Hey, I'm hear to tell ya folks, I feel pretty nervous about giving people beauty advice, because I have absolutely NO accredited expertise in the area. But maybe that's a good thing. I hate listening to some goddess talking about how to do hair and makeup, don't you? It's so demoralizing. Hopefully digesting the meager little crumbs of advice I can offer about beauty will be easier coming from a fellow mortal who shops at Walmart for cosmetics.
Ok, let's talk about finding your colors.
First, you're going to go to this site: Colorwise.Me. I didn't have much luck with the Color-Analyze Your Face tool, but I LOVE the Personal Palette Designer.
Here's where I may deviate from traditional seasonal analysis theology: I really think you just have to trust your instincts. There are certain rules to explain WHY you look good in a given palette of colors, but if you're trying to analyze yourself by cataloguing your eye color, skin color, hair color, wether you tan, wether you freckle, whether you gain 5 pounds just by LOOKING at ice-cream... (oops, got off track there,) the diagnostics can be contradictory and confusing. My suggested approach for beginners is this: upload an accurate, current photo of yourself and "try on" the different pallets. They each have a celebrity example in the middle that you can look at as a guide.
If you're struggling to know where to even begin, a simple code is: winters are cooler and darker, summers are cooler and lighter. Autumns are warmer and darker, springs are warmer and lighter. Since I know I'm not dark and cool, I skipped the winter pallets and only tried on summers, springs, and autumns.
The summer pallets looked nice with my blonde hair, but I felt like they made my skin look washed out, so I decided to stick with the warms- spring and autumn.
The pastel colors of the spring pallet were ok, and I loved the variety of colors, but I felt that they made me look a little washed out again. Although I have blue eyes and (currently) blonde hair, I gave the autumns a try.
A+
BINGO. I like that extra little bit of depth, without being too jewel-toned. I wish there was a larger selection of colors, but I know this is just a sample. It's a surprising result. Your eyes tell you it works, but doesn't it defy logic that a blonde-haired, fair-skinned, blue-eyed gal could by anything other than a summer/spring? That's where the fine details count.
Once you delve more deeply into color analysis, you'll find that there are seasonal sub-categories. The A+ pallet above is Soft Autumn, a blend of summer and autumn characteristics.
Soft Autumns are typified by medium, muted, low-contrast coloring. People of this type tend to have warm-colored eyes. Although blue eyes are usually considered cool, mine are medium grey-blue, which fall in the warm category.
As you can see, when I use an old photo of myself with my natural hair color, the pallet suddenly makes more sense.
That's why, even with the artificially platinum hair that I've chosen for my look lately, I still fit most comfortably in this soft, neutral color pallet.
Here's a better sample of Soft Autumn colors that I love:
Those purples! Forest green, salmon, camel! I adore those shades. Now, I totally throw on colors like black, hot pink, and pure white when I feel like it. No one's going to excommunicate you from the Holy Church of Color Correctness if you choose to branch out, but it's nice to have a good idea of what to buy and what to leave on the rack (neons, anyone??)
Which brings us back to what I said initially, to trust your instincts and just wear what you feel pretty in. Before I did my research about color analysis, I was always drawn to earthy tones like oatmeal, cognac, and tomato (sounds like a meal to be eaten on a veranda somewhere.) Although I didn't know the science behind it at the time, I felt like I had a special glow whenever I wore soft, neutral colors. My eyes knew what my brain didn't. So trust your eyes (and maybe an honest friend,) unless you're really interested in the subject, and then go hog wild into the research!
What are your best colors? Post a screen-shot of your favorite pallet in the comments below! WBS- Jess
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