Discover your color palette and your style type.

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3/29/2011

Or: "The only way to find out what colors look good on you is to find out what colors look good on you."

I've been thinking about the different approaches to personal color analysis.

I don't mean the different methods, exactly, but rather the different chains of logic.

One way of thinking about it goes like this:

You have [X] physical characteristics;

therefore

your season is [Y], and [Z] colors will flatter you best.

IRL, this might sound something like

"You have dark hair and eyes. Your skin appears neutral-cool. Therefore, your season is Deep Winter, and deep, neutral-cool, moderately bright colors will flatter you best."

Danielle Leonel must be a Deep Winter, right? Hmm...

Or it could sound like

"You have a bluish-grey cracked-glass pattern in your eye, with a yellow flare around the pupil; therefore your season is Light Summer..." etc., etc.

Or

"You have an overall soft, muted appearance, and your skin appears more cool than warm, therefore you are a Soft Summer...." etc., etc.

So Aishwarya's a Soft Summer, then - right? Well...

This method of analysis is the one you encounter most frequently on the web. It assumes that observable physical characteristics can predict what colors look good on someone.

The other main method you encounter goes like this:

Testing different colors on your skin has shown that [Z] colors flatter you;

therefore, your season is [Y]

(and you may have [X] physical characteristics, which tend to occur in this season).

IRL, this might sound something like

"Deep, neutral-cool, moderately bright colors flatter you best. Therefore, your season is Deep Winter.

(Oh, and incidentally, you may have dark hair and eyes, with skin that looks neutral-cool, because that's what many Deep Winters look like.)"

Kathryn Kalisz, the late founder of Sci\Art and author of Understanding Your Color, seems to have been the first person to broadly disseminate this second approach.

I subscribe to this second way of thinking about personal color analysis. Here are the three main reasons I believe it's more accurate:

Reason 1. It's only logical that different human beings, who come in an infinite variety of coloring combinations, might seem to resemble each other closely but actually respond differently to color because of subtle individual differences in skin undertone that an observer can't perceive.

In other words, two people with hair, eyes and skin that seem to be the same might still be flattered by different colors, because of small differences in their coloring that the viewer can't tell just by looking at them.

Flattered by Light Spring colors.

Flattered by Warm Spring colors.

Flattered by Warm Autumn colors.

Reason 2. Identifying a season through experimentation -- by actually testing different colors on a person -- is more scientific than identifying a season based on what a person's coloring supposedly should predict.

In other words, it's all well and good to say that you should be flattered by a certain set of colors, but that's theoretical. Let's make it empirical by actually testing the colors.

OK, we thought you were a Soft Summer. But after seeing you like this...

Reason 3. With my own eyes, I've seen many, many real-life examples of people whose observable characteristics couldn't have predicted their seasons.

For example, some of my colleagues include

an amber-eyed Soft Summer;
a Warm Autumn with ash brown hair and light blue eyes;
a super-pale Warm Spring with ash hair and mauve-y lips;
a brown-eyed Cool Winter with yellowish skin;
and a Deep Winter with orangeish skin and warm brown eyes.

I also know a red-haired, brown-eyed Cool Summer; a pale, teal-eyed Deep Autumn; a Light Spring with dark hazel eyes; a brunette Light Spring; a Light Summer with a reddish beard; and a Soft Summer with dark brown hair and dark reddish-brown skin.

As Christine Scaman of 12 Blueprints has written many times:

Any season can have any hair color and any eye color.

Are there patterns, tendencies, general truths in personal coloring?

Sure.

For example, Bright Winters tend to have striking, "jewel-like" eyes, dark hair, and an overall "clear" look.

Stereotypical Bright Winter.

But if you're wondering whether you are a Bright Winter, it doesn't help you to know that 40 or 60 or 80 percent of people with your same physical traits are Bright Winters.

The question still remains: are you?

Not a Bright Winter, despite those eyes.

Draping is the only way to know for sure.

Good online analysis, that only considers the effect of colors on your skin, is the next-best option. Its accuracy varies from analyst to analyst.

Here are some other methods for narrowing your season down to a few contenders. All of them consider the effect of colors on your skin - nothing else.

Darker hair, eyes and skin - but Danielle Leonel is a Soft Summer, not a Deep Winter.

P.S. Kalisz's excellent book is still available by special order from Suzanna Greif. E-mail her at orders@spectrafiles.com. IMHO, this book is essential reading for anyone wanting a good understanding of the science of personal color.

P.P.S. Analysts trained by Kalisz's company, Sci\Art, use the 2nd method I describe in this post; you can see a directory of Sci\Art-trained analysts at Christine Scaman's website.
(Sci\Art is now called Spectrafiles, btw.)

48 Comments

Relatable Style link

3/29/2011 03:37:14 pm

Love the post! I'm 100% with you on everything! I might just link it up where people need exactly this kind of advive, haha!

But by the way... Your comment window is really small. I can barely see what I'm typing! I thought you might want to know ;-)

<a href="http://www.relatablestyle.blogspot.com">Relatable Style</a>

3/29/2011 03:38:14 pm

I'll try to remember next time that there's no html in this comment form. I know I forgot before already, so... bear with me :-)

Rachel

3/29/2011 04:23:13 pm

Fixed it! :-)

Another fan of Truth is Beauty link

3/29/2011 11:45:38 pm

Hi! Great post. I'd love to be in touch with you directly about doing an analysis. Could you email me please?

3/30/2011 12:57:33 am

Yay! The comment window is bigger!

<a href="http://www.relatablestyle.blogspot.com">Relatable Style</a>

3/30/2011 08:14:03 am

Another fan -

I emailed you. :-)

Divalicious

3/30/2011 10:58:52 pm

It reminds me of another "color analysis" blog I've encountered few weeks ago filled with several testimony from people who feel that their physical appearance doesn't necessarily predict their actual seasons.

For example, a woman with very pink skin (typical cool season) feels that cool colors (such as fuchsia or royal blue) make her nose red like Rudolph and her overall look even pinker as if she just came out from an oven. But then she tries on warm yellow-based colors and they automatically counteracts with the pink-ishness in her skin and calms it down. From that experience, she discovers that she's actually a WARM season and NOT cool like she believes this whole time. Some say that the woman has cool overtone yet with warm undertone. Apparently, when she describes herself a bit further, it turns out that despite the cool pink-ish skin, she has dark brown hair with some golden flecks in it and a pair of green eyes with golden starburst. The golden tint in her hair and eyes is the indication that she actually belongs in the warm season and not cool.

