Our Eye Album: Autumn
July 18, 2011 by Christine Scaman · 11 Comments
Are you starting to see certain patterns repeated? And also that in every Season, there is variability in colour and line pattern?
Soft Autumn
I have to talk a little, I can’t seem to stop myself. The Soft Autumn eyes above and below, notice how the colours are soft, meaning quite greyed. There is heat round the center, but it’s not intense. It also happens to be the same colour as the freckle above and is a terrific colour for hair or highlight. Your best, most real and natural hair colour is often in your eyes, unless they’re blue, of course. Look in there and find it.
A most interesting colouring below, from a woman who knew herself to be a Neutral Season, but with her dark hair, expected a Dark Autumn result from the draping. Soft Autumn can be quite dark, but we forget because most lighten their hair. On some it looks better, but not all.
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True Autumn
Very muted and very warm, says Autumn to me.
The eye above is True Autumn, with Dark Autumn below. They’re similar in that the heat (orange-brown) is now clustered round the pupil, an effect that gets stronger with more Winter. Though photographic conditions are different, the orange of the eye above seems hotter than the eye below. Dark Autumn is cooling off, since it contains a small portion of Winter, and the brown is more neutral.
With the orange-brown gathered near around the pupil below, this eye suggests a person whose colouring is closer to the darker side of Autumn. Compare the patterns with the top eye in this True Autumn group, which has the line-free ring that surrounds the pupil and the lighter and cooler colours, probably signifying a person closer to the lighter side of Autumn, or Soft Autumn. In both cases, the skin is still perfected by the True Autumn palette so they are both True Autumns. What seems fairly consistent among True Autumns is that the degree of contrast of the eyes relative to the entire person is medium, completely consistent with the degree of contrast in the overall swatch collection. The colours of skin/hair/eyes stand out from one another more than they do in a Summer face but less than in a Winter face where eyes are usually more intensely coloured and so seem more distinct from the face. In a True Autumn, the eyes are more part of the face. The overall appearance is fairly blended, still a medium saturation and darkness group. What sets them apart is the maximal warmth of the colours.
All the eyes above have little definition of lines and spokes in the iris. As Winter comes in, more of these lines become evident, as can be seen in the Dark Autumn section below. Notice that the hazy smudged line patterns (or near absence of them) is becoming more defined in the Dark Autumn eyes and the colour is beginning to clear.
Dark Autumn
Brown eyes exist in every Season. I love them in Autumn, the Season that perfects repeating hair and eye colour, a very magnetic combination. Brown eyes are also harder (for me) to deduce line patterns. I see the spokes of Winter coming in below. I see heat as orange over yellow, and muted over beer bottle clear (might be same colour as a beer bottle, but without the transparency you’ll see in the upcoming Bright Winter eye). The beauty of this eye colour with this skin colour is quite remarkable, as the bronze intensifies at every level of appearance. How unbelievably gorgeous are the colours Nature put in us?
The eye below belongs to a woman who has been analyzed as a Dark Autumn and a Dark Winter. These distinctions can be very tough in some people, even in when draped in person. You are seeing such improvements in both Seasons that it’s tough to decide which flaws (because those are there too) will be the deciding choices. I make my decisions based on certain parameters, but a different analyst, a different day, could come out different. Someone who straddles 2 Seasons this closely has big play in flattering colour. If I were her, I’d own both Colour Books. She has great flexibility within the boundaries of those 2 Seasons.
I gave this eye to Dark Autumn because the Winter lines and shapes are not as clearly defined as in many Winter eyes. There is still some muting of lines and colours, feels more Autumn.
Soft Autumn Darkness Adjustments
June 24, 2011 by Christine Scaman · 24 Comments
Every Season makes darkness adjustments for hair colour one woman at a time. There will always be individuals who don’t look right in the median colour, and fare better along the outer edges of the curve. I love hair colour that looks believable, like it happened by itself, and that flatters the skin to the utmost. This is when the viewer feels most relaxed.
Depending on depth of complexion, personal taste, and occasion, cosmetic darkness is adjusted too, though always staying inside the personal colour palette of the Season, and aiming for the same goals as with the hair.
In 12 Tone personal colour analysis, Soft Autumn is the name given to the type of natural colouring that contains colours mostly characteristic of the Autumn group, but cooled and grayed by a smaller measure of Summer.
In previous posts on Soft Autumn hair colour, I showed a coppery apricot colour as being quite lovely. In every Season, many hair colours are not only possible, but better and righter. Sometimes the freckle colour is the perfect highlight, even in the Dark Autumn or further out in the Autumn family, at Dark Winter.
Soft Autumn is a typical Neutral Season in that they have a range of warmer and cooler colours, but none fully warm or cool. The value (meaning, Light>>Dark) range that perfects the skin has some movement too, though never extends to extremes of either one for the Soft Seasons. What this woman strives for most importantly is very muted, soft colour. Muted and warm, that is, because maximally muted (greyed) and cooled belongs to Soft Summer, peanut shell and misty mauve respectively.
The element of coolness means that they are not especially orange-tolerating. Hair and freckling can skew the perception. The woman above (all 3 photos) has many apricot brown freckles. She adds those colours to her hair, giving a warmer appearance, as you see in the lower photo where natural medium warm brown and apricot highlight are visible. She can wear soft golden-oranges beautifully in makeup as long as they’re not very dark. Regardless of hair colour, darkness in makeup is a caution point for Soft Autumn, often appearing darker than expected from the pencil or tube colour.
Some Soft Autumns are harder to imagine in apricot, like Kate Moss, who does not seem orangey at all. (I only know she gives a Soft Autumn impression). Though the blonde that Charlize Theron wears well never flatters her, and warm blonde does, she is neither very orange or dark. Some of these seem almost too orange. She can do more darkness and warmth than we usually see and look far more interesting with less paint. This feels just beyond the upper darkness limit where colour is being pulled from the skin.
Kate Moss has smaller, sharper features and wears darker hair better than what we normally see, but does not do very dark so well. This is a good gallery. 6 and 8 seem very good, while the rest make your insides tense up. Or, go back even farther.
The less well blonde works, the more Autumn presence there may be. Kathie Lee is a good example of a woman who was beautiful with deeper, warmer hair colour.
Google Kelly Macdonald. Though you’d think she’d be better in the lighter warm brown hair, I prefer the darker. Many have a naturally quite dark hair colour. They might be expected to be darker Autumn, but they’re drained out by those drapes. On Kelly, orange hair is overheated, not as good as a more neutral brown.
