Discover your color palette and your style type.

Should I Be Able to Wear Every Color in My Palette?

7/30/2018

The short answer is yes.

The more complicated answer is that not every single color in your palette will look good in every application.

For example, my Soft Autumn tan isn't great on me as a shirt, because that's the same color as my skin and it makes me look naked. (Generally, wearing tops or bottoms in the same color as your skin tone is a non-starter for daytime, because of the "nude" effect. Go a few shades lighter or darker.)

But my SA tan is great for me in makeup, and as an accent color.

My lightest pink isn't my best lippie, because it's lighter than my lips, but it's pretty as lingerie.

Consider, also, your style identity: certain hues make certain impressions, and you 'll want to make an impression that's consistent with your personal style.

For example, because I'm an Ethereal Natural, the majority of my wardrobe consists of Soft Autumn browns, blues, greens, gentle metallics, and dawn/dusk hues. I rarely wear my Soft Autumn pinks in large blocks because the impression they create is more girly than I am. (Though I love my pinks as lipsticks and blushes.) I almost never wear a large block of my Soft Autumn red, because the impression it makes is more aggressive than I am. (Though, again, I would wear it in makeup.)

A Soft Autumn with a lot of Ingenue would want to focus on those pinks. And a Soft Autumn with a lot of Dramatic would look great in big blocks of Soft Autumn red.

Check out your style type's Shopping Guide for more information about which colors from your seasonal palette to focus on.

And if you're not sure about your seasonal palette, consider trying the Home Draping Cards; a lot of women have found them helpful.

If you know your season, are there particular colors that you've found you can only wear in certain applications?

Or if you know your style type, are there particular colors that you've found best fit with your overall vibe?

Please share in the comments!

Originally published July 2017.

30 Comments

Rosetta

7/17/2017 05:46:37 am

"Not every single color in your palette will look good in every application" - a very good insight, reminder & a voice of reason, thanks for that! :)

7/30/2018 01:23:47 pm

How interesting! My best colors were what helped me find my style ID.

I kept finding that I could lean into a lot of styles, but something was wrong. I knew I needed delicacy, but ethereal was too unconstructed and busy. I kept searching. Then, in that past few weeks, I sort of "gave up" on this project -- only to find the answer via my colors. I kept getting tons of compliments when wearing pretty yellows, pinks, coral, turquoise, lavender -- all these candy colors. Suddenly, it clicked: the delicacy I need comes from ingenue.

I originally typed myself (with help from a friend) as NCEI in a 4 way split. I now realize I ranked the EI boards very high, because straight-up Ingenue looks quite small on me (I'm fairly tall, so ingenue was just not even up for consideration in my mind). But it's the "pretty" delicacy I'm needing, not the magical -- I just could not see it until I compared the color schemes. Also, ingenue scares me a little, as I've always seen girly clothes as the opposite of of cool or confident. Time to change my thinking, and realize there is strength in softness.

On a side note, I would love to hear more about the difference between ingenue and ethereal -- since both are non-kibbe categories, I think they get less attention.
I can tell them apart when they are "pure" - but blend them into another ID and I find myself struggling to see the difference at times. I'd love to hear more about breaking apart the elements of "soft" in kibbe and feminine style in general.

7/30/2018 06:04:47 pm

Great points and similar to me! Mixing Ingenue into opposite IDs (like N and D) can also mask it. I think too that, if determining your ID has been super challenging, but you generally look good in a lot of clothes that are not from IDs that are definite no's (for me, R and G, and some N), it can be important to take a break from obsessive analysis and go out and try to see yourself in clothes and see what works in reality. It was more helpful for me to determine that I have no R, despite my figure being able to carry a lot of R looks, and no/little G and not much N, than it was to try to exactly pinpoint where I do fall. And the masculine/feminine balance - though I think my self-consciousness about some features convinced me I was perhaps more masculine than I actually am. I frankly don't think I make an impression that is uber-specific, which I see as a blessing - depending on my styling I can appear as I wish to appear (just not as an uber-sexy mature woman and not as a little boy, haha, and if I wear much N I look lost/stranded/in need of help). Since I've trained my eye to identify if a piece is harmonizing with my lines and colors, I often go based on instinct - it's after the fact that I often notice said pieces often have a lot of C, D, and maybe some I. But sometimes pieces appear to have other influences and still work for some reason. Maybe Rachel would be able to tell me why a particular piece that is "contrary" to my ID works, but for the time being - I just trust my eye. Not everyone is going to be easily categorized, and even once you are categorized, your category might not correspond to an easily identifiable style - which is freeing, as you can define your own, which everyone kind of has to do anyway because our proportions of IDs will naturally differ.