And vice versa. The same with another opposite experience. A woman with very warm yellow-ish skin feels like warm yellow-based colors make her look like as if she has a case of jaundice. She needs cool blue-based colors to "cool" down her yellow skin. In her case, she's a COOL season (cool undertone) with warm overtone.

Your post here reminds me of that blog. Perhaps you can explain a bit further about overtone vs. undertone? So undertone is more important than your overtone to determine your season? Could it even be possible a person with very different characteristics than a typical season yet he/she belongs in that season? (From your list of examples above, I guess it could...)

3/31/2011 06:58:49 am

But then again, with this topic, seems like it contradicts the theory you propose in your site: "...To look your most beautiful, you don't need to color your hair. You don't need to wear expensive makeup or expensive clothes. Truly. You only need to identify the natural coloring of your body, and REPEAT that coloring in your makeup and clothes..."

From your examples and mine above, apparently there are also several individuals whose coloring doesn't necessarily repeat their natural coloring. A typical warm autumn doesn't have ash brown hair and light blue eyes, and "theoretically", cool winter people shouldn't have yellowish skin and warm brown eyes, yet such people do exist and you even acknowledge it yourself. Their seasons don't exactly go side-by-side with their natural coloring. In their cases, their coloring are either 180 degrees contrasting or just totally different from the typical characteristic representations of their seasons.

Please enlighten me on this one! Thanks.

3/31/2011 08:19:54 am

Divalicious, re: your second comment:

It's a good question, and the answer is a paradox that I don't fully understand.

By some mechanism, the correct seasonal colors pull together all of the healthy natural colors of our bodies and make them look even better. And this happens even when the color the observer thinks she's seeing isn't a color in the season's palette.

I'm thinking right now of my Soft Summer friend with amber eyes. In her correct colors, her eyes appear even more strikingly amber-y. Yet if she wears amber, or other brownish-yellows or yellowish-browns, the effect is not lovely.

I suspect the explanation is that, while her eyes read as amber, they're actually another color (or a combination of other colors, to be more precise) that harmonizes with her Soft Summer palette. Many of us have experienced using a color picker to pull colors from our faces in a photo and discovering colors we would not have said were there. Perhaps in my friend's case, the dozens of distinct shades in her eye are Soft Summer colors that, when combined, read as amber.

I believe the same thing is happening in a lot of cases where hair and eye color don't appear to go with one's season. The color is reading one way to the eye of the observer, but it is in fact another color - or several other colors.

I should probably distinguish between identifying the natural, *healthy* colors of our own bodies and identifying colors that seem to be present in our bodies but don't look particularly healthy. Imperfections read as imperfections, I believe, because they don't match our natural colors. My yellow-skinned Cool Winter friend doesn't look particularly yellow in his correct colors; he just looks balanced and healthy.

3/31/2011 08:31:57 am

And re: undertones vs. overtones in skin:

Does anyone really know the truth about them? I don't think scientists bother to research this stuff, and that leaves the rest of us to our hypotheses.

We can probably all agree that, when we say "overtones," we 're talking about colors that are easily observable to the viewer. I have a friend with cheeks that are strikingly pink, and I say to myself, "She has pink overtones."

Undertones, though - I think we're really just inferring their existence. Do we have any direct evidence for them? Not that I know of. We just assume that they must be there, because what else could explain how that pink-cheeked person could be warm and not cool? There must be some warmth in the skin, we say. Since we can't see it, we call it an undertone.

This is not to say that I don't believe in undertones. I do. But I think *believe* is the operative word: though I don't have direct proof that undertones exist, I have faith that they exist because their existence explains why some people's skin reacts to colors in ways the observer could not have predicted.

(Also, skin is translucent, right? This we know for sure. So it makes sense that what's under the surface of the skin might well be colored differently than what's on the surface.

Someone on the 12B Facebook page brought our attention to this definition of undertone from Mirriam-Webster: "a color seen through and modifying another color." The "and modifying" part seems important to me. I believe - again, I use that word on purpose - that there are colors under the surface of our translucent human skin that modify how the surface colors are perceived. But how? I'm just not certain.)

Just learning

3/31/2011 09:49:00 am

I've always been very confused by this myself because I have very, very rosy overtones so people often think I must be a warm season (I've been typed as *every one* of the four seasons), but everything else suggests I must be cool--both how colors look on me, and ash-blond hair and gray-green eyes. So I can tell you that the other day I happened to be wearing a white towel after I showered and looked in the mirror and noticed how bluish the skin just below my collarbone (just above the towel) was, compared to the towel, or maybe it's more accurate to say the towel looked slightly yellow-peachy-ish next to my skin even though it was white. It was the first time I'd understood what "blue undertones" meant.

3/31/2011 01:52:38 pm

Aaaahhhh.... okay okay....

Your reply on my 1st question: "...when we say OVERTONES, we 're talking about colors that are easily observable to the viewer. I have a friend with cheeks that are strikingly pink, and I say to myself, 'She has pink overtones.'

Undertones, though - I think we're really just inferring their existence. Do we have any direct evidence for them? Not that I know of. We just assume that they must be there, because what else could explain how that pink-cheeked person could be warm and not cool? There must be some warmth in the skin, we say. Since we can't see it, we call it an UNDERTONE."

My response: I can understand what you're saying, but that leads me to another question : How can we tell what our undertone is? Some people may have matching overtone and undertone, but what about those whose overtone and undertone are quite the opposite? How can they know for sure? Is it supposed to be like "trial & error" where you have to wear/test all kinds of colors to finally realize what colors look good on you (and eventually discover your season)?

Do both have significant role in your season's determination? Because most, if not all, websites about color analysis that I read so far usually mention about UNDERTONES (e.g warm seasons have warm yellow-based undertones and the opposite for cool seasons, etc etc...). Does this means that undertone is more important than our overtone for your season?

Sorry for the long & many questions. I just want to understand better. The reason why I ask is because for all this time, I always thought that overtone is the same as undertone. When I see someone with dark/yellowish/tanned skin, I would say that the person MUST have warm undertones. But now I'm not so sure anymore.

