Hey cool olives out there 😊 Can we all share some makeup recommendations down here so we can get some ideas? I'm waiting to see your choices to add some products to my whislist 🖤

Miriam: “Those are TOO COOL for you.” Me: 🥺 (puts down leather jacket and gets off motorcycle) 😞

Every time I watch these videos, I feel like I understand everything better, but then they say something that throws me off completely, and I end up even more confused..

Merriam...please do another separate video on cool and radiant olives with more details, especially makeup colours and products? Thanks.

Years ago in the 1970's I quickly found out that I was cool olive skin tone in a very awfully rude way. I sat in a beauty salon that had florescent lighting. Florescent lights have green and blue spectrum that completely flood your olive skin making you look pale, grey, sick, dead and absolutely ugly. Since then beauty salons, offices and stores have been using florescent lights that have conspired to kill my looks. LOL. One episode of Seinfeld even addressed that dilemma. Seinfeld was attracted to a very attractive lady. Each time she sat in regular natural light she looked fine, but when she moved to a seat in the restaurant under florescent lighting, she looked terrible! Seinfeld could not understand how she was beautiful near at a seat near a window facing natural light and terrible when she sat at that specific table. So, if you want to know if you have cool olive skin tone, switch between a florescent light, and day light to see the effects on your skin tone.

Its sad that I have spent decades thinking that I was warm-toned....while knowing that a warm-toned foundation would always be too yellow for my skin tone. So eventually I began looking for shades with a neutral undertone (because "cool" shades are too cool). Thank you for the demonstration and for making this so clear!

Royal blue is a cool tone blue looks amazing on cool olive skin (vs. the warm bright blue you showed in video). I get so many compliments when wearing a royal blue and emerald green. For lipstick, go for a blue red (which is a cool red) but not orange red.

Please do more videos on olive skin tone!

Wow i think i just figure out that i have a light olive skin tone (possibly cool, still haven't figured out what colors suit me). I've always ended up with "neutral" foundations because neither warm or cool descriptions seemed right, and olive was described as tan/mediterranean. I am naturally pale but TAN very easily (don't burn), with skin that looks both yellow and gray? Your example of gemma chan was so helpful! More non-white examples please :)

I grew up feeling my most confident wearing a cool red, so it confused me that I didn’t look as good in other similarly bold/jewel tones. Thank you for explaining why cool red and emerald green look great on me but bright blue and even white have always seemed a bit off! White always felt a bit overpowering, so for my wedding I wore a red dress instead of white. I now feel so validated for my gut feeling!!

Reminds me of Rogelio from Jane The Virgin "I don't pop in peach!"

Finally I understand why I look good in emerald green but silver highlighter makes me look strange. Thank you so much for this video, Merriam!!!!!!! 💗💗💗

I absolutely love your content! ❤️❤️ You've clarified lifelong questions for me. It seems like I have a cool olive skin tone. I used to think I was just a cool tone, but I've always struggled with certain colors. While navy and muted pink looked very good on me, bright tones make my skin appear gray, and I used to be very confused about why that's the case. I heard about cool undertones looking good in silver, but silver didn’t flatter me at all. Because of that, for a while, I thought I had warm undertones. However, yellow and orange also look hideous on me 😂 until I came across your content, and now everything makes a lot of sense ❤️ Thank you so much for sharing this information!

Thank you! That explains everything. I always thought why being winter colour type I look better in kind of “summer colours”. I just didn’t know I belong to cool delicate olive type.

Oh god this is EXACTLY the video I needed - now I know I’m fair olive cool radiant. I’ve been matched incorrectly by many, many baffled Sephora employees, and always felt there was just something wrong. Emerald green, sapphire blue, and cool deep red are the colors I look best in, gold looks like costume jewelry on me, and pure white looks just a little odd. Thanks so much for this!

It's great that you clarified this! I find that the confusion with olive skin is the most common with people who are warm and delicate. They face the typical WD confusion (I look kind of warm, but yellow looks bad on me, but blue is ok, and silver is better than gold etc.), they have no clue what their undertone is anymore, and then they come across an article that explains to them that they just have olive skin, and olive skin is almost like a third category with its own set of recommendations. They think they've found the answer, but the reality is that it leaves them even more confused than they were.

I think I'm a muted cool and delicate olive because burgundy looks amazing on me, even burgundy lipstick looks really good, and it's my go-to colour. Even dark plum looks good. I also tend to lean towards ashy browns and beiges, dark and light grey, dark forest greens, dark purple, mauve, taupe and dusty pink. I wore royal blue once and it looked so separate on me that I never wore it again. I've never worn emerald green before, so I can't attest to know whether it looks good on me or not, but according to the other examples it seems like I'm a muted cool and delicate.

