self hating insecure idiot shouldnt tell you otherwise!
just like there are dark skinned Indians, A RACE DOESNT OWN A SKIN COLOR! and skin color isnt an indicator of race!
so Im glad people brought this up and if you know any of these stupid people who do this childish crap, you need to school them!
Also someone needs to clock these MAC counter people who see anyone that isnt a blond ehair blue eyed female..they give them NC47! this phenomena is on every single forum,youtube video! its a mess how despicable some people are. I truly know for a fact there is a hidden agenda. Rhianna is even light skinned to caucasians..but youre going to lump her as "tar".??
get out of here
GLAD THIS WAS BROUGHT UP

Dina Tempo said:

Olive skin is very fair in color!white in the usa is defined by the us census bureau as people of middle eastern/northafrican​/european blood! many countries in europe originated in the middle east,,,dumb folks dont know that
!!Even racist sites like sormfront know that whites come in MANY shades!!! the majoirty of whites have brunette hair! whites have pink/olive/yellow/go​lden/red undertones and be darker or lighter!! fair skinned can be pink and olive! olive is very pale!
HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT ANGLO SAXONS ARE FAIR!
FAIR SKIN COMES IN MANY CULTURES! Having blotchy pork skin doesnt make you "Fair" people with flawless skin are fair!

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Funny you mention this, because Sofia Vergera is blonde and fair, yet she is LATINA not CACUASIAN! She ADMITS being a bottled brunette and using spray tans to appear more "Latina."

My sister and I have the same skin tone, are both generally fair/light, and brunettes, but she has pink undertones to her skin, and I have olive undertones to my skin. I'm tired of people assuming I'm just yellow or golden fair, because I have no natural pink in my skin but I'm too light to be "olive" yet in the natural daylight, I have a greenish tint to my skin. And the whole hard time finding foundation I've talked to women of color, and they seem to understand, but people my own race say "what's so hard, it's not like your black or anything..." No, but every foundation on the market (OTC) is too orange or too pink, even the whitest foundation...

The whole basing human's skin tone and undertones based on race is silly. Not every european decent is blonde haired, blue eyed, and not everyone who's mexican or spanish is dark haired brown eyes lol. Just like not every blue/grey cat is a Russian Blue or part russian blue.

Fair skin really does come in a variety of different undertones, and two equally fair people can have two different undertones. Nicole Kidman and Scarlett Johanssen don't have any pink undertones, and Kat von D and Lucy Hale are olive. Just like with cats and cat breeds, how not every single blue/grey colored cat is Russian Blue or part Russian Blue, and Persian cats have EVERY color of fur imaginable, not just white like the Fancy Feast cat, as a matter a fact, my Persian is orange.

elektra513 said:

I think a lot of women who are considered olive who look "golden" to us are just using their makeup to warm up their skin and hide the sallow. If I am wearing colors that match me, in the winter I look sickly (w/o bronzer), in the summer I turn an antique bronze color naturally (which most MA's mistakenly read as red).

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Oh, hair and clothing colors do wonders. I can wear SOME warm colors, as long as it's more warm/neutral. I'm thinking of actually going for medium brown with light brown ombre, like the girl from Charlie Sheen's show, Anger Management (the obnoxious snobbish girl), Nina Dobrev and Eva Longoria's because it makes my skin look more golden than olive. It kind of neuterlizes the green undertone that makes my skin olive. LOL. It would be a nice summer/fall color.

I also read the "olive color" for a skin in so many magazine. But how they think the color of skin is like olive?

makeupbymerry said:

I also read the "olive color" for a skin in so many magazine. But how they think the color of skin is like olive?

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It's just a fancy term for "green undertone" really. Maybe because if they said "green skin" it just sounds sickly and gross. LOL.

Olives are green so that's where the term olive comes in. Then the fact that it tends to tan really well, so people assumed olive meant tan.