I actually was going back to Kibbe a few weeks ago - and thinking about his initial work on "typecasting" yourself, which I found helpful even though I don't suit a Kibbe category. I found it helpful to go back to thinking about my overall impression versus dissecting which features fall into which ID. This is where colors can be helpful, as we have very emotional, instinctive reactions to color - red is aggressive/action-oriented/sexy, blue is pacific and friendly, green can be calm/nature-associated or the color of envy/money, pink is girlish, etc... Of course, this also can defeat the purpose if you're a SS or SA Dramatic, but like all strategies for determining what you look best in, it's *one* tool that could help *some* people.

Concerning colors - I was always so, so attracted to (Winter) red and black - but my skin looked awful even though "I" felt reflected in those colors (my mom once said that, aside from very few reds suiting my skin tone, in red I was "too" me - I needed softer colors to counterbalance my "natural aggression" - haha). I will try incorporating more SA reds to see how they work with the D I have. I have found charcoal and deep aubergine are good black replacements.

Even though I have to say, I'm questioning my season again. While a lot of my journey has become evaluating myself in individual items/colors rather than obsessing over seasons, it would help me to determine my season to find the right red. I have lately come back to the idea that I could be a LS, which is not intuitively what you'd mistake for SA, but warmth/coolness can never be the defining way of me determining my colors - I am *so* neutral. I tend to look better in the right gold jewelry, and soft golds and tans (SA) are some of my very best colors (also strong Classic which is reflected in these colors and associations)... but lately I've been finding myself wearing almost solely powder blue tops, and having gotten my highlights done recently, I was just floored by how my ashy blonde, very LS color just transforms my skin in the best way. I can handle a good amount of yellow (but never orange!!!) in my hair color as well. Then again, SA is also flattered by highlights, but mine explicitly need to be very ashy.

Miranda

7/30/2018 06:53:20 pm

I think I confused the pretty in Ethereal and Ingenue too - after all the agonizing, in Rachel's analysis, I turned out to have zero Ingenue and only a dash of Natural (REG). I think I was also mistaking the youthfulness and masculinity of Gamine for a blend of Natural and Ingenue. While I was trying to figure it out on my own, I initially rejected Gamine in part because I don't feel comfortable in my sparkly EGN high tops, but in reality, they don't work because they're not formal enough.

Shawna

8/3/2018 09:10:21 pm

Your comment about about mistaking Gamine for a blend of Natural and Ingenue intrigues me because I keep thinking I have N and I but people really like me in a pixie cut and that could be G. It's not D, I do know that. D is terrible on me and so is all my hair pulled back. It has to be a soft pixie. Now I am worried that I could be Ethereal Gamine Ingenue! LOL

Katja

7/31/2018 08:17:14 am

W, An Ingenue looks girly, pretty and innocent. She is very feminine, but not in a sexy way. Her figure is gently curved, but it is more trim than lush. She has wide-set eyes, a large forehead and round cheeks. She has small bones.The Ingenue woman often has curly hair. She is delicate and detailed. That is why she needs a lot of small details around her face. Headbands, bows, dots and tiny flowers read as Ingenue. You can think of the Romantic woman as a rose at the peak of blossom and the Ingenue woman as a rosebud.
The Ethereal woman is mature looking. She has an ancient or timeless quality. She is very delicate. Physically she is defined by a curving S-line that is elongated. Her face is long and gently sculpted. Her body is elongated and narrow. Even if she is tall, her bone structure is small. Her hair is often wavy.
The Romantic woman is sensual and mature looking. Her beauty is womanly. She is delicate and very detailed. Her bones are small and her body is curvy with a small waist. She has a large forehead, a narrow jaw and full lips. Her hair is rich.
If you are unusual and rare looking you probably have E. Both I and R are earthly essences. Ethereal beauty is outerwordly.
If you need some structure your feminine essence is I. Both E and R lines are flowing.
If your face is elongated you probably have E. Ingenues tend to have small faces.
I hope this helps!

