Truth is Beauty

Celebrity Light Summers

Light Summer Naomi Watts doesn't look her best here. Our eyes keep going to the black, black dress instead of to her face. When we focus on her face, the too-warm makeup is distractingly orange. The formal hair style and conservative earrings don't express the relaxed energy her coloring calls for. Overall, she just looks tired and flat.

This is more like it. The colors on her face belong there; they're fair and cool with a smidge of bright warmth . The gold earrings repeat tones in her hair, and her hair style is appropriately breezy instead of severe.

Cate Blanchett almost always gets it right. I'd bet money that she has a Light Summer swatchbook. Her colors are rarely too dark or too warm.

More impressively, she doesn't make the mistake of going 100% cool, all the way into the soul of Summer. Google images of her, and you'll see how she manages to perfectly balance light, cool colors with the hint of radiant warmth that Light Summer requires. Her light golden hair usually provides the warm counterpoint to an otherwise cool ensemble.

It took some searching, but I did manage to find a few pics of Cate that don't show her at her best.

The look at the top seems more Deep Autumn (except for that lip!); it washes Cate out.

The middle is cool but too muted; it makes her seem older.

The bottom pic just looks like she's forcing the warmth; with hair, cheeks and lips all artificially reddish-orange, it's as if the woman herself has disappeared.