The Altivra Style Guide

Your Undertone:

Undertone is the foundation of everything — the tone underneath your surface color that stays the same whether you tan, wear makeup, or the light changes. It falls into three groups:

Warm: skin with golden or yellowish pigments, which tends to tan easily.

Cool: skin with pink or bluish pigments, which tends to tan less easily.

Neutral: a real mix of both — not clearly warm or cool. It usually tans well, but can also burn without care. It’s sometimes called an olive undertone.

One important clarification before moving on: being cool doesn’t mean red is off-limits for you, and being warm doesn’t mean you should avoid blue — what changes is the exact shade of that color. A green with more yellow in it is warm; the same green with more blue is cool. Undertone doesn’t remove colors from your closet, it just tells you which version of each one flatters you most.

How to identify your undertone

Your veins (look at the inside of your wrist, in natural light):
blue or purple → cool.
Blue-green → neutral.
Olive or greenish → warm.

Jewelry: put on something white and try gold and silver accessories. If gold flatters you more, you’re warm. If silver flatters you more, you’re cool. If both look equally good, you’re neutral.

The sun: if you tan to a golden shade, you’re warm. If you turn red, you’re cool. If you redden first and then tan, you’re neutral.

A fourth trick, standing by natural light with no makeup on: try on a green top and then a blue one, and see which one better hides redness, dark circles, and fine lines. If it’s the green, you’re warm; if it’s the blue, you’re cool; if both work, you’re neutral.

Note: these clues give you a first impression, but none on its own is a definitive test. Use them together — the more they agree with each other, the more confident you can be in your result.

Your Contrast

Compare your skin tone to your hair color: if they’re similar to each other (light skin + blonde hair, or deep skin + brown hair), your contrast is low. If they’re very different from each other (light skin + black hair, for example), your contrast is high.

Applied Example

Light warm-brown skin, dark eyes, black hair.
Undertone: olive-toned veins, gold flatters her more than silver → warm.
Contrast: her skin is warm-medium in tone, and her hair is very dark — there’s noticeable distance between the two → high contrast.
Result: warm + high contrast → Autumn family.

Your family, based on undertone and contrast:
Warm + low contrast → Spring
Warm + high contrast → Autumn* Cool + low contrast → Summer
Cool + high contrast → Winter

If your undertone is neutral, notice which side — warm or cool — you lean toward slightly more, and use that lean together with your contrast to place your family.

Once you’ve placed your family, the final step is identifying how muted or vivid your coloring reads. Each of the four families splits into three more specific seasons, and that natural brightness is exactly what places you in yours.

Your Season

Spring

General characteristics
Skin with a natural warm glow and a golden undertone. These women are flattered by soft, delicate, or pastel colors, always with a yellow base. This is the most delicate skin of the four seasons — it flushes easily and freckles are common.

Warm Spring
 • Skin: ivory, peach, golden beige, golden brown
• Hair: blonde, honey blonde, caramel, champagne
• Eyes: blue, green, blue-green
• Tips: light to medium tones work best — pastel pink, green, yellow-green, khaki, camel, stone. These colors best support this warm, delicate coloring.

Light Spring
• Skin: fair and translucent, porcelain, ivory, light beige
• Hair: light brown, dark brown, dark blonde, brown with reddish highlights
• Eyes: blue, bright hazel, green, blue-violet
• Tips: aim for contrast among light colors — soft grays and primary tones work well here. Avoid very dark shades.

Light-Bright Spring
• Skin: ivory, porcelain
• Hair: red, strawberry blonde, copper, chestnut
• Eyes: blue, green, blue-green, turquoise
• Tips: warm colors with a golden undertone, light blue, and greens in various shades, always with a matte or pastel finish. Avoid black.

Summer

General characteristics
Nearly translucent skin with fine blue undertones. These women are flattered by pastel, soft, cool, blue-toned colors — shades reminiscent of the sea and sky. They’re often born with blonde or light brown hair, which darkens slightly with age.

Cool Summer
• Skin: soft pink, beige, yellowish pink, porcelain
• Hair: ash blonde, deep ash blonde or gray, dark brown
• Eyes: gray, blue-gray, blue-green • Tips: choose colors with blue, beige, and pink undertones.

Light Summer
• Skin: light ivory, soft beige, cool beige
• Hair: ash blonde, blonde-gray, gray
• Eyes: soft blue, blue-gray, gray
• Tips: avoid high-contrast combinations — similar tones work best together. Blue, gray, and pink are excellent for everyday wear. Avoid black.

Soft Summer
• Skin: ivory, beige
• Hair: ash blonde, dark blonde, medium brown, gray
• Eyes: green, blue-gray, soft hazel • Tips: combine bright, eye-catching colors with soft, pastel tones — for example mint, teal, pink, white, yellow.

Autumn

General characteristics
Autumn is the family of warm, earthy tones — never icy, never neon. All three subseasons share that warm base, but differ in two things: how deep their coloring runs (from light to dark) and how muted or vivid the colors that flatter them are.
Warm Autumn is the purest and most luminous of the three; Soft Autumn is the most muted; Deep Autumn is the darkest and most intense.

