Learn from my mistakes # 130 Know your “Season” Understanding your best color for your wardrobe!
Nothing says sexy like a confident woman!
Confidence might be harder to notice these days with as many are at home and wearing face masks, but you know what makes you feel confident! And when you feel you’re dressed to the 9’s, your outfit is the bomb; you stand a little taller, walk a little more briskly with intention and purpose.
The confidence, sense of empowerment that comes from knowing you can save your life or even someone else’s is why you are reading this blog and becoming knowledgeable about carry a self-defense tool with you every day.
My goal is to make it easy for you to get your day started off right by being prepared. Be armed, fashionable, and yes, knock out gorgeous!
After three months of lock down, I bet your ready to start wearing something other than leggings, shorts or lounge pants. Now is the perfect time to consider your wardrobe!
But before we come out of the closet, let’s take a good look in the mirror. Do you know what your “season” is? Once upon a time, knowing your “season” was the buzz word in selecting what to wear. Guess what?, It still works today.
Let’s break this down, knowing or understanding your skin tone is the key to unlocking how to dress to look & feel your best! I’m sure you know what I mean, let’s say you have an important meeting or interview, what’s the number one garment item you always wear?
I’ll bet the color of that garment is your “season” color. You know what feels good on you. If you’re not sure, it’s the color of something you wearing when people compliment you on how good you look.
So, let’s wash up and let’s take a good look in the mirror!
How to determine your UNDERTONES of your SKIN TONE.
- Remove all makeup, lotions, etc. and wash face (wait about 20 min. after washing your face so there’s no redness). Really look at your face, Looking at the undertones in your skin.
- It’s best if you have natural daylight to examine your skin tone. (Your skin tone is actually determined by the undertones that come through) and we typically describe skin tone as fair, medium or deep. That’s not what we’re after though.
- If your having trouble determining your undertones, use a plain white piece of paper and hold it next to your face. Now, compare how your skin (color) looks in contrast to the paper.
If your skin looks yellowish, greenish, or light brown, then you likely have a warm skin tone.
If your skin looks pink, rosy, or blue, then you have a cool skin tone.
If your skin looks gray or ashen, then you are a neutral skin tone.
If you have a skin condition like acne, rosacea, or if you are extremely tanned, ask a friend to use the paper test on the crease behind your ear instead, which is less likely to be affected by these variables.
Another place to look to determine your undertone color is to look at your palm and wrist. Note the color of your veins, again in natural daylight is ideal. If they appear green, then you have warm skin.
If your veins appear to be blue or purple, you have cool skin. If it’s hard to tell one way or the other what color they favor, then you have neutral skin.
Once you know what your undertones are, it becomes a lot easier to spot what makeup, clothes or even hair colors best complement your skin.
An undertone is influenced by either YELLOW or BLUE. That is: YELLOW is WARM and BLUE is COOL
How does your skin react to the sun? People who tan easily instead of burn usually have warm skin tones.
People who burn rather than tan usually have cool skin tones, although sometimes women with dark ebony skin that doesn’t burn can also have cool undertones. People who are neutral may fall into either group with regards to tanning or burning, but neutrals will not have any obvious appearance of olive, yellow, or ruddy skin.
Certain hues and colors will pop more on your skin than others depending on whether you have warm or cool undertones. Those with warm undertones have skin that lends to yellow, gold and peachy shades, while those with cool undertones lean towards pink, blue or red hues.
You’re cool! You have pink or red undertones in your skin (whether it’s fair or dark), so stick with jewel tones like royal blue, emerald green, magenta, and blue-based reds for your clothing and makeup. When choosing a foundation or concealer, look for neutral or pink-based shades.
If you are COOL, you will always look your best when you’re wearing rose or blue toned shades that echo your Cool blue undertone. Your eyes: will be blue, grey blue, green or blue green. They may even be rose brown – whichever color they will all have a grey cast with a darker rim around the iris.
Cool Skin tone is likely to be ivory, rose beige to beige. If you find that a true beige foundation looks very ‘flat’ on you, this is because you have a blue/pink undertone to your skin and need to look for a modicum of pink in the foundation.
Your Hair: is light brown through to a cool mid brown – always with ash tones.
Your most flattering colors are always those with a blue undertone. These traits for COOL:
- clear and strong jewel tones
- pretty pastel pink through to luscious raspberry and magenta
- clear blues through to blue/red and maroon
- lavender through to a strong cool purple
- blue greens, jade green, violets and purple
- Your best neutrals are silver greys, charcoal, navy or black
- For summer taupe is great for linen separates
Additionally, within the COOL undertones, you can be either Summer or Winter…
Cool Winter colors can be recognized by their overall cool appearance, lacking in any warm or golden tones, and dark in intensity. Unlike Deep Winter, Cool Winters have no warmth on their skin or hair, and they look great in pure cool colors, such as icy pink or fuchsia.
Cool Winter hair is dark, from blue-black to medium brown or even an ashy white-blonde without red or golden tones at all.
Skin
True Winter skin is rosy beige, cool beige, soft olive, and it tans easily. There is no golden undertones or anything that would make you think orange is a good color for them. If you can wear orange, you are not a True Winter. If your skin is warmer, try Deep Winter.
Eyes
Eyes are usually light and cold, gray, blue, violet or an icy hazel or dark brown without gold on them.
Cool Winter coloring is clear and high in contrast and looks great in black and high contrast color combinations. If you look great in stark white and black combinations, icy pink, royal purple and other cool and intense colors, you are most likely a Cool Winter.
Although the COOL color swatch encompasses many of the shades featured in the Summer and Winter palettes, the Seasons have other elements that don’t relate to your coloring.
Your primary consideration always has to be identifying the truest blue undertone so only the true COOL shades from Summer and Winter are included.
If your coloring is light then the lighter shades will flatter your complexion near to your face. If your coloring is stronger then the deeper shades will echo your natural contrast.
But this is by no means always the case as it’s often mood and occasion that influences your choice of colors.
Warm color How to tell a WARM skin tone?
However light or deep your skin, you are likely to recognize several (rarely all) of these factors if your skin is WARM.
- your skin has a yellow tone
- it may be fair with freckles, golden, beige, olive or deep brown
- your hair is likely to have red tones – golden or strawberry blonde, gold brown, auburn or dark brown with reddish tints
- you may have a soft golden tone to your eye
- veins in your wrist are likely to be greenish
- rich creams look good on you
- you like earthy shades
- bright pinks/blues are harsh
- gold is more flattering on you than silver
You’re warm! You have yellow, golden, or peach undertones in your skin, so you look great in gold jewelry, earth tones, olive green, and orange-based red makeup or clothing. When choosing a foundation or concealer, choose yellow or peach-based shades.
Whether you’re SPRING, WARM or AUTUMN…
If you have a Warm skin tone, however light or deep your complexion, then colors with the same warm/golden undertone as your own will flatter your best.
There are 3 main color families with WARM undertones – SPRING, WARM and AUTUMN. The colors are all very similar but get increasingly stronger.
In the photos below we see Kylie with fresh quite bright coloring; Amy Adams (center) with a more mellow medium contrast and Julia (right) with much deeper and a richly blended coloring. The relevant color palettes also get stronger.
Color Analysis works when natural coloring is echoed in the colors that you wear.