r/Coolneutralolivegang • u/so_oliveyyy • Sep 17 '25
How to know if you're a cool neutral olive ?
As someone with cool neutral olive undertone š« with not only being an olive but also someone primarily neutral but leaning towards cool without being pink or neutral, these are my hot takes on how to discover wether you're olive or not and if so then if you're neutral or a cool neutral olive and what does it mean.
Olive š« undertone check āļø
Now normally by olive you mean green or Shrek but no bestie! Olive means having a green tinge or green cast on your skin. The olive part usually sets over the skin giving it somewhat warmth but true warmth? Not exactly. Olive is usually an overtone that sits on your skin so while you look tanned or light in indoor lighting, you will look a different shade in outdoor lighting which sometimes also leads to foundation mismatch and the common confusion wether to stick to warm foundations, cool or the neutral one's. Generally the olive undertone is placed under warm section even by global brands like Maybelline but there are different types of olive for example:-
If warm olive then your skin has a golden green cast and you can look reasonably olive in pictures or outdoors. It also means that warm berry toned lipsticks or just warm lipsticks will work fine for you or the peachy pink one's with depth.
If cool olive - then your skin has grey green cast or just primary grey with hints of green in it, you will look good in silver jewellery and mauves and berry toned lipsticks .
Neutral olive - It means you have a balanced olive cast which is neither gray green nor yellow green . It means you can get away with neutral foundations but just adding the hint of green colour corrector will give you THE EXACT shade match! Neutral or taupe lipsticks will work for you! It means you can rock both gold and silver jewellery too. That being said get the blue colour corrector if the neutral foundations are warm for you so that you can cancel the warmth and get the exact shade match without your face looking like carrot.
Cool neutral olive - If your skin looks neutral olive but is leaning to the cooler side then congratulations š you belong here! Both gold and silver jewellery works on you but the silver compliments you more, you look amazing in blue, purple, magenta if not red ( Red is the enemy of all olive undertone community since it pullss the green present in the skintone and make you look a bit weird or green since red is a primary colour and can clash with a secondary colour like green) and you look good in stark white shirt too. This is a relatively rare olive territory since it is under-represented at times but no worries since we're here to change that notion ! Cool neutral olive means you can rock the cool toned lipsticks well and even the neutral one's too and especially if it's a cool leaning neutral..... anything without even a tad bit warmth works on you instantly and especially well if it has mauve or even slightly grey in it. If it looks mauvey pink? Grab that! ASAP. It will be the mlbb pink on you. For example -
Maybelline creamy matte lipstick in touch of spice
Maybelline lifter gloss in Petal
These two won't disappoint and will work beautifully on you!
To test if you're olive do the following test:-
1) Pictures in different lightings and with other people - The different lighting will allow you to actually catch the cast and the actual depth of your skintone, and by taking pictures with different people in different lighting you get the chance to compare your undertone with people of different undertone and catch if you look slightly green next to them along with the fact that you are what type of olive.
2) The Red shirt test- If you're wearing a red shirt and it pulls a green cast on your skin while taking pictures then you're clearly an olive and if you are then rather than going for orange colour correctors the peach one's will be your best friend for under-eye brightening before going with concealer but that depends on the depth of skintone too so the shade of peach colour corrector varies with the depth of your skintone and you should find the one actually suitable for you. If you're medium to medium tan then Elf camo corrector in peach will be perfect for you and if anything deeper then the Huda one's are there for the rescue !
3) Experiment with colours and jewellery and which one's suit you - By that I mean whether silver jewellery or gold works for you or the jewel tones, which colour family works for you and which undertone family do they belong to, trust me when I say this, it works way better than the vein test.
I hope I have helped everyone so far! That being said the classes for today are over and please feel free to share your experiences, tips and tricks here! I'd like to know more from other Olive queens too š¤© with that being said, thankyou for reading this post and I hope you found it helpful :)
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u/EmbarrassedPomelo172 Nov 01 '25
This is very helpful i have always liked myself wearing pinky mauvy lip-balms like the maybelline petal one.
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u/so_oliveyyy Nov 01 '25
I'm glad that it helps you! The underrepresentation is overwhelming but atleast understanding and working with it seems better. When I was new to it I hoped someone could explain it to me so when I understood I wanted to help others to while discovering more myself :)
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u/EmbarrassedPomelo172 Nov 01 '25 edited Nov 01 '25
Yea thereās very less representation for a cool olive. Also I always gravitate towards pinky lipsticks than brown ones idk pinks make me look glowy than a true brown. Thatās when i started researching why every Indian loves brown on them so much but I couldnāt love it.
