Neutral is Tone Not Undertone

Am I still talking about how the cosmetic industry uses the word "neutral"? We need a standard to talk about color and skin.

I started studying and focusing on color theory 16 years ago when I opened Terri Tomlinson Makeup Training Academy. I wanted to have color theory in my class because I had never had formal color theory training in my professional career. Even when I sent myself to professional makeup school in L.A. we never talked about color theory specifically. We used “blue correctors” and “red correctors” but never learned why or what it meant.

Concealing and correcting were a single thing, never really taken apart. It was never presented with the kind of format someone would get in art school, or graphic design.

So I pieced together my own methods and ways of using color and correction. I used it without a lot of intention and went on about my career in production. But when I opened my school I knew that color theorywould be a thing. I created a section within my curriculum dedicated to it and got started.

All of my classes started this way. And the section became longer and more involved as I grew my knowledge of color theory. As I expanded my journey, so my students received a more detailed and complete color theory education.

I have come a long way, and so has my education.

I have also learned some powerful things about color that go directly against what we see and hear in the beauty sphere.

One of those powerful lessons is this: Neutral is not an undertone.

Neutral is a Tone

A tone is a slight variation of one color or hue. A tone of blue, for example might be slightly deeper or push a bit warmer than “regular blue”. When you look at a tonal range (a range of different tones), you are seeing subtle changes in either depth or saturation, or in color variance. But the base or main color remains, like blue.