Colour Analyzed Makeup Favorites
April 27, 2011 by Christine Scaman · 2 Comments
Awhile ago, I got a makeup kit from Darin Wright, the Sci\ART analyst who developed cosmetics custom-coloured for the 12 Seasons (see the article The Ultimate Colour Analyzed Cosmetics.)
This was so interesting to me because of the opportunity to see my Season (Dark Winter) translated through another analyst’s eyes. Just because I see it one way doesn’t make it right. I get stuck in Season and appearance ruts just like everyone else. Being given a new way of looking at something is destabilizing, but its gives a much broader interpretation of the person, Season, and colours. More inputs means more choices and looks for the wearer.
With this product, you are using the smallest dusting of product to deliver big, blendable, pure colour. Imagine opening the pressed product you use now and picking up the least amount possible. The learning comes quickly but you have to retrain yourself in the beginning to barely touch the brush to the powder.
The blushes are my runaway favorite. There were lighter and fresher in every sense than any other I’ve tried, and very skin like. I loved all three. I mix Vehement with Frisky or Driven to make a colour that is neutral, warm and cool, just like the Season. (Miss November is the bronzer/contour for this Season. It is so awesomely good that it gets its own section further on.)Rub some on the end of your finger and you’ll think “Oh, jeez, it’s coral frost.” Fluff a dusting on your cheek and you’ll think “Oh, jeez, I’ve never seen blush that becomes part of my skin like that.”
From L, Frisky, Vehement, Driven, Miss November.
When I first looked at the blush, I had frost worries but it is barely what might be called glowing. It is a bit reflective when light strikes it, but you can’t see shimmer particles without a magnifier. You use such a sprinkling of product that frost doesn’t have time to really get going. Play with it. Its presentation is fun and using it is more fun. The mixability of these colours is probably their second best quality after colour. A dab on a brush picks up a few grains. I blend them on the side of my hand, or on a sheet of regular paper under the pots to see the colour better and catch any bits that might spill.
I think my biggest reason for this post is to show you the bronzer/contour. I used to wear Clinique Stay Matte 06 along the sides of my nose, at the temples, under the cheekbone, and along the jaw. I knew it was wishy washy on my Dark Winter skin and better for a lighter cool neutral like Soft Summer, but big range in this product would take years to find. Of the 4 cool Neutral Seasons (Soft Summer, Dark Winter, Bright Winter, Light Summer), the only woman I have ever seen improved by conventional bronzers is Light Summer, and that’s only if she’s buying peach-gold, not earthy tan. On the others, the skin looks duller. They do better with cool powders, a few shades darker than the skin. Hard to find.
Miss November is awesome. It’s one of the darker browns that are in already in Dark Winter skin so it has complete credibility on this face. Its darkness gives it more ability to carve features than the Clinique powder did. Use the tiniest amount and just lay down a shadow. It won’t be overdark (unless you use too much, but it’s controllable). Sometimes, I mix a little into the blushes if I’m wearing a browner lipstick. I also have it from a most discerning True Autumn that her Season’s version is beautiful as well. See how it’s redder than the foundation powders, and cooler? It is a brilliant colour.
From L, top row, Vehement, Driven, Miss Nov. Bottom row, 3 foundations.
My opinion is just my opinion. It’s not necessarily right. Darin has a pinker vision of Dark Winter than I do in lip colour. That’s fine. I mix colour constantly because it seems to bring the best out of each colour. This is a great way to learn about colour interaction and make that colour you have in your head, instead of spending money on tube after tube of near-identical lipstick. I have a browner vision of my Season, and I brown it a lot. I mix Lancome Perfect Fig (too dark alone but a great brown mixer for DW) about 50:50, with the eleablake lip colours or my previous standbys of Lauder Double Wear Ruby (too cool but I love the formula) and Arden Sugarplum Shimmer, to make my vision of browned raspberry (mix Fig with Double Wear Mulberry to make a browned red).
These are the eyeshadows. There are perfect greys, browned purples (which a very central colour for DW), matte pewters (Self-Reliant below; though it didn’t stick to the paper, it delivers huge colour on skin), and Dynamic, an excellent redwood brown. I am compelled to mix everything, as in the lower photo. Isn’t it great how the two colours come out at once? If that isn’t DW grey, I don’t know what is.
From L, Dynamic, Groovy, Self-Reliant, Proud.
Mixture of eyeshadows, Proud and Dynamic.
