Do you ever find yourself reaching for the same pair of black pants when you have a closet filled with clothes? We’ve all experienced a closet crisis where our clothing feels unflattering and unable to be mixed and matched. Here is where color analysis can help you out!
With warmer weather and summer just around the corner, it’s important to experiment with different styles and colors. Using seasonal color analysis, you can determine what colors look best for your particular skin tone, hair color, and eye color. Seasonal color analysis can be broken down into just two factors: Hue, which is the undertone of your skin (cool and warm), and value, which is the lightness or depth of your facial features.
I know this can seem overwhelming, but I am here to help, so let’s get started:
- Finding your skin undertone
The first thing you’re going to want to do is determine the undertone of your skin. The undertones of your skin differ from your natural skin tone; an undertone is the slight tint that your skin possesses beneath the surface. There are typically 2 undertones; warm and cool.
To find your undertone, look at the veins on the inside of your wrist. If your veins appear more blue, you have a cooler undertone, if your veins are green, you are warm toned.
If you are cool toned, you may have a pinkish/red tint to your skin. Usually cool undertones coincide with fair skin and lighter eyes/hair. If you typically look good in silver jewelry, you probably have a cooler undertone.
If you are warm toned, you may have a more golden, peachy, or yellow tint to your skin. You may gravitate towards gold jewelry, and have darker hair.
- Finding your value
Value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color. Face depth refers to the overall value of your facial features: light, medium, or deep. It’s actually pretty easy to determine your depth. Using your phone camera, take a black-and-white photo of yourself and determine what features are most prominent.
Faces with light facial features do not have any deep features. They typically have very soft features to their face (think of a renaissance painting), and have light hair, eyes, and a cool skin tone. Examples of celebrities with light facial features are Meryl Streep, Kate Hudson, Gigi Hadid
Medium–those who have medium depth in their faces have mid toned skin, hair, and eyes. There may be light parts of their facial features, but there are a few deep features such as striking eyes or high cheekbones. Those who have medium depth also have a neutral skin undertone. Examples of celebrities with medium facial depth are Kate Middleton, Amanda Seyfried, and Beyonce.
Deep–those who have deep facial features might have very light or medium features, with a warm/neutral undertone. It’s difficult to determine if you have deep facial features, those who have deep facial features typically have striking eyes and darker hair, with high cheekbones. Examples of celebrities that have deep facial features are Anne Hathaway, Zoey Deshanel, and Mindy Khaling.
- Putting this all together
There are four main seasonal groups of skin tone, hair color, and eye color: winter, spring, summer, and autumn.
To determine your seasonal color analysis we will use the two tests described above; your undertones and your value. The colors of spring and autumn have a yellow warmer undertone. Spring colors are brighter, and autumn is more muted and softer. The colors of winter and summer have more blue cooler undertones. Winter colors are more vibrant and deeper, whereas summer colors are softer and muted.
- Warm and light–spring
- Cool and light–summer
- Warm and deep–autumn
- Cool and deep–winter
- Warm and medium–you can pull off spring or autumn
- Warm and medium–you can pull off summer and winter
Spring– your colors are bright, light, and pastel (light pinks, blues, yellows, and cream colors look best on you)
Summer– your colors are bright, soft, and muted (muted pinks, yellows, oranges, olive green, light purple would look best on you)
Autumn– your colors are soft, but deep and rich (orangy red colors, greens, deep purples, navy, and a muted army green would look best on you)
Winter– your colors are bright and bold (Think bright almost neon colors such as purples, blues, pinks, oranges, black, bright white would look best on you)
Using color analysis, you can figure out what colors work best for you, and what colors you should integrate into your wardrobe. Seasonal color analysis also gives clarity to why some colors wash us out, look harsh, or just don’t seem right.
Everybody has different complexions, and facial features, so this color analysis may not work for everyone. But knowing your seasonal color analysis can allow you to try out different colors that you may not have tried before, and develop a color palette that is unique to you. Who knows, you may even surprise yourself with the colors that look best on you