While shopping, you may find yourself baffled when asking, ‘what colours suit me?’
Having your colours done might strike you as a bit ‘80s, but, according to experts, wearing the right shades can make you look healthier, feel more confident and even change your whole attitude toward yourself.
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So how do you figure out which colours work for you? Here’s how it’s done…
What skin tone am I?
The basis of colour analysis is figuring out whether your skin tone is warm or cool.
What Skintone Am I? on Biteable
If you have pink or rosy undertones (like Angelina Jolie, Renee Zellweger, Lucy Liu or Halle Berry), your skin tone is cool, and colours with blue undertones will suit you best.
If you have golden or apricot undertones (like Nicole Kidman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Heidi Klum or Beyoncé), your skin tone is warm, and yellow-based hues will flatter you.
A couple of quick tests can help you figure your skin tone out quickly and easily. First, look at the veins on the underside of your wrist.
If they appear blue, your skin tone is cool. If they look green, it’s warm. Still not sure? Try holding a piece of gold fabric under your chin (or trying on a gold necklace).
Now do the same with a piece of silver fabric or jewellery. Which shade lights up your complexion and makes your eyes pop? If it’s silver, you’re cool. If it’s gold, you’re warm.
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Colour analysis
You might have heard friends referring to themselves as Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter types. What does it all mean?
Well, if your skin tone is cool, you belong to the summer or winter family. If it’s warm, you have spring or autumn colouring. Some people span multiple groups, but one tends to be primary.
What hair colours suit me?
Summer
If you have a cool skin tone, naturally ash-toned blonde or light-mid brown hair (with no red or gold highlights), and pale blue, green or grey eyes, you have summer colouring.
Winter
If you have a cool skin tone, ash-toned medium to dark brown or black hair with no red or gold highlights, and deep blue, green or brown eyes, you belong to the winter family.
Spring
If you have a warm skin tone and golden blonde or light-medium brown hair with golden highlights, you have spring colouring. Spring types may have a mixture of warm and cool elements to their colouring.
Autumn
If you have a warm skin tone and red, auburn, dark brown or black hair with red, gold or chestnut highlights, you belong to the autumn colour family. If you are pale, you probably have freckles.
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What colours should I wear?
According to the experts, we can all wear virtually any colour – it’s simply a matter of figuring out which shades suit us best.
However, knowing which colour family you belong to can help you figure out exactly which hues will flatter you. Wearing one of ‘your’ colours close to your face will light you up and make your hair and eyes ‘pop’. Further down, though? Anything goes!
So, if you can’t bear to bin the black (which can cause shadows to pool in lines and crevices when worn too close to the face), invest in a coloured scarf.
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Here are the shades you should be looking out for:
Summer
Summer types look best in soft pastels with blue undertones. Grey and blue hues (from pastel blue to navy) will also look great. However, yellow-based colours such as orange, tan, mustard, coral and salmon pink are less flattering, and pure white may wash you out, so opt for soft off-white tones, instead.
Winter
Winter colouring calls for the boldest and richest of blue-based hues. Think scarlet red, fuchsia pink, royal blue, emerald green and deep purple. You can also get away with black, charcoal grey and pure white tones. However, you should try to steer clear of muted pastels and yellow or orange-toned shades, including rusty browns and brick reds.
Spring
Spring types suit warm ‘true’ brights such as brick red, coral, salmon pink and true blue. Beige and ivory hues will also flatter. However, icy pastels, deep tones and dusky or muted shades may drain you.
Autumn
Warm, muted tones like olive green, terracotta red and burnt orange enhance autumnal complexions (think autumn leaves). However, you should beware of insipid pastel tones and harsh brights. You can get away with navy, but other blue-toned hues are best avoided.
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Change-room trick
Stranded under fluorescent changing room strip lighting with little to no idea whether that particular shade of red counts as scarlet or brick? Don’t worry – simply try Polly Holman, an associate lecturer at the London College of Fashion’s ‘Blink Test’.
Stand in front of the mirror wearing the item in question. Now… blink.
“When you open your eyes, if you see the colour before you see yourself, then the colour is wearing you,” she says. “If you see yourself first, then you’re wearing the colour, which means it suits you.”
This article originated on: www.womanandhome.com
