✦The Fitzpatrick scale sorts skin into six types, based on how it reacts to the sun.
✦Your skin type sets the starting depth. Your undertone decides the direction the colour takes.
✦Two women with the same skin type do not leave with the same shade, because their undertones differ.
✦Development time does as much work as the solution itself, from 1 to 5 hours depending on the depth you want.
✦The analysis happens at your place, and your shade is mixed on the spot, after it.
When I arrive at your place, I do not reach for the bottle right away. I look at three things first: your skin type, your undertones and the depth you want. Those three answers decide which solution I choose and how long I ask you to keep it on.
It is the part of the job you see the least, and the part that changes the result the most. Here is how I do it, step by step.
What a skin type is
A skin type describes how your skin reacts to the sun. The reference scale was developed in 1975 by dermatologist Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, of Harvard Medical School, and it now covers six types.
It does not sort people by skin colour. It sorts them by reaction: do you burn, do you tan, and how fast. That is exactly the information I need, because skin that has never tanned in its life does not take colour the way skin that tans every summer does.
So your skin type gives me my starting point: the depth of the solution, and the development time I will recommend before your first shower.
The six skin types
Here are the six types, with the shade I start from for each one. The word "start" matters: it is a base, not a conclusion.
The six skin types, and the starting shade for each one.
Skin, hair, eyes
In the sun
My starting shade
Skin type 1
Very pale, fair skin with a pink tone. Red or blonde hair, pale eyes.
Never tans, always burns in the sun
Cappuccino or Coco1 to 2 hours of development
Skin type 2
Pale skin, beige tone. Blonde or light brown hair, light eyes.
Sometimes tans, burns easily in the sun
Cappuccino, Coco or Caramel1 to 3 hours of development
Skin type 3
Medium skin, golden tone. Dark blonde or brown hair, eye colour varies.
Tans easily, sometimes burns in the sun
Cappuccino, Milkshake or Sugar3 to 4 hours of development
Skin type 4
Deep skin, olive tone. Brown or black hair, dark eyes.
Always tans, rarely burns in the sun
Caramel, Milkshake or Cappuccino5 hours of development and more
Skin type 5
Deep skin. Brown or black hair, dark eyes.
Tans easily, never goes red
Dark Chocolate or Dark Cherry6 hours of development and more
Skin type 6
Very deep skin. Dark hair, dark eyes.
Tans easily, does not burn
Dark Chocolate or Milkshake6 hours of development and more
Your skin type is the starting point. Your undertone and the depth you want do the rest.
Two notes on that chart. First, the time shown is what NUDA recommends for the rapid solution, the only one I use. In my own practice the usual window runs from 1 to 5 hours, and I tell you yours before I leave.
Second, nobody ever fits a box perfectly. Plenty of women sit between two types, and that is normal. This is where your undertone becomes more useful than your number.
Undertones, the other half of the calculation
Your skin tone is what you see: fair, medium, deep. Your undertone is what sits underneath, and it does not change with the seasons.
There are three. A warm undertone leans golden, peachy, coppery. A cool undertone leans rosy, bluish. A neutral undertone sits between the two.
The undertone decides the direction of the colour. Two clients with the same skin type, the same solution and the same development time do not end up with the same result if their undertones differ. The first one sees a warm brown, the second one sees a brown that pulls a little too red.
How to read your undertone
Three simple checks you can do yourself before your appointment.
The veins on your wrist. In daylight, veins that look green point to a warm undertone, veins that look blue or purple to a cool one. If you cannot tell, you are probably neutral.
Gold or silver. Hold a gold piece of jewellery against your bare skin, then a silver one. Whichever one lifts your skin rather than dulling it points in the direction of your undertone, gold for warm, silver for cool.
How you react to the sun. Skin that goes pink before it tans leans cool. Skin that takes a golden colour fairly quickly leans warm.
These checks do not replace the analysis I do at your place, in your own light and on bare skin. They give you an idea, and they make the conversation faster when I arrive.