Darin is a professional makeup artist. Of course, she’s going to stretch the artistic limits. She’s going to know how to use and apply colours that I wouldn’t know where to begin with. There are mattes and shimmers. There are colours right from your swatches and some you won’t recognize or will wonder about. There are conservative colours and further out options. I’m not a coloured makeup woman, i.e. blue, teal, green, etc. Half of you will agree. Half will think BO-RING and wouldn’t leave the house with only grey and brown eye makeup.
Talk to Darin. She adjusts and adds colours and formulas all the time. Believe me, she understands that there’s a learning curve and is there to listen and help. I hear she has a new matte deep berry True Winter blush called Brainy that is said to be lovely. She could have a menu. I’d be the colours-from-fan/greys-and-pinks/matte-only-please person that probably puts her to sleep. Using her makeup is like having a second analyst chime in on your Season. Think about why she included each colour and you’ll only understand your Season better. Don’t love a colour? Exchange or return it.
If you love colour, ESPECIALLY if you love colour, at least know you’re wearing the right colour. There are beautiful icy pink and lavender eyeshadow highlighters for this Season too. Madcap (not shown) is a gorgeous iced lilac, that applies more as iced grey – which is my idea of coloured makeup: it has a unique effect by virtue of the colour, but the viewer doesn’t perceive purple.
Definitely buy at least one eyeshadow. Applied, it looks like coloured skin, not coloured powder on skin. Maybe a bit like a cream eyeshadow. Really good.
I admire that Darin is doing this, in a most beautiful product. eleablake is already closer to stellar than anyone has approached. It is your feedback and constructive responses that will allow her see her creation through your eyes, the consumer’s eyes. Tell her what you like and are not so sure about. Like me, it was from your comments that I got a sense of what you wanted me to talk about. You can pick, choose, and return, and Darin will keep tweaking her colour formulas.
As it is, you go to the department store, wander from counter to counter thinking “Wow, is it just me or does all this stuff look the same?” Yeah, no kidding it looks the same. I often think it pretty much is the same. The one-thing-fits-all formula that women recognize. We feel safe so we buy more.
Getting used to new things can feel annoying, as one woman put it so perfectly. We wonder why we didn’t just stick with the formulations and packaging we were used to. Because you didn’t want more of the same, that’s why. Because, with your PCA, you finally understood colour, real glowing pure colour, as it pertains to your skin. Remember when you were getting used to your Season? That was annoying too. You had to force yourself for a month, but it brought you to a better place. Who thought texting was fun from the start? Who uses the same mascara wand they used 8 years ago?
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.
A Dark Winter’s Story
November 29, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 3 Comments
In the early stages of a Personal Colour Analysis, we use colour to force unattractive effects in the face. It’s the only way we have of understanding what your face does in the presence of wrong colour. Every face reacts differently. It starts off slow as we observe and learn what to look for. Once we understand, the process moves more quickly. We can interpret the clues and work towards finding the formula that unites every colour that makes you look most beautiful. That’s how you never make another shopping mistake.
Around the halfway point, we begin moving away from a less attractive face towards a very beautiful face, one with perfect skin and intensely strong eye colour. Right around that time, there is a moment when it becomes about more than color. You’re paying a visit to your soul. It strikes you that the colours in which you already seem to be wearing foundation are the same colours that feel the way it feels to be you. The very expression within the eye has changed.
Suddenly, you’re telling the world who you are. All the strengths you comfort yourself with. All the weaknesses you’re working on overcoming or still ignoring. Everything that’s been said to you about how you look. It is intensely personal and private, like someone knows all your secrets, or all your flaws surfaced at once and there’s nowhere to hide them.
This exposure has to be recognized. It deserves great respect. The client is very internalized in these moments. They are processing huge volumes of personal data. They are often anxious for quiet, to be alone with their thoughts. In time, the earthquake settles and the new perspectives are assimilated into a being with more inner awareness and alignment. I have found that creative outlets help women while their subconscious gels the new information. Whether it’s quilting, painting, photography, doesn’t matter, as long as it’s introspective and reflective. Nobody should spend 100 years here and never once speak to their own spirit.
This woman wrote this beautiful and amazing story. A river that can run this deep is one of the glories of being human.
A very sincere thanks to Darin Wright of eleablakecosmetics for performing this analysis.
