Gold or Silver?
Find Your Jewellery Colour Through Your Skin Undertone
It is one of the questions we hear most often when choosing jewellery. One metal tone can bring warmth and vitality to the face, while another can create a cleaner, more modern or more defined contrast. But the right choice is not simply about whether your skin is light or dark.
The more useful clue is your skin undertone — the subtle colour tendency beneath the surface of your skin.
Colour analysis can help you understand which metal tones sit most naturally with your colouring. At KURSHUNI, we do not see this as a fixed beauty rule. Your undertone is a useful starting point; your style, wardrobe, mood and the way you want to wear your jewellery should make the final decision.
For us, the jewellery that suits you best is not only the piece that works with your skin, but the one that makes you feel most like yourself when you wear it.
What Is a Skin Undertone?
Skin tone and skin undertone are not the same thing.
Your visible skin tone can change with the seasons, sun exposure and lifestyle. Your undertone is the more constant colour tendency beneath the skin.
Undertones are generally grouped into three categories:
- • Warm undertone
- • Cool undertone
- • Neutral undertone
Warm undertones may show golden, yellow, peach or olive nuances. Cool undertones can appear pink, red or bluish. Neutral undertones tend to combine warm and cool characteristics in a more balanced way.
This is independent of how light or deep your complexion is. Light, medium and deep skin tones can all have warm, cool or neutral undertones.
How Can You Identify Your Undertone?
No single test is always conclusive, so we prefer to look at several clues together.
Look at Your Veins
In natural daylight, look at the veins on the inside of your wrist.
If your veins appear more blue or purple, you may have a cool undertone; if they look greener, you may have a warm undertone. If you see both blue and green, your undertone may be closer to neutral.
Skin depth, lighting and how visible your veins are can affect this test, so do not treat it as a definitive answer on its own.
Compare Pure White and Cream
Hold a pure white fabric and a cream or ivory fabric near your face.
If pure white makes your face look brighter, you may lean cool. If cream and warmer whites feel more harmonious, you may lean warm. If both look balanced, your undertone may be neutral.
Bring Gold and Silver Close to Your Face
Hold a gold earring and a silver earring of a similar size near your face, one at a time.
Which tone makes your skin look more alive, your eyes more defined and your face brighter? Which one seems to blend with you, and which one makes the metal itself stand out first?
If possible, make the comparison in natural daylight and without heavy make-up.
We are not trying to find which metal is “right”. We are looking at how each tone changes the way your face appears.
Which Jewellery Colours Suit Warm Undertones?
Warm undertones can sit naturally with the rich, sunlit quality of yellow gold.
Yellow gold can echo golden, peach and olive nuances in the skin, creating a more harmonious overall look. It also works beautifully with wardrobes built around camel, cream, brown, khaki, terracotta and warm beige.
KURSHUNI 14K yellow gold jewellery and our 925 sterling silver designs in a yellow-gold finish can create a soft but defined glow against warm undertones.
If you have a warm undertone, you might begin with:
- • Fine yellow gold hoops
- • Warm-toned chains
- • Coloured stones set against gold tones
- • Pomegranate, sun, heart and lucky symbols
- • Yellow-gold-toned necklaces in different weights, layered together
A warm undertone does not mean you should only wear gold. We also love silver on days when you want a cooler, more contemporary and more defined contrast.
Which Jewellery Colours Suit Cool Undertones?
Cool undertones can work beautifully with the clean light of rhodium plating, silver and white-metal finishes.
These tones can complement pink or bluish nuances in the skin, creating a clearer, brighter and more modern effect. They also sit naturally with black, white, grey, navy, denim and cool pastels.
KURSHUNI rhodium-plated 925 sterling silver designs can create a clean, contemporary look against cool undertones.
A good place to start might be:
- • Small rhodium-plated hoops
- • Bright silver-toned chains
- • Minimal designs with white stones
- • Moon, star, eye and celestial symbols
- • Silver-toned necklace layers in different textures
Yellow gold can create a stronger, more fashion-led contrast against cool undertones. We especially like this tension when you want the jewellery itself to become the focal point of the look.