Warm Autumn
• Skin: peach, golden, copper
• Hair: golden blonde (darkens with age), blonde with reddish tones, brown with reddish or golden tones
• Eyes: brown, topaz, green with golden or brown flecks, olive green, turquoise
• Tips: coffee, brown, gold, red, orange, emerald, teal, terracotta.

Soft Autumn
• Skin: beige
• Hair: medium brown, brown, dark blonde
• Eyes: hazel, topaz, brown, gray-green
• Tips: muted, neutral colors — salmon, olive green, caramel. Avoid bright tones; always look for a matte finish.

Deep Autumn
• Skin: brown, bronze, golden olive, beige, ivory
• Hair: dark brown, chestnut, brown • Eyes: hazel, golden brown, dark brown
• Tips: deep, rich colors, paired with lighter tones — mahogany, mustard, teal, cream. Avoid pastel tones.

Winter

General characteristics
Porcelain-toned skin that needs bold, primary, cool colors to look its best — black, navy, pink, red, yellow, and white.

Cool Winter
• Skin: ivory, light olive, beige
• Hair: silver-gray, reddish brown, black
• Eyes: deep brown, gray-brown
• Tips: this is the most neutral of the three, so softer colors like fuchsia, blue, and red work well. Gray and charcoal make an excellent combination. Avoid black, brown, gold, and beige. For everyday wear: raspberry, gray, white, and blue. Silver jewelry is especially flattering on this tone.

 Light Winter
• Skin: very fair, ivory, beige, light olive
• Hair: black, dark brown, reddish brown, silver
• Eyes: deep blue, violet, light hazel
• Tips: look for bold colors — intense and dark — to create dramatic yet natural contrast. For everyday wear: gray, black, and blue; if you have hazel eyes, brown also works well. Silver jewelry is an excellent choice.

Deep Winter
• Skin: dark brown, brown, olive, beige
• Hair: black, dark chestnut, deep chestnut
• Eyes: dark brown, hazel, olive
• Tips: look for strong, neutral tones — black works excellently here. For everyday wear: black, gray-green, and white. For evening: red, black, and purple. If your skin is deep, avoid cold grays, overly cool blacks, and dull browns that can wash out your natural tone.

Knowing your season tells you which colors flatter you. But combining them well within one look is a separate skill, straight from color theory:

Analogous colors: colors sitting next to each other on the color wheel (e.g., blue and green, or red and orange). Combining them creates a harmonious, easy-to-wear look — ideal for everyday dressing, since they never compete with each other.

Complementary colors: colors opposite each other on the wheel (e.g., blue and orange, purple and yellow). Combining them creates contrast and presence — this works best as one strong color accent (a bag or a lip color) against an otherwise neutral look, rather than two complementary pieces in equal parts.

Triadic colors: three colors evenly spaced on the wheel (e.g., red, yellow, and blue). It’s the boldest combination and the hardest to balance — the key is letting one of the three dominate the look, with the other two appearing only in accessories or details, never all three in equal proportion.

How to make color work in an outfit

Color harmony also depends on how the colors are balanced within an outfit. A simple way to apply this is the 60-30-10 rule:
60% dominant color — the one that occupies most of the look (e.g., a navy dress).
30% secondary color — a shade that supports the dominant one without competing (e.g., nude shoes).
10% accent — the smallest presence, reserved for jewelry, a bag, or a single accessory (e.g., a burgundy bag).

With just three steps, you can build any outfit using this logic:

Choose your dominant color — the one that takes up the most visual space.
Add a supporting color — a shade that complements the dominant one without competing.
Finish with an accent — use accessories, shoes, or a bag to introduce a small point of contrast.

Shoulders and hips of similar width, with a defined waist between them. (reference silhouette here) What highlights your natural proportion: pieces that follow your waist without over-cinching it — a wrap dress, a belt at the right height, A-line cuts that don’t hide the shape you already have.

Hips wider than shoulders, defined waist. (reference silhouette here) What balances your proportion: necklines that visually widen the shoulders (boat neck, halter, off-shoulder), and skirts or pants with clean drape rather than extra volume at the hip.

Shoulders wider than hips.
What favors your proportion: a well-proportioned V-neckline introduces a vertical line that stylizes the torso. Skirts or pants with some movement or texture at the bottom give visual presence to the hip and create balance with the upper body.

Shoulders, waist, and hips of similar width, without a strongly defined curve. (reference silhouette here) What creates proportion where you choose: a belt or a fitted waist cut creates that curve; pieces with detail at a single point (waist, neckline, or hip) add dimension to the outfit.

A softer, fuller midsection, with shoulders, legs, or other areas comparatively more defined.
What favors your proportion: pieces with vertical drape flowing from the bust — empire waist, column silhouette, or a straight dress without a defined waist — create an elongated, stylized line. V-necklines help lengthen the torso line, and fabrics with good drape let the piece move naturally with the body.