7/31/2018 02:04:33 pm

Hi Katja,

This is good info! Again though, when the IDs of ingenue and ethereal are blended with other elements, I find them difficult to tell apart. For example, I've seen Olivia Palermo typed as an ethereal blend - but also as an ingenue blend. I think she can pull of both? Or Rosamond Pike? She's another of those 'is that ethereal or ingenue?'

For myself, if I were to go strictly by my features, I get wildly different results. Kibbe would have me as FN simply for my height. When I took a Kibbe quiz (do you have this feature? That feature?) I aggregated all my features and wound up as a DC. I tried that for about a year, and it was awful! Dramatic Classic was very severe-looking on me. So I thought, okay, I've often been told I have classic features - there must be something wrong with the dramatic side of things. Ethereal maybe? I have defined bone structure and am relatively tall and narrow. When my face is at rest, ethereal almost works.

But the moment I smile, everything changes. Suddenly, something is really wrong with ethereal or dramatic. I *wanted* ED or EDC to work. EDC looks very regal. It's incredibly striking on me. But the smiles ruined it. When I smile, I look very childlike. My high cheekbones are suddenly swallowed up in rounded, apple cheeks. And I found my best pictures are very 'cute' - interestingly, I'm always doing something very childlike in them: looking at something in curiosity, playfully smiling at the camera, laughing, or, in many cases, playing with a bunch of kids. I remembered how from time to time people would say of my appearance that I was 'cute' or 'elfin' or 'like pippi longstocking' (which just ... ???)

Yes, cataloging the features can help - but I think the most helpful thing I've seen in Rachel's system is that she goes off of overall impression. For a lot of people (for me!) individual features don't entirely add up to the visual impression that they give off. I don't *think* of myself as some class president type (well, actually...) but I do know that I have a lot of classic, and yet I need some ingenue to soften and freshen the look, and a bit of natural to keep it grounded. :)

Shawna

8/3/2018 09:05:24 pm

Interesting to read your comments as I can kind of relate. When I did the ID calculator and first got ERI but others here said no, you can't be that, I don't see that in you. I played more and could make ENC work so left it at that for awhile. I wasn't sure of my colours but I thought I was an Autumn and had been told so by an online colour analysis. But it didn't work for me and I began to think I was a Spring. I admired Light Spring but didn't think I could wear it until I began to really pay attention to what colours were best on me and now I think I actually am a Light Spring-coral, light aqua, light lime green, light golden camel and light yellows are some of my best colours. As far as style ID goes the Ethereal seems really certain but I still keep thinking there is something Ingenue there and I know I pull off Ingenue styles. It's a bit confusing when I am tall and 51 years old but it is what works. Natural only works for me in terms of relaxed lines, though they have to be body skimming. I can't do the textures or weight of Natural and it's really only where Natural and Ethereal kind of overlap that I can do Natural. I do suit a lot of detail near my face-lace, embroidery, beading, a ruffle or two. With Kibbe I dabbled in Soft Classic and Soft Natural. but I never seemed to really fit anywhere properly and I suspect he would make me a Flamboyant Natural and I'd be miserable. While I don't think Dressing Your Truth is an effective programme. I am essentially a type 1/2 in that system. Minus some of the silly looking stuff. Like you I ranked EI boards highly when I did the ID calculator and I am tall-5' 9 1/2". I see the differences between Ethereal and Ingenue as mostly showing up in dresses-E being long and body skimming, I being more body obscuring although very short dresses are possible with E and not expected for I. Sometimes E and I seem opposite to me and I'm not sure how one would work out wearing both. I think of E as Grecian gown and I as fluffy baby-doll dresses but as you say, that's more their pure version.

Katja

8/5/2018 02:55:36 am

Shawna, I think you are a Summer. I don't know which one.