Thoughts of a New-Found Dark Winter
I turned to color analysis as a way to make my shopping and makeup easier and successful. For many that is all it needs to be. And truly, anything that makes us feel more confident, capable and comfortable with ourselves is all for the good. Still, as I learned about and reflected on this process called color analysis , I slowly realized it has the potential to not only improve my outer appearance, but could, indeed, could not but help, to reach into and affect my inner life as well.
When we speak of “having our colors done” we often hint at, but generally talk around the deeper implications. Color is a language of frequency and light. The colors we are made of are the unique expression of ourself, as they are what others see when we show up in the world . It also connects us to everything else made of frequency and light , which is, well … everything! We use phrases like “true self” or “finding your true colors” and “essence”. I am certain that “essence” means many different things to many people. To me the word, “essence” attempts to name an aspect or quality of us that is radiantly pure and utterly aligned with our deepest purpose, our dreams, our contribution to this sacred experience, called, “Life”. Because it is complete as it is and pure, it is unchanging and unchangeable. It is the aspect of us who knows who we are and the gifts we bring to the banquet. It is us before parental conditioning and social influences and it knows us far beyond the defenses and identities we developed to protect this most powerful and exquisitely tender aspect of self. It is our seed from which we may grow our lives to enjoy our most fulfilling realization of ourselves. Finding ways to express and share our essence is what, in the end, will bring our greatest joy. When we look in the mirror to see our true beauty it is this “essence” we glimpse in the radiant reflection of ourself.
I arrived at my PCA with many desires and notions about myself. I also promised myself I would do my best to surrender. I think draping techniques vary among different analysts, but mine did not seem to take very long. The drapes clearly demonstrated that I was not soft, light, or warm. Black was by far the best drape on me until we came to a couple of True Winter colors. They were very good, but still, no magic….Then she brought out what for me was the strangest, most un-pretty color of them all-a heavy dark eggplant. I didn’t pay much attention to it. I knew it wouldn’t work, but I was stunned when Darin called my attention back. There I was, my undeniable inner intensity matched in my reflection. My dark green eyes snapped and my skin was clear with a becoming hint of olive heat. My features stood out, clearly defined and somehow in harmony. For a brief moment I was free of all the unfavorable comparisons to others, the tyranny of glossy airbrushed images and society’s fickle, narrow definitions of beauty. I was wholly, beautifully myself, and it was good. Without hesitation I said “yes” to the one I saw gazing at me. “Yes” to the colors and the events, people and changes that would bring me into more expression of and harmony with this essence. A few more drapes and the palette name was revealed-Dark Winter. Whhhhhat?!
I remembered seeing that palette posted and thinking the colors conveyed an unmistakable quality of power and authority and I felt so relieved that it was not mine , that it wasn’t mine to grow into…
Well, time has passed and yesterday my swatches arrived. The colors are both deeply familiar and mysterious. Looking at them I am reminded of my past- the deep burgundies remind me of my Goth girl days, the dark forest greens of the passionate idealistic activist with a lively Robin Hood complex. In the deep strength of the colors I see the determined woman who gave birth at home in a state crazy enough to make home birth illegal.
Looking at these colors I see uncomfortable truths about myself, an opportunity for self-acceptance. ” I will never be “the life of the party”. Do I really have to take everything soooo seriously?” With these colors I renew faith in myself and my path. The woman who wears these colors has resource and strength to spare.
I pursued PCA to make things simpler, but in this moment the process for aligning my outside and inside with my “true colors” seems terribly complicated and fairly far away. But I did it. I said, “yes”, and as Christine says, “Now the interesting part begins…”. I have no idea where this will take me. This reluctant Dark Winter wouldn’t have it any other way.
This image is copyrighted, but it deeply defines how this Season feels to me.
Eyeglass Frames 2 Nov 2010
November 20, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 1 Comment
Frames for True Winter, Light Spring, Dark Winter, Light Summer x 2, and Bright Spring, chosen using the colours and principles of 12 Season (Tone) Personal Colour Analysis.
Or here on YouTube.
The Glasses
True Winter
Light Spring
Light Summer
Light Summer
Bright Spring
The make of the glasses can be seen on the lens, except Bright Spring’s which are Soho. Mine are Joop!
Holland Optical is in SW Ontario at 519-352-8632.
Best Makeup Colours : Dark Winter
November 7, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 16 Comments
Personal Colour Analysis (PCA) has its origins in your soul. It reaches way down to the innermost part of your being and identifies the vibrational energy of the colours you project on the outside.
