Discover your color palette and your style type.

Bright Winter Makeup Word Cloud

3/19/2018

I've been making word clouds from the color names on my seasonal makeup lists, to see what color words occur most frequently in the makeup for each season.

This week, I've done Bright Winter.

The Bright Winter Makeup List gives the names of several hundred products that have been matched to color swatches from the Bright Winter palette.

If you're a Bright Winter, your perfect makeup colors come from the colors in the Bright Winter palette.

Let's see those makeup color names!

Wow -- a lot of pink! And red, and cherry, and fuchsia. Pink is a light, cool red; cherry is a dark, cool red; fuchsia is a red so cool it's almost purple. Cool red tones dominate here.

Compare this word cloud to Dark Winter's:

Bright Winter makeup colors

Dark Winter makeup colors

In Dark Winter's cloud, on the right, the combination of plum + purple + wine is, to me, quintessentially Dark Winter, and really distinguishes DW's makeup color's from Bright Winter's.

Overall, Bright Winter colors feel lighter and brighter, as they should: both Winter seasons are rather dark, vivid, and cool, but Dark Winter is particularly dark, and BRight Winter is particularly vivid.

Let's compare Bright Winter makeup to Bright Spring:

Bright Winter makeup colors

Bright Spring makeup colors

Both seasons prominently feature pink. But coral is essential for Bright Spring makeup, on the right, while it plays a relatively minor role for Bright Winter. That makes sense: coral is a warm, light red or orange. Bright Winter does have some warmer colors, and coral-y tones are among them, but they don't predominate.

Notice also how relatively important black is for Bright Winter as opposed to Bright Spring. The Bright Spring palette has a black, but black usually won't feature prominently on a beautifully made-up Bright Spring face -- it's just not a defining color of that warm, bright, joyful palette.

Bright Winter, on the other hand, can be gorgeous with black mascara, black liner, and even (for certain women) blackish brows and eyeshadow. The overall palette is deeper and more dramatic.

If you suspect you're a Bright Winter, the makeup list is a great resource. If you're not sure of your personal color season, try affordable at-home draping.

24 Comments

3/19/2018 05:03:52 pm

Amazing! I've moved twice in the last two months and haven't had much time to spend on makeup. I'd been leaning heavily on a bright, cool, red eyeshadow I'd found (and been using as blush), concealer, and clear lip gloss each day. I decided today to finally sit down and break into my palettes to do my face, and noticed that the browns, plums, and golds I'd used previously aged me and made me look duller. Then I remembered that as a dark-skinned black woman, DA and DW had been shoved on me for quite some time and likely influenced me the last time I purchased makeup. I dipped into the pinks and reds in my collection and suddenly I looked refreshed and hydrated. I was stunned at the effect such bright looks had on my skin. Pink and red will be my go-to's from now on and this post feels like a serendipitous confirmation! Thanks!

3/25/2018 10:53:40 pm

Also I've been flitting through the boards and just wanted to say thanks for adding WOC to some of them, the Ingenue blend boards in particular. It's really hard to visualize myself there a lot of times, so I appreciate the update.

Rachel

3/31/2018 08:34:51 pm

So happy that the post and the boards have been helpful to you! Re: the pin boards -- I've been trying to bring more WoC into them. I have a lot of room to go yet before there's significant representation, but I'm happy the little I've done so far has been helpful! :-)

Katja

3/22/2018 04:03:59 am

KC, are you any closer to finding your style-ID? (Sorry, this has nothing to do with BW make up). Do you think that my suggestion was wrong?

3/24/2018 04:52:17 am

Hi Katja--I don't think your suggestion was wrong, I just decided to mull it over for a while and see if it continued to feel right over time. You were definitely on the right track with Ethereal and Gamine--looking at old photos revealed that I look really good in floaty styles, and about a month ago, I remember looking into a mirror on a day when I'd somehow incorporated something unflattering into my appearance (I forget what exactly), and the first thought that popped into my head was "This makes my face look boyish and less feminine." I also rock the period flapper look.