This is very interesting. We have very similar looks, hair , eyes, brows, even skin. It's like you could almost be my sister with some different face features. But I would consider myself cool and bright. I am so amazed how skin tone changes everything!

I want to say THANK YOU for including Chinese celebrities. There is so little good information on Chinese skin tones on the web. I’m happy to see more makeup companies adding a peach undertone to their foundation lines, as this can flatter us better than yellow and olive undertone foundations. Thank you for this great video! 😘

FINALLY FINDING MY COLOR. This has been honestly life changing. I always thought I had to be warm bc I'm half asian and I can tan but omg I am a COOL & DELICATE.

The colour theory you included at the beginning *chef's kiss*

Thank you so much for this video. While I knew that I'm an olive-type, my skin shade (tan-ness) convinced me that I was some class of Warm. But I never understood why the classic Warm colours (brick red, burnt sienna, yellow ochre) never really worked for me. Your explanation of the gravitation towards emerald and cool reds was the thing that finally made me realise that I'm actually Cool-typed! It also really helped that you found Gemma Chan to show how Optic White looks on a Cool/Delicate person. Being of east asian descent myself, I never realised that skin with a tan like hers (and mine) could have ever been typed as Cool/Delicate.

I’m Greek and I always knew I was olive but I didn’t know I was also cool until recently.. blows my mind. If I put on cool makeup it looks crazy. I always wear neutral.. it’s not exact but it’s better than cool or warm.

😭😭😭 I wish you would’ve done this years ago. I was always after achieving a nude look but never achieved it. I’m embarrassed to say how much money I spent on makeup. I see it now, I am olive tone Cool and Radiant. Thank you Merriam. 🙏🏻

I am warm and delicate Olive but in the cooler side of that. I can support some warm and delicate in clothes but I can’t use those tones on for makeup. I even can use silver highlight and looks great. I suspect is because I have much more pink on my face. In winter, I can even use muted and cool colors and I love how I look in them.

This woman is on to comething she’s brilliant.

Hi! Could you please give more examples of celebrities with cool and radiant skin? Thanks! I would love a video just for cool and radiant olives ❤

Finally, I understand why Kim Kardashian's nude lip doesn't suit me! I though we were fairly similar, so I went to MAC and tried Subculture, Stripdown, Spice and Whirl lip pencils, and Velvet Teddy lipstick (supposedly the K sisters' favorites). They made me look so drained and gray... Defeated, I refused to wear nude lips for years until one day I stopped by a MAC counter, told the MUA my issue and he immediately suggested Soar. It's the perfect shade for me; Kim's nudes are too brown, I need a hint of rose. What's the difference? Kim and I are both Medium, Delicate and Olive, but she's Cool and I'm Warm. Everything makes so much sense now.

You are the only person who knews really explain properly the different bwtween skin tones. Im like you light cool and delicate olive skin tone.

Merriam you are so incredible I mean you share these topics with so much passion, you take time and lots of thought in what you show here on KZfaq, with the simplified concepts that you create you make it so much easier to figure out body typing, color analysis thank you from the bottom of my heart for your hard and amazing work 😍💕

This is hands down the best cool olive tone video I've ever seen!!! Thank you for breaking down the color theory and the key tips to look out for when determining cool and delicate vs. cool and radiant for us cool olive folks!

This is the most clearly explained video about olive skins I've seen so far! I really appreciate it, thanks!

This is super helpful! I used to have an emerald green top ( cool, delicate olive ,here) and people who have never said one word to me before, went out of their way to compliment me on how great I looked. And blues are very tricky. Never fully got it until now! You really have colors figured out!

This is the best in-depth video on light olive skin tones, thank you so much for this.

Yes,that makes sense now. I am pale olive ,warm and delicate. Glad i found your channel😉💚

I think I’m a cool and delicate, this makes so much sense now! Burgundy looks amazing on me, it’s one of my favorite colors to wear!

I love it when you really get into color theory! Gladdens my heart.

This channel is so thorough on the topic of olive undertones, tysm!