You are a being of light. Once you know the colours of your natural light, you can repeat them in everything you wear. It’s not just to look good, though you surely will. Words like wholeness, complete, unified, and aligned, inner with outer, may help you think about color in a different way.
Without PCA, you cannot possibly know your own rainbow. Like most folks, then, everything you wear, every item in your makeup drawer, your jewelry, and your highlights all communicate something different. The result is like a visual white noise.
Your makeup colours are your clothes colours. Your clothes colours are your eye colours. Your hair highlight colour is in your skin’s pigments. A thousand questions answered when you know.
In 12 Season Personal Colour Analysis, Dark Winter is very much a Winter Season, the most less-is-more Season of them all. Winter’s cool and dark colours are here, as is the pivotal red-violet of all Winters. An element of Autumn is still present, so slightly dulling and browning the colours, as Autumn always does. I am a Dark Winter. Sandra Bullock and Winona Ryder probably are too, and so is a Canada goose and a bald eagle.
The person is not necessarily dark, but the colors that perfect their skin and eyes are dark, RELATIVE to the other Seasons. Browns are darker, corals are darker, greens are darker, and the overall look should be medium to dark. As Winters, some of the lights are very very light, as icy colours. Compare that to the Dark Autumn, who is not flattered by icy lights because they are primarily Autumns. Their light colour palette is very different from Dark Winter’s, though the darker colour palette has some similarities.(For more, see Icy Colours and Pastels)
You know that my idea of elegant eye makeup is in shades of grays and browns. Dark Winters are icy grey, pure grey, or browned dark-taupes. Eye makeup is much more grey than brown. Brown looks too hot, like beef stew on snow. No, that’s too awful. Let’s say gravy on snow instead.
Soft Summer began with True Summer’s very cool palette, and looked at it through a layer of fog. Dark Winter begins with True Winter’s very cool palette and looks at it through a layer of soot. Clinique Totally Neutral Eyeshadow trio is a great everyday palette. In Canada, you could buy Joe Pebble powder eyeshadow, apply it with a wet brush to get a darker layer.
Smoky eyes and nude lips is a look so many aspire to. There’s nothing wrong with it, except that I have yet to meet the regular woman who can pick out her colors and not look ghoulish. A better look to aspire to is the natural look, the one that could believably have happened by itself.
While most Seasons can manage that “nude” pink-beige lip in some version or other, Winter has the most difficult time with it. The one thing Winter needs to remember is to pair very lights with very darks, and have very clear dividing lines between the color blocks. When the lips blend too much into the skin, it doesn’t look healthy, natural, outdoorsy, or pretty. It looks like Snow White with lips the color of concealer.
Many would say that we can’t go around with fuchsia, purple, or crimson lips at the office or the soccer game. In a heavy application, that may be so. A Winter going for a more natural look will stay true to their palette, as anyone does, but choose a more sheer or more brown product. Cherry skin, pomegranate juice, frosted cranberries, and ripe mulberries will be Winter’s best go-to 9AM lip colours. Try Merle Norman Stolen Kisses and MAC Scant (if you can find it) for day wear, and Elizabeth Arden Sugarplum Shimmer when you want more. If you’re 25 and want to work your icy fuchsia, icy pink, or light coral lip, that’s fine, because you still have the well defined lips of the young, but those colours are probably lighter than your natural lip colour.
Your colour analyzed cosmetic colour for the most natural, believable lip colour is mulberry, so a browned purple, in the lower right position of the lip/blush foursome. Strong cool dark coral-pink is a brighter option.
Eyeliners shown at the bottom are charcoal, blackened mulberry, and one could certainly use a black-brown too. I use MAC Photogravure or Clinique Black-Brown. MAC Grey Utility is a good smoky gray.
Your eye colour makes no difference. The makeup will work. The only thing you may need is a darkness adjustment. A dark lipstick will look lightER on a darkER person. I did that thing with cell phones that kids do to take endless photos of themselves so the picture below is odd. I’m wearing a purple-brown lipstick, which looks darker IRL, but not by much. It looks light on me and it would look lightER than that on Sandra Bullock, and lightER still on Oprah. So you take the Personal Colours Book of swatches shopping and match the darker colours, but always stay true to your palette.
Myles Is A Bright Winter
September 27, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 40 Comments
All out glamour.
All out color. Such flamboyance of color that it takes Bright Winters time to get used to wearing it. Not Myles. He got it instantly, like he’d always known it.