The Advantage of Neutral Undertones: Both Metals Are Yours
Because warm and cool colour tendencies are more balanced in neutral undertones, both gold and silver can look natural.
In this case, you can make the choice based less on your skin and more on your wardrobe, hair colour, make-up or the effect you want to create that day.
Yellow gold gives a warmer, more classic and more pronounced glow, while silver can feel cleaner, sharper and more contemporary. Wearing the two together makes the look more dynamic and personal.
Neutral undertones can wear both warm and cool metals with ease, and mixed-metal combinations can add a modern sense of depth.
But the freedom to wear gold and silver together does not belong only to neutral undertones. For us, every undertone can carry both metals when the proportion and balance feel right.
Can You Wear Gold and Silver Together?
Absolutely. At KURSHUNI, we do not follow the old styling rules that keep gold and silver apart.
Those old rules are giving way to more individual and expressive combinations.
There are a few simple methods we often use to make mixed metals feel considered and balanced:
Choose One Metal as the Main Tone
Use gold through most of the look and add silver as a smaller accent, or bring a predominantly silver look to life with a single warm gold piece.
We like this approach because it makes the mix feel intentional rather than accidental.
Pair Similar Forms
Wearing two hoops of a similar size — one gold and one silver — creates a visual connection between the metals.
Chains of a similar weight, symbols from the same collection in different metal tones, or rings with comparable proportions can soften the transition as well.
Use Sparkle as a Bridge
Stone-set jewellery can create a natural bridge between warm and cool metals. The clean light of white stones in particular can bring together the warmth of yellow gold and the cooler look of silver in one combination. We often use stone-set pieces to create that transition between the two metal tones.
Keep the Visual Weight Similar
Rather than placing a very delicate silver chain beside a bold, substantial gold chain, pair pieces with a similar visual weight.
A strong gold hoop feels more balanced beside a silver hoop of a similar scale; a fine gold necklace works more naturally with a delicate silver chain.
Your Skin Does Not Decide Your Jewellery Colour Alone
Your undertone is a useful guide, but we do not see it as the only deciding factor.
Your Wardrobe
Warm beiges, browns, ecru and earthy tones can connect naturally with yellow gold. Black, white, grey, denim and navy can emphasise the clean contrast of silver.
Doing the opposite can be just as strong a styling choice. We also love warming up an all-black look with substantial gold hoops, or making a warm-toned outfit feel more contemporary with silver chains.
Hair and Make-up
The closer your jewellery sits to your face, the more visible its relationship with your hair and make-up colours becomes.
This effect is more noticeable with earrings and shorter necklaces. With bracelets and rings, your wardrobe colours and other accessories tend to play a larger role.
The Form of the Jewellery
The scale, texture and finish of a design matter just as much as its metal colour.
A fine yellow gold chain can cast a soft glow near the face, while a bold polished hoop creates a stronger contrast. In the same way, a matte silver piece and a bright rhodium-plated design will not create the same effect.
We sometimes think there may be no such thing as a metal that does not suit you — only a version of that metal whose right form you have not found yet.
How Do You Find Your Own Jewellery Colour?
We like to begin by looking at your own jewellery box.
Which pieces do you wear most often? Which one makes your face feel more alive when you put it on? Which metal works most easily with your wardrobe? Which one makes you feel more refined, more powerful, or simply more like yourself?
Your answer does not have to be only gold or only silver.
On some days you may feel closer to the warmth of yellow gold; on others, to the clean light of silver. You can also bring the two together and create your own balance.
Colour analysis gives you a starting point. For us, personal style is what turns that starting point into a jewellery language of your own.
We do not believe there is one correct metal. The right choice is the one that supports your light, your style and the way you want to express yourself that day.
We love the warmth of gold, the clarity of silver and the modern contrast they create together. Choose the symbols and forms that feel close to you, and let your own story complete the look.
Discover KURSHUNI designs that complement your colouring, your style and your own jewellery language.
E. Esra KURŞUNLU