Thanks to you Merriam i discovered that i am cool and radiant with olive skin💗

Wow this was so helpful!! Your examples of how different clothing colors against my skin showed me I'm a cool and delicate olive. I was so confused about why certain colors didn't work on me. I know what looks good on me when I see it, but it is SUPER helpful to have direct color recommendations for my skin!! Now I know why I have so many mauve lipsticks, lol

Thanks so much!!! Finally someone who helps women of color choose their best colors!

finally i understood the whole thing about my delicate cool olive typ!! thank you!!! i always wondered why i don't like these bright blues and magentas on me :)

I'm so happy I found that I'm a cool & delicate light olive, I've been so confused about my undertone for so long cause everywhere was telling me I'm a summer but a lot of the blue and pink colours that were recommended looked so off, and now I finally know why!

This video was fascinating! For years, I have been so confused about my skin. I am naturally fair and freckled and have dark hazel eyes and almost black hair. All of that sounds like I would be warm but I look awful in gold and silver makes my skin glow. But almost every foundation was either too muddy or too pink. If I wear too many warm browns, it’s not flattering. I truly have to find the most neutral colored makeup, like my lipsticks always have to be close to my natural lip color. After watching this video I’m pretty confident that I’m a cool delicate. Thank you so much for posting this, about to go watch your other videos!

I'm cool toned and always wondered why I look good in light grey but royal blue seemed "too much" on me; this video taught me I must be cool and delicate. Thank you so much. I would love to see more hair colour and make-up tips, e.g. 'right' vs 'wrong' colours, and also tips for colouring hair as you age - so many hairdressers say to lighten and warm up hair as you get older, but after this video I'm no so sure. Thanks again!

Thank GOD for this video!! This is such a big help, Merriam! 💖

Thank you so much for these videos, they are so helpful ! Could you make a video on how to pick foundation for cool and delicate olive, and also how to differienciate between cool brown and warm brown (I was always told brown was a no-go for cool skin tones) ?

I am still so uncertain... lol. I feel like I'm in the middle between warm and cool. But I definitely identified with the cool delicate criteria: I look pretty good in true green, but not other colors (I sort of hate true red so I've never tried it). And white definitely washes me out, but so does any color that's cooler than my skin tone. And I look positively dead in lavender and pale blue. Typically I stick with gray and deep colors like maroon, navy, and purple... but I feel like I just haven't found the right shades for me. I remember when I was young I had a warm ivory shirt that looked amazing on my skin... so what the heck? Lol...

your videos are wonderful. So clear and necessarily detailed with great factual support.

I’m finally figuring out my skin tones!!! Thank you so much for this video. I’m off to watch warm and delicate Olive because I suspect that’s where I fit.

This is such a helpful video! I must be a delicate cool olive as you describe it. Now my colour choices make much more sense- thank you!! My favourite colours to wear have always been blue shades; specifically light blue, caerulean and muted or dark blue ( but not the very saturated bright blue!); I have lots of navy, love black, off white and adore light pearly greys. Also wear cool leaning dark forest and emerald greens (avoiding those that pulls grass green with more warm or yellow tones) and muted cool raspberry dark reds! I never understood why though. I also like the paler and cool leaning beige tones. I run away from bright and all true warm colours like olive green, bright true red or orange red, maroon, orange, yellow- and if I ended up with such an an item in the past it just sat in my closet unworn. I always thought I was neutral in make up but not quite fitting either until I found out about olive skin and things started to make more of sense.. but when I saw warm colours recommended for olive skin tones I became confused as often these were very bad on me. In make up I feel good with a bit of warmth and feel best in either soft peachy/ muted coral tones leaning nude (or “vivid peachy nudes”)- for example Tom Ford Spanish pink- or mauvy pinks (leaning more mauve than medium saturated rosy pink). Reds are best in duller raspberry/ plummy cool reds ( eg Cherries in the snow by Revlon). Rusty red colours are however awful (for example MAC Chili) as well as most straightforward medium saturated pinks which look a bit shrill. My best pink is pink pout from Revlon which has a lot of mauve and a bit of white in it making this almost mude violet-pink. When feeling daring, Ruby woo from Mac is good (which also pulls blue), and though I own a few bright vivid colours (as in saturated vivid corals or strong fuchsia pinks) I always soften them down to a stain or add a nude on top to find them flattering. Lately I am experimenting with soft grey/ mauve leaning eye makeup and soft denim blue and liking it- my usual is a soft neutral brown in eye makeup and sometimes I wear peachy shadows from the renaissance Anastasia palette which also has cool red tones. I hope this may be useful to someone. Thanks again!

Thank you for this lovely and helpful video! I'm just realizing I'm a cool toned olive. For the longest time I kept thinking I was a warm olive but when I watched your warm olive video on Mila I didn't feel like those colors complemented me. Then I watched this one and it makes so much sense because I love neutrals like navy and gray but I also love red on me so I was confused. I thought that made me a dark winter but didn't see myself in icy pink or blues or even those high chroma pinks or blues - this all makes so much sense now!