Men are usually more intensely colored than women of the same Season, and Myles’ natural coloring is a great example of that. The concentration of pigment in the hair color alone is a testament to the high color saturation of the entire person. It is less obvious in the Bright Winter woman, but Jocelyn (Jocelyn Is A Bright Winter) could still dominate every color she wore, almost including black.
As a Bright Winter, in 12 Season (Tone) Color Analysis, he is fundamentally a Winter, but incorporates a small element of Spring. That means that the True Winter palette, with its dark reds, blues, and especially purples, has a pale yellow light shining on it. Colors become lighter and so slightly yellowed. The effect is of brightness and high energy, conveyed by the highest color saturation in the spectrum. (To understand saturation better, see the article What Are Clear And Soft Colours?)
You’ve met Myles before in Clear and Muted Orange In Eyes, in the first photograph illustrating beer bottle transparency in the browns and oranges coloring the iris. Here is his eye, once more. Notice the very sharp transitions between hair/skin/eye color, and how generously pigmented the colors are.
Myles had one of the most sophisticated internal color guidance systems that I’ve seen, man or woman. He could see the effects with ease, in others and in himself. He could describe what was happening under the color’s influence using unconventional analogies that scratched well beyond the surface. He could direct his own analysis after having watched his wife’s. He originated the expression “the face in hi-def” that I’ve used to describe the sharp focus of the facial structure in right color.
Draping
On such uncommon coloring, we were bound to see some extraordinary effects. The draping begins with 4 drapes representing extremes of the 4 True Seasons. The Spring drape is a deep shimmering golden caramel. Those eyes of his were enormous and glowed with a shockingly golden yellow light, not something I’d ever seen at 10AM, or any other time. It was like meeting an owl in a dark night forest.
His skin was too yellow in the Spring drape. It follows that the whites of his eyes were quite yellow. That was bound to happen in a pure Spring drape on a person of predominantly cool skin, since Myles is a Winter type. We quickly got all that sorted, but for a moment, the blazing luminosity in the eye made you forget everything else.
Myles’ PCA proceeded quite quickly because the optical effects were so undeniable. There was no other Season to which he could possibly have belonged.
Among the Bright Winter test drapes is a gleaming dark sapphire fabric. Not only is it electric blue, it is very shiny. Nobody, but nobody, can balance that color unless they are Bright Winter. It dominates even True Winter unquestionably. Myles wore this color with ease, and without fidgeting the way men do in shiny fabric. He felt confident, attractive, and relaxed.
The final point is to notice the very fine quality of the skin texture. Many Springs have this very youthful, poreless appearance in the skin. If the skin were fabric, Spring’s would be handkerchief cotton to satin. Many Springs also have a triangular or pointed feature, like Myles’ finely carved nose.
The uplifted outer corners of Audrey Hepburn’s eyes are another example. On a child, they look like the eyes of an elf, or Tinkerbell. You might see the more pointed chin of a heart shaped face, a prominent bow in the upper lip, or the outer corners of the mouth tipped upwards. For these reasons, Springs can look very youthful and alert.
The Bright Winter Man
Men are harder to know from their attire because there is more social pressure on them to conform to “guy” looks and behaviors. I see it already in my 13 year old son. A woman can communicate the unrestrained allure of a Bright Winter with jewels, shiny accessories, luxurious fabric, and large blocks of very bright color. She is the only one among the 12 Seasons who can wear logos, and they won’t look plastic.
What does a man do? First of all, what is he trying to communicate? That’s everyone’s first question when they dress.
The Bright Winter man combines Winter’s power signal with Spring’s positivity and enthusiasm. His subliminal statement is dynamic force. He is the contrast of sunshine on ice. Is there a more glorious, energizing place to be than a ski hill in March? The bracing wind, the speed of the run, the sun we’ve waited all winter to feel on our skin…no wonder people are euphoric.
The overall effect of his look should be dark, like all Winters. It should also of the highest contrast, the most important component of Winter dressing. There is maxed separation between the lightness of the skin and the darkness of the hair, so clothing combinations feel right to look at when they repeat that.
Spring makes this personal color palette the lightest of the 3 Winters, so he wears stark white extremely well. White combined with a bigger dark block is better. White (or icy light)+bigger very dark block+small bright accent=even better. Dark + bright is equally great. Only Bright Winter men can still be taken seriously in these pairings. Men of other Seasons are somewhere between dominated-by-clothing and rapper-snowboarder-silly.