Shawna

8/5/2018 03:25:21 pm

Katja, I once thought I was a summer too. Definitely not True Summer. I tried Soft Summer but it's too grey and drab. My best colours are a peachy golden camel, peach/coral/salmon, light aqua and yellow greens. Light Summer probably isn't the worst palette I could wander into but Light Spring is better. :-)

7/30/2018 01:49:55 pm

Dawn and dusk colors sound interesting for an Ethereal, especially for one with a darker Season. What hues would create a dawn/dusk impression?

Miranda

7/30/2018 06:46:26 pm

I have always felt that I can't do Ethereal colors, even though people gave me a lot of compliments when I wore them. There is a picture of me when I was a kid wearing a light blue shirt and I was barely visible in the picture - I looked like I blended into the sky. Now I think people thought those colors were pretty in comparison to colors that were too Natural, too masculine, or the wrong season (like black).
While I was initially startled after my analysis to have so much Romantic in my REG ID, my obsession a few years ago with deep pink (which I have always considered my red) made a lot more sense.
On the other hand, I can wear very light Ethereal colors in makeup, while Romantic colors do *not* work in that application. I'm still trying to figure out what Gamine makeup looks like because I think that if I do want to wear stronger makeup sometimes, that will be the way to go.

8/1/2018 03:56:33 pm

Judging by the pics of Gamine faces on Rachel’s style boards, G makeup tends to emphasize the most animated and expressive facial features—eyes, brows, and mouth. The overall effect gives the impression of a cartoon character or an emoji. G makeup sees to consist of well-defined brows, lips that are MLBB or a couple shades brighter, and eyes defined with eyeliner and mascara but practically invisible shadow. The right blush could lend an air of youth and energy, but blush doesn’t seem to be emphasized for this style ID. Since you also have R and E, you could add a fair amount of shimmer to the basic G template and get a more dressy, formal look that way. Hope this was helpful :).

Christy

7/31/2018 06:32:07 am

I find the combination of colors and style really challenging. I am closest to being a Dark Autumn, but when I bought Rachel’s color swatches, there are several colors in there that are too warm and too muted for me. I had a personal color analysis done elsewhere sometime back, which narrowed by best colors in the DA spectrum, eliminating golds and muted oranges.

Rachel typed me as EDC, which I can see, though she said she had struggled with whether I was R or E. I am mostly (50%) D. My big problem is that I love reds. Red lipstick is a favorite for work, but when Rachel and I talked about makeup, she falt I need to bring out my 30% E, people compliment me in red clothes all the time, too, but red is not a color that is emphasized for any of my essesnces.

I can see that I am not truly R (bows and ruffles overwhelm me), but I feel like I beed red somewhere. I think it is worse when I am at work, because as I age, and in fluorescent lighting lighter makeup (E) gets lost, and D makeup looks harsh. I have tried the DC look of Amal Clooney, which is kind of a default for me, but Rachel pointed out that her face is more classic than mine.

I guess my point is that all of this is a process. It would just be nice if I could figure it all out and move on.

7/31/2018 10:20:41 am

Yes to the work not being finished once you have identified your colors and lines - in some ways, it just begins!

My mother is (mostly likely) DA, has D and C, and she always wears a deep brick red or berry lip - it looks nude/natural on her, and bare or lighter lips look ghostly. Makeup "disappears" into her coloring and she can take a lot of it. She doesn't have E, but I could see how incorporating E-inspired makeup could be reallly challenging for DA.

I do have to question, though, if E wouldn't suit lip emphasis in makeup? I feel like most of the feminine essences suit some form of lipstick. Would still love to hear from Rachel regarding makeup - I effectively stopped wearing lipstick as I feel it really, more than any other detail except big curly hair, makes me look too masculine, and it would be great to know the rationale "why."

Rachel

7/31/2018 01:12:07 pm

Hi! I’m still working on these durn makeup guides — part of the reason they are taking so long is I am solving mysteries as I write them. For that reason, I so appreciate hearing your feedback about what lipstick does to your face. Deep lipstick also makes me look rather masculine as well. Yes it can be quite good for both Romantics and Dramatics.