Your reply on my 2nd question: "...Many of us have experienced using a color picker to pull colors from our faces in a photo and discovering colors we would not have said were there. Perhaps in my friend's case, the dozens of distinct shades in her eye are Soft Summer colors that, when combined, read as amber.

I believe the same thing is happening in a lot of cases where hair and eye color don't appear to go with one's season. The color is reading one way to the eye of the observer, but it is in fact another color - or several other colors..."

My response: Okay okay I totally get it. It all sounds reasonable. Of course, I know in a photograph how we can extract colors that we don't think exist there, but they all actually constitute the coloring that our eyes perceive as.

Or perhaps, my own "logical" explanation is that: even if we all SEE the same color, but our MIND/BRAINS interprets it differently. This doesn't just happen with our sight but our all other senses as well.

I remember how one person says on a music site that a certain opera singer has the warmest, brightest voice he has ever heard, yet a friend of his thinks that the singer's voice sounds cold and distant. After they finish arguing, the 1st person sat back and listened to the recording all over again, and when he was finally able to clear his mind, he was so surprised to discover that BOTH of them are actually right. They both hear the SAME voice, yet their mind interprets it differently thus why they also perceive the voice differently.

I guess this what also happens with our eyes. We may perceive a certain color based on what our mind reads, but we can't tell for sure if there are also other elements exist in the coloring that our eyes & brains somehow miss.

This is not a scientific explanation by any means btw. This is just MY own logical thinking to understand this issue. To anyone, feel free to agree/disagree with me & to add anything to this topic.

Anyway, thanks for your answer.

Kalulu

4/1/2011 05:51:59 pm

Agree with you completely. This is the best method for determining best colors.

Elisabeth

4/2/2011 04:28:30 am

When we see eye, skin and hair colors, we see the colors from a distance. We see the sum of the parts; we have millions of different colors in our body, and our eyes are also capable of distinguishing between approx. 10 million. However, when the shades are presented clustered together, we perceive far less. It's like looking at a painting from the pointillism period: when you look at it from a distance, we aren't able to see all the different colored dots we see when we have the paintings right before our noses.

I see color analysis as how the neuroplasticity of the brain works when primed with observing color. To use the example of pointillism again, someone with a non-pointillism primed mind (those with a goal of viewing a realistic picture), will see the pointillistic painting different than someone with a pointillism primed mind. The ones who are primed, are able to see the differently colored dots, just like properly trained color analysts are able to see the variation in different nuances and how they are dulled (like squinting your eyes, making the object in front of you blurry, and the colours are melting together) or sharpened, respectively. In my opinion, ONLY color analysts who have abandoned the idea that appearance x equals season y, are able to spot these differences, as they focus entirely on what the color does to the person, rather than focusing on "rules" such as "red hair equals warm season".

I would also like to direct you to this article about how our brain, not our eyes, are the perceivers of color:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/10/051026082313.htm

4/2/2011 07:03:20 am

Divalicious -

re: "Is it supposed to be like 'trial & error' where you have to wear/test all kinds of colors to finally realize what colors look good on you (and eventually discover your season)?"

- I think that's exactly what it has to be like for a conclusion to be accurate. Except, ideally, it occurs in a draping session of just a few hours, or a wait of several days for an online analysis, instead of over a period of weeks or months.

I think, through discussion, we're all coming to a clearer understanding of what's going on when we look at colors on another person. It's tough to work out, isn't it? I'm still working it out. I believe I know *what's* true, because I observe it directly, but I'm still sorting out the *why*. As far as I can tell, the neuropsychology behind seasonal color analysis isn't being studied by anyone, so it's left to armchair scientists like myself - and perhaps you all - to sort out what exactly is going on.

Speaking of scientists - thank you *so* much, Elisabeth, for your contribution, and the link to the excellent article. Please continue to share your insights and useful links. :-)

4/3/2011 12:27:52 am

Another question. This is rather off topic, actually. I just want to know if all seasons are capable of being natural? And what I mean of being natural is without an ounce of makeup and any other cosmetically-enhancing products.

Seems like that the only seasons that still look good in their natural state are soft seasons and (possibly) warm autumn whose natural coloring is already quite neutral. I can imagine someone like Jennifer Aniston (soft summer) or Angelina Jolie (soft autumn) still look good even if they don't put makeup on.

But what about other seasons such as say, clear/bright winter? You say that the clear winter's coloring is the brightest of all 12 seasons. They need bold clear colors that others would normally think insane. Well, what if they decide to go natural without makeup? I once saw a picture of Megan Fox with no makeup on and I thought she look plain. The same with Courteney Cox.

Yes yes yes I know that this is not always the case. It all depends on the individual, not the seasons. Like you wrote above, any season can have any hair and eye color (and therefore, can look like ANYTHING). I'm just asking in general.

Oh and another question : What advice/suggestion would you give to those whose seasons/colorings don't match their personality? Again, let me use the clear winter season as example. Not everyone enjoys/has the guts to wear such bright colors eventhough the colors suit them. It takes a BOLD personality to carry off BOLD colors well. But what if the person is a shy and introverted individual who may feel that the bold coloring of the clear winter are just a bit too much for her? And vice versa, a person of soft/light seasons with such "loud" personality may feel that her season's palette are a bit too bland/boring for her and she may lean towards fun, bold or rich colors instead to match her extrovert/lively personality.

Erin

10/7/2013 08:59:20 am

Diva, I'm a dark eyed/haired, pale skinned bright spring leaning warm and I'm an introvert. I actually think that my laid-back, soft spoken personality makes the bright colors I wear seem a lot less obnoxious. They don't read as loud or dramatic on me- if anything, they read as interesting and fun.
Same with my bright winter mother, who people always describe as "calm". People respond so positively to her in her bright colors, jewelry and lipstick. She totally tones down the loudness in a good way.

My friend is a very extroverted dark colored Latina soft summer and I and she both agree that if she were a bright season, she might overwhelm other people, lol. Her colors read as grounded, refined, and cozy, rather than subtle and dull on her.