Natural is the one I'm still not 100 percent sure about--I keep going between Ethereal-Gamine-Natural and Ethereal-Gamine-Dramatic. Maybe I have a little of both N and D. It doesn't help that I like Natural clothes on a personal level, so even with the Style Calculator, I'm not certain that bias isn't affecting my results. Maybe if I average out my results from several different tries . . . ?

Thanks for taking the time to give me your honest opinion on my style ID, not to mention having such patience with my overdramatic waffling and angsting ;). You were very helpful and got me to rethink certain assumptions I'd made early on and hadn't questioned since (cough Ingenue cough).

3/24/2018 11:03:41 am

Hi, KC! I'm glad to help. This is my passion.
Dramatic- Ethereal.Gamine might not be so bad for you. When I tried dramatic lines on you I thought they were to hard on you, but I might be wrong...Or like you said; you could have both Dramatic and Ethereal.
I don't know you as well as you do. I haven't seen you before, but that can actually be a good thing : I can be objective. If we work together maybe we could figure out your style-ID.

3/24/2018 05:19:26 am

Rachel, now that the days are getting longer and warmer, would you consider either adding more sunglasses to the style boards or writing a post about which sunglasses styles look best on each style essence? I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but I'm an Ethereal blend that's always had trouble finding a truly flattering pair of sunglasses. I think it's easier for the nonidealized essences to find flattering frames just by choosing the shapes that look good in any of their accessories (round and ornate for Romantics, simple and square/rectangular for Naturals, etc.); Ethereals and Dramatics have to somehow make a fundamentally horizontal accessory work on their elongated faces!

On the *actual* topic of this post, I like the surprising themes that show up in the makeup word clouds for each season. I would never have thought that Dark Winters were so inherently purple, lol. Since you've covered all the Springs and most of the Winters, I look forward to seeing what True Winter's word cloud looks like (I'm foreseeing lots of black, red, violet, and fuchsia, and more icy colors than other seasons). Don't forget that Summers and Autumns need some love too :).

3/24/2018 12:06:50 pm

KC, here are some celebrity examples if you want to compare yourself to them:
Sofia Boutella: Primary essences: Dramatic, Ethereal and Natural. And a smidge of Gamine.
Kirsten Stewart: Primary: Dramatic and Gamine. Secondary: Natural and Ethereal.
Cara Delevigne: Primary: Dramatic and Gamine. Secondary:Ethereal. A smidge of Natural.

3/24/2018 03:54:33 pm

Hi Katja! I'm curious what would be some celebrity examples of a Classic/Ethereal/Natural or Classic/Ethereal/Dramatic (I'm fairly certain I'm primarily Classic and Ethereal with some Natural and/or Dramatic as well as perhaps a bit of Ingenue). Thanks!

3/25/2018 04:08:17 am

AM, Jessica Chastain is Classic/Dramatic/Ethereal.
Gwyneth Paltrow is Natural/Classic/ Ethereal.
Cate Blanchett is Dramatic/Ethereal/ Natural/Classic. (Her first essences are Dramatic and Ethereal).
Meryl Streep is Natural/Classic/Ethereal.
I hope this helps!

3/25/2018 01:33:14 pm

Hi Katja,
Thank you for your response! I'm not sure that quite fits me - I share perhaps the "Renaissance" element in Chastain, and I have a decent amount in common with young Meryl, especially her largely even features combined with a prominent Ethereal/Dramatic nose, but my face is definitely more feminine and less angular. The celebrity I'm most frequently compared to is Taylor Swift, though I've again got that distinctly Ethereal/Dramatic nose, and when I was younger I was told I looked like Molly Ringwald, so perhaps I have a lot more Ingenue than I thought? I don't have the "hardness" or robustness that I see in Blanchett or Paltrow that would let me carry a lot of Natural or Dramatic looks.

3/26/2018 03:13:00 am

Hi AM, From what you wrote there seems to be something delicate and youthful about you. But are you sure that your youthful essence is Ingenue? Could it be Gamine? Or both?
I haven't done an analysis on Molly Ringwagwald, but I think she has Gamine and Natural. Maybe Ethereal too?
Taylor Swift is a Dramatic/ Ethereal/Ingenue. Not everybody with Dramatic or Natural in their style-ID looks hard or robust. Swift has Dramatic, but do you think she looks hard or robust? It all depends on what blend you are. It depends on your other essences too.
Another Ingenue celebrity is Alexis Bledel. Her first essence is Ingenue and her second essences are Classic and Ethereal.
It is very difficult for me to tell you what your essences could be since I haven't seen any pictures of you.