7/31/2018 03:15:43 pm

No rush! Looking forward to the guides. I have personally found that, not only do bold lips/visible lipstick make me look masculine, overdone lashes are bad too. Particularly lashes with a lot of volume in the middle as opposed to the outer lashes, if that makes sense. Cat eyes are awesome for me, though, as long as they are in SA colors (tough for liquid liner, I usually go with a pencil as a result but overly smudgy makeup is also NOT for me, I just look dirty). I can also do a "fresh" look with no eye makeup/just subtle taupe eyeliner with the wing "extending" the eye, with more emphasis on a peachy blush that's applied toward the upper part of the face. Brow emphasis is good, I have naturally sparse brows but can't seem to really overdo the brows so long as the color is right. Matte is good, or just a tinted sunscreen that isn't too dewy. But some cheekbone dewiness is good. My eyes are too hooded for playful eyeshadow, though I do like a visible taupe or gold shadow - that looks good. Contour usually looks dirty - my bones stick out without doing anything, and trying to contour the parts with more baby fat just looks fake. I have been beginning to apply a rosy nude blush as a contour on non-puffy days, and I suspect as I get older contour will work better for me. Highlighting is great for bringing out bone structure in photos. Absolutely no makeup is not fantastic. Too unpolished. But too much R sort of makeup is worse. I can take a lot of makeup in the right colors, but it's better if it has an almost editorial, totally nonsexual vibe. And I always need some restraint - single feature emphasis is good. One of the times I was lucky enough to have a famous makeup artist do my makeup at a department store event, he did what I would describe as a very "Hunger Games" formal look - intense charcoal eyes with metallics, extending all the way up to the brow, with very subtle peachy blush/contour, matte foundation, and very subtle matte peachy lips. It was the greatest makeup ever - I felt so sad when I had to take it off!
(^^ I have no R or G, probably a good amount of C, IDs without D don't work for me, and I very likely have some Ingenue. I may have trace amounts of E or N, but I don't look fantastic draped in EN... lack of structure is a disaster. Hope this provides you with useful info beyond just personal anecdotes!)

Weirdly, dark lipstick (like dark purple) looks better than red. Again, witchy vs. sexual. Doesn't suit my coloring but it harmonizes better with my face. I also find I need a mix of dewy and matte. Glossy is too much, but metallic eyes, or a balmy texture on the lips, are good. Lining the outside of the lips is bad, or when lipstick collects on the lip lines versus the center - I usually apply lipstick only at the center and blot it out.

This might just be me, but lining underneath my eyes makes me look tired, sad, and raccoon-like. I concentrate all eye makeup on the top.

Shawna

8/3/2018 09:19:03 pm

I really struggled with makeup until I decided I am a Light Spring. I am a warm leaning LSp so I can wear a lot of warmth and even Autumn or True Spring makeup looks unexpectedly right in terms of colour but is so heavy I look like a child playing dress up. I need sheer lipstick to look normal and light colours though sometimes they get too chalky looking. I think that's possibly a formula issue again though. Too thick and matte is bad! More than other cosmetics I find lipstick quite telling too.

8/1/2018 03:43:26 pm

Actually, large and well-defined blocks of red work well for Dramatics. And judging from pics I’ve seen, a classic red lip looks very appropriate on DC combos. If you love red lips, maybe try incorporating your E elsewhere in your makeup, like highlighting/strobing or a light, shimmery eyeshadow.

Christy

8/2/2018 07:47:13 pm

I want to point out that I can’t say enough good things about Rachel’s work. What she is saying makes so much sense. The problem is that the world does not necessarily accept all style type/color season combos equally. Since my two biggest essences are otherworldly, I should not find it surprising that what works for me in a purely objective sense is a bit off putting. I just would love to express all of my essences all of the time, and it does not seem that that concept fits with the world’s expectations.

Ethereal is a really hard essence to work in for me. I work in a VERY traditional environment, and the biggest ethereal feature on my face is my eyes. My eyes have a lot of lid showing, and are kind of an olive hazel. Without dark eyeliner, I look tired and old with a light ethereal eye in fluorescent lighting. It is OK outside in daylight, but all indoor lighting seems awful.

Rachel had suggested some possible eye schemes that could work, but the intricacy of them does not last on my lids for long (oily, and I live in a humid climate). I suppose that is part of the whole detailed ethereal thing, but it is not very practical for my life, yet. Since ethereal is the essence that I struggle with most in everything, I guess it shouldn’t surprise me, but I really feel like I am not fulfilling my potential by not including it more. And red is NOT ethereal.