Hanna

4/3/2011 04:54:11 am

This is something I've been thinking about for a couple of weeks and I find myself disagreeing more and more with the oft repeated statement that the only way to know for sure is with draping. I think the only way to know for sure is to *live* in the colours. I also think that someone with sufficiently trained eyes will be able to pick out colours in the skin more accurately rather than just seeing the composite overall skintone. Drapes are good tools, but they are only tools and there might be others.

There is also the question of what you're trying to achieve by finding your best colours and how you define "best". Even, calm, non-yellow skin seems to be a common definition. (Something that's been nagging me about that finally made sense today when I was reading Irenee Riter's site: cool seasons have a lot of warm tones in their skin, otherwise warm colours wouldn't be able to make them look yellow as you can't bring out what's not there in the first place (still don't understand why she thinks warm hair and eyes automatically means cool skin though.))

What matters should be how you feel in the colours. If you don't more feel centered and focused in your "right" colours, no matter whether they're the ones that make you look "best", then either they are not your right colours no matter what the drapes say, or it's really just an illusion and wearing the right colours doesn't matter. I don't know which one is correct.

Comments about how we shouldn't trust our own eyes, how we shouldn't shop without the fans, how we can't trust ourselves to know our own colours seem designed to undermine self-trust and self-confidence. We all seem to be excellent at knowing how to hide in the wrong colours so why wouldn't the opposite be true? Needing a push to get past mental blocks or wanting or needing outside validation before we can trust our own judgment is one thing, but the more I read the more it seems like PCA doesn't at all help people gain confidence in their colour choices, seems like it just shifts the uncertainty in a slightly different direction so you think you what to wear but you still don't trust yourself to know it when you see it and have to rely on tools provided by other people.

It also seems to me that if PCA were truly liberating people who'd had them done would start caring *less* about their appearances, less about clothes and certainly less about make-up as they'd be happier about themselves and their own looks, but reading PCA websites that doesn't seem to be the case at all, rather, it just shifts the focus a little. Maybe the people who've found their colours drop away from the sites eventually or just stay on to help others find theirs. But I really do find the stories about women who start wearing make-up after having their analysis done scary, that seems like the opposite of finding peace and confidence in who you are and how you look. I'm not trying to put you on the spot to explain all of this, I'm just thinking out loud about my concerns. And considering if maybe I'm looking for something in all of this that's not there.

tldr: If the colours that make you look your best don't make you feel your best then the colours that make you feel your best should win out.

mimi

7/15/2018 11:27:18 am

totally feel this way too

4/3/2011 06:05:12 am

Divalicious:
I'm not Rachel, but I hope it's ok I'm voicing my opinion anyways? I have friends who have been analysed who have felt really bad with their analysis because they turned out to be a different season than the season which contained their favourite colors. I think that every season has wonderful colors, but there's no doubt that some seasons have gotten certain ideas tied to them, such as the summer seasons often being described as demure, feminine and even mousy, or the winters being "regal" (the favourite description of every winter color analyst, it seems!), bold and forceful. We DO have connotations to colors, such as red being the color of lust, power and so forth, and white being the color of purity (note: White is the mourning color in China! So the common color analyst view on colors are without a doubt centered around the Western world's view).

However, I think one of the biggest problems is when some systems start pushing personality and style descriptions onto the seasons. To me, this is utter bullshit. If personalities were that simple, then my education would be quite a lot shorter than it is... This is where I think a lot of people struggle when they are handed a season with colors they feel to bold/shy to wear. One way I think one can shake away these feelings, is to wear the strongest/most neutral colors of the palette, try to shake of their ideas of certain colors' connotations, and spruce up/tone down their style in other areas. I have a friend who's a soft summer. She's such an outgoing, fiery and stubborn person... She refused to wear the dusty shades of the soft summer because she felt like they were "old lady" colors. She did see how good the colors looked on her, though. The way she started to embrace her colors, were to focus on the cut on the clothes, bold jewellery and colorful nail polish. Now, she has pushed the boundaries of her season, and in my eyes, she looks far more bold and put together now in her new soft summer look, than in her unflattering brights. She wears gigantic necklaces, huge earrings, asymmetric clothes, ethnic prints, mixes fabrics... And everything in her soft summer colors. She look amazing. A shy and demure bright season could for opt for more conservative choices. I think for most people who feel surprised by their season, they should slowly dip into their season, rather than jump right into it. Starting to change their cosmetics and buying seasonal neutrals, and perhaps scarves in their best colors... I think one should spend a lot of time trying to piece together their new look. I personally love to play around on Polyvore to get some ideas.

Hanna:
Once again, I'm not Rachel, but I'm still voicing my opinion if that's ok! Most analysts say that the analysis is a tool, a starting point. I think people go wrong if they obsess about matching everything to their fan. In those cases, I think their analysts haven't been thorough enough when explaining the analysis.
However, the analysis is basically about finding what colors that suit you. Most analysts claim that the right colors can help you find yourself, and in some/many cases that might be the case! When you know your colors and what shapes to wear, you can focus on finding the style you prefer; you can start exploring what message you want to convey with your appearance.

To be honest, Hanna, I don't understand why you are against caring about one's appearance? It's perfectly fine that your view on color analysis is that you can focus less on your appearance, but for many other people, me included, PCA gives me new tools to further explore and play with the way I look. I LOVE makeup, clothes, shoes, hair and everything vain. These things participate in making me feel confident. I salute people who don't care that much about their appearance, but I also salute those of us that do. I love applying makeup. I find great joy in going shopping. I feel a rush when looking at beautiful shoes. Does this make me a shallow, unconfident person? No. I'm not one-dimentional.

I don't understand why you find the stories about women starting to wear makeup post-analysis scary. Many ladies haven't work makeup earlier because they didn't know what suited them, and never dared to venture into the sometimes intimidating world of beauty products. Most likely, they have always wanted to wear makeup. Now that they know how to wear it, they want to flaunt it! They may feel more confident than ever, because they believe they are portraying the best version of themselves. I love when people don't wear makeup, and I love when people do. I think you can express so many things by "putting on your face", and I don't see anything wrong in that. My makeup is a big part of the way I portray myself. I love "transforming" myself to something I feel better with. Sure, I can avoid wearing makeup. However, why should I when I obviously love it, and love the results?

People are different, and have different preferences. We pres

4/3/2011 07:12:18 am

Elisabeth, four reasons that I can think of right now.

