Discover your color palette and your style type.

True Winter Makeup Word Cloud

10/29/2018

Every product on the True Winter makeup list has been swatched to match a color-accurate True Winter palette book.

If you're a True Winter, these are your best makeup colors. They look natural and healthy on your skin.

These colors are very vivid and very cold (bluish). Even the yellows are as cold as yellow can be -- you can't detect a bit of orange.

On the makeup list, which has over 400 precisely matched products, you tend to see the same color names appear over and over. That happens on every list, because each color season represents a very specific section of color space.

Here are the most frequently-occurring color words on the True Winter makeup list:

Last week I said I love Dark Autumn because it's so complex. This week I find myself thinking that I love True Winter because it's so focused! (I guess I love all 12 palettes. :-) )

Black, plum, red, pink, blue, berry. That's True Winter, all right.

Above, compare True Winter, which is in the center, to True Summer on the left. They're both cool-toned, but see how important grey is for True Summer, while black is True Winter's biggest makeup neutral. Red is also very important for True Winter, but only shows up for True Summers as shades of berry.

Also, compare True Winter to Dark Winter, on the right. Notice how Dark Winter stays intense, but brings in warmth with colors like brown, chocolate, moss, coral, and cinnamon.

On True Winter skin, this makeup doesn't look shocking or extreme; it looks natural and healthy. Looking at these faces, you'd never guess how saturated and cold the makeup appears on a piece of white paper.

If you're not sure of your color season, consider trying the home draping cards.

19 Comments

Marta

10/31/2018 01:50:41 pm

Hello Rachel! I've got a question about clothing and style IDs. I thought about comentting here because comments get lost in older posts.
Style IDs shopping guides show the characteristics we should look for in garments. My question is:
Do we have to buy garments with characteristics of just one essence or can we also buy garments that contain a mix of them?
I mean, I'm an Ethereal-Dramatic (50% each one, minimum classic and romantic). Could I rock a heavy material jumper (Dramatic) which also has a square neckline (Ethereal)? or a turtleneck (Dramatic) in a light coloring (Ethereal)?
Also, I'm confussed about why an E-D can't wear metallic? It's aggresive but an E-D has so much dramatic...
Hope you see this comment!

11/2/2018 07:26:00 am

Can you possibly go into detail as to how Michelle Williams is a True Winter. There is no doubt that she’s a winter she looks amazing in black and silver but how did you narrow it down to true winter? Her skin tone is brown and I thought there isn’t any brown in the true winter pallete. I’m just trying to better understand because I’m close to her skin tone myself but I’m a Dark autumn.

11/3/2018 09:30:35 pm

You're right about those cool colors not looking so cool on a True Winter. That red lipstick looks so warm on Katy Perry! What would that red lipstick really look like if swatched on white paper? And what eyeshadow colors are the above celebs most likely using?

Melina

11/4/2018 10:11:04 am

I think the lipstick Katy Perry is wearing is surely warmer than what others pictured here are wearing, even on paper ;) So I was a bit surprised for it to be given as a TW example.

11/17/2018 10:19:04 pm

The way that red lipstick turns too warm on Katy Perry is exactly what happens to me if I try a pure red lip color (no yellow, no blue, etc.). Some TWs seem to require a blue tint in their reds, like the color of highest-quality rubies. I’ve heard the pure reds tend to work better for TWs with olive-toned skin.

Susan

11/4/2018 09:29:51 pm

Does anyone think that Keanu Reeves is a True Winter?Just curious as he seems to be the closest match to myself color wise. Oddly enough my skin has seemed to lighten up recently, and my hair (which I shaved down) to “start over”, is coming in almost blue-black with a smattering of grey. I wonder if it is my recently going off hormones, or just genetic, as the same thing happened to my mum. I wonder if this has happened to anyone else? Am I cooling down, if that is even possible?

11/8/2018 09:24:24 pm

Great post, Rachel--these are definitely the kinds of colors that work best on me! I was especially pleased to see the emphasis on blue for TWs in this post. Discussions of this palette often focus on its red, but I have very pale skin with obvious blue tones in it (with which I've frightened the natives in SoCal and Hawaii), so TW's pure blues are what really speak to me in this palette. And black is certainly a very important neutral for TW; you know you're a Winter when black eyeliner clears and enlarges your eyes instead of making you look like a raccoon!

Since we're talking about TW, I'd like to share a makeup find that's been working well for me: Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm in Sweet Violet. Despite the name, it swatches as a sheer but saturated magenta. It's great for adding just enough color to my lips while still looking natural--not an easy thing to find for a TW whose style ID requires barely-there makeup!

11/11/2018 11:17:26 am

KC, that's an interesting thought: "you know you're a Winter when black eyeliner clears and enlarges your eyes instead of making you look like a raccoon!"