The same brown does not read the same on a warm undertone and on a cool one.
Neutralizing with the colour wheel
The principle comes from colour theory, and it is the same one used in makeup: two opposite colours on the wheel neutralize each other. That is why a green corrector cancels redness.
In spray tanning, I work with the undertone rather than the main colour. If your skin already pulls orange, a warm solution will lean into it. A solution with a cooler undertone brings the result back toward brown.
Here is the chart I follow, solution by solution.
The colour wheel applied to spray tanning: what I choose, and what it neutralizes.
On the colour wheel, two opposite colours neutralize each other. In spray tanning I work with the undertone rather than the main colour: the undertone decides whether your glow turns cool, warm or neutral.
Your undertone
What I choose
What it gives
Warm, orange undertones and redness
Dark Chocolate
Pulls toward a cooler, ashy brown
Yellow and golden undertones
Milkshake
Pulls toward a cooler, violet brown
Every complexion, and fair skin with olive undertones
Cappuccino
A warm neutral brown, terracotta
Deep olive undertones
Dark Cherry
A warm neutral brown, cherry
Rosy undertones and redness
Coco
Warms up toward an olive brown
The goal stays the same for every complexion: a natural brown.
Development time does half the work
The solution is not the only lever. How long you keep it on before your first shower changes the final depth, sometimes more than the bottle does.
I only use the rapid formula. Depending on the depth you want, you rinse 1 to 5 hours after the application, and the colour finishes developing within 24 hours.
In practice, that means you keep some room to adjust. A client who wants a quiet tan for the office and a client leaving for the South next week can get the same solution and rinse at two different times.
Where an orange result comes from
It is the number one worry, and it is a fair one. In my experience, an orange result almost always comes from one of these three things.
An undertone that was ignored. A warm solution on already warm skin, with nothing to neutralize it, pushes the colour toward orange.
A depth that does not match the skin type. A solution meant for a type 5 does not give a beautiful deep brown on type 1 skin, it gives a colour that looks like nothing found in nature.
Skin that was not prepared. Dead cells hold more product, and they go darker than the rest. That is the whole point of my preparation guide.
What happens at your place
The analysis comes before the mix, never the other way around. I look at your complexion, your undertones and the way you react to the sun, I ask about the occasion and the depth you want, and then I mix your shade on the spot.
Nothing is prepared in advance, and that is on purpose: a shade mixed ahead of time is a shade chosen without having seen you. The full session takes about an hour, door to door.
If you want to place your profile before you even book, my Find your glow quiz takes five questions. I keep your answer on file, and we start from there. I travel across Laval, Montreal and the North Shore with my mobile spray tan service.
I Answer
Look at how you react to the sun rather than at your skin colour. Skin that always burns and never tans is type 1, skin that always tans and rarely burns is type 4 or above. I confirm it on site before mixing.
Your skin tone is the colour you see, and it shifts with the seasons. Your undertone is the shade underneath it, warm, cool or neutral, and it does not change. The undertone decides the direction the colour takes.
No. Skin type sets the starting depth, but undertone and the depth you want change the mix. That is why every shade is mixed on the spot, after I have looked at your skin.
Yes, and it is the most common question I get. Fair skin is type 1 or 2 on the Fitzpatrick scale, so I start from a Cappuccino or a Coco and keep the development time short, 1 to 3 hours. The result is a light, warm tan, not a deep brown.
Yes, and it is one of the causes of an orange result. A depth meant for deep skin does not look natural on very fair skin. So I start from your skin type and adjust the development time, between 1 and 5 hours.
We talk it through. I can go deeper by extending the development time, but I will tell you honestly if the result risks no longer looking natural on your complexion.
No. I mix your shade at your place, after looking at your skin. No solution is prepared before the appointment.
Ana Maria, GLOW17
Founder and face of GLOW17, Ana Maria is an esthetics graduate of Académie d'Esthétique New Age (650 h) and NUDA certified. She creates custom shades across Laval, Montreal and the North Shore. She comes to you for a natural glow that looks like you.