Women are still taught that their purpose in life is to be beautiful to look at and even if every single woman who uses makeup enjoys it and doesn't feel like she's doing it for anyone else I think it's safe to say that at least some of them *are* doing it because they've internalized the lesson that they exist to be pretty to look at. It perpetuates the idea that women should care about their looks above all and that if they're not looking their best they're not worth as much. Children are perceptive creatures, they see that appearances matter a great deal to people and so it continues.

Even if someone is using makeup, dying their hair, getting piercings or tattoos or whatever to express themselves or for fun it feels to me like they are saying that what nature gave them wasn't good enough, they have to control and improve it and I see that kind of attitude on a large scale as incredibly destructive and dangerous.

Anything that increases rather than reduces self-preoccupation in the long run is a trap. It is true that we do occasionally need to spend a little or a lot of time focused on ourselves to figure out our needs but it's very easy to get stuck in that mode and it's not a very productive or otherwise useful or happy place to be stuck.

And the fourth reason... We're over-using the world's resources, it's a drop in the ocean, sure, but not using makeup is still using up less resources than using makeup, which is why I don't really see it as being about personal preferences - it affects all of us. (This is why I feel strongly about a lot of things people can't understand, I see how it affects not just them or me but everyone.)

4/3/2011 08:41:16 am

Hanna,

If one was to take an evolutionary psychology point of view, one could argue that all animals make themselves pretty to I) attract a mate, and II) intimidate contenders away from chasing the same mate. In most animals, men has this role. In humans, up 'till recently (1920s/30s), men and women were just as eager to "show off". Good looks meant power, wealth and/or could attract partners of power and wealth.

The reason I'm bringing this history stuff up, is because caring for one's looks, isn't a new thing. Just like women, men experience the pressure to be good looking, muscular, successful, wealthy, etc.
I do find it somewhat cynical to say that many (women) believe they excist only to be beautiful creatures. At times, it might feel like appearance is everything, but I firmly believe that most people grow past this mindset. We should all teach children (and adults!) that being an altruistic person is what matters, and that no matter how pretty you are on the outside; the person within is what is important.

However, I don't think that one have to neglect beauty because of this! It IS possible to be beautiful on the outside and the inside, and people who care about looks, aren't all empty shells. The Western society have an immense pressure on being succesful in each and every way - however, that doesn't mean that one must abandon makeup, hair products, and the like. Do we have to choose between having a brain and having a desire to look our best?

I think the beauty industry should focus on being beautiful in your own way. It might sound silly, but what I mean is that I think the industry should focus on the different ideas of beauty. We are seeing more of this recently, too. Alternative looking models, an emphasis on dressing your figure rather than just following the trends, etc. The recession has brought with it some good stuff: It made the beauty industry focus on long-lasting solutions that work for the individual. We've seen dozens of stylist tell people to dress according to their shape and preferences.

The society today IS dominated by money. You HAVE to present yourself as a "product" in order to succeed in many parts of life. We are all human beings, but to get that job, you have to flaunt your assets. When you go on a date, you put on your best dress/top/pants/whatever to boost your confidence and look your very best for your date. When going to work, you don't show up in slacks: You dress good in order to project a positive image. When presented with to equally good canditates, you choose the one which looks the part.

I find it naive to ignore these things. I don't say that you do, Hanna, not at all.

I'm tattooed, I'm pierced, I dye my hair, I wear makeup, I dress to flatter my body. I do this to feel good. I do this to make the most out of how I look. Regarding body art, I admire the looks of native African and South-American tribes - I find them beautiful, and wish to incorporate some of their concepts of beauty into my life. I wear dramatic makeup because I think a strong eye is very sexy, and same goes for strong red lips. I dye my hair not because my own color isn't "good enough", but because I think it's fun to change things up. I've had every shade under the rainbow, and I love how I can make each look a part of me.

Yes, of course on shouldn't focus only on oneself. However, it's easy to neglect oneself, too. Introspection is important in order to be able to communicate better with other people. I don't think any color consultant ever have told anyone to be sucked up in one's own little bubble. A lot of people like to talk about fashion and beauty, but that doesn't mean they don't talk about other things. I love everything that has to do with beauty, but as said earlier, I'm not one-dimensional. My beauty time, is my "me time". It's a time I treasure because I can focus on something which doesn't boggle my mind. I can relax and don't worry about patients or money or family or anything. I'm in a temporary bubble which allows me to show the version of me I want to project. I like to carry parts of my personality on my sleeve, so to speak. I want people to get an impression of me even before I open my mouth. I'm not a bad or unintelligent person because of these things, nor are anyone else who care about their looks.

About the resources of the world... I think we should worry about other, bigger things before going bananas on the beauty industry. More and more brands are also focusing on eco-friendly and mineral makeup nowadays. I mean, would you believe this ten years ago? The industry are thinking of better alternatives to please the eco- and animal concious people out there. I only buy cruelty free makeup, and I'm happy that more and more brands are going away from their animal testing.
I think that using makeup really only is a drop in the ocean...

Color analysis helps us discover our colors. For some people, this is a sigh of relief, where they feel that they now have

4/3/2011 09:31:08 am

...seems like my post was too long! Anyways, this is about what the rest said:

[...]they now have everything they need too be themselves, so that they can worry about other things. For other people, me included, color analysis is the gate to a world where one can experiment more freely within some boundaries. A place where one can try out new things in order to be oneself. It doesn't take the place of other things, but it becomes a hobby in the same way building model planes is.

To use an old, worn clique: The body is a canvas. Some think of it as perfect as it is, other people think "what can I do with what I have to express myself?". Thinking one way doesn't exclude the other.

4/3/2011 12:15:17 pm

It's clear that talking about color analysis gets at some deep and personal material in women's psyches. We are truly talking about both our bodies and our selves when we talk about our color.

You smart ladies are making me think about a blog post I've been planning for some time, on the aesthetic of color analysis. I hold off on it in part because I wonder if it's more philosophical than anyone cares to get about this topic, but it seems like some of us are thinking in this general direction...