Do you think that's absolute, i.e. that it's impossible for anyone else than Winters to do well with black eyeliner? As I used to use it for years, most of my life actually (though I don't anymore), and never felt it makes me look like a raccoon, yet I really don't think I'm a Winter ;)

11/17/2018 09:38:24 pm

Hi Melina—I think many Bright Springs could wear black eyeliner, because contrast. Some Dark Autumns might also be able to pull it off depending on their depth, contrast, and style ID.

11/18/2018 05:02:50 am

Thanks, KC! The black issue does confuse my thoughts quite a lot; having settled on TA for quite a while, only yesterday I again realized how black is actually good for me, no denying it... Not in eyeliner (I've ditched my black ones years ago, alas), but in clothing - I held a garment next to my face, mainly to confirm it's not a good colour for me ;), but couldn't help seeing how it actually evens out my skintone quite a bit, and brings me into focus... So, DA & BSp are again in the cards. Oh well. ;)

11/18/2018 07:42:33 pm

Caught between two of the most gorgeous palettes—your life is rough indeed ;). Should be easy to figure out which one is better for you, at least: just see whether hot pink or dark brown is more flattering.

11/19/2018 02:43:27 am

Yes, isn't it rough ;) But not as easy as that, as I've been going back and forth for years, between those and a few other seasons... As to hot pink and dark brown, both are good but not ground-shiftingly so; and I can wear colours from both palettes, though a lot of BSp feels a bit too bright. Darkness is good, but then again in lipsticks not, they tell I need clarity. Oh well. ;)

11/22/2018 04:52:27 am

Hmm, that does make things confusing . . . I have a feeling I know the answer to this question, but I’ll go ahead and ask it anyway: Have you completely ruled out Dark Winter?

Actually, now that I think of it, there are a few colors in the DA palette that come pretty close to hot pink, so maybe a different color would work better for testing DA vs. BSp.

From your description, it does sound like you have an upper limit to brightness in clothing, so maybe you’re a DA who happens to need the lighter, brighter colors of the palette directly on your face? Might have something to do with your style ID too; are you an REI, if I recall correctly?

11/23/2018 10:46:09 am

Yes, DW is ruled out, as the lipsticks make me look goth, which they surely wouldn't to a DW ;) Also other Winters are more or less ruled out, as I just can't do pure white.

The more I've looked into this, for the past few days, the more convinced I am that I'm some kind of Spring, or at least not an Autumn, as would an Autumn look good in medium pink lip gloss..? I tried again an old pink lip gloss the other day, and that looked surprisingly great... Same for my other old "Spring lippies" like Revlon Fuchsia Fusion or Wild Watermelon. And I now realize how the Autumn lipsticks have been aging and heavy on me, even though I thought they meshed fine with my colouring... (Well, the brown or brownish ones never did, but anyway.) Spring type lippies take off at least 5 years, though I'm fairly young-looking for my age any case ;) (Yes, I'm REI, you have brilliant memory you have!)

I wonder if there is a BSp with some kind of brightness limit...? A BSp leaning very much TSp, maybe... But thanks for your advice, I'll keep on exploring :)

11/11/2018 10:33:27 am

Thank you for the tip KC! I will check that color out, and see if it can help me determine if TW is better for me than DW now. It’s so nice to be in a space where women build each other up and help each other out:)

11/17/2018 10:11:11 pm

Hi Susan, glad to be of help :). If the Sweet Violet doesn’t work for you or if you’d just like a comparison, the Burt’s Bees tinted lip balms also include a sheer burgundy shade called Red Dahlia that looks like it would work for a Dark season.

Janice

11/17/2018 05:31:47 am

Katy Perry is Bright Winter, anyone who's ever seen her on tv or her Instagram would know that. She even looks amazing in all gold outifts when she's a blonde, looks great in almost neon colros which are quite warm, a simple Google search will show that. Pretty big mistype rigth there.

11/17/2018 06:13:16 am

That's quite condescending ("anyone who's ever seen her on tv or her Instagram would know that"); Rachel surely *has* seen her, and yet classifies her as TW. She actually writes elsewhere on this site (which may explain your mistake):
"Some celebs have one particular not-their-season season that they consistently shoot for. I believe Katy Perry's a True Winter who aims for Bright Winter. Lippies are usually a little, but not a lot, too bright; color's usually a little, but not a lot, too saturated. I'm sure the effect is exactly what she's going for. In her proper True Winter colors, we really see Katy. She's gorgeous here, and so real."

11/18/2018 08:33:58 pm

Great KC, I will check that color out. Thanks!

Truth is Beauty

True Winter Makeup Word Cloud

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