On Kelly, we again see those sharper features that are more often seen (by me) in Soft Summer, where the facial architecture resembles Candice Bergen’s who is probably a Summer of some sort. Soft Autumn usually carries more squared, slightly blunted features like Claire Danes, but there is interchangeability in this. Is that to go with Autumn’s blunter personality? I never said that. I would go as far as direct.
I wonder if so many models are Soft Autumns because their very medium-ness of colouring makes them versatile and that particular bone structure is so pretty when it shows up in this Season. Molly Sims, Drew Barrymore, Gisele – it’s in the fine nose, high round cheekbones, defined jaw, and feminine mouth. The example of Rene Russo came up on Facebook recently, and I can’t think of a better illustration of this combination of facial geometry and colouring.
Candice Bergen Life Magazine, USA, July 24, 1970
There was a request for a formal look for Soft Autumn. I visited my latest happy place and made this. Our Polyvore craze has been a great thing. In practicing to be my own Season (Dark Winter), I didn’t realize how capably I had learned to exclude everything else. Now, the DW imprint is strong in my head. It is high time to reopen the windows to register the many choices on the shopping landscape.
Maybe you will think, those colours are all too similar. When I do this, I’m essentially following the guidelines of your natural colouring, how it feels to look at you. I dress you as you already are, to be consistent with the light you already emanate. On Soft Seasons, there are no big jumps from one colour to the next. Transitions exist, but as the eye moves from the skin to hair to eyes, it doesn’t encounter anything bold or sudden in the colours themselves or how they are combined.
The purse is the warm hair highlight. The lighter woman might choose from the right side, the darker from the left. The darker shoes could be worn by any of the three Autumn Seasons. The metals are not very hot. I love wood, shell, and muted bead on Soft Autumns, in keeping with the female-earthy feel. Natural fibers and textures are fabulously good on them, which drew me to the linen-and-flax feeling of the jacket, but it might be too casual for this ensemble.
Pearls? I love femininity on Soft Autumn. In this regard, Summer leaves a strong trace. The curve-hugging rippling fabric of the dress…. But everything is very medium. There are no extremes, the swatches all hug the center in Warm>>Cool (but tipping over to warm) and Light>>Dark. Only saturation is low and soft.
Colouring hair may enable wearing warmer or cooler choices from the Neutral Season swatches, but you’d still stay within that Season’s own colour menu or the skin’s perfection will pay a price. I do not believe that anyone can convincingly and flatteringly colour her hair to take her outside her Season. I know for a fact that many will disagree. OK.
Recreate the light you already cast. Make the wavelengths you add be synchronous with the ones you are. To the viewer, it feels effortless as floating.
True Autumn’s Best Hair Colour
January 30, 2011 by Christine Scaman · 16 Comments
Really, I adore the company of True Autumn women. Something about their naturalness is very relaxing. They have a take-it-or-leave-it-but-this-is-me attitude that I love.
I don’t see many True Season clients, with the exception of True Summers who outnumber all other Seasons combined by 1:3… and I practice 12 Season Colour Analysis! Very complicated coloring, True Summer, and all too easy to misplace into another Season.
Like all the True Seasons, because they’ve been around longer, wrong ideas about the palette and the style are more entrenched and more outdated. True Autumn is thought to be all khaki and pumpkin. So not. Think more of an evening sky dripping liquid orange gold into a molten ocean. True Autumn is every color of coffee, spice, chocolate, a golden home-baked loaf, a glorious pie crust. Envision Bollywood colors.
Shying away from heat is a natural reflex. Before their personal color analysis, a True Autumn woman often arrives with flat, beige hair that doesn’t enhance her. She’s gotten used to light hair or believed the someone who told her that women need to lighten hair as they age. Meanwhile this woman’s face, clothing, jewelry, and energy could say everything. Beige hair color is aging.
In other cases, the woman placed herself among the Winter Seasons and the hair is too cool and too red, which looks crisp and severe, like the pie crust burned round the edges.
Aim for Bambi eyes and melting milk chocolate hair. True Autumn emanates a warmth that is comfortable, a darkness that is medium, and a sultriness that is extreme. When I see them a few weeks after their color analysis, I can barely take my eyes off them and I can tell that they are getting used to that reaction.True Autumn doesn’t strive to get noticed, but these women have no choice once their colors are right.
When I plan outfits or makeup for this gorgeous group, I always remind myself that they are not well suited to very darks or very lights. Colours can go to warm creamy buff and as dark as 70% chocolate, but would not reach all the way to black and white. The extreme of lightness and darkness, so-called high contrast, is way too sharp. The overall effect to the viewer when they see the woman head to toe should be medium to medium-dark. The colors in this chair offer a good range of base hair colours.
Every person in every Season has to make a darkness adjustment with her color analyzed palette. Some women will look or feel better in lighter colors than others. The hair right color is some shade of brown, not beige, or apricot, or butterscotch, or really not yellow blond. Think of Susan Sarandon and Russell Crowe. Would lighter hair enhance their strength and presence? I don’t see that it would.
Autumns are often thought to be red-haired, and it is possible but not common. They can certainly wear a dark copper highlight if they chose, but the natural color is not often red. The red would not be carrot; it would be squash. Carrot’s clear yellow-orange, as Rupert Grint’s, belongs to a Spring. The colors in the chair below are the right highlight range. The wicker basket is Soft Autumn’s. The dried flowers are too light as a highlight for any Autumn I know. The silver lanterns on the left side would be pretty on a Light Summer/Spring.
On this chart, I like golden chestnut and henna red. For a highlight, I would choose copper blonde. Obvious redness in the hair of Soft Autumn beyond muted apricot is too much. This Season can manage it far better.
I didn’t choose Light Copper Blonde because it would make obvious stripes, and break up the molten metal heat that works so amazingly well.
Rimmel Lip Gloss for 12 Seasons
January 15, 2011 by Christine Scaman · 26 Comments
Some folks take exception to my swatching makeup on white paper. They say you can’t tell how the colour would look on your face. They’re going to love the way I swatch lip gloss.
I find I can see the subtleties of the colours way better on paper. On paper, you can be more detached about the colour. It’s still far enough from you to be perceived as separate from you, and only on its own merits. Once it enters your Personal Zone, all kinds of meta impressions start happening.
The hot second you try to evaluate a colour on your own face, you’ve lost objectivity. Your imagination alters your face, and everything on it. We have no idea what we look like to others. The only thing we decide when we look at a new makeup colour on our face is whether it could be consistent with how we’re used to seeing ourselves.