Jessica alba very obviously has an olive skin tone. You can see it in her pictures. Just because she is a warm olive doesnt make her not olive toned. Olive skin tones can be both warm or cool. http://musicalhouses.blogspot.com/2010/01/undertones-for-asians-how-to-tell-if.html?m=1 This girl explains it well in her blog. I'd suggest those of you who are confused to read it. I have nc30-35 skin tone and am very heavily olive, to the point where under certain lightings I tend to look sickly. Very few brands actually make olive foundations, nars Stromboli and MUFE 123 are my holy grail because they are the only ones I can find that match my skin tone. When I try other brands, I reach for warm tones because I'm tanned and my tan brings out more of the gold in my skin but they never match exactly because they lack the green tone. They tend to look gray on me or muddy if they are too dark. I'm 1/4 Italian 1/4 German and 1/2 mexican for reference.

brittbby said:

This girl explains it well in her blog. I'd suggest those of you who are confused to read it. I have nc30-35 skin tone and am very heavily olive, to the point where under certain lightings I tend to look sickly. Very few brands actually make olive foundations, nars Stromboli and MUFE 123 are my holy grail because they are the only ones I can find that match my skin tone. When I try other brands, I reach for warm tones because I'm tanned and my tan brings out more of the gold in my skin but they never match exactly because they lack the green tone. They tend to look gray on me or muddy if they are too dark. I'm 1/4 Italian 1/4 German and 1/2 mexican for reference.

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I guess you're right. There's golden olive (warm) and green olive (cool). Jessica Alba would be golden-olive, along with Lea Michele and Nina Dobrev, while Eva Longoria, Selena Gomez and Lucy Hale are green olives.

"Green undertones" is the way you can tell the difference between olive and tanned skin. The other way is how well you tan. If you tan like crazy, you're more likely to be olive rather than the next lower skin tone . I refer to fair and white skinned people as "pink people", because that's the dominant undertone, not the yellows and greens that make up olive skin. And they burn so nicely that they look like lobsters if they try.

While I love having olive skin, because it means I don't burn like other white people, one way you can tell if you have olive skin is the amount your skin color changes over the course of a year without even trying -- no trips to the tanning bed, no bronzers, no intentionally laying out by the pool, just being outdoors when the sun is shining.

Apropos comments about "dark skinned",I don't think writers -- especially for the dominant white culture -- are referring to women of color. I've been friends with African American women who are anywhere from lighter than me (cafe au lait and "high yellow") and burn to as dark skinned as can be. What's dark for whites isn't much darker than passe blanc in the African American community.

Jeana Marie said:

I guess you're right. There's golden olive (warm) and green olive (cool). Jessica Alba would be golden-olive, along with Lea Michele and Nina Dobrev, while Eva Longoria, Selena Gomez and Lucy Hale are green olives.

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Eva longoria and selena gomez are still both warm olives... When they tan, the yellow in their skin comes out. They look very bronzed. If you saw selena gomez at the billboard music awards, that's exactly what I mean. She's very bronzed. When she's lighter the olive is very noticeable, but when she's tan she gets golden.

tallgirl said:

I refer to fair and white skinned people as "pink people", because that's the dominant undertone, not the yellows and greens that make up olive skin. And they burn so nicely that they look like lobsters if they try.

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That's not 100% true at all. Fair and white skinned people can have yellow undertones to their skin too. I'm generally white, but I have a very obvious green/olive undertone to my skin. Look at Lucy Hale from the show Pretty Little Liars. She's a lot more fair than her castmates, but she has an obvious olive/green undertone to her skin.

EDIT: "Pink people" can also have medium or tan skin, and could easily be mistaken as "olive" when they are infact just medium with a pink undertone.

brittbby said:

Eva longoria and selena gomez are still both warm olives... When they tan, the yellow in their skin comes out. They look very bronzed. If you saw selena gomez at the billboard music awards, that's exactly what I mean. She's very bronzed. When she's lighter the olive is very noticeable, but when she's tan she gets golden.