His biggest problem may be not looking too formal. Even a black-brown or ink-navy suit will look like a tux with a white shirt. Dark charcoal gray will be a fantastic suit color. With an icy violet shirt? Only one guy in the room will be doing that, the only one everyone’s looking at. He looks commanding and interesting, but that violet softens him a bit. It even hints at playfulness.
When he wants to look scary dominant imposing authoritative, he can wear the night sky suit, even better with a little shine in it, the white shirt, … what about ties?
I love ties. I can look at them for hours. A man can say more with a tie than a woman can with anything. This guy can’t go as wild as his Bright Spring brother can, his Winter reserve just won’t let him. He is better when he’s on the formal side. When he chooses more traditional (still high contrast) designs with larger dark blocks that repeat the suit color, the element of bright color will seem less bold.
Winter does not want to come across as unpredictable or random. Nor do you want a design where all the colors and lines seem to flow together, which happens when the pieces of the puzzle are small. The Winter exterior should look very composed and quiet, but dramatic.
Lines should be thicker, rather than fine, which balances the strength of the colors better. The print should be obvious, which tie designers seem to do mostly in stripes. The other choice is 10,000 ladybugs. The edges of each color block should be crisp, since they are in the natural coloring. This tie could be worn well by the Bright Spring, and even the True Spring man. The tie is here, at Nordstrom.
As a Neutral Season, meaning a blend of 2 True Seasons, the palette offers a warmer go-to golden red and a cooler blue-red, a strong fuchsia. Even as a very small constituent in the overall look, the harmony gets noticed. Women can create this effect with lipstick or eyeglass frames. The red in this tie repeats that golden, strawberry red undertone, and looks electric on this coloring. It is here, at J.Crew.
I like this tie too. It is a Winter grey, like clean sharp steel, a blade, a knife edge, a scalpel. There is a slight jewel effect in the lighter stripes, like platinum, or crystallized sugar, that sparkles without being obnoxious. Tie here at Nordstrom.
On no group of man does safe color fall flatter. Casual clothing in general is very difficult because of the inherent formality and intensity of the appearance. All 3 Winters have some difficulty with jeans, but this group most of all. Nothing works, not the faded color, the almost-sloppiness, the rugged strong quality. Jeans should be the darkest possible black or blue in a classic cut.
T-shirts should be shockingly saturated with color, hopefully more IRL than in the photo. The diagonal line in this polo (here at Nordstrom) gives a triangular effect that repeats that physical traits we talked about earlier. Zigzag lines add energy and asymmetry, both Spring’s influences.
For men, Colour Analysis is more about looking good than the spiritual journey that it becomes for women. They understand that the viewer interprets appearance as education, social status, risk-taking, and creativity. For a man, clothing is an investment in themselves and their business. Fair or not, appearance is a factor that helps people decide how much money they’re willing to give us.
Men, you attract trust with your clothing, a commodity that men don’t come by easily. Making these choices is not what your wife is for (until after your PCA).
Best Makeup Colours : Bright Winter
July 4, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 23 Comments
The Bright Seasons wouldn’t be as perplexing as they are if someone hadn’t made an allusion to “clear eyes”. Suddenly, they became indefinable. Who has clear eyes? Who doesn’t?
In 12 Season Personal Colour Analysis, a repetitive phrase so that people can find me through Google, I know you knew that, this group belongs to the Winter category. Colours are dark, highly saturated, and cool.
Bright Winter is a Neutral Season, so Winter with a Spring infusion. Spring does do some fascinating things when it mixes with Winter, maybe part of what makes this coloring so consuming of our attentions and imaginations. Maybe it’s the relief we have evolved to feel when warmth returns to tell us that we survived another cold spell. Our feeling of welcome is almost heartbreaking.
Maybe we are arrested when pure, pure color energy mixes with Winter’s power.
Some of Winter’s cold is substituted for Spring’s pale yellow warmth. Not buttercup yet, not even daffodil. More like snowdrops. There is a trace of the delicate in these people, unlike True Winter that neither looks nor acts delicately ( or if they do, you soon learn it’s pretend).
When the 2 True Seasons of highest color saturation mix, this color sings with clarity. These are the highest color notes.
Spring also lightens the colors, compared to True Winter’s darkness. Only a bit.
Some Bright Winters react to their palette with “Obviously”, which the happiness with which most people greet their colors. The great David Weinberger said, in the cluetrain manifesto, that “laughter is the sound knowledge makes when it’s born”. Color analysts see it every day, in the laughter that people almost have to suppress when they see their palette. They are joyful and peaceful. And they’re a bit confused by the strength of their reaction.