The Sci\ART Colours Book is outstanding for matching makeup colours, the trickiest part of working with your Season. Good thing there’s lots of help to get you started once you get your Season ID. The swatches in the Book are on white canvas. At the store, I can smear the makeup on a white page. Back home and decide, in daylight, if the colours are the same. Any client who has done this with me during a PCA appt knows that she can look from the makeup palette we create on paper to her Colours Book, and find every swatch in her Book immediately. Her eye just goes to it, and she is right every time. This system works.
These Rimmel Stay Glossy lipglosses impressed me because of the good colour selection – or was it that I found Winter colours, usually so hard to do? So often, a line will have 3 good colours, and you stand there looking at the rest of them, thinking “I have no idea who would wear these colours.” In this line, the fairest and darkest have a choice, the most muted and clearest, and the Winter colours are actually wearable.
The gloss is supposed to last 6 hours, or 8 hours, or some big, impressive number.
Critical Thinking : the ability to discern what is probably right and what is probably wrong. A 6 hour lip gloss? You didn’t even expect that to be true. There’s no 2 hour lip gloss out there, unless you’re a mannequin, the plastic kind. Forget 6.
The product is plenty nice, and reasonably priced, whatever that means in cosmetics. Heavens, I’m being snarky today, but there is too much undeserved cosmetic raving going on out there. Every week brings a new rave. That’s how you came to have a used-it-once drawer. I’m just trying to keep the reality glasses in place so you never add one more item to that drawer. I am nice enough to say that there was nothing about the application that I didn’t like, besides the sinking ship of 6 hour expectations. This is also a nice product to apply over a lipstick, long wear or otherwise to keep it going till lunchtime without needing a mirror.
I swatch lip gloss between 2 pieces of tape to avoid having gunk all over my purse. I can spread it around and look at the nuances of the colour when I get home to daylight. I can see the colour next to other tones, because colour is all about comparison.
Once you see a colour you like on paper, and it seems to match your Book, I absolutely suggest you put it on your face. There’s more to a makeup buy decision than its colour. Also, no two women in the same Season look quite the same or will interpret their Season in the same way, or have the same comfort level with colour on the face.
I match the color analyzed swatches from the middle darkness colours, or the lighter ones for the Light Seasons. The darker swatches work fine in clothing but most light-medium complected women find them dark. The Sci\ART system is 12 Season Personal Colour Analysis, because 12 is enough without being too much, but you’ll refine your position within your Season with time.
The pictures are a bit randomly organized, and seem a bit sloppy (that’s part of the reality theme), but they cover all the colours, with some opportunity to compare. In Canada, we did not have Endless Night, Unlimited Gold, or Endless Summer, unless they are here with a different name. I haven’t adjusted any settings. Photos were taken at 11AM on an overcast day, on a sheet of white paper.
True Winter : Yours Forever
Dark Winter : All Night Long
Bright Winter : Timeless Allure, Fuchsia Fever
Finding a clean red-violet that has that purple pivot that True Winter hovers around is challenging, especially in a cheaper product. I like this one.
For many darker Season women, they don’t always want a dark lip. I’ll never (or not soon) be convinced that Sandra Bullock (probably Dark Winter), Liza Minelli (True?), or Audrey Hepburn (Bright W?) look their best in browned, flesh toned lips. Dark W wears a browned deep rose as a disappearing lip (NARS Dolce Vita), but it has little impact. A very good option to nude lips for Winters, which the intensity of the person’s coloring can still dominate too easily, is a sheer lip.
I hope you can see that Dark Winter’s colour is browner. Bright W’s is lighter and clear.
As a Dark Winter, I tried All Night Long. It’s quite similar to the Dark Winter always-in-your-purse anchor of Merle Norman Stolen Kisses.
Light Summer : All Day Seduction, Stay My Rose, Dare To Say, Eternal Flirt
True Summer : Captivate Me, Dare To Say
Soft Summer : My Eternity, Stay My Rose, Captivate Me
With the sheerness of a gloss, several of these colours will work across categories. Your own lip colour will come through and help adapt the shade to your face.
All Day Seduction has a gold glimmer in it, it felt best for Light Summer. Soft Summer can do gold shimmer sometimes, as in MAC Plumfoolery blush, but the base colour is deeper in that blush than this light pink gloss. Soft Summers are much cooler than they are warm and not especially light.
Light Spring : Non Stop Glamour, Always Lovely, All Day Seduction
True Spring: Here To Say? , Non Stop Glamour
Bright Spring: Fuchsia Fever, Timeless Allure, All Day Seduction
True Spring gave me some trouble. Here To Say may be one those colours that is too browned for a Spring and not browned enough for an Autumn. It is orange and yellow enough that it may work well, with just enough brown to make it more nude/flesh coloured. I try to picture it on Wayne Gretzky…not sure. I was hoping it might look like this.( I think Uma may be a Light Spring because pale lips look so good on her. True Spring does better with a shot of real color).
The beauty of a gloss is that it tempers brightness (as in Fuchsia Fever) and darkness (as Timeless Allure), allowing Bright Spring to wear both. They could also do All Day Seduction, because it’s a clean pink with a gold shimmer. Light Summer had this colour too, because there are similarities between it and Bright Spring (both can do well in medium-darkness colours, both have a trace of Spring yellow).
So Fabulous is a slightly yellow caramel beige. It is not orange, nor is it as heavy as butterscotch sundae sauce. It is a Spring colour, perhaps a good flesh-toned lip for Light Spring, a Season that is exemplary in the various beiges of nuts and their shells.
Soft Autumn: Here To Say?
True Autumn: Immortal Charm
Dark Autumn : Everlasting Crush, Still Gorgeous
A Soft Autumn will probably find Here To Say too orange. I’m usually looking for a color like the pink in a flowerpot, and this is not it, but they do have a warm side, especially when the hair has an apricot highlight, and they do look great in nude/flesh lips, a la J.Lo. This is a line where the Autumn colours are less plentiful, while the pinks are over-represented.
Still Gorgeous could be lovely on Dark Autumn, and very natural on women of deeper complexion.
Black Diva, well, y’know. Oh, I forgot that one.
Lockets for the 12 Seasons
December 12, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 15 Comments
Lockets come in so many styles for one type of jewelry. They are at once classic, Victorian, and vintage. Styles vary from very time-honored simplicity to jewel-encrusted modern. They emanate a sense of ancestry that feels grounding, well-bred, and perfectly belonging to this time of year of tradition and family.
At Heartsmith, I found a wealth of styles and a poverty in my ability to choose just one style for each Season, which I failed to do in many cases, as you’ll see. The name of each design and the photo are linked back to the product page.
