The best cool skin tone colors have a blue base. Orange-based shades in cosmetics, hair colors and clothing are best avoided on cool complexions. Platinum blond, violet-brown, dark brown and jet black are some hair colors that tend to suit cooler skin tones. Vivid red and other clear colors such as hot pink, lemon yellow and emerald green can brighten and flatter cool complexions. Icy pastels can also look wonderful on this type of skin coloring.

Icy pastels have a strong bluish-white undertone and just a hint of color such as pale pink, baby blue or soft yellow. Icy neutrals such as gray and taupe also tend to be good cool skin tone colors. While taupe is a cool neutral, as it has some gray in it, beige contains some yellow that makes it too warm for most cool complexions. A silvery rather than yellowed gray is also a good color choice for cool skin tones.

Rather than peaches and salmons, which have a lot of orange in them and tend to suit warm skin tones better, those with cool complexions should choose clear, bluish pinks such as rose and cotton candy. Comparing peach, salmon, rose and cotton candy together can really help many people notice the orange or blue undertones to find cool skin tone colors. Once the basic difference is understood, it can make shopping for cool-toned makeup, clothing and hair colorings much simpler.

Comparing yellows and greens can be another way to discover cool skin tone colors. For yellows, a green rather than orange undertone is best. Lemon yellow contains a much more green cast to it than a golden version which contains orange. Lemon yellow tends to brighten cool complexions, while golden yellows usually have the opposite effect of seeming to add shadows to the face. While green-yellow flatters cool skin tone colors, yellow-green does not.

The more yellow a green contains, the less it flatters cool complexions. Cool skin tends to look best in blue-based greens. Comparing pine with forest green can reveal a strong difference even though both dark colors may look similar at first glance. Forest green is yellower, while pine is bluer. People with cool complexions often can wear any shade of blue although a lot of green can warm up the color a lot. Blues with a violet undertone are typically the most flattering cool skin tone colors.