Olive Undertone: How to Tell, and Which Ranges List It
Published 27 October 2026 · Foundation Shades
You can tell if your undertone is olive by how foundation behaves on you. If both pink and yellow shades look wrong, or shades turn grey or ashy, try an olive shade at the same depth. Olive skin has a green, grey or muted golden cast.
What brands mean by olive
Brands don’t agree on where olive belongs. Some list it as an undertone of its own, and some fold it into warm.
- Tarte describes its G shades as for skin “with very warm, golden or olive undertones.”
- MAC groups olive with golden and yellow tones under warm, which it codes W or NC, on its UK shade guide.
- Kosas, Morphe and beautyblender put “olive” in the shade name itself, often paired with neutral or warm.
Some brands go further and label olive shades as warm olive, neutral olive or cool olive. So a shade called olive in one range may sit among the warm shades in another.
Signs your undertone may be olive
The first two signs are the ones our own starter quiz uses. They tell you what to test, not what you are.
- Foundations miss in both directions. Pink-leaning shades look wrong, and so do yellow ones.
- Shades look grey or ashy. Our No match yet? starter treats this answer as olive.
- Warm shades look orange or too bright. Add an olive or muted shade at the same depth to your test.
The test that settles it is a side-by-side swatch. Take an olive-listed shade, a warm one and a neutral one at the same depth. Put all three on your jaw and look in daylight. If the olive stripe is the one that disappears, you have your answer.
Ranges that list the most olive shades
Of the 6,727 shades in our data, 249 are listed as olive, about 4%. Only 81 of 286 ranges list any. The “listed olive” label comes from the brand’s website, the retailer’s description or the shade name.
| Range | Olive-listed shades | Depth (lighter than … of our shades) | Examples | Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UOMA Beauty Say What?! Foundation | 9 of 51 | 73% to 38% | T2C Honey Honey, T1W Honey Honey | January 2021 |
| Kosas Revealer Skin-Improving Foundation SPF 25 | 8 of 36 | 73% to 2% | Light Medium Neutral Olive 210, Medium Tan Olive 270 | October 2026 |
| beautyblender Bounce Liquid Whip | 7 of 40 | 82% to 22% | 2.20 Neutral/Olive, 3.30 Warm/Olive | January 2021 |
| Armani Beauty Luminous Silk | 6 of 40 | 61% to 14% | 3.5, 6 | January 2021 |
| Charlotte Tilbury Magic Foundation | 6 of 20 | 63% to 19% | 6, 6.5 | January 2021 |
| Estée Lauder Double Wear Matte Powder | 6 of 41 | 95% to 51% | 1W2 Sand, 2W2 Rattan | January 2021 |
| Exa High Fidelity Foundation | 6 of 43 | 73% to 13% | 490 Hannah, 450 Emily | January 2021 |
| Gucci Fluide De Beauté Fini Naturel | 6 of 40 | 51% to 4% | 250O, 370O | January 2021 |
| Morphe Fluidity Full-Coverage Foundation | 6 of 60 | 59% to the very deepest | F1.90 Olive, F2.50 Olive | January 2021 |
| Rare Beauty Liquid Touch Weightless Foundation | 6 of 48 | 80% to 9% | 170W, 230N | October 2026 |
| Tarte face tape foundation | 6 of 50 | 42% to 4% | 37G medium-tan golden, 42G tan golden | October 2026 |
The depth column runs from the lightest olive-listed shade to the deepest. A range with a wide span, such as Kosas or Morphe, may have an olive shade near your depth.
Drugstore and very light olive shades
Among drugstore brands, which is our own grouping, only 7 of 53 ranges list any olive shade. Makeup Revolution Conceal & Define Full Coverage and NYX Can’t Stop Won’t Stop list five each, all in the deeper half of our data.
For light skin, Makeup Revolution’s Conceal & Define Satte Matte Powder has olive-listed shades from among the very lightest in our data. Our guide to foundation for very pale skin lists the other light olive options.
Is olive skin rare?
Our data can’t say how many people have olive skin. It can say that brands list far fewer shades as olive than as warm or cool: 249, against 2,121 warm and 1,124 cool. So if you think you’re olive, test neutral and warm shades as well.
In the shade finder, you can filter any set of results by listed undertone, including olive. Matches without a listed undertone stay hidden under that filter, so switch it off to see every close shade as well.