Some Bright Winters react with “Oh, heavens, I could never do that.” One piece at a time. Let yourself do this. Being safe when you know more is like visually dumbing yourself down. NEVER be less than everything you can be. Buy a bright tank and wear a yellow one underneath. Wear dangly silver earrings. Wear a sheer bright gloss.
These are the C0lour Analysis cosmetic colors that perfect this skin tone.
The eyeshadow in icy violet is incredible. Merle Norman makes Freesia and it is gorgeous for a reason. The icy is Winter. The violet is the complement of yellow, a component of all Spring skin.
The other hilite is yellow, or creamy, but still quite neutral champagne. Everyone can do neutral champagne. Just avoid brown, beige, buff, gold, pastel.
Eyeshadow for the Brights is my biggest search challenge. You can do a clean light grey and deeper charcoal (left column). You can add in a bit of brown and get to taupe (right column) but barely any. Will you be able to find 2 separate products? You might, but you wouldn’t need to.
Shimmer in makeup is a definite possible, though never necessary. The industry just makes so much of it that it’s easier to find. Winter has a still polish. Spring expresses dazzle and movement. Merge the two and the shimmer works. One facial feature at a time.
Eyeliner is charcoal, or black-brown. Purple can be great, but certainly more playful; it’s lighter than True Winter’s and will look purpler. Spring allows imagination, energy, and FUN, but it’s still very contained in this group. Winter’s sapphire can also work. These eyeliners might be better as accents, rather than for surrounding the entire eye. You might just do an inner rim of the upper lid, or the outer section of the upper lid, merging with the charcoal. Just because you can look great in circus gear doesn’t mean you should.
Lip and blush usually take time to get used to. Start light or sheer with makeup. Your Color Analyszed swatches give you lighter choices too. The lip often has a fair bit of natural color. The rest of us would love it on you immediately, but I get that it’s you who has to wear it. Ask someone you trust. I love Mercier’s Lip Pot in Hibiscus on Bright Spring, but on Bright Winter, it is still too flat. They dominate it, and the lip color becomes dullish and grayish and boringish.
As for the clear eyes thing, it sure wouldn’t help you pick them out of a line-up. They are often Black-Brown (see Jocelyn Is A Bright Winter). They can be Virginia turtle eyes, which become OMG with charcoal eyeliner. They can be Asian.
Everyone’s eyes are amazing. Once we notice them, we all find it hard to stop looking. That’s why it’s so important to get rid of the distracting clutter. Calm down the skin, the hair, the over-makeup, and let your eyes leave an echo.
Best Makeup Colours : True Winter
June 24, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 34 Comments
In 12 Season Personal Colour Analysis, True Winter is the pure Season whose most important color fact is its coolness. The saturation and darkness are fairly high but not at the max. Every color, light or dark, is cold, crisp, hard, frosty, dry like the inside of a freezer.
There are 5 pages of pinks and purples in True Winter’s Personal Colour Palette. 5 swatches on each strip, that’s 25 pinks and purples. They far outnumber everything else.
The color at the core of this being is red-purple, all very clear and blue-based. The palette is so cold that it almost feels a bit unfriendly to look at. There isn’t a shred of warmth. No brown, no orange, no beige, nothing we associate with comfort. Combine that with the relative darkness, and it’s uncomfortable.
Like these personalities can often be, Winter demands that we make some space for it. We feel commanded to notice it but prefer to keep our distance. It likes to argue and will resist any sort of control. And yet, its beauty is awesome and unto itself.
True Winter has some serious strength in their coloring. They can balance much more makeup than most others. They can wear eyeliner along the inner rim of the eyelids and look even more remarkable. On the rest of us, it just looks vicious.
If someone told me they liked my eyeliner, I’d throw it out. When you look at pictures of Laura Mercier or Mrs. Obama, you’re not looking at their eyeliner. Here, the color analysis cosmetic colours would harmonize a sapphire and deep purple eyeliner, as long as it’s not obviously, ridiculously purple. The sapphire has to be pure, dark, and cold. Not teal, just pure deep blue. Merle Norman makes a nice Sapphire eyeliner. Bright Winter can balance this too, with their drop-dead glamour signal. Everyone else pushes the limits of credibility.
