Olive skin describes a skin color

Human skin color

Human skin color is primarily due to the presence of melanin in the skin. Skin color ranges from almost black to white with a pinkish tinge due to blood vessels underneath. Variation in natural skin color is mainly due to genetics, although the evolutionary causes are not completely certain...

 range of some indigenous individuals who are from the Mediterranean and some other parts of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

 and regions of South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

, Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...

 and Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

. It may often be skin type 3 and 4 on the Fitzpatrick scale

Fitzpatrick scale

The Fitzpatrick Scale is a numerical classification schema for the color of skin. It was developed in 1975 by Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, a Harvard dermatologist, as a way to classify the response of different types of skin to UV light...

. However, this scale measures depth of skin color and reaction to UV rays, not hue

Hue

Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...

 of skin color. Depth of skin color refers to where it falls on a tints and shades

Tints and shades

In color theory, a tint is the mixture of a color with white, which increases lightness, and a shade is the mixture of a color with black, which reduces lightness...

 or light/dark scale, and hue is the base of the color (i.e. red, yellow, blue). Olive skin is when skin has a mostly yellow hue with touches of blue, essentially producing a green-yellow hue to the skin. Therefore, fair skin can have an olive hue, and some olive-skinned people may burn easily in the sun if they are also fair.

Named for its green and gold undertones (the color of an olive), it refers to a cool, earthy skin tone. People with olive skin may have any hair color or eye color. In olive-skinned people who are naturally fair, the skin is pale, but a slight olive hue remains. This distinguishing aspect of the skin type is what contributes to its name and differentiates it from other skin types.