A sincere thanks to Heartsmith for allowing me to reproduce the photographs.
Let’s look at some very beautiful jewelry.
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SPRING
Heart shapes are in keeping with Spring. They are young, romantic, pointed, and delicate. The adjectives romantic and delicate are often given to Summer, but they are appropriate here too. Spring’s romance is more magical than Summer’s Bosoms&Roses style (as a young friend of mine once described her True Summer Mom’s reading taste). Spring is delicate as youth and fairy wings.
True Spring
Mrs. Potter 3/4 Gold Locket&Diamond.
Because True Spring is the sun.
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Spring is airy, floaty, skyward-directed like growing new plants reaching for the sun’s light. Many members of all 3 Spring groups have small features and a petite aspect to their features. A small, floating heart is so pretty, for any Spring or its blends.
The Alia Floating Heart Pendant.
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Light Spring
Juliet Gold Heart Locket has a brushed center to integrate the Summer element, but the flower petals could be the wings of butterflies. For the Light Spring who resembles a Summer, this style is also available in a white gold.
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Bright Spring
For me, this Season is crisp but delicate, like frozen lace. They are the frost on the window, the ice that coats evergreens and bare branches after an ice storm, the pattern in the thin ice over a puddle when you step on it. In the Season that blends Spring’s sparkle and Winter’s polish, metal must shine.
The Destiny Lace Set Diamond Locket.
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Audrey is stunning too, larger and less yellow in the metal.
If the Wishing Star pendant comes back into stock, put your name on a list.
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SUMMER
True Summer
True Winter is minimal in its ornamention. Pieces are important but they don’t move. I see True Summer as more detailed and decorated. The circle is Summer’s essential shape. The metal is brushed.
Elizabeth Sterling Silver Victorian Locket expresses the gentle strength of this group. Summer is highly capable without needing to control everything around it (like another Season we know).
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I loved this one too. I like it when I have to think about it a bit. This design felt a bit unexpected, and others may have a different interpretation of the look of a True Summer. Pushing the limits of your own taste is an expression of your creativity, of thought becoming matter.
True Summer is often a reflective, pensive personality.I loved the darkness, because True Summer is so often stuck in lightness, and they are not that light. The weight felt good, because True Summer is not light by weight any more than it is by colour. The swirling ivy lines are perfect. The peaceful message of the dove is highly Summerish, as is the grace and flow of wings in flight.
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Light Summer
Alternating polish and matte silver integrates the Summer muted and Spring shiny elements. The size is small and there’s a minimum of fuss to allow the essential heart shape to take center stage.
Laurie Chasing Hearts bracelet
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Soft Summer
In this Season that is essentially Summer, with a dusting of Autumn, the refined sophistication of Summer becomes more solid, thanks to Autumn’s strength. I love the weight of the chain, the pearl, and the stronger closure. The small blue stone in the heart is perfect. I find this piece gorgeous.
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AUTUMN
True Autumn
The Brandy Bracelet is fantastic. It is muted in colour and shine, antiqued, of mid-darkness, with good weight.
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Soft Autumn
Autumn’s lights and darks give a sense of depth. We see this in plaid, for instance, where there are advancing and receding elements. Autumn’s strength is expressed here, as we look for more sustenance in this Season (as we do in the foods we eat as the cold approaches). This is muted in colour and metal, not too hot or cold, feminine but substantial.
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We’ve been talking about which Season is which element in our Facebook group. The symbolism of the Seasons, and how these are depicted in their human examples, fascinate me. Sometimes, an association gets stuck in my head and I can’t dislodge it. For me, Soft Autumn is the tree. Are they the wood element? Yes, probably, I could make that extension.
This piece is perfect for a Neutral Season, with the gold and silver. Both are muted, as looks best on Soft Seasons. If you wear metal (or makeup, or clothes) that are shinier than you, you just got duller by comparison. The gold is earthy, not light and shiny. Love this piece.
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Dark Autumn
Beautiful, in silver with gold accents. You can see how absolutely lovely this item is in the video on the product page. (With citrine, topaz, or diamond options).
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WINTER
True Winter
True Winter is controlled and controlling. They are not all over the place. Floppiness is hopeless. They do not move their bodies in a floppy way. Like the royal family, they are contained and ceremonial when they look their best. Pieces are symmetrical and balanced, an exact equilibrium.
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Bright Winter
Yes, the metal is yellow, but Bright Winter is a Neutral Season. They have yellow in the skin, and it is this light, shiny gold. It is well balanced by the darker lower half. The jaw-dropping opulence, especially in a piece of this size, is balanced better by the Bright Winter than any other.
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Safety is nowhere on Bright Winter. It disappears completely. If you are brighter than your jewelry (or makeup, or clothes), they are duller by comparison. This is the ultimate go-big-or-stay-home Season. Glamorous hairstyles, dramatic necklines, they just look better.
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Dark Winter
Lenore Garnet and Pearl Pendant
The contrast of blood and snow is always Winter. The medieval weighted hardware of Autumn. The imperial luxury of Winter. The deep red undertone of Dark winter skin. The darkness in the metal. The overall feeling of cold and hard. Not too shiny, as Autumn mutes textures as well as colours. An amazing piece of jewelry.
Spring and Autumn Makeup Colours
December 7, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 41 Comments
Spring is light. Literally, figuratively, subliminally, Spring is light.
Colours are light to medium on the Light >> Dark scale. The brown that looks dark on Scarlet Johanssen looks pale and insignificant on Julia Roberts.
Colour deposits are light and /or sheer, though color is still lively. Like putting makeup on a porcelain doll.
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Autumn color is heavy. Like a rug, a warm blanket, a stone fireplace.
Colours is medium to dark.
Colour deposits can be more opaque. The skin is more opaque and needs heavier color. Like putting makeup on a quilted cloth doll.
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I just said something dangerous. The Soft Autumns reading this are thinking “My skin is pale and easily overwhelmed with heavy makeup. I look fake in heavy makeup.” For many Soft Autumns, or any Season that contains some Summer, that can be very true.
Spring is a Season of more translucent colour. Mix that with Summer’s thinner skin and you have extreme fragility and youthfulness of complexion. For me, Light Spring is overwhelmed by the same weight of colour that Soft Autumn can wear, in fact that would be barely visible on a Soft Autumn (either that, or it would be far too candy pink).
Note too than when someone says something about a colour, like Soft Autumn needs heavier colour, the next question should be “heavier than what?”. Alone, adjectives are meaningless because it’s all comparative.