Alex

8/3/2018 08:31:57 am

"I am closest to being a Dark Autumn, but...there are several colors in there that are too warm and too muted for me."

That's my experience, too. All of my very best colors are in the DA palette (deep rich warm teal, deep rich warm plum, deep rich warm green, deep rich warm marine blue, deep rich chocolate brown - the glasses which look like they were made for me are called "coffee" - and coffee/espresso is my key neutral, I think - all my best colors look gorgeous next to coffee/espresso) - but the yellows and oranges are much too warm and the muted greens are much too muted on me. Sometimes I call myself a Deep Winter...but many Dark Winter colors are too cool or too bright. (On the other hand, some of the cooler and more muted DW colors are perfect.) My solution is to take cooler colors in the DA palette and warmer and more muted colors in the DW palette...that works for me. Red and orange are wrong for my style anyway. Forest-at-twilight colors are what works for me.

Alex

8/1/2018 04:00:45 pm

Oh, this is fascinating!

What do you mean by dawn and dusk colors? As a Dark Winter Ethereal Natural, my very best color is a deep teal which I think of as the color of twilight - deep and yet there's something luminous about it too - it's a deep warm blue that is almost green and has a lot of yellow in it - so it has a luminous feeling. The color is perfect for me, and the feeling of it is too.

Megan

8/2/2018 11:10:34 am

I can’t complain about my style ID/color palette harmony—Bright Winter Romantic Dramatic is pretty harmonious. The "femme fatale" vibe is not always harmonious with my lifestyle, but that’s a different issue!

Re: the above comment that romantics and dramatics look good in a deep lip. That intuitively makes sense, and I definitely look better with heavily-pigmented lips, rather than with a lip stain. (I usually get around 50% of both R and D on the Style ID calculator.)

One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that if I do a bright/deep lip, it seems like I HAVE to emphasis my eyes as much or more. Bright lips with little eye emphasis makes me look unbalanced and usually tired.

I can, however, do a dark eye and a nude/unemphasized lip…

Maybe I haven’t experimented enough, and I could emphasize my lips and not my eyes if I did so in a specific way… maybe if I did a bold lip and very little visible eye makeup, that could read as Dramatic? Or are Dramatics best with eye emphasis?

Definitely looking forward to the makeup guides!

Christy

8/3/2018 07:21:41 pm

In reviewing Rachel’s discussions of makeup, Ds should emphasize either the eye or the lip. Like you, Megan, I can do the dark eye/nude lip, but I need some kind of balance with a dark lip. I honestly don’t know if that is just cultural conditioning, or it really looks better, but I don’t feel pretty with just lip emphasis.

Megan

8/4/2018 01:55:14 pm

That's interesting to think that it might be cultural conditioning that prevents us from feeling good with only lip emphasis... I think I'll continue to experiment and see if I can make some sort of dark lip/unemphasized eye combo.

Unrelated--I'm also hoping the makeup guides include info about eyebrows. I suspect a lot of people naturally have brows that suit their Style ID, but I'm pretty sure that R/D requires a more precise look than what my brows naturally are. My brows are naturally arched and thick and I think they look better arched and medium-to-thin, so I wonder if that's again a culturally-ingrained preference or if it reflects something inherent in my style ID...

Ignacia

8/4/2018 07:50:58 pm

I’m TA or DA with pale skin; light golden brown hair, eyebrows and lashes; and brown eyes that seem pretty dark compared to the rest of my colouring. I’m also sure that I have a lot of ingenue and classic (perhaps with a dash of natural or ethereal).

In theory, I should be able to wear the neutrals and lighter shades of those palettes, but they make me look ill when I wear them next to my face. I think some of those are too close to the color of my skin and hair, and that sort of monochromatic look doesn’t work on me. Besides, I feel that I need some depth next to my face to balance my eyes.

I do look quite good in bronzed/browned medium-deep pinks, which is probably due to the ingenue essence. Also, I need to match and limit the number of colors in a single outfit or I feel ridiculous (ie: one accent + one or two neutrals looks good. Hopefully the purse matches the shoes. If the socks match my blouse even better). I imagine that would be the classic essence.