3/25/2018 03:15:43 pm

Hi Katja,

Do you have a blog or Pinterest boards I could check out?

3/26/2018 04:18:24 am

Hi IO, Sorry, I don't have a blog or pinterest boards at the moment.

3/26/2018 06:29:02 pm

Hi Katja,
I can't seem to respond to your latest comment below for some reason! Thanks again for your response. Surprised to see that T Swift has Dramatic (and not Classic?) but it makes sense the more I think about it. I'm tempted to think I share the same essences, perhaps in different proportions (less Ingenue, certainly - I don't favor big curly hair at all, despite that being my natural texture. That's the reason I thought I might have Classic, because the explanation on this blog of a Classic's features being obscured by detail was so spot-on for how I feel every time I straighten my hair - my features genuinely disappear with big hair, most earrings, most hats, etc.). So far as the youthful essence is concerned, I'm positive I don't have any Gamine - and it's possible the "softness"/delicate sense could come from Ethereal, or even from Classic (in the sense of my face being easily overwhelmed when it comes to hair and hats). I agree it must be challenging for you to try to deduce my essences from my descriptions alone, haha! Do you have a blog or other means through which I could send you some pictures?

3/27/2018 02:46:49 am

Hi AM, I don't have a blog, but you could send me some pictures to an old e-mail address of mine :
katjastyling78@gmail.com.

3/28/2018 02:39:23 pm

Hi Katja,
I sent some pictures to your email! Thank you!

3/29/2018 02:29:00 am

Thank you! I will have a look and give you my opinion.

Karen

3/25/2018 11:25:10 pm

Well that pretty much describes my makeup— lots of reds, cherry, reddish pink, fuschia, and magenta. Sounds very clownish, doesn’t it? It’s so weird how totally natural it looks on me, though. I wear black mascara and black eyeliner, as well. I even wear a darker purple from my pallet as my eyeliner under my lower lashes and it looks totally neutral on me. No one even notices that I’m wearing purple eyeliner! I did have to wonder about the color brown coming up on the graphic. Unless it’s a very dark black-brown, I don’t know of any brown on my Bright Winter palette. I avoid brown like the plague, especially on my face, as it’s very aging on me. Ironic since I have dark brown hair and a dark brown ring around my iris, and yet brown eyeshadow looks terrible on me.

Nicole

4/4/2018 05:55:31 pm

Hi Rachel!! I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on the VERY rarely talked about but not uncommon color group- Soft/Toned Spring! (Such as Mandy Moore, Eve the Rapper, Lauren Conrad, Marcia Cross, Leslie Mann, Dominique Reighard, Yendi Phillips, etc). For example, the types of spring colors on the "Clear Warm Soft" group here: www.idealiststyle.com/blog/clear-warm-the-rules-of-wearing-colors ... I am an ethnic Soft Spring myself and I know I could learn alot from you! You are so knowledgeable in color analysis!

Rosetta

5/3/2018 04:21:27 am

Nicole, I doubt Rachel will give (or have) any views on "Soft" or "Toned" Spring, as those seasons do not exist in the 12 seasons system that this site adheres to :) (As do I.) Please see the "color analysis" section of the menu for reference!

steph

7/6/2018 08:23:47 am

Nicole, I'm with you there--unfortunately for us, Rachel goes by the 12-season analysis so I don't see it happening!

4/7/2018 03:27:23 am

Nicole, if you want to know some more about Soft Spring maybe this could help: https://www.prettyyourworld.com/the-sunlit-soft-spring.html. And this: https://www.prettyyourworld.com/the-dusty-soft-spring.html

5/3/2018 04:23:20 am

Katja, just FYI, that site adheres to a totally different color system than this one, so I'm not sure it's acceptable to refer to it here. (And even if acceptable, it's very confusing, TBH! ;))

Truth is Beauty

Bright Winter Makeup Word Cloud

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