Soft Autumn is generally darker than Light Spring – but not as dark as the other Autumns. Soft Autumn still has light flesh tones, light golden browns, and peachy terracottas. They are not dark people. Any colour extreme, be it too dark, too hot, or too bright will dominate them entirely.
Their colours feel heavier than Spring’s, but this is not the same as saying they have the density of Winter’s. They are just not airy.
Any woman can be well within her Colours Book and still make a darkness adjustment as to which swatches she matches in makeup, based on her comfort level with colour on the face, the rest of the makeup, the occasion, and so on. Some Soft Autumns prefer their lighter colours, but sheer colour can seem like not enough. A Light Spring in sheer colour can still manage to look overdone.
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From top to bottom, these collections belong to Light Spring, True Spring, and Soft Autumn.
For anyone new to 12 Season Colour Analysis, Light Spring is mostly a Spring person, with a small hint of Summer. Soft Autumn is an Autumn coloring that contains a trace of Summer.
As with clothing, even if one colour is a little off, it’s not that big a deal. The rest of the makeup, clothing, and colours in the face will pull it in seamlessly. Many of the eyeshadows are probably interchangeable enough. You can see that True Spring is the yellowest. Light Spring is cooler. Soft Autumn has some neutrality (meaning warmth and coolness at once), as in the center eyeshadow in the left column. Soft Autumn is not clear yellow when viewed as a whole, and they are yet as orange as True Autumn will be.
Light Spring is confusing, as are all the Neutral Seasons, because the question becomes “How warm?”. Both Light Spring and Soft Autumn take a pure warm Season and mix in a trace of Summer. To get every colour perfect the makeup counter, you need the personal colour palette or swatch book.
I find eyeshadow the most difficult. Using descriptors like earthy, heavy, dense, opaque to distinguish browns doesn’t help a whole lot when you’re standing at the counter. Colour is always relative. Standing at the cosmetics counter trying to match a dot in a book will be an exercise in discouragement. Smear the makeup on a piece of white paper, and smear a bunch of similar colours next to it. Even if the colours aren’t that close, it doesn’t matter. Your eye will use the range and position every colour more accurately. With clothing, if you’re choosing a blue sweater, collect several blue items, any shade of blue, and line them up. That’s when you’ll pick out the cool blue, the muted blue, etc.
Spring eyeshadows are light and yellowish. Autumn’s can be yellowish too, but it’s a duller yellow. More gold than yellow usually.
Lipstick is easier. It’s clear for Spring and browned for Autumn. The blossom or the brick.
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Invoke all 5 senses when looking at color. There is a world beyond what your eyes can see.
Spring tastes sweet, ripe, and wet.
Autumn tastes savoury, spicier, and drier.
As you look at these groups of colour, what musical note would they have? Which dance? Which is the flute and which is the drum?
Eyeglass Frames 1 Nov2010
November 14, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 7 Comments
Recently at our Facebook meeting place, Valeria described her Personal Colour Analysis as having allowed her to “claim my identity”. Sometimes, you hear a small string of words that crystallizes a world of meaning into a little strand of sounds.
I haven’t stopped thinking about the many implications of that phrase since I read it. I’m happy enough to find you the perfect lipstick for your skin tone, the most believable color analyzed hair colour, and the clothing colours that announce the real you. When everyone else is buying a black dress for the Christmas party, you will be wearing a color that so becomes you that conversation will stop when you walk in. That’s all great stuff. Looking completely right is personally, professionally, and financially powerful dexterity to have on your side. I can talk about it all day.
Whether I’m in the room or not, the conversation always comes round to the topic I love even more: How To Find Your Own Voice.
Colour is electromagnetic vibration. So are we. The vibrations of our colours cannot NOT be an identical match for those of our inner being, or some part our total energy. They must be an exact duplicate. It is impossible for our colour vibrations to be spinning falsely and still be part of us because the same DNA decrees the physics of both. The colours in our body are a true and accurate representation of our most fundamental person.
Amidst the endless chatter of advice, the person in whom we need to learn to trust is ourselves. Colour Analysis is like the translator that gives that buried deepest being a Voice that you and others can understand.
If PCA is new to you, don’t get caught up in these concepts. It takes time to reach them. Start with finding the best reds, blues, greens, and yellows for your person. You may be on the ground floor, but this elevator only goes up.
Glass frames are a multifactored decision because you have the frames, and Season, and facial features to take into account. We could find the color analyzed cosmetic items that every member of the Season could wear beautifully, but not likely the eyeglass frames.
Wispy faces do better with wispy hair and finer accessories.
Small bodies look better with proportionately smaller accessories.
Use the frames and ideas here give a sense of how each Season is positioned among the 11 others and how it is best exemplified in the physical world.
This first series looks at a series of frames for Autumn blends. Notice the progression in the heat of the metal, in the darkness, in the type of decoration, and in the overall feeling. In 12 Season (12 Tone) Colour Analysis, there are 5 Seasons that contain some Autumn influence.
You can watch it here on YouTube as well.
I’ll add the photos of the glasses after the video, since the recording doesn’t go around the frames.
Soft Summer
Soft Autumn
True Autumn
Dark Autumn
How The 5 Springs Add Yellow
October 8, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 13 Comments
We discussed How The 5 Autumns Add Brown To Hair Colour. It only seems right that we go through Spring’s yellows.
But first. As I look at the original Autumn graphic below, I notice that I’ve combined 2 concepts. I melded the type of brown with the appearance of Winter’s red.
The original picture:
The 5 Autumn browns, subtracting Winter’s red, would look like this:
The Soft Season browns are still being influenced by Summer gray, I know, but the particular brown is right. Soft Summer = campfire smoke. Soft Autumn = peanut butter. True Autumn = amber gold.
From there, ignoring the redness of Winter, but allowing its blackness,
From there, Dark Autumn = dark neutral taupe. Dark Winter = black chocolate.
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For Spring, I’ll confine myself to the type of yellow only. In 12 Season (Tone) Colour Analysis, we include the True Spring, and its strong blends of Light Spring (blend with Summer) and Bright Spring (blend with Winter). We also include Spring’s weak blends, as the Light Summer (Summer takes precedence) and Bright Winter (Winter takes precedence).
For each of the 5 groups, the yellow being added by Spring’s influence is affected by the amount of Spring and what Season it’s being blended with.
Spring’s colors are light because of a particular property of yellow. As it increases in saturation to satisfy Spring’s pure clear colors, it gets lighter. Compare that to Winter, which gets darkened by the higher saturation of the colour blue.
