A Guide to Choosing Swimwear Colors for Fair Skin Tones

It’s officially the summer season, and all you beautiful ladies must be out there purchasing cute bikinis to hit the beach. However, having a fair skin tone can make it a bit hard to choose the right colors for swimwear. But don’t worry, I’ve prepared smashing ideas regarding swimsuit color for fair skin. 

You will see that you have as many options as ladies with medium, olive, or dark skin. I’m aware that not all pale skin is the same, so I have made three primary categories of fair-skinned people and even shared swimsuit color ideas for different hair tones. 

Now, let me help you, beauties!

3 Tips for Determining Your Skin Tone

A skin tone is basically the level of melanin carried by your genes and present in your epidermis (the external skin layer). Melanin is a complex polymer that refers to a group of naturally occurring brown or black pigments existing in our skin. 

When we’re exposed to harmful sunlight, our body produces a considerable amount of melanin. This is why your skin tone depends on your exposure to UV rays. 

Under the impact of the sun, the upper skin tone can change, but not your undertone. “Warm”, “cool”, and “neutral” are the common terms used for skin undertones. 

Below you can read what the main characteristics of each undertone are.

Cool: Pink or red with bluish hints.

Neutral: Olive

Warm: Peachy, yellow, or golden.

So, how do you determine your skin tone? Are there any factors that differentiate one from the other?

Here are some tips to help you out:

1. The reaction of your skin to sun exposure is important. Do you get sunburned or tanned? Generally, fair skin gets sunburned, whereas dark or medium skin tones get tanned.
2. If silver pairs nicely with your skin, you probably have a cool undertone. But if gold suits you better, you have a warm undertone.
3. Check your veins under the sunlight. If they’re bluish or purplish, you have a cool undertone. But if they appear greenish, your undertone is warm. If you can’t decide the color, you have a neutral undertone.

Fair skin tone usually occurs in Northern European countries. The climate there is cold, which is why our ancestors didn’t need much melanin. Pale people are also vulnerable to UV light, and as I mentioned above, they get sunburned easily.

Best Swimwear Colors for Your Skin

Now that we have understood what a skin tone is and what skin undertones exist, let’s see the best swimwear colors based on your specific undertone. 

However, before moving forward, please take out some time to determine your undertone – it will help you immensely! For instance, before I took the test to find out my skin undertone, I had a wrong impression of it. 

Now, let’s move forward with the ideas I’ve picked for you.

For pale skin with neutral undertones

If your pale skin has neutral undertones, it is likely that you’re a cute brunette or have ash blonde hair. Plus, most pale women with neutral or mixed undertones have hazel eyes. This is the luckiest pale skin undertone, in my opinion, as almost all colors will work great on you. 

However, don’t put on anything too bright. Instead, it’s better to pick faded pastel like pink, a mesmerizing aqua, jade green, soft pink, off-white, or a printed indigo set. These are colors in the middle spectrum and should work ideally for you. 

They will not highlight your pallor and will achieve a visually darker-looking skin. And that’s exactly what we want, isn’t it?

If you identify as having a neutral undertone, below are the best bikini inspirations for you. Please don’t think that you’re alone, as Drew Barrymore, Miranda Kerr, and Jessica Biel are your celebrity inspiration. 

We’ll start this section with this stylish baby blue swimwear with white spandex. It is painted with metallic silicone and crystallized with caviar glass Swarovski elements. The silicone 3D paint is very long-lasting, and spandex laces allow maximum flexibility. Check it out:

And if you want to give your bottom and bust a luscious and cute look, go with the bandeau ruffle high-waisted baby pink bikini. It’s padded and also made of spandex. Both casual and seductive, it’s perfect for the vacay season. High-waisted bottoms are ideal if you want to hide the tummy and create the desired hourglass figure:

Let’s continue with another simple bikini made of soft, resistant material, which is comfortable and looks very trendy. It’s an elegant and feminine piece to complete your beach or pool outfits:

If your undertone is neutral, you can also consider mauve and dusty blush shades.

For fair skin with pink undertones

Having a pink or cold undertone means that your hair is somewhat lighter, you tend to appear pinker or redder after getting tanned, and your eyes are either blue or green. 

While shopping for your bikini, I suggest you go for dramatic shades of purple and blue. But if these are not your cup of tea, you can choose rich green shades and indigo as well. 

You’re not the only one with pale skin and a pink undertone as Adele, Scarlett Johansson, and Nicole Kidman are on the same page as you. 

We’ll start this section with an amazing emerald green velvet bikini. It is a classic structured tie-side bathing suit in a rich green shade. Take a look:

The following bright blue bikini will set you up for the vacation. It displays a ruched tube design, thin shoulder straps, and an adorable tie-up bow detail at the front. The good thing about this color is that it looks perfect on all skin tones, including your fair skin with a pink undertone.

And if you ask me, purple is the most feminine color. So I decided to show you a purple strappy bandeau bikini set, which is both gorgeous and comfy. If you adore straps and bows, this is your must-have piece:

Other colors that you can opt for your skin tone are teals, lilacs, lavenders, and soft rose shades.

