HUMAN SKIN COLORS
Defining the right skin tones is for many people a challenging tasks. We give you help and information, how to choose the right color for your skin. Around the world we find a lot of different skin color tones from all kind of ethnic groups. We have looked into a few thousand skin color data and found a beautiful math behind the skin colors of the world.
It is very simple, if you know the main reason of your skin colors. In general humans created the different shades because of UV sun-ray protection. The areas of the world with a high radiation correspondent with a darker skin tone of the native people.
What creates a skin color?
Understanding why we have so much different skin shades, we have to go under the skin and look how our colors are created. It is not so difficult as it seems, if you don't have the right informations. We have in our skin a natural pigment called Melanin. This pigments are created in special melanocytes cells in the human epidermis and they are responsible for all skin tones you will find in this world.
Melanin Pigments
Our body creates two different types of melanin pigments in the melanocyte. The skin creates Pheomelanin which is responsible for the skin undertone and Eumelanin for the darkness of the human skin.
Only this 2 types of Melanin types bring forth our human skin color.
EUMELANIN
Skin Shade Brightness
Eumelanin is the pigment which is responsible for the skin shade and the darkness of a human skin. It defines, if a skin is Light, Medium, Tan or Dark. This pigments are much bigger then the other melanins and has a UV protection purpose. This pigment is a natural sun blocker and will be created more, if we go into the sunlight. The pigment is a UV protector.
PHEOMELANIN
Skin Undertone
Pheomelanin is the pigment which is responsible for the skin undertone of a human skin. The range of the pheomelanin pigments can be from yellowish to reddish. The purpose of the pigment is not quit clear, but it seems that the pigment is used for signal reasons. This pigments does not change, if you go to the sunlight and has no UV protection.