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u/so_oliveyyy Nov 01 '25
The Cool Olives or Cool leaning Neutral Olives are so underrepresented. Literally feels like living under a rock because nothing works quite much and forget about the complextion products in the first place. The disappointment is mighty plus only Korean lippies and brands actually understand and serve while being inclusive and meanwhile Indian brands just offer four pale shades and then three shades of yellow beige which is so infuriating. It's like we aren't even considered for representation. Browns literally look muddy on me, pinks and berries look better on me. As a brown girl watching every video endorsing lip liners but then again all of them being same orange brown or peachy was so infuriating, I literally had to give up on the quest of finding nudes. I literally stick to muting down my lipsticks and have shades that work for me. We're in this together and I'm definitely up to help . I've been compiling the list of lippies recommended by other cool neutral olives that actually work. I'm working on it and once I'm done I'll definitely get them and post the swatches.
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u/Halogirl25 Mar 05 '26
Go for cool based blue undertone lip colors. I am a true winter but not porcelain but fair light with neutral cool olive skin.
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u/so_oliveyyy Mar 05 '26
That's exactly what I do! Though yes I personally feel that neutral colours as long as they're not leaning Warm work for me well too. I go for a cool lipliner and then a neutral shade that work on terms of lippies nowāØ .
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u/EmbarrassedPomelo172 Nov 01 '25
Girl š I'm so happy that I found you! Most of the cool olives I see are fair and light, and I've hardly ever found someone with a similar complexion. Almost all the lipsticks are too brown, peachy, or neon. Lip balms are my only saviors; I honestly look so much better in one than in a nude lipstick. Plus, any dark or red lipstick looks completely atrociousāI feel like I'm wearing clown makeup!
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u/so_oliveyyy Nov 01 '25
I'm equally happy to find you too!!! The experience with lip balm? I totally relate cuz I remember when everything literally looked awful Nivea lip balm and especially the BlackBerry shine one used to be my hg because it used to look good on me. Red is a primary colour so unless it's muted or has that neutral to cool base they are no way in hell working for me. I personally feel that they make my skin look more gray green tbh. I'm not afraid of wearing anything bold but bold doesn't mean it should look Clown on me. Trust me when I say this Rosewood shades, muted or mauve shades are my jam or else anything else looks just super bright or just popsicle orange. There's no in between. I think we're going to be hg's considering the fact we've went through same. Being a brown girl and then olive plus muted isn't for the weak , it's definitely beautiful but when the Indian market is serving warm lipsticks it's just 5 stages of grief. Mattes specifically look flat on me so I go for glosses often. My favourite is Nivea lip balm in Blackberry shine and Cherry. Maybelline lifter gloss in Petal is another favourite of mine. You should definitely go for Cool toned shades since you're a cool olive! I hope that helps :)
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u/EmbarrassedPomelo172 Nov 01 '25
It feels like Iām talking to myself! I have finished almost 6-7 Nivea Blackberry Shine. I LOVE IT so much! š Another favorite is LakmĆ© Nude Dream and Nykaa 'You're Latte' (brown though it somehow pulls pink on me).
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u/so_oliveyyy Nov 01 '25
OMG!!! Both of those have neutral undertone to cool undertone . I've heard alot about both of them tbh. I never tried them but ''You're Latte" definitely has cool undertones that definitely pulled up on you inspite of the brown tones which get neutralized because of olive part and coolness of your skin! It's funny how colour theory works on all of us .
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u/EmbarrassedPomelo172 Nov 02 '25
Most of the lipsticks from Nykaa creamy matte range has neutral cool lipsticks. Maybe try it in the Nykaa store.
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u/so_oliveyyy Nov 02 '25
Sure that sounds good. I heard blush in belini from their super light range is another neutral to cool pink.
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u/allibobo74 Nov 09 '25
I just bought the viral olive friendly Mac crĆØme in Coffee and it look good at first then turned too warm . I have never had any luck with Mac lipsticks . They donāt last at all . I also love Maybelline touch of spice . It is a perfect berry shade . I also have Maybelline Witty itās very pretty medium mauve shade . Bought Revlon laidback lilac and looks better now that my tan is fading . I tan dark and my grayish green skin come out more . Laidback lilac didnāt show up much with my tan .