Your videos on skin tones are the best and most helpfull ones Out there:)

As a cool winter type I was confused because in some jewel colours I didn't see myself and when shopping I tend to pick more subtle colours, more muted... now I know why!!! I think I suit most in the cool and delicate olive skin type. Thank you Merriam, this video is so clarifying!!

More videos on olive skin tones please!

Very helpful. Your explanation of olive skin tone being the not rosy skin tone was very helpful. I’ve always been perceived as a Winter - dark hair and very light skin. But recently I was draped as a Summer. Your system makes sense of it all. I’m cool and delicate with light olive skin. Now I know why some of the very cool colors don’t work for me. Thanks for your help.

This is what I am... wow.. this was so helpfull thank you. I also understand now why I always thought I looked a little like rachel weisz. Its cause we have the same hair colour, skin tone and kibbe body type lol I always wondered if it was wishfull thinking or if I was blind but now it makes sense

I'm definitely cool delicate. Thank you so much for clarifying this up.

Yes!! Have been waiting for this video for so long!🥰

It's always one step forward,ten steps back for me with these videos😅 wish i could just pay for a consultation because figuring this out alone is hard work 🤣

You’re literally stunning and I’m trying so hard to listen to what you’re saying but you’re so pretty 🥰🥰 thanks for the great video

Cool and radiant here!! None of the seasons tests seem to get it right. Your video was perfect and confirms what I have already learned through trial and error!

Amazing video!!! ❤ All of the videos I've watched so far focused on warm olives skins, but I'm a soft summer and I've got a cool and delicate olive undertone and none of those fitted me. Thank you for this video 😊

Excellent. Thank you so much. Very eye-opening.

Thank you. I do tan very well.. I am very pale, and gray. I have went to the palest of foundations but they always look yellow!

this helps a lot ! I found out im cool and finally accepting this.. after years of denial lol. and now I know Im a cool and radient! I feel like I finally have this nailed down

This explains why never liked nude lipstick or eyeshadow. I wore nude lipstick and people asked if I was felt ok. This is a very helpful information. Thanks

I think I'm cool and delicate. Definitely cool. Soft in YCS. Close to DW, some springs and some autumn colors are good. Jewel tomes are great. Bright colors aren't great. But light grays tend to give me a mustache

Oh man... Now I understand why the bright "Clear Winter" colours never quite worked on me. I always felt like I looked grey/ashen. Emerald green, and blue-toned red, have always made me feel so majestic and beautiful. Which means, I'm cool and delicate 🤯 I'm like Rachel Weisz. I have warm eyes, but I'm definitely cool toned. Thank you, so much, for helping me demystify my light olive skin! 🥰

THANK YOU Merriam you have explained away all of my frustrated confusion about my olive undertone!! 😭😭 I could hug you!! I now know I am cool and delicate and everything from the best colors for me (which are almost exactly the color palette I've recently come up with after discovering I even have olive skin) to explaining why muted red but also emerald green look good on me (which didn't really line up with the rest of what I've been trying to learn about my colors!) -- I can't believe I finally have the answers. Now I have a significantly more exact way of selecting *anything* for my face or wardrobe. I feel so empowered! All I can say is, again, THANK YOU 😃🥰☺

Finally i know what i am! Thank you so much. I was si confusednand explained everything so well!

Hi, enjoyed this very much. I love your take on color analysis. I always suspected I was some kind of olive! Merriam, could you please do a video on comparing the different types of shoulders of the body types? I know it’s getting away from color theory but it would be so awesome if you did! Maybe using pictures of celebrities as well as non celebrities?

I think I'm a warm olive. Could you do a video on how the olive-ness impacts which colors flatter us most, compared with non-olive ppl?

YAY I've been waiting for this video! Can't wait to watch it. By the way, you look great in what you're wearing today!

This has definitely made me think! I’m not overly pink undertoned nor am I yellow undertoned and so called “neutral” undertoned foundations make me look dead. Maybe I’m somewhere in the olive camp?

Thank you for the video!! Now I’ve finally discovered that I’m a cool olive! But I’m still unsure if I’m a delicate or a bright one, gotta rewatch this again I guess 🤣

This has helped me so much in terms of figuring myself out. I’m cool and delicate olive. Really hard to foundation though.