Anyway, color analysis theory certainly adheres to a particular aesthetic. It happens to be an aesthetic that values a more natural and harmonious appearance, and this is one reason I feel it's more friendly to women than most standards of beauty. But it is certainly about physical beauty; the primary goal in finding our true colors is to be able to effectively make ourselves more beautiful, isn't it? (Yes, it's about other things too, things connected to self-knowledge and self-acceptance, but I think for most of us those are a part of the larger quest in having our colors done.)

So inasmuch as any system that values physical beauty diminishes or oppresses women, color analysis is a part of that. And as a feminist I'm sensitive to that fact, and to ways in which color analysis theory might make women less confident instead of more confident. My personal experience has been that knowing my season makes me feel better about the way I look and spend less time wondering if it's good; I wish that experience for everyone, but we're all different, and some women may find that this quest leaves them with more quest-ions (ha ha) than answers.

For me personally, abandoning the quest to achieve physical beauty is not my ultimate goal. Though I reject systems that require women to all look one particular way, or to significantly alter themselves in order to be pleasing to men or society, I also believe that all humans (both men and women) are naturally drawn to visual beauty, and that it makes sense that we would want to embody beauty in ourselves. I see my two-year-old boy reaches to pluck the prettiest flower, and lights up when he sees himself in the mirror wearing my colorful dress ("I be pretty, Mommy.")

It's sad that society may train him not to acknowledge his natural desire to be and to be near what's pretty... I think that, if we don't allow it to be primarily about pleasing others, women actually have an advantage over men in that society permits us to maintain our connection to our inner desire to be beautiful.

Maybe it's easy for me to talk because I have a husband and a family and secure employment - in other words, I don't (consciously, at least) feel a lot of pressure to look beautiful in order to achieve goals in my life. Nevertheless, in my case, the quest for physical beauty through color analysis is about finding a way for my outside to express who I am in a way that's both authentic and lovely to look at when I look in the mirror. I mean, my husband really does seem to think I'm pretty no matter what I look like. But when I look in the mirror, I want to see what *I* think is pretty. Like my two-year-old, I want to be near beauty, and I want to embody beauty. And I want it to be a beauty that stems from my true physical self.

I enjoy wearing makeup, though I didn't before I discovered my season... it's not something I obsess over, though, and I certainly don't feel incomplete without it. Most days, I don't bother with more than a little lippie, to tell the turh - I'm in too much of a hurry. But when I do use it, I look forward to putting on makeup in a way that I never did before, because for the first time in my life I have makeup that I feel makes me look more like my best self. In my profile pic on this page, I'm wearing lip color, blush, eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, and eyebrow pencil - but when I look at the pic, I really feel like I'm looking at my self, not at a painted face. Putting on this kind of makeup feels like combing my hair in the morning - not like I'm doing something to dramatically alter myself, but rather like I'm just pulling myself together a little bit to look neat and cared-for. With my makeup on, I honestly believe people are noticing my skin tone and my hair color and my green eyes more than they were before. That's what I want them to see.

I don't think my response here is very well-organized, and I apologize for that. And there's tons more that could be said. And I didn't respond to a lot of the really thoughtful and important points made here, so I apologize for that. And perhaps I've been too long-winded. anyway. Perhaps what I should just say is: yes, color analysis is largely about physical beauty. But I think it's ok to like beauty and to want to be beautiful. And though it can be oppressive to women, it doesn't have to be - it can be empowering, especially when being beautiful means being noticed for one's natural characteristics.

Zandra

4/3/2011 11:50:07 pm

When interacting with others, we don't get to be authentic and honest with most of them. I mean, how many best friends do we have? We all have levels to the information we give out, certain things just won't be told after five minutes. But as humans we are "leaking systems", we leak information with our bodys and body language. Personally I think that this is part of what excercise, personal style and make up is about: controlling information. On top of that there are notions of what's "good" and what's "bad" that changes a lot, and of course we want to look "good" rather than "bad". Because, lets face it, it would be provoking if what others perceived would be that we DON'T CARE. Most people don't want that kind of attention or to handle the conflict that follows.

For me colour analysis is about both who I am as a person and about controlling information. I can bring others up to date about who I am before I even talk to them, as a way of being more authentic, because I'm very straight-forward and frank in my communication whether they know it or not. It just makes it easier for me if people know what to expect. I've got other things to put my efforts into, I don't want to fool around with guesses about what'll do the trick and what won't - and now I don't have to. I also don't have to colour my hair or wear any make up, I feel confident about going out anyway. Usually I prefer colour on my lips because that brings attention to my eyes and I like people looking me in the eyes when I talk with them. The only thing I HAVE to do is to bring my fan when I go shopping - and I'm so, SO happy to do that; I save a heck of a lot of time that way.

Also: I'm a True Spring and that SO doesn't mean that I wear frills or a lot of coral or crazy patterns or big, round gold earrings - or party all night long. I have a sharp mind and fresh perspectives and those usually don't inspire to warm fuzzy feelings. My colours give a context to these things; they save what I say from sounding harsh and keep the positive spirit up while the tempo and emotional outbursts seem expected and natural. Yay to PCA!!!

4/4/2011 01:46:31 am

We do indeed communicate information about ourselves with our physical presentation. And if we choose not to try to look a particular way, that also communicates something about our selves. Reminds me of a line from the Rush song "Freewill": "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice!" (Yes, I heart Rush.)

So we're responsible for the information we send with our appearance, whether we like it or not. IMO, we might as well own that reality and exercise some control over the information by controlling the image. Then again, the choice not to bother with physical appearance one way or another also sends a message; it may be the message one wants to send.

I know it's an old refrain, but isn't our empowerment as women fundamentally about freedom of choice and freeing ourselves from "shoulds"? I invite women to discover their true colors, and I try to show the many benefits of it and give as much information about it as I can, but in the end I won't say all women should. As women, we're as free as we can be when we have access to all of the information and are empowered to choose paths based on that information.

Oh, regarding season + personality and season + style:

- IMHO, the idea that season necessarily = personality is mostly bull. I don't know of any basis for this in human biology.

Having said that, I *do* believe that we come into the world looking a certain way, and that look can arouse particular expectations in others and elicit particular behavior from others, which in turn shapes our personalities. For example, my little boy has bouncy blond curls. When people meet him, they seem to expect him to be playful, cheerful, and sunshiney. In fact, he often *is* playful, cheerful and sunshiney, and I think that's true in part because he's been cued to behave that way by countless strangers. So to some extent his appearance has become his personality. How much of that he was born with, I don't know. How much of that will stick as he grows older, I don't know.

