The Flesh Tone Color Wheel by Terri Tomlinson

The Flesh Tone Color Wheel by Terri Tomlinson

The Flesh Tone Color Wheel by Terri Tomlinson is a visual colour wheel for make-up artists, focused on working with skin tones rather than standard colours. Essential for foundation matching, contouring, correcting undertones, and mixing prosthetic pigments to achieve a perfect skin-tone match.

• Colour theory tool built around skin tones, not standard colours
• For foundation matching, contouring and colour correction
• Shows complementary and analogous skin tones for blending
• Developed by professional make-up artist Terri Tomlinson
• Indispensable for SFX artists matching prosthetic pigments to skin

What is The Flesh Tone Color Wheel?

The wheel applies colour theory just like a traditional colour wheel, but uses the skin-tone values that make-up artists and visagistes actually work with. It shows which skin tones are complementary (useful for neutralising undertones) and which are analogous (useful for blending smoothly between them). That makes it more than a learning aid, it works as a daily reference tool on set or at the chair.

Why choose The Flesh Tone Color Wheel?

Most colour wheels are built around paint or general design colour theory. This one is built around how skin actually reads, from warm and cool undertones to light and dark values across the full range of human skin. Whether you're matching foundation for a theatre actor or pigmenting a silicone prosthetic for a film role, the wheel gives you a clear visual framework to work from.

When do you use the colour wheel?

• Foundation matching: find the right skin tone for an actor or client.
• Undertone correction: use complementary colours to neutralise red, yellow or blue tones in the skin.
• Prosthetic pigmenting: choose the right silicone pigments to match your prosthetic to the actor's skin.
• Contouring and highlighting: determine which shadow and highlight tones suit each skin tone.

Useful companion products

• The Flesh Tone Fan by Terri Tomlinson a compact fan for studying skin tones up close
• Mouldlife Silicone Pigments for tinting silicone prosthetics using the skin-tone guide
• Key-Pigments Silicone Pigment Dark Flesh as a ready-to-use skin-tone pigment