COOL SIDE NEUTRAL

WARM SIDE

»
ER

«C
RM

O
LEMON

O
A

LE
W
YELLOW

R
GREEN OLIVE GOLD
ORANGE
FENTY
LʼOREAL
COOLEST

WHITE SCARLET

WARMEST
TURQUOISE GRAY
BROWN
PEACH
BLACK
MAROON

RED
BLUE INDIGO PINK
LAVENDER ROSE

MAGENTA
PURPLE

R
W

LE
A

O
RM

CO
«
ER
»

HOW THE CIRCLE WORKS

•Colors at the edge of the circle
are the most colorful possible. Even
more colorful than paints or colored pencils!
•Colors get duller and duller as they get closer
to the center. The colors at the center have no
colorfulness at all (white, gray, & black.)
•If you draw a line between two colors and
the line goes through the center, those two
colors are OPPOSITES or COMPLEMENTS.
• LOCATE SKIN TONE WITHIN THE COLORSPACE.
The Skin tone areas are based on hex code readings of
LʼOrealʼs 66-tone scale and Fentyʼs 40 foundation
shades. This chart aims to place skin tones, in terms of
hue and intensity of skin pigment, correctly within the
colorspace. Olive skin, for example, only appears
greenish relative to warmer skin tones; “yellow” skin is in
fact still orange in hue.
• UNDERSTAND COLOR TEMPERATURE.
Warm and Cool are relative descriptors within hue
categories (in other words, a red can be warm or cool
compared to other reds). But, in absolute terms, scarlet
(red-orange) is the warmest hue. “Cool” reds lean
towards magenta. No natural skin tones are magenta,
but magenta products can be used to accentuate the
NEUTRAL
THE COLORDISK
“coolness” in so-called “cool” skin tones. In absolute
Version 3.1 COSMETIC
terms, yellow and olive skin tones are actually the
coolest, as they are furthest from scarlet; however,
By Peter T. Donahue -- cc 2021
This color tool may be used, altered
cosmetic companies often label these tones “warm.”
and reproduced freely, but derivative
• ESTIMATE HOW COSMETICS WILL VISUALLY
MIX WITH SKIN TONE. works may not be copyrighted or sold.
The color areas on the circle estimate the culturally To learn more about this productʼs
accepted/understood ranges of major color categories, creative commons license, visit
based on research with pigments. Using this chart, you
can estimate the resulting color appearance of a creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
cosmetic visually mixed with a skin tone by drawing a
line between both locations. Results are not guaranteed;
this color disk is a prototype. Your feedback is welcome.
@color.nerd
CAVEAT: Be aware that the colored wedges and blobs
presented on this ColorDisk prototype will not correctly Tip Jar
print on CMYK printers nor accurately display all colors paypal.me/pdonz
on RGB screens.