- Regarding the idea that season = style: I think it's an opportunity, not a mandate. Certain colors and certain color combinations do indeed communicate particular ideas and emotions. Within your season, you can choose to go with it and embody it - *or* you can choose to subvert it, play with it, complicate it. That can be a very interesting message to send.

An example I always think of, which I originally heard from Lora Alexander, is that of Bright Winter Audrey Hepburn. Her mystique is inarguable. But where did it come from? I think it came in large part from the combination of BW colors - which are exciting, daring, and dramatic - with demure, ladylike styling.

http://www.absolutely.net/Audrey_Hepburn/index.jpg

Doesn't it fascinate the viewer to see the drama of these colors presented with such innocence?

Your season's colors have a vibe, for sure. But you can do a lot of different things with that vibe.

4/4/2011 03:52:28 pm

Audrey Hepburn was a clear winter? Didn't know that. Would've expected her to be more of a deep winter instead.

Is it just me or is the winter season filled with some of the most strikingly beautiful women on earth? Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Megan Fox, Anne Hathaway, Shania Twain, Jennifer Connelly, Brooke Shields etc to name a few. I often hear that winter women are like Snow White - brunette, regal, sophisticated, queen-like - as opposed to spring/summer who are mostly pale & light-haired. (Again, this is just a general assumption. I understand there are also spring/summer brunettes too.)

Besides, I think the winter's palette has the most striking colors of all seasons. But IMO, the soft seasons are able to carry off ANY look. They can go deep, light, warm, cool etc in their makeup, clothing & hair/eye color (although not too extreme).

4/4/2011 11:08:46 pm

Btw Rachel, yes I understand that season does not equate personality. I don't mean to imply that a certain season must be followed by certain personality. It's like saying that all winters must be elegant & poised; or that all summers are feminine & sweet; all autumns are calm & humble; all springs are fun & bubbly. Like yourself, I also think it's ridiculous that we expect people of a certain season must follow the same rules as their colorings when it comes to their personality. Not all springs are bubbly, not all winters are lady-like etc.

I just want to know how you would suggest to those who feel that their season's palette is different than what they expect. For example, a bright/clear winter with a shy & quiet personality who feels that she cannot handle such bright colors of her season's palette with enough confidence & assurance. Or a person of a soft season with bubbly, lively & outgoing personality who feels that her season's palette is too bland/boring for her etc. That's all. Well, Elisabeth has answered some of my questions so I really thank her.

Cora

4/6/2011 11:18:13 am

I loved this post and all its comments, but especially Hanna's, because I started caring about finding my best colors (and body shape, etc.) to free myself and instead I'm being sucked into obsessing more and more about my looks. Trying to find my season has brought out a lot of issues dating back from middle and high school. It's like if I thought looking my best now could make up for a lot of past grief. As if it was something urgent to solve before I can keep on with my life. I just wanted to get this off my chest.

4/6/2011 01:06:51 pm

Cora -
Thank you so much for sharing your voice. :-)

Gosh, isn't all of this so painful for so many of us? My heart's desire is for color analysis to enable women to feel beautiful inhabiting their true selves -- yet it can so easily become yet another thing we're either doing right or doing wrong, succeeding at or failing at.

I wish peace for you and for all of us.

Meredith

4/12/2011 11:46:39 am

Question: I'm trying was going to try the lipstick draping method, but Revlon's Strawberry Suede has been discontinued. Is there another obviously Bright Spring drugstore lipstick for me to test with?

4/12/2011 12:34:31 pm

Meredith - thank you for letting me know! I'm replacing it with another that Bright Springs report works well: Revlon Super Lustrous Ravish Me Red.

Brooke

4/20/2011 03:00:57 pm

I don't understand how someone can say that the only way to tell what their season is is to be draped but then you put celebities on here and tell us what their season is and that they are a Light Spring, Warm Spring, Warm Autumn, etc. Unless you personally draped them, you are assuming by LOOKING at them and making assumptions based on for example the fact that they have red hair and ivory skin. This obviously leads one to consider them a warm season (autum or spring) but you are LOOKING at them and making that assessment, you are not draping them.

4/20/2011 03:19:23 pm

Brooke - You raise a good point.

When I type celebrities, I actually use many of the same techniques I use to virtually analyze real people. For example, I often erase the hair, and I look at the celeb in scores and scores of colors, trying to notice the effects of the different colors on the skin and detecting the pattern in the best colors. I won't bore you with a minute accounting of the various ways I try to avoid being influenced by lighting, photo editing, artificial hair color, and so forth -- but I can truly say that I look *only* for the response of the celeb's skin to color. Not at hair color or eye color or eye pattern or any of that other stuff that supposedly predicts season.

But virtual analysis (of celebrities or of normal people like us) is necessarily imperfect, and can't match the accuracy of in-person analysis. So I'm sure to be wrong about some of the celeb calls. :-)

4/24/2011 06:44:54 am

Rachel:
thanks for your answer :)
I am more calm with this color searching, as I've decided I don't really need to wear a full palette but only some basics (grey, navy) and some accent colors (aqua).
I loved your post on brunette springs, your whole site is very inspiring.

4/24/2011 02:45:59 pm

Question: Is the color pure white exclusively for the winter season only? Are there any non-winter seasons that can also wear pure white well? What about clear/bright spring and deep autumn? I know that they can wear black, so perhaps they can wear pure white too?

Supposedly if you see someone can carry off pure white very well, would you automatically say that the person belongs in the winter season regardless of his/her physical characteristics?

Shirley

4/26/2011 06:57:16 am

Rachel,
I read your post on 12 Blueprints facebook mentioning Christine's comment on Autumn in Soft Summer eyes. I've searched and searched and cannot find it and desparately want to read it. Would you pleeeease point me to it, or repeat it here?

I've been typed as Light Summer, but it's not working. I have chunks of brown and soft gold in my blue eyes.

