Sometimes Basic Colour Analysis may not represent some of us and because there are other combinations which this analyse could not cover. For example, you may have cool skin but warm eye and hair colours. Therefor more in-depth season colour analysis has been developed which consist 12 different colour palettes.
Your colour season determines which colours flatter you the most. This knowledge is perfect to tailor your wardrobe to your own individual colour palette.
There are 4 basic seasons and each has 3 subtypes. Sometimes it can be tricky to find your colour scheme. In today’s blog I'll do my best to explain the basics and in the coming weeks I will you will get a closer view on the different subtypes per season.
Three colour aspects
Which seasonal type you are can be determined by three aspects:
HUE: warm - Cool
VALUE: light - Dark
CHROMA : clear - soft
Step 1: HUE: warm – Cool
The first step is to determine your hue, the undertone of your skin. Basically, it involves looking beyond your skin colour to discover the undertone that gives definition to your looks.
A yellow undertone means that you are a warm type; the tone can vary from a pale neutral to golden olive to copper brown. Which means you are either a Spring or Autumn type.
A blue undertone means you are a cool type; the tone can be porcelain white or pale beige to taupe-olive to dark chocolate brown to almost true black. Which means you are either a Summer or Winter type.
Tips:
You need a gold and silver paper or fabric and place it under your face. You are a warm type if silver makes you look pale and pasty and gold makes you shine. You are a cool type if gold makes you look yellowish and sickly, but silver makes you shine.
Another way to check is to look at the veins on your inner wrist and determine whether they look more blue(ish) or green(ish). Green means warm and blue means cool.
Step 2: VALUE: light – Dark
To determine your value you need to look at your eyes and hair colour.
Light: you have blond or light brown hair, your skin is light for your ethnicity and your eyes are light blue, green or grey.
Tip: Very dark colours age you, but light colourful tones make your appearance pop.
Dark: you have dark brown or black hair and deep brown, green or hazel eyes.
Tip: Very dark colours make your eyes and hair pop, on the other hand, light colourful colours will make you look drained and washed out.
Step 3: CHROMA : clear – soft
The contrast between your skin and hair/eyes determine your chroma type.
If your colouring is highly saturated and contrasted you are a clear type.
If your colouring is more blended with not much contrast in your features then you are a soft type.
Tip: add an black/white filter on one of your pictures, if the tones are mostly shades of grey you have are soft type
The 12 colour palettes
Each season has three main characteristics:
Spring: warm + light + clear
Summer: cool + light + soft
Autumn: warm + dark + soft
Winter: cool + dark + clear
Each one of the twelve colour seasons has a primary (dominant) and a secondary characteristic. You will always combine your cool or warm aspect with one of the two other aspects.
These are the twelve combinations:
Clear + Warm = Clear Spring
Warm + Clear = True Spring
Warm + Light = Light Spring
Light + Cool = Light Summer
Cool + Soft = True Summer
Soft + Cool = Soft Summer
Soft + Warm = Soft Autumn
Warm + Soft = True Autumn
Dark + Warm = Dark Autumn
Dark + Cool = Dark Winter
Cool + Clear = True Winter
Clear + Cool = Clear Winter
In me next blogs I will elaborate on the different subtypes. Next week you will discover the 3 Spring subtypes and colour palettes accordingly.
Do you have difficulties to determine your seasonal colour type? Just send me a message and I will guide you through the steps.