My best colours are mostly red based and look quite romantic on me: the bronzed pink, red, red orange, plum and the type of chocolate brown that is actually a deep/muted warm red. I also look good in warm muted green and some shades of teal, but only if I’m wearing lipstick (complimentary colors at work, perhaps?).

What I find to be my best makeup so far is brown mascara and red matte lipstick (i like Revlon’s Toast of New York and Rum Raisin). Pinker shades don’t work so well because my eyes seem unbalanced, and anything shiny on my lips looks distracting. Blush is better than bronzer. Dark eyeshadow during daytime looks inappropiate and like I stole my mother’s makeup. Eyeshadow for me needs to be light, neutral and a bit shimmery.
So… does this mean that I should consider if I have some Romantic essence? Or can color and lines work on “separate layers”? Because I do think that the colors I wear give me a romantic vibe, but perhaps it’s just that, the colors, and I shouldn’t add romantic lines to my outfits.

Megan

8/5/2018 11:25:04 am

Hi Ignacia, I would say only add Romantic to your look if your face has Romantic lines. Maybe you do have some Romantic and that's part of why you look good in red?

Alternately, even if you don't have Romantic, I think you can still wear red. While lighter colors are more traditionally Ingenue, I think that your reds could read as Ingenue if they were in the correct fabrics and shapes. I think it's possible that brighter colors (e.g., red orange) can be associated with cuteness and youthfulness, especially if the lines are youtful. And pink is good for Ingenue, so the bronzed pink might actually be very harmonious with both your colors and lines?

Similarly, lookig at the Classic pinterest board, there are a few clothes in red and orange. It looks like a bright red blazer or cardigan can still very much read as Classic. I also think that if the rest of your makeup is restrained, red lips could read as Classic. Red lips can create a pretty formal impression, if styled right.

In general, red does have an aggressive and/or Romantic vibe, but context matters. If you wear red and keep the rest of your look as Classic/Ingenue as possible, I think you'll still look really great.

Christy

8/5/2018 12:28:13 pm

I did have a question about the color wardrobes for the seasons. I had studied the Dark Autumn palettes put out by Color Me Beautiful both in the U.S. and the U.K., and there is some overlap between the 12 seasons. I purchased Rachel's card for Dark Autumn and Soft Autumn (I believe my daughter is a soft autumn), and the cards seem to be somewhat incomplete? For instance, reading through the list of colors available to me there are 67 colors listed for Dark Autumn, but there are only 42 color cards. There are some obvious shades missing from the cards, like black. I have not really studied Sci/Art or 12 Blueprints, but I get the impression that perhaps the basic shades I get, like black, charcoal and navy, may vary from season to season. Should I assume that the colors that are missing from the cards are so common that I don't need templates for them? That is what I have been doing, but I find it interesting that the makeup guides seem to follow the card colors and not include those basic shades. I also noticed that the Soft Autumn cards included what I consider charcoal and pewter, but Dark Autumn didn't. I hope I haven't misunderstood, as I continue to use what I believe to be navy, black, and charcoal.

8/6/2018 02:00:10 pm

I definitly cannot have orange and red lipstick - bo th on TSp palette but the only one good for me is light coral. I can have only one colour of lipstick. Rachel, does it happen among TSp?

Christy

8/11/2018 05:35:51 pm

Ok, so I need to admit that I have been wrong about some of the colors that do and don’t work for me. I finally took the time to really drape myself with the color analysis I previously did, Rachel’s DA cards and th SA cards I got for my daughter. (I had this idea from the books I had read that now that I am over 50 and dye my hair, I may “become” SA. Not really the Sci/Art approach, but I am still learning.) i focused on my skin, and——-this is critical——took pictures of myself in different lights. In ALL of the lights Rachel’s DA cards were the best with my skin. No contest. The pictures revealed, as they often do, things I could not clearly see with the naked eye. I still think some of the colors are not my best, and I still have questions about the colors that appear on my written list, but are not included in the cards, but undoubtedly worth the investment.

Truth is Beauty

Should I Be Able to Wear Every Color in My Palette?

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