It may take time to get used to these fuchsias, rubies, dark plums, and crimsons in blush and lipstick. Begin with sheer colors, but don’t compromise the color. Your makeup will be invisible, or worse, it will be noticeable as some weird, warm, wishy-washy shade on your skin tone. Don’t go there.
The basic eyeshadow is a clean, crisp steel grey. A cool taupe (grey-brown) can work as a good alternative. MAC Satin Taupe is fairly good, but very shiny. This group can handle shimmer makeup, consistent with Winter’s polish, but nobody should overdo the frost, especially after 40. Summer’s cool taupe could work, but it’s not quite the same because of its inherent softness. If these colours look warm on your screen, they’re not intended to.
Matching The Swatch Book : Coral
April 3, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 15 Comments
This is Part 2 of the post that answers a client’s question re: deciphering her blues and corals when shopping with her Colours Book.
Part 1 is at Matching The Swatch Book : Blue. Today is about True Summer corals. This would not apply to Soft Summers, who have very different colours. Light Summer may have an occasional similar swatch, but not a whole page.
Coral is one of the more difficult colors to predict in 12 Seasons Personal Colour Analysis. Any color, like turquoise or peach, that has an inherently warm AND cool component, is tougher to grasp confidently.
As we said in the Blue post, it’s often the colours in more distant, seemingly unrelated, Seasons that can be most similar. I looked for the most similar corals to True Summer’s.
They are not among the 3 Summers (except maybe the odd one in Light Summer). No coral in the Spring or Autumn palettes would confuse you if you had your Colours Book.
The corals of True Summer and Dark Winter are similar tones. Side by side, Dark Winter certainly has a dark brown element that takes away the rose-petal freshness of True Summer’s but they are quite close.
Wow, ay? So, how might you tell them apart?
1. True Summer is absolutely cool. You should be able to find no heat, no yellow, no brown. OK, but hard to do with coral, since it always seems a little warmish.
2. If it’s a cosmetic colour, don’t compare makeup colours on your arm or face. None of us can ever be objective enough about our face and arms get messy. Paint it on white paper to compare it to your Colours Book.
3. Does the item convey a feeling? True Summer should express cool, serene, fresh, feathery, and delicate. Choose a visual to help. Rose petals, watercolor, mist, water are True Summer. It should feel true to one of True Summer keywords : gentle.
For True Summer, it’s watermelon, not geranium. Soft plum, not deep eggplant. Soothing, not strong. The personal swatch book may feel hard to interpret, but when you see it in the entire piece of clothing, the colour is easier to figure out.
If you see a trace of sunshine, it’s wrong, it’s Spring. True Summer is absolutely cool.
Ask yourself “can I see black in the shadows?” . If yes, it’s Winter’s. And this is a good way to make a colr go one way or the other. If it’s a tissue or sheer fabric, wearing a white or dark tank underneath can pull it towards Winter or Summer very effectively.
4. Compare it to 2 items that you KNOW to be warm and cool. It will be easier to position yours accurately when you have a range with endpoints.
5. Consider the fabric. Colour is an emotional expression that is conveyed by weight, by combination, by style and stitching lines, as well as hue.
If you feel a heavy or somber presence, it’s probably off. Even when True Summer gets darker, the feeling is still graceful and fine. Winter colours look (and feel) aggressive on a True Summer.
If the colour feels like it would have to be velvet because the feeling is so solid, that is not True Summer. If it feels made of gauze or linen, it is right.
If the colour were curtains, the True Summer would let light through. Dark Winter is occlusive because of its degrees of saturation and darkness, both way higher than Summer.
6. What story is being told by the colour? What background does it create? a watercolour or an oil painting? a sheer or a tapestry?
7. In a swirl with Summer’s other colours, would it be dominant, or too aggressive, and overshadow all the more delicate colours?
All True Summer’s colours are very slightly faded. Spring has the odd similar swatch but it is distinctly more saturated, a clearer colour. In the graphic above, I could have softened (reduced the saturation, grayed) the Summer colours even more. As soon as Spring appears, the colours become rainbows to parrot plumage, but they’re clear, not dusty colours. True Summer is just the slightest bit washed out.
If you love the item and your instinct is that the colour is right, buy it if you can return it. Try it with the rest of your palette, in different lighting. Often, a colour that is extremely close can be made to work well because of what it’s combined with, since so much of Season harmony is conveyed by how your colours are worn together.
I believe these are the last stages before becoming completely colour confident. Don’t do it from memory, you’ll lose money. Always consult your Colours Book.
You’re still moving forward.
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