So many of you have requested color cards you can use to drape yourself at home and figure out your color season. I offered home draping cards years ago, and I'm finally able to offer them again!

​Edit: You can see a video of me using the cards on myself here:

​Each card is 4 inches by 6 inches and has four colors from a single season: a red or pink, a yellow, a green, and a blue. I've spent many hours making sure these colors are precise for each season. 
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​You can order as many or as few seasons as you like.

For example, if you simply want to confirm that you're a Bright Spring, you can order just the Bright Spring card.

If you know you're a Summer, but you don't know which type, you can order all three Summer cards.

If you know for sure that you can wear black, you can order the three Winter cards, Dark Autumn, and Bright Spring.  (These are the fve seasons with a true black in their palette.)

To test a card, remove all of your makeup and cover your hair. look at a mirror reflection or a photo of yourself with the card held under your chin. Your correct season will make your skin look healthy and alive.

Seasons that are wrong for you can have a variety of negative effects on your skin, depending on what your correct season is. 

• Too-cool seasons can make your skin appear greyed or ashen.
• Too-warm seasons can make your skin look yellowish, orangeish, muddy, or dirty.
• Seasons that are too cool, too dark, or too saturated can make your skin look uniformly pale.
• Seasons that are much too soft or much too saturated can make your features appear less defined.
• Seasons that are too soft or too light can give you blotchiness or redness in your skin.
• Seasons that are too light, too dark, or too soft can create the appearance of shadows on your face or an overall dullness.  
• In any wrong season, your skin can appear more shadowed, more lined, and more discolored.

For many years, I have not offered virtual color analysis, because I have not felt confident that I could guarantee a correct answer about colors based just on photos. Sometimes I felt I all I could offer was my best guess. 

But the truth is, I do think my best guess is right most of the time. And I hear every day from women who would like my best guess. 

So I'm now offering a package of virtual color analysis and a seasonal makeup list... with a catch.

The catch is that I'm only offering this to women I can pre-screen.

Here's how it works: 

You'll send me a ton of pics of yourself in as many different colors as you can find. Send these to the email
[email protected] .

If I believe I know your color season, I'll send you an invoice.  You can choose whether to pay it.
If you pay it, I'll send you your answer, along with a paragraph explaining how I arrived at my answer and your season's makeup list.

At this point, I'm offering a bare-bones package: your season, plus the makeup list. It's $79.  If you're looking for a color analysis that comes with info about your season, this isn't a good option for you. But if you just want a dang answer, this option may be what you've been waiting for.  (And everything I would tell you about your season, I've already put here, on this website, for free!) 

If you're interested, send me lots and lots of pics of yourself at [email protected] .The more pictures you send, and the more different colors I see you in, the more likely it is that I'll be able to find an answer for you. 

You may not hear back from me. But if you do, you'll have the option to learn your answer. 

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In my last few posts, I've talked about how to combine your personal color palette with your style type.

There are 12 seasonal color palettes, and one of them is perfect for your skin. Every color in that palette will be harmonious on you. But some of them will be your personal go-to colors.

Part of that will have to do with the unique way your individual body displays that palette.  And part of it will have to do with your personal style type. Certain hues and certain combinations will send a message that coordinates with your style type. 

So if you're strongly Romantic, what colors in your palette should you focus on?

A woman who is strongly Romantic may have a heart-shaped face, sexy eyes, a high forehead, a delicate nose, and full lips, If this is you, you'll look like yourself in in the deeper versions of your reds, violets, red -violets, rusts, fuchsias, and purples. 
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Your season's version of black will usually be great on you as part  of your overall ensemble, because it reads as mysterious. You can even pull off your season's black as a head-to-toe look, as long as the effect is mysteriously sexy, not intimidating or shocking. (Intimidating or shocking use of your black would read as Dramatic, not Romantic.)
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 Making black look mysterious, not intimidating, won't be difficult if your garments are as detailed as Romantic garments ought to be; the profuse detail breaks up the black visually, so it doesn't feel like a huge block of startling color. ​

​In my experience, Romantic blends are a bit less common than other blended types. Are you a Romantic blend? If so, how have you combined your palette with your style type? Please share in the comments! 

I'm a Soft Autumn.  One could argue that my overall contrast level is higher then either of my kids', because I have fair skin but darker hair than either of them.  Yet I know I'm a Soft Autumn because my best colors are Soft Autumn colors. I look my most lovely in warm, dusty rose, gentle olive, gentle yellow, muted turquoise, and dusty periwinkle. 