Cleared a lot up for me. Thank you

In winter I look pale yellow and I look better in pinks, greys, light denim...in summer I look very tanned and I think I can go for some warm colours, but still if I wear orange it just makes me look ill! Cool and delicate def works best for me when I am pale and when I am darker.

Thanks merriam. Would love to see a video on tanned/dark olives as well since they are verh tricky :)

Amazing break down. Thank you!

Merriam! You're looking particularly great in this video! (not that you don't the other times, but there's something different here!)

I feel like we look related, you actually look like my cousin but with my colouring and it’s tripping me out a bit. But your analysis is super helpful to me! Thank you!

So cool (pun not intended). Would like to see nail polish color recommendations too! I want to try very pale pastels for spring but also wondering what my "best" colors are

Rachel Weiss is very close to my mom in skin tone. Very helpful video! :)

This was super helpful! I looked into another popular color typing system and, while it was helpful, I didn't feel like I fit into any of the options. I kept saying "I'm dark, cool, and muted!" but there was no option for that. I'm also olive which has only confused me more. Thank you, thank you!

Wow, this was very helpful! Thank you!

I can tell I’m a cool delicate, by the colours mentioned. Those are the colours I gravitate towards. White always seems off. Thanks for the great information!

I've been hooked to your videos lately and this is the one where everything clicked. I'm half-Arab, half-European - light skin in comparison to my dark hair and eyes. I was typed as a deep winter from a few sites and a lot of it didn't make sense to me. I love wearing emerald green and I always preferred wearing dark/muted colors but never was a fan of black next to my face (at first I thought maybe this was because I am high contrast and I prefer seeing my eyes and hair as the darkest color.) After this video, I feel more confident that I am cool and delicate. Your system is so interesting and makes a lot more sense. I love shopping/hunting with the new knowledge I have now about colors. Although, I am still confused about the peach/pink drape test - does that still apply to cool delicate and olive? Both that test and the magenta/orange made me feel so lost.

found my people ;__; going back to the comment I left on your comparing two bright/clear winters I guess I -am- a bright/clear winter. :) Facinating video, really informative!! 💓

Bless this video! Gonna watch it when I have some free time hehehe edit: So that's why I don't reach for that one terracotta dress I have in my wardrobe... and why I have a lot of mauve blushes and lipsticks in my makeup collection. XD I'm so glad that this video exists. Now I can finally look for my best colours when I go shopping!

Merriam can you do a video about makeup as it relates to radiant/muted cool/warm? And give celeb photo examples on which colors look best on each category? I think those visuals you have done in your color videos are ridiculously helpful:) Also does makeup style follow Kibbe type rules - for example does someone’s best lines affect whether someone looks better with diffused and soft makeup vs very defined minimal makeup?

Please do a video on cooler vs warmer pinkish tones! I feel like that might finally solve my problems lol

Tank you for this briljant info. I would love more about olive skin-tones, maybe a little more about neutrals colours for the different skin tones. I find that all neutrals expect grey and navy are killing me (I am cool an delicate). And would love some ideas about how to wear more neutrals for work. //laura

I am definitely olive. My skin is the color of tan desert sand dunes with pink and yellow here and there... I also think I am cool and delicate. I love those muted colors near my skin. They bring out contours of my face too. Also I have dark eyes and hair. Thanks so much for doing this. I also thought i should be able to wear stark white, but it didn’t look as good as I thought. I should try the leaning gray. However I can’t use a grayish blue eyeshadow because it makes me look dead.

Love you and your dress!

I have been told all my life that i have cool tone so pink undertone. Then I used mixing pigments and made the perfect match and it was noticabley blue green. Im so pale but blush doesnt show up on me because I realized that my green skin tone cancels the red out so it makes them pale purple or orange toned and it blends into my contour or bronzer.

A tutorial on foundations Recently showed me that the matches they have for olive skin are the ones I already own because they matched the best... Still having trouble figuring out if im warm or cool but getting there.. Hoping by the time I finish these vids I'll know for sure!

Warm Olive here, I look yellow and have very dark brown hair. It seems like a good way to tell is if neutral leaning warm colours look great, but you can also pull of dark cool colours like navy blue, black, maroon. Olive green looks amazing in the right value. Optic white looks “dressed up”

Haha i look absolutely terrible in peach, that and my very obvious greeness has lead me to believe im a cool delicate olive skin tone. I look good with muted colors and jewel tones. Purple and lavender are always a safe bet and deep blues look lovely on me. I love pink so i struggle a bit with it when online shopping (as some things look cooler and then its peachier and makes me look gray) but still. I really appreciate your content for helping me figure out my palette ♡