Before Spring : A kitten is True Summer’s white. Their best hair highlight is silver beige. Not white or platnimum, but certainly not yellow, which causes an illusion of a red, shiny nose and center of the face.
Gradually, Spring will light up the palettes. Light Summer is marshmallows. A trace of yellow from Spring and a trace of blue-grey leftover from Summer. This woman is predominantly a Summer. She looks better in Summer’s style of wearing clothes, but brightens and lightens it. Sometimes, the lightening effect can be less obvious and need not be conveyed only by pale pastel colors. For instance, a fabric can convey “lightening” as weightlessness or floatiness. So can a print like bubbles, mist, or foam. When it’s added to hair, this watery yellow looks best as a cool beige. (See How Light Summer Goes Grey)
As we move into Light Spring, color becomes yellower and clearer. The variability in human coloring, even within a given Season, is the challenge of personal color analysis. There are many texts and websites, including this one, that may show you a human example of a Season. Trying to find those averages among your friends is another thing altogether. Your color analysis will tell you the hair color and makeup colors that look most natural on you, within a small range. The range may go from warmer to cooler, or lighter to darker, depending on your position within your Season. Louise (in Louise and Stevan Are Light Springs) is very much on the cool side of the Season, with more ash brown than warm brown hair, so her highlight will be cooler than Stevan’s beachy, sunny yellow. From a colorist’s perspective, this will be hard to fine tune with bleach alone, but they have many shades of blonde to work with to give you the right highlight – and you will know what to ask for when you walk into the salon.
For True Spring, it’s a clear strong yellow. Though this woman’s hair may not be yellow at maturity, and is probably brown, her hair highlight is yellow. The harmony with the skin is extremely spontaneous and likely. Her natural hair color is probably dark blonde, but it’s glassy, like the caramelized sugar glaze of a Crème Brulee. Autumn’s base is medium to dark brown and velvety dense (and of course, Autumn would never wear a yellow highlight).
Bright Spring’s is a clearer stronger yellow. All I did was raise the saturation. Dark hair and dark eyes are very common here. When the complexion is deeper, the person looks Mediterranean, as Spanish or Italian. Dark hair and fair skin may look Celtic. If the person has white hair and turquoise-glass eyes, she is the only person outside her family who knows her eyes are turquoise, not blue, because she dresses like a Summer. This might be the one Season where the variability between people is so high that they can’t all wear the same makeup colors. You have to use judgement to harmonize the person and the makeup on the Light>>Dark scale, and on the Warm>>Cool scale, among the colors offered in the Colours swatch Book. This coloring is very unique. No hair color from a bottle is likely to improve on what you were given. The finest tuning balances the complexion with the natural hair color, but won’t believably tolerate big creative shifts.
Out at the Spring frontier of Bright Winter, there is very little yellowness left. The difference between this and Light Summer’s yellow is the amount of gray. This yellow is icy white, lighter than the color above (icy color is hard to replicate on a screen and convey the frostiness). This person is a Winter, with very little Spring remaining. Winter’s most important rule is high contrast, so very light with very dark blocks. Therefore, to be called “icy colors”, the light colors Bright Winter chooses move very close to white. Also rare and fascinating coloring, be careful if you mess with it. If it’s quite dark, leave it alone. If it’s medium brown, almost ashy, and eyes and skin are light enough, a little blonding at the ends of the hair can give a sunkissed suggestion. Don’t go overboard. If the hair is dark, leave it be. Dark and dynamic force is uniquely Bright Winter’s radiance. Now why would you reduce that?
How Autumns Intensify Eye Colour
September 13, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 45 Comments
I went into the drugstore yesterday. The cosmetician’s makeup (the cosmetician! very pleasant, very helpful, but who hired her for this position?) was so dark and severe that it would scare children. I am no better at impartiality when it comes to my own face than anyone else, but there was nothing more this woman could have done to detract from her appearance. Her eyes never get noticed, lost in the pharaoh effects and dark burgundy lip. She might be a Soft Autumn, so it feels a bit of a tragedy to look at her.
We talked about Spring and Summer in previous articles (How Summers Intensify Eye Colour and How Springs Intensify Eye Colour). There, it was suggested that every single step of the makeup process should intensify eye colour. Your first reaction to a good blush should be “it strengthens the color of my eyes”. As the picture frame of your eyes, eyebrows should to be natural in shape and color, and groomed to look like you, but neater.
In 12 Season (12 Tone) Colour Analysis, Autumn’s colors are warmed by gold, medium on the light/dark scale, and muted to various degree, depending on which of the 3 Autumns is in question.
Eyeliner should not be so dark that it becomes obvious. Because so many women buy this product in color that is too dark, that’s what the industry makes. Finding lighter colors and a good variety of browns and greys takes some searching. The Autumn challenge is to find color of the right degree of warmth. If the color is too hot, the rims of the eyes look bloodshot. It is surprising how warm the Autumn brown can be and still do what we want:define the eye shape and then disappear into the face.
For anyone who might be new, you might wonder why I’ll never show you any blue/green/purple makeup that the viewer could perceive to be those colors. Next time you see a woman with that makeup, think about whether you’re looking at eye or the makeup. A dark green that looks more like dark brown? Fine. A taupe olive that looks more taupe? Fine. Teal that looks like peacock? Well, y’know.
I know there are blue die-hards out there. Wouldn’t it be ok to wear blue in eye makeup, as an orange complement, since Autumn’s undertone is orange-brown (more about undertones in Skin Undertones)? The cartoon effect of blue makeup can get away from you, but your taste may be different from mine and that’s fine. Color is big enough for many opinions. I’d suggest you wear your blues in clothing, and let them complement the eye colour. Clothing’s power to strengthen eye colour can’t be overstated. As a bigger color block, it is more effective than makeup for this purpose.
Soft Autumn
The principle of the Season, the radiance, the special look that nobody else can pull off so realistically: “Our Earth is our cradle. She feeds us, protects us, and never does anything harsh or unexpected that might harm us. She is gentle, warm, and generous in her abundance. Even her light is moderate, kind, welcoming.”
Who would put black eyeliner on that? Or cool foundation and fuchsia lips? It would feel like a ski jump in a September cornfield. Don’t overwhelm the eye with makeup, which happens too fast. Better to underwhelm the eye with makeup. A very little goes a long way on the Soft and Light Seasons.
The hair is butterscotch and brown, like peanut butter fudge. Make the eyeshadow toffee. Every Autumn has the ability to repeat her hair color in her eye color.