The test is always which colors make your skin look the most healthy. 


​If you're not sure of your season, try the quiz!

Once we turn the corner from July into August, I start to think about summer ending, and I feel a little bummed. Maybe you feel that way too.

To cheer us all up, I'm discounting makeup lists 20% this week.  :-)

 ​Remember -- use SUMMERMAKEUP   to get 20% off, this week only!

To bring Bright Spring into a fragrance, try adding:

• Lemon
• Black currant 
• Grapefruit
• Pineapple
• Linden blossom 

To bring True/Warm Spring into a fragrance, try adding:

• Peach
• Plum
• Honey

To bring Light Spring into a fragrance, try adding:

• Tangerine
• Apricot
• Cherry
• Hibiscus

​To bring Light Summer into a fragrance, try adding:

• Snowdrops
• Apple blossom
• Cherry blossom
• Lotus

To bring True/Cool Summer into a fragrance, try adding:

• Calone
• Water hyacinth
• Water lily

To bring Soft Summer into a fragrance, try adding:

• Mimosa
• Ivy
• Aloe
• Saltwater

To bring Soft Autumn into a fragrance, try adding:

• Sandalwood
• Rosewood
• Poppy
• Tobacco blossom

To bring True/Warm Autumn into a fragrance, try adding:

• Marigold
• Sage
• Fenugreek
• Praline

To bring Dark Autumn into a fragrance, try adding:

• Pepper
• Saffron
• Black tea
• Tannins
• Guaiac wood

To bring Dark Winter into a fragrance, try adding:

• Incense
• Black elder
• Chili
• Cypress

To bring True Winter into a fragrance, try adding:

• Metallic notes
• Sour cherry
• Cassis
• Mineral
• Slate​

To bring Bright Winter into a fragrance, try adding:

• Caraway
• Ginger
• Pomegranate
• Gin

For the essential fragrance notes and fragrance families recommended for your style type, check out your Fragrance Guide. 

To search for fragrances by specific notes, try these sites:

The Perfumed Court
Fragrantica



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If you're not sure of your style type, try the Style ID Calculator, or consider a virtual style analysis. If you're not sure of your color season, try At-Home Draping Cards.

Yes, I know I'm late to this party! But I don't have network TV, and I have two kids. I'm just now catching up with the rest of the world TV-wise.

Anyway, here are the color seasons of several of the actors on Mad Men, as best I can tell.

Elisabeth Moss: True Summer

Her best colors aren't particularly dark, but they're very cool. Soft Summer is also a possibility for her, but what really convinced me of True Summer was seeing how pink her lipstick can get. The pinker it is, the prettier she looks. Most seasons can't wear those super-pink lippies.


Jon Hamm: Dark Winter

His best colors are certainly cool, and quite dark. They're not vivid enough to be Bright Winter colors, and they have the "sooty" quality (as Christine Scaman puts it) that characterizes Dark Winter colors. 

January Jones: Light Spring

Her best colors are warm, clear, and rather light and delicate. I don't think True Spring is impossible for her, but I think it's unlikely; it's telling to me that her very worst colors are dark (remember when Betty dyed her hair black?) I also find some colors to be too clear and warm for her; pure orange and bright red are not great.


Jessica Pare: Bright Spring

This woman was obviously a Bright from her first moment on screen. I decided on Bright Spring rather than Bright Winter because so many warm, clear colors are glorious on her, and because too-cool colors can make her look a bit goth.

I love how often she's costumed in her best colors. It's a joy to behold.

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Linda Cardellini: True Winter

What a gorgeous example of a True Winter. The way black, white and grey make this skin look amazing -- it's just beautiful. 



Although I know it will disappoint some people, I have to say that I can't accurately type Christina Hendricks.  :-(

You might be thinking, "She's obviously a Bright, or a True Spring!"  But don't let yourself get distracted by the colors she's costumed in as Joan  -- they're generally very bright colors, but they're also brighter than she is. 

​Your best colors should let us see you; Joan's colors force us to just see lips, hair, and curves. 

​Which is probably the point.: the colors make her into a cartoon.

 I suspect that, IRL, Christina Hendricks is probably a Soft Autumn, or just maybe a True Autumn; warmth seems to be good for her, but she needs less saturation than she's given on Mad Men. 

What do you think? Any ideas about Christina Hendricks' color season? Do you think I've missed the mark on any of the other characters? Let me know!

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. 

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: 

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:

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.