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That's because they use self tanning to give their skin that golden color. Just like Kim Kardashian, who in reality is a green olive, and is just as light as her sister Khloe, (skin tone wise). I am a fair green olive, but I have self tanned (creams, spray) and have colored my hair to a medium warm brown to appear more golden and less green. Self tanner gives off an artificial color to your skin that gives you that golden glow. Hair color also makes a huge difference giving your face complexion the illusion of looking warmer or cooler. When I leave my hair dark without any sort of highlights, I look snow white. When I do a caramel color, or leave my hair a warm medium brown, I look more golden, when I do fake reds, or purpley colors, like Rihanna or Ariana Grande (cherry red, burgundy, mahogeny, deep plum) it intensifies the green undertones in my skin, and makes me look even MORE olive.

Jeana Marie said:

That's because they use self tanning to give their skin that golden color. Just like Kim Kardashian, who in reality is a green olive, and is just as light as her sister Khloe, (skin tone wise). I am a fair green olive, but I have self tanned (creams, spray) and have colored my hair to a medium warm brown to appear more golden and less green. Self tanner gives off an artificial color to your skin that gives you that golden glow. Hair color also makes a huge difference giving your face complexion the illusion of looking warmer or cooler. When I leave my hair dark without any sort of highlights, I look snow white. When I do a caramel color, or leave my hair a warm medium brown, I look more golden, when I do fake reds, or purpley colors, like Rihanna or Ariana Grande (cherry red, burgundy, mahogeny, deep plum) it intensifies the green undertones in my skin, and makes me look even MORE olive.

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All olive skin tones are "green olive". If there's no green they probably don't have olive skin tone. Just like any skin tone it can range from fair to dark. Olive skin can lean slightly more cool or slightly more warm. The only definer of olive skin is that there is in fact a green cast to the skin. When warmer olive skin tones tan, the yellow usually pulls through a bit more. Eva longoria, Kim kardashian are all examples of this. I can tell you because when I'm paler in the winter months, the green is veryyyy apparent yet I still use a warmer foundation because I don't have pink tones to my skin. When summer hits, I'm still olive just a bit more golden and it masks that sickly tone a little but none the less, still olive.

Fun tip for really pale girls: you know that sickly green cast you get in cheap fluorescent lighting? If you still have that when you go outside, you're probably olive!

Now, I don't mean just kinda fair. I mean you'd make Zooey Deschanel look like a tanning fiend if you stood next to her. Since olive is an undertone, like yellow, red, peach, or rose (a sort of bluish-pink) you can find it on ANY depth of skin. Prescriptives custom blend foundations are great at pinpointing your exact shade (they hand mix them for you, and save the recipe for later).

I personally almost never go out in the sun, due to a mixture of lupus-induced photo-sensitivity and the fact that I like sitting on my butt all day reading more than I like interacting with real live humans. As a child though, when I would stay fair yet not have the complexion of a mildly soiled sheet as I do today, my skin would take on the wheat color common to many fair olive skinned gals. Actually, in places like India, the Mediterranean, and Asia, fair olive is usually called wheaten because of it's neutral tone with a hint of gold, just like a wheat stalk. Yes, you may lean a bit warmer or a bit cooler but olive skin is considered a neutral undertone. That said, more girls can get away with yellow-based makeup if neutral or olive is not available. I implore you not to go pink. It will make your face look grey. I think a lot of Asian girls who have had the misfortune of tangling with Cover Girl can attest.

Anyways, if you're really screwed when it comes to finding foundation and the only place you have to shop is Walmart or something just find a brand like Loreal that offers multiple undertones and grab a neutral and a warm in your depth and blend them together in different ratios until you find your balance. You won't need too much of the warm. Some brands also sell pigment to mix with your foundation. Try adding greens and pale golds to get the right blend.