This is a Soft Autumn eye. The orange at the center repeats the freckes.
Make this the hair.
Is this the same as Spring’s red? No, that’s here. Is there a difference from a bottle? You’d have to ask a colorist, I don’t know. It might depend a lot on the base color the pigment is being applied to. If anyone does know, please share. The difference is that Autumn is the nectar, while Spring is the juice.
Notice too that there is a lot of Summer in this person’s eye, where the outer half or more is gray-blue-green. Soft Autumn is a Neutral Season and a cooler-neutral eyeshadow can work as well as a warm-neutral (shown in the graphic below).
Among the test drapes that are used to identify Season, there always seems to be one that connects powerfully with the eye color. I don’t really pay big attention to intensifying eye color till the last stages of the analysis, but when I see that the Season I’m narrowing down to also creates the strongest eye connection, it helps confirm that we made the right choice. For Soft Autumn, the olive drape is the best eye color intensifier.Interestingly, for the other Soft Season, the Soft Summer, the best eye color drape is the soft pine green. The drapes are finding something in these eyes that is not immediately obvious.
Below are the eyeshadow cool and warm colors, the olive drape, and the brown eyeliner I use on almost every Soft Autumn. The eye above belongs to a cool-side Soft Autumn and my usual brown eyeliner (Rimmel Sable) can be very slightly dark in the daytime. On her, Soft Summer’s brown-grey (Clinique Smoky Brown) is very good as well.
If an eyeshadow the same color as the eye were applied, it would look too blue. Matching eyes to eye makeup is a big boobytrap. The tendency is to pick the wrong eye colors and it ends up looking matchy, like the dreaded “tried too hard”.
True Autumn
Autumn says to the world : “My burnished glory can melt with its heat, but I’m also safe and strong. I am what I appear to be and honor truth above all.”
These eyes have a very particular property : they contain the color of metal. It might be copper, flame, or a darker greener bronze color. This effect is sometimes seen in the other Autumn Seasons as well. They have to be wearing the right clothes or you won’t see it.
Metallics in the thread of a scarf, or somewhere, is the kingdom of the True and Dark Autumn.
Get your hair color to pick up something in the eye. Too many Autumns have weak, safe beige hair. It will only age them. The other pitfall is to go too dark, but these are very medium-darkness people. I like this hair color, or perhaps a shade darker. Even in second-best makeup, you can’t not notice the eyes.
We discussed True Autumn’s best makeup colours previously, here. A metallic dot of antiqued gold eyeshadow just over the iris, and under the matte shade that covers the whole lid, is sublime. The viewer keeps seeing a flicker of flame in the vicinity of the eye.
Metallic lipstick or blush also can be beautiful on True Autumn. The caution is to be careful to put in on tight skin and only 1 feature at a time. Once over 40, adding a laminate to the hair might be a better way to add fire than a shimmer makeup face.
We’ve talked about ways to repeat and complement eye color. What about contrast? A warm/cool contrast won’t work. This skin is absolute in its warmth. Cool color will sit on top and look like silver icing on an apple crisp. A dark/light contrast isn’t possible since there are no extreme lights in the person, and extreme darks look obvious and severe. I don’t see any room for contrast here.
Dark Autumn
I always have trouble pinning down this Season. “I am here to get something done so get out of my way” is close, but Dark Winter can get this way too. Try again. This is their unique radiance: ”I can rule the world with my might but my opulent beauty surpasses all”. This is the image that I can’t shake (minus the singing).
Copyright Walt Disney 2005.
The Aztec princess, born to rule and privilege.
These eyes are gingerbread brown, chocolate gingerbread, liquid bronze, or can be a green-bronze color like the head of the wine goddess in the lamp photo above. The colors of the sky swirling above Pocahontas’ head, from her crown to the top of the poster, are about right.
The eyeliner has to be very dark brown. Mascara is black-brown, possibly black depending on the darkness of the person and hair. Gentle eyeshadows look like a cement wall, instead of an invitation deeper into the person. Use rich coffees, with cream and without.
Eyeshadow hilite is darker than most other Seasons’. M.A.C. Brule is good. All the light colors for this Season are darker than anyone else’s. The other Dark Season, Dark Winter, can wear Winter’s icy lights, but not this group.
Dark Autumn and Bright Winter are the 2 Seasons that need time to accept (and wear) the full richness of their colors. Many women back away from the strength of these colors. They are exotic colors, not traditionally feminine. The clothes and makeup are hot too, chili pepper, wasabi, nubuck tan. They watch in amazement but want it to be over, like it’s too much to absorb. It would be as if you woke up and saw 3 suns in the sky. They feel awkwardness, danger, almost embarrassment that these colors are who they are, like they’re too shamelessly attention-getting. Mind you, Autumn is nothing if not sensible. They are quick to adapt to what works and many know what they’ll see before they sit down. They are among the fastest learners.
Play up the hair and arrange it around the face. It repeats the eye color exactly. If it’s too flat or skinned back, you lose a huge eye intensifying opportunity. Do everything you can to make it gleam. Avoid anything too red, wine, magenta, or burgundy. It looks more natural when it’s more brown, like redwood, mahogany, dark chestnut. Port wine is the reddest you’d go.
Wear the lip color, sheer if you have to. Lancome LaLaque in TechnoBrick is a great compromise. The lips have to balance out the eyes and hair so you look complete, instead of like a puzzle with corner missing.
Valeria Is A Dark Autumn
June 11, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 15 Comments
Valeria’s Personal Colour Analysis and makeup selection/application was performed by Maytee Garza. Maytee is the owner of Reveal Style Consultancy , located in Morristown, New Jersey. I thank Maytee for allowing me to use the results of this long-awaited PCA. Thank you to Maytee and Valeria for permission to reproduce the photographs. (Photos were taken in a mirror, if you notice a slight background texture).
If Dark Autumn announces that they’re going to build a boat in the garage, move the car out. With Autumn’s energy and quiet determination, and Winter’s opulent appearance, these people are predestined to create goals and reach them. The rest of the world knows enough to get out of the way.
Valeria saw herself as a Soft Summer for a long time. A restlessness with that conclusion caused her to visit Maytee. As she says, the experience is “amazing and traumatic…but I could not argue with what I saw in the mirror”. One of the best things about a Sci\ART PCA is that you will SEE your face change with the drapes. EASILY. It is not mystical and does not require an ounce of imagination. In our mirrors, you will see yourself look as bad as possible, and better than you ever have.