4/26/2011 02:29:14 pm

Diva - I'm hesitant to automatically say anything about anyone based on just one color, because human coloring is almost infinitely various. However, if I see that someone is particularly flattered by stark, bright, white, I'd certainly suspect Winter strongly -- and be suspicious of Spring and Autumn. Summers can also wear white well, but their white is much gentler. It would be difficult to know which white you're looking at unless you had them side by side. Check out the 2nd pic on this page at Christine Scaman's website:
http://12blueprints.com/how-light-summer-goes-grey/

Shirley - The remark Christine made is in the 1st comment under the post that begins "A gorgeous Soft Summer..." on this page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/12-Blueprints-Colour-Analysis/156368781974?sk=wall&filter=2

Here's what she wrote:

"Shown a photo of an eye, I would have said Soft Autumn. No way. She was on the cool side of Soft Summer, unlikely she ever was Soft Autumn."

May I very gently suggest that you pay no attention whatsoever to your eye color or eye pattern in determining your season? I firmly believe that when it comes to season, eye patterns and color distribution are irrelevant. Any correlations that people believe they see are a matter of selective perception, IMHO. After all, the genes that determine your eye coloring are not the same as the genes that determine your skin coloring.

4/26/2011 06:20:31 pm

Rachel, thanks so much. I hoped it would be a discussion about Autumn flecks. I do understand that skin reaction to the drapes is what matters.
So I'll be a Light Summer with brown-pink lipsticks.

Tora

5/4/2011 08:26:25 pm

Speaking as a definite Light Summer, brown-pink lipsticks make the surrounding skin on me look bluish. I wouldn't risk wearing it just to make my blue eyes look bluer. But then I got my PCA done so my skin could look its best, not to play up my eye color.

Kirsten link

10/2/2011 02:39:33 pm

I'm late coming to this thread, but I do want to comment how enjoyable and enlightening it is. Thank you for this site, too--it's delightful.

I've known for many years that I'm a Summer, confirming it by living in those colors, but until recently I was confused by the "dominant characteristic" theory. This site has helped me understand that I'm a Light Summer, though I have to highlight my hair to look blonde (I don't do that any more). For years my favorite lipstick has been Maybelline Windsor Rose, which I haven't found lately, but I tried Maybelline's Pink Wink recommended here for Light Summers, and lo, it's practically the same shade as Windsor Rose--a bit stronger, but the same hue. Many thanks for the recommendation!

Miriam

10/28/2011 06:53:42 am

This is a wonderful post - in this this case truth IS beauty haha.

I have a golden skin tone, hazel eyes that are more green than brown and hair between brown and blond with orangy highlights. Still, I am a deep autumn. I have always known that and preferred my true colors . So wtf??
Greetings!

barwyurody link

5/3/2013 11:51:35 am

I agree so much, it's never enough debunking myths!
From all those description method I'm supposed to be a Soft Summer... but in fact I'm a Bright Winter. Soft colours make me look horrible.
y hair. Yet bright winter colours make me look alive

Kat

4/29/2017 03:08:29 pm

This really is the best way to take the test. Going by beauticians, my hair is either neutral brown, brown, or golden brown. I definitely have red undertones in my hair, with warm-ish brown eyes and yet my skin is neutral leaning cool. When I test colors, I look best in bright cool colors and certain warm brights. I'm not sure what I am, though I feel like I'm either a cool winter or a bright winter. But if I went by my hair and eye color, I would've figured likely an autumn. Though I like autumn colors, they don't like me (and neither do summer colors).

7/28/2017 10:31:03 am

Excellent post. I fully agree.
It was a long process finding my seasonal coloring. I never fitted to any stereotypical description, my natural hair color is dark ash brown, grayish eyes yet I always felt like cool toned colors don't suit me when I looked in the mirror because of my skin undertone. I am a deep autumn.

JJ link

7/29/2017 06:27:39 am

Excellent post! I fully agree.
It was a long process finding out my coloring because I don't fit to any stereotypical description of the seasons. I have ash brown hair, grayish eyes - but whenever I looked in the mirror, I knew that cold colors don't suit my skin. I am a deep autumn.

Carina

6/17/2018 10:24:13 am

My case:

Hair color: GOLDEN dark blonde/light brown
Eye color: green, or more correctly - grey/blue/green, YELLOW starburst
Skin color: YELLOW, pale, can't tan

...And I'm absolutely not a warn season.

Being so yellow, I lived in conviction I was some sort of Spring or Autumn. It also didn't help that I don't have any mirror next to a window, so I'm used to seeing myself in artificial yellow light. Almost all clothes I am drawn to try and buy are warm. I barely have any cold ones in my closet. And I was so frustrated because no matter how much I tried on different Spring and Autumn colors, none of them seemed to be IT.
When I compared my photos to seasonal colors, Summer was always the best fit, and I thought it was because photos make everyone look cooler.
So, unable to put myself into any category, I finally took a mirror, placed it next to a damn window and started trying out different shades of same color. Cool wins every single time. Warm colors make my yellow skin look yellow and muddy with ugly greenish and red areas; cool colors make it look porcelain-ish with a healthy subdued pink blush, and the dark eye circles don't look as sickly dark as in warm shades. I guess if a color turns you all-over yellow, especially various ugly shades of yellow at once, stay away from it.

So, I'm a living proof that a very sunny, light golden looking person is - in fact a cool Summer. That would explain why I could never find a yellow that looks good on me.

Something you can learn from my mistakes: give ALL colors a try, and compare similar shades in DAYLIGHT. Don't compare to your arm skin, compare to your face. I used to compare my arm and hand to warm colors, see how they turn golden, and take that as evidence I must be a warm type...

Cathy

8/8/2021 03:07:38 pm

Excellent post AND comments! In reply to Divalicious' comment from 10 yrs ago: "Or perhaps, my own "logical" explanation is that: even if we all SEE the same color, but our MIND/BRAINS interprets it differently." Totally agree -- since I'm writing several years after the Internet's famous white/gold vs blue/black dress controversy. LOL! I saw it white/gold -- except when I angled my laptop screen a certain way and suddenly saw the blue/black.
As someone with dark red hair (it looks copper in bright sunlight, and looks brown in dim light or when I wear brown) and gray-blue eyes (w/ an amber starburst), and a bluish pink skin tone that's lightly freckled, I find these conversations fascinating. Am still undecided about my season, but get the most compliments when I wear a color close to 220C -- and the compliment is directed to me (you look great!) rather than a compliment on the color (that's a pretty color).

Truth is Beauty

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