For fair skin with yellow undertones

Yellow or warm undertones are the last category that exists for pale skin. It refers to naturally dark eyes and dark hair. It’s likely that you get bronze or golden upon tanning. While buying bikinis for yourself, earthy shades will be a perfect choice. 

You can choose any from warm whites, yellows, hot reds, deep terracotta, browns, oranges, and olive greens. In other words, all the warm, earthy colors will suit you flawlessly. 

The reason for this is that people with warm undertones have rich, kind of earthy colorings of deep auburn in their skin and hair. So, wearing colors of similar tones is the most flattering option for them.

If you’re a yellow undertone goddess, see the bikini inspiration below! Oh, and your celeb inspos are beautiful Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett, and Anne Hathaway. 

We’ll start this section with another bikini in the tie-side style. The swimsuit you can see below has a keyhole right in the middle of the chest. It is basically a crop top style bikini. The warm yellow shade is truly feminine and natural:

Can a guide on a bikini be complete without a hot red piece? Definitely not! The option I am going to show you is a red ribbed bikini set. 

Since the color is already bold, the minimalist design of this swimsuit looks great. Plus, you can easily combine some nice cover-ups with it:

Finally, this is a chic ring-linked triangle thong swimsuit in a tempting brown color. It fits the body perfectly and will make you stun under the summer sun:

You also won’t go wrong if you opt for the coffee color and other beige shades.

Before we continue, I want to mention one important thing about spandex, nylon, and polyester bikinis since most swimming suits are made of them. If you notice that your swimsuit has become larger, you can try to shrink it at home using a few effective methods that I’ve covered.

Swimsuit Colors that Make You Look Tan

After exploring all the good bikini colors for the three undertones, let’s talk about the women who love tanning. Being tanned is a priority and the first goal for the summer season. That glowy tanned look literally makes you look like a goddess. 

But did you know that you can effortlessly look tanned without any effort? By just slipping on a particular shade of swimwear, you will automatically look darker. 

As the guide is for the pale skin beauties, the color contrast created between a dark swimsuit and fair skin will ultimately make you look much darker and tanned. Therefore, if appearing tanned is your wish, you can also pick striking colors, like fuchsia pink, scarlet, purple, red, or yellow. 

As a general rule of thumb, darker, deeper swimsuit shades, such as navy blue, will look absolutely amazing with your pale skin. 

Extra: Swimsuit Colors Based on Your Hair Shades

Even if you think that you have learned everything to choose the perfect shade of summer outfit for yourself, I still went ahead and added an extra section to make your hunt easier. 

Everyone has a different hair color, and this aspect influences the shade of the bikini that will suit you. Don’t believe me? Keep reading!

Black hair

If you fall into this category, you can blindly trust a black, timeless swimsuit. The black hair and bikini will bond really well with each other. Not only this, your pale skin tone will outshine, and that’s what we want, right?

So, whenever you go shopping for swimsuits, I urge you to buy one in black! You can see how well the woman above looks in her strappy black bikini set.

Blond hair

In my opinion, nothing suits blondies better than a yellow color! 

If you are still doubting, just take a look at the pic below. The bright yellow bathing suit brings out the radiance of the blonde hair, and mid-waisted bottoms create the illusion of thinner thighs.

To shake things up, you can buy a bottom in a darker shade or some attractive cover-up.

Brown hair

This is my hair color! If you have brown hair color as well, almost any shade will suit you. But since the brown hair color mostly belongs to the yellow undertone, the best swimsuit color will be some in earthy shades such as brown. Take a look at the example below:

As you can see, the brown bikini on the brunette lady certainly looks fabulous, right?

Red hair

Among the top colors for light skin, nothing beats the hot red. The combo of red swimwear and pale skin is a heavenly one. 

But you know what makes it even better? A redhead wearing a red bathing suit. I absolutely love redheads because their beauty is truly unique.

If any redhead is reading this, please do us a favor and wear a red swimsuit once this summer. Most redheads are hesitant to do so as they are afraid that the red color will make them stand out in a bad way. But I assure you that’s hardly the case. If you’re still doubting, just take a better look at the example above. A red swimsuit and red pair perfectly together!

Gray hair

Lastly, gray hair is a minority and often gets overshadowed by other colorful hair shades. But whether you have dyed your hair gray or are at that stage where you naturally have gray hair, there are swimsuits that will make you feel and look fantastic.

Go with some color-mixed bikini that will add a dose of vividness to your overall look. Check out this great piece below:

This woman makes it clear that any hair color can look brilliant if you know how to wear it and which colors combine with it. Light and pastel shades work best to complement the gray hair.

Conclusion

This concludes our guide on good swimsuit colors depending on three primary skin undertones and hair colors. Do you feel like you have been given a good head start on your bikini shopping this summer? 

To sum up, below are my recommendations for skin undertones:

• Yellow or warm undertones should wear bikinis in the shades of browns, oranges, warm whites, yellows, olive greens, and hot reds. 
• Pink or cool undertones will look perfect in pinks, purple, bright blue, and rich greens.
• Mixed or neutral undertones will pair nicely with faded shades of pastels, aqua, or plain indigo.

If you found this guide helpful, you can get extra inspiration from my previous fashion articles as well. Check them out!