In 12 Season Colour Analysis, this person is essentially an Autumn, with a daub of Winter. Autumn’s palette is respected, in that the colours are mostly warm (though foundation is often neutral) and muted down. Unlike True Autumn, these are dark colours. Much darker. The most important thing about these colours is their darkness. Even the light colours are darker than anyone else’s.
I have found this Season hardest to pin down and generalize about. It’s not in the appearance, but in the person. They’re variable in character, always evident in the Neutral Seasons, but they’re elusive. There’s a mystery in the darkness that I don’t perceive in the other Seasons, even Dark Winter.
Sensible and straightforward as all Autumns, but direct in speech, and quick to absorb change with good evidence, they speak honestly and bluntly. What I love most, I believe, is that they are not one bit threatened or defensive about new ideas. The person may demonstrate more of Winter’s reserve, or more of Autumn’s passive and natural way, but there is always an element of fire.
Hair
Dark Autumn can look very Winter. The hair colour is often a most interesting bronzed black, easily just looks like black-brown. It’s the dark colour in this dress, from J.Crew. This model looks great. She combines Winter’s simplicity in the absence of neck and ear jewelry, with a dramatic effect at the wrist. She can balance what would be excessive weight and clutter on someone else. Even the shoes are great, substantial, stirring, and essentially the same as the hair color.
Avoid a cool red highlight or rinse. Though a Neutral Season, with both coolness and warmth in the skin, this is predominantly still warm skin. Auburn if you feel you must have red.
Avoid blonde highlights. They look like you’re frosting your hair with gray. The whole impression should be of luxuriant darkness. Highlights of any sort can break up the full-on, sensational dark force of this look.
Use a laminate to heighten the hot shine.
You’ll say Valeria’s hair looks good. Yes it does, but this woman has extraordinarily good skin. That can make an analysis much more difficult, because like children, it’s very forgiving. But, do the eyebrows seem a bit dark by comparison? Not only is there an imbalance, like something is being forced, but dark eyebrows can look very severe. Severe=aging.
This is my hair color visual for Dark Autumn : a coffee bean. Flip her hair color in your head. Did you feel the pieces click into place? You could even hear it. Could you see the bronze depth emanate even more from within the eye? The synergistic power, where the whole is so much more than the parts, roots you to the spot. Pick the lighter or darker roasts, choose the shade on the bean that matches the intensity of your look, but it’s those rich bronzed browns. Even in the almost-black haired people, there is a bronzed quality to the hair color. Find the colorist who can do that.
The Superlative Dark Autumn
…needs time to get comfortable wearing colours that should strike and excite the senses. The darkness mixed with the heat can feel volcanic. Just as the clear brilliance of Bright Winter’s palette should accelerate the viewer’s heart, so should Dark Autumn’s look evoke the distinct feeling of a controlled furnace.
…Like the sensation of hot sauce in your mouth, this is not a comfortable heat. It’s peppery and strong and undeniable. Valeria’s most telling comment, coming off of a Soft Summer self-image : “I nearly fainted when I saw the turmeric.”
The moment Winter appears in the picture, it tries to take over. A sharp feeling is in the air. In Bright Spring, where a hint of Winter is added to Spring, we see this powerful Winter effect again. Winter’s signal, inside and out, is power. But with Dark Autumn, there’s heat to contend with too. Like temporary containment, the pressure valve won’t hold forever.
…can wear black because they can balance the darkness, but can’t fully balance the coldness. Dark Autumn needs to heat black up. Wear gold or bronze jewelry instead of silver. Add flame colors, hot metallics, rich neutrals (from brown sugar to eggplant), and hot spice colours.
…do texture and weight better than anyone, and not simple tweed or corduroy. Oh, no, we’re talking velvet, leather, suede, metallic. Autumn’s strength and Winter’s wealth.
…can add theater, because it looks like tension and feels like excitement. Winter is never easy, it demands space and attention, just as Winter in personalities is not always easy. Everyone else has to adjust a little.
Dark Autumn’s palette is the feeling of dealing with food that’s almost burnt. Your attention is high, your movements are urgent while you ignore everything else. Red is already here now. Black is almost upon us. Something is about to happen. You feel it happening? You’re reading a bit faster. A reaction is demanded. There are only moments left till Winter’s black coldness descends. The viewer ignores everything (everyone) else. They feel the need to do something. We need a moment to catch our breath, dab the sweat, and calm down.
Pure Winter classic, gypsy fortune-teller, Aztec priestess, military command, jungle exotic, Middle Eastern bazaar, Spice Island queen, are all so good and so seldom played up enough. These are your best skin, your youngest face, your slimmest body. So much more than appearance, here we actually react to colour as flavor. Every sense organ seems invoked.
…look 10 years older in white. Every line is deeper and darker. In Summer’s light pastels, their skin looks like cement, and that’s not just me being descriptive. The skin looks like grey, rock-solid stone.
…grey the hair well. It heightens the drama. They look even better in the greys and the cooler choices in their Personal Colour palette.
…strive for a bronze glow in makeup, though not necessarily through use of bronzer. When you know your Season, you know your cosmetic colors. In right makeup, the colors diffuse away into your skin because they are already there. The ultimate in polish and sophistication, perfect balance, this is your best and healthiest (healthy=young) “no makeup” look.
This makeup is so gorgeous, I asked Valeria for the products used:
Maytee matched my foundation (not sure what brand she used but she mixed several for the right shade). Then she applied a sheer brightening powder on my cheekbones and if I’m not mistaken, a brownish/reddish/peach-ish blush, just a touch. On the eyes, she used: all over the lid, Navajo from Bobbi Brown; on the lid, Ash by BB, and in the crease, Hot Stone, a neutral matte brown, by BB. She then lined my eyes with BB’s Espresso eye shadow (especially good liner color on Dark Autumn) and used black mascara. On the lips, she used the Whirl pencil by MAC (its a mauve brown shade the same as my own lip color) and Givenchy Gloss Interdit in Coral Frenzy.
In Valeria’s Words
“My experience with PCA was wonderful. The process itself was great fun. However, anyone going into it with preconceptions: be prepared to have them shattered. Be prepared to trust your analyst, trust their training and years of experience, and be prepared to let go of how you used to see yourself. In this sense, PCA can lead to some profound revelations. For me personally, it was about more than just color and style. PCA gave me the answer I’ve been searching for, and with it, it gave me confidence and brought me to a new level of self awareness. It both empowers and releases. It also inspires.
Seeing yourself the way you were intended to be, being at your best and most beautiful, is a wonderful thing. Everyone should get the chance to experience it. There is nothing like it.”
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