Best Shade Ranges for Olive Skin
Shade Numbers and Brands for Olive Skin - A reference guide
Since I began this olive adventure several years ago, I’ve been keeping tabs on brands that deliver olive inclusive shade ranges. Spoiler: there aren’t many. Considering the hundreds of brands with complexion products, olive undertones barely exist.
There are so many things wrong with this situation. Yes, one is clearly the lack of substantially existing in the market, but there are more aspects that exacerbate the problems. Range is a big one. While compiling this list, I went through dozens of brands that offered an olive undertoned shade. You read that right - “an olive”. As in one. Mayyyybee two or whoa - three if we’re really trying to give performative inclusivity.
So many brands have assumed that olive skin only lives in the medium range and just one shade of medium or tan olive is needed. What year is this? We have already debunked this antiquated assumption, and despite olive being a ubiquitous skin tone throughout the world, they still haven’t given it a second thought.
Another issue is temperature - the assumption that olive undertoned skin just needs more orange. (Looking at you, Nars. Why.)
Olive skin as we have established comes in a full variety of temperature, depth, and saturation nuances, and while I realize that no-one is going to be out there offering every variation in every combination, it is absolutely possible to make excellent, relatively forgiving/accurate olive shades in every depth category, and that would be a huge leap for humanity.
Thankfully though, we do have a small handful of brands that offer olive undertones in a way that isn’t insulting or dismissive, but instead, celebratory!
This list consists of a few criteria:
1) Number of olive shades. There are a ton of brands out there that offer a few olive shades - even some of my all time favorites, but they’re not here because that’s NOT ENOUGH. I have only included brands that offer at least 5 olive shades.
2) There are brands out there that offer olive shades but they’re BAD. Either the formula is horrible or the shades lean way too blue or way too orange, and in general give me the feeling that they just don’t give a damn. So they do not get a mention.
3) I have to have USED at least one or more shades from every brand here and gotten value from it or continued to use and love it. I do not mention any brands’ olive shades here that I have not put to the test - although I may not have tried every formula variation from them.
ABOUT FACE
There’s a lot to appreciate about the About Face olive offerings, those reasons compounded, they rise to the top of the list. The range is inclusive, giving us an olive option in each depth for a total of 8 olive shades that range from light-medium to deep. Extensive comparatively, but still not exhaustive.
An especially nice aspect is that they’re extremely affordable and accessible, and they outshine almost all the others for good online swatches, faces, and accurate color reads.
Foundation: LM2O, F2O, M2O, MD2O, MD1O, D3O, D2O, D1O
HAUS LABS
Miss Gaga brings us 5 olive foundations and 7 olive concealers. It’s unusual for concealers to be more than foundations, so I found that notable.
It’s important to know that Haus Labs does shade names backwards like MAC - so warm (yellow, orange, golden) will be labeled as cool, and cool (blue, pink, neutral desaturated) will be labeled as warm. Olives here fall into the cool or neutral labels.
Foundation: 19O, 26O, 33O, 44O, 47O
Concealer: O2, 1O, 23, 32, 34, 43, 50
LISA ELDRIDGE
Lisa Eldridge brings us olive shades generously in her foundation range but more scantily in the skin tint. That said, I find the olive undertones in her products to be superior - the tones are expertly done with exactly the right balance of hue and temperature in very elegant formulas. The foundation offers 7 olive shades and the tint offers 3, and while the light olive in both are exquisite, the tint doesn’t reach the deep olive skins at all.
I do appreciate that she often specifies her olives as neutral, true, or golden - a huge leap for the industry and a huge help for us! She also provides a deep olive shade, 35, in the foundation.
Foundation: 2.5, 9, 9.5, 16, 17, 23, 35
Tint: 1.5, 5, 9
RARE BEAUTY
Rare beauty gives us a fairly nice helping of inclusivity with 6 shades in their foundation and concealer with matching shade numbers. I didn’t get along with the foundation (though many do) but I had an easier time with the concealer formula.
Foundation & Concealer: 170W, 230N, 280N, 360W, 430W, 510W
FENTY BEAUTY
Fenty boasts a substantial olive offering across their foundation and concealer formulas as well as powder foundation. Here I will list the shades for the luminous and matte liquid foundations. Numbers appear fairly consistent across products, though there are less options in the concealers.
Luminous, 6: 130, 225, 265, 345, 425, 445
Matte, 7: 130, 225, 265, 290, 345, 425, 445
ALIMA PURE
Alima pure offers an extensive olive shade range in their mineral powder foundation.
There are a whopping 9 shades! 0, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
They run pretty neutral, with varying leans throughout, and honestly the only down side here is that they’re loose powder foundations. In my twenties I would have gone wild for these! Alas, approaching my 50’s and traveling a lot, the powder foundation routine just doesn’t work for my skin or my lifestyle. If they offered this exact shade range in a liquid, cream, or even pressed version, I know all of us would go wild!
KETT COSMETICS
Kett Cosmetics, a pro-brand, offers 5 olive shades in their liquid foundation and 6 olive shades in their cream foundation.
Liquid: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9
Cream: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11
I have only used the cream formulas, and in my experience they are very useful and versatile in terms of being able to customize the coverage level. They run neutral-olive to slightly cool olive, and while there isn’t a large number, it does reach farther across the depth spectrum than many brands. With their modular system I find it handy to have a few depths so I can create dimension and have options through the seasons as my depth fluctuates.
MOB BEAUTY
Mob beauty offers an olive range in their Ceramide cream foundation.
There are 6 shades: 3O, 4O, 5O, 6O, 7O, 8O.
In my experience it’s a valid effort, but falls short in the range as it doesn’t reach very far into the fair or rich depths. The shades, while having an olive lean, do trend warm, and I personally find the formula challenging to work with, although that’s very subjective of course. If you like an eco-conscious brand with a handy modular system and you’re skilled with various cream formulas, they’re definitely worth a go.
SALT NEW YORK
Salt New York’s Sneaky Balm gives an entire range of gorgeous complexion tints that are olive friendly, as well as an Olive Green Adjuster, which is expertly done and extremely useful. An eco-friendly modular (and affordable) system, made in the USA by Kiki Geary, a well established MUA and color theory genius. Highly recommend, especially for mature skin and for those who prefer products that are semi-sheer and mimic skin.
This list will be updated periodically. If you have a brand to suggest I vet please leave me a comment!!!! In addition - if you personally have swatches, please tag this article (it’s free!) along with your swatch, on any platform, to keep the resources growing.
I will make an effort to add swatches over time. I have been working on this article for many months, and while it’s true that I travel *a lot*, I have also this spring lost both my mother and my maine coon through long agonizing and all consuming battles with cancer. Life has been one long extenuating circumstance. As I write this final note I am also packing to leave for Italy in two days, but I wanted you to finally have at least this list form! If you have suggestions on how I can make it more comprehensive or valuable to you I’m all ears.
Please peruse my Instagram where I have 5 years worth of swatches and photos available.
I hope it serves you well, my olive beauties!
I love this compilation - thank you. I use the About Face and the LE tint because they're the best shade match, while the LE foundation is a bit too dark for the winter. I've been playing around with mixing the two and it works better than I expected it would. I have been getting so much use out of the Salt olive shade adjustor. It's brilliant and makes a lot of those non-olive neutral shades work for me.
I am LOVING the sassy callout of NARS lol. Another couple brands that give orange and yellow tones in their olives are MAC and Smashbox. Currently loving the LE skin tint in shade 5 and Haus Labs 190 w/ a little bit of blue and white to neutralize the warmth some as I’m a light cool toned olive that leans neutral. Thank you for helping us out with these recommendations!