Apparently, there is a significant difference between the light in my room and the light outside – the former throws off my skin color a LOT. Cozy Plum still isn’t perfect, but it’s not as horrible as I thought, either. I’m going to try Mulberry tomorrow and check it in proper lighting.

(from the Undertones article)

“Ashley,
I am amazed that Pink Goddess would go coral on anyone. Breath of Plum absolutely goes on pink, I agree. I’ve been using Lancome Aplum alone lately, a good matte barely-browned red-plum with enough blue in it to be Winter dark, and been pleased.
I really can’t see that you’d be Dark Winter. I’m no MUA for black women but, you have no good reaction to any of the makeup. I haven’t found dark overtone colour to make that much difference, interestingly.”

It is surprising. It turns a weird warm pink on me; I was surprised at the color when I swatched it. I have a cranberry gloss that goes yellowy on me, too. I think I can wear Breath of Plum and Clinique Berry Delight. I can’t go particularly warm, though. The Dolce Vita dupe that I got, Revlon Soft Rose, goes orangey pink; Clinique Berry Delight blush is too orange; beige isn’t as flattering on me as grey-taupe.

On a slightly related note, what do you do when someone’s face doesn’t match the rest of their body? Say the face is redder or something; can that affect the draping?

Pam is wearing MAC Scant Slimshine and L’Oreal Caramel Creme gloss (I believe the tubes are called ColorJuice).

Definitely Winter; I can’t imagine pulling off orange makeup. :p I find that Breath of Plum goes pink when applied with a heavier hand. Scant is OK; I still find it rather odd. When I put it on, it looks like it’s going to be terrible; compared to my lips, which are some form of coral, it looks way too blue. Once it’s all on, though, it looks decent, if a little bland. It goes especially well with taupe eyeshadow. That reminds me: what is the caramel gloss that you used on Pam in the Dark Winter article?

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I’m ordering some Dark Winter colors off of Ebay. I got Breath of Plum in a few days ago, and at first, I thought it looked bad. I tried it tonight, though, and checked it in my room and in the bathroom, and… it blended. This is a novel concept for me, and one that I find slightly baffling. I mean, I really do look so very cool-toned; and yet, that bit of brown in my makeup helps it blend in. I guess that’s what you mean by “relatively cool,” and why draping and color palettes are so necessary.

She was a Dark Winter. She verged closer to her warmer neighbor of Dark Autumn, certainly not True Winter. Actually, exactly the same as me. I would say her skin pigmentation was between Halle Berry and Oprah. It was as easy to see the changes as with any Caucasian. She was very yellow in the Spring colours at any level, and the shading under the eyes was very pronounced in the truly cool colours. What I saw more than with light people was the degree of oiliness of the skin. What I saw less was the moment when the drapes connected with the eye colours. The clearing of the white of the eye was faint and only happened sometimes. That was a very interesting day for me. I hope to do more.
Insofar as makeup, the usual Dark Winter colours seemed a bit flat. Now, her preference was to more flamboyant use of colour than I would choose, but a person’s taste is important. I think Michelle Obama has good makeup for an African-American woman, though sometimes the lips are too caramel- bland. We found that using the usual Dark Winter tones and warming them to a more bronze shade was best. I’m not sure if that’s an Autumn influence or because of the rich brown of the skin.
I looked for info on applying makeup to black skin, but I didn’t find anything I trusted that was in good taste.

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I’m actually becoming convinced that I’m not a True Winter after all, which would explain why I have to be very careful in my choice of purple lip colors. I am quite certain of being primarily cool, but I’m checking out the softer seasons.

That girl sounds like she might me slightly darker-skinned than I (that photo of me in my avatar is amazingly washed out; I need to get a new one). How dark do Soft Summer colors go?

Now that is an intelligent question (not that yours aren’t always ). I wondered a lot about this back when I began, because I thought I wanted to sell makeup so women would be able to find the right colours easily and pre-packaged. The answer is that so far, everyone in the same Season wears almost identical makeup, regardless of hair colour. In fact, depth of complexion seems to matter little either.
I’m trying to expand my scope with women of colour. I had a mulatto woman a few days ago, beautiful, 22 years old, coloring between JLo and Halle Berry, but with avocado/brown/gold eyes and dark coffee hair. I wondered if I’d be able to see the effects. I also wondered if I’d be thrown off by a preconception that all Asian and African-Americans are Winter. She turned out to be Soft Summer according to the drapes. I doubted myself, but that was the answer. Once I put Soft Summer makeup on her, same exact products as on the SJP-coloring I had the week before, it was fine. No way she would have worn Winter’s fuchsia.

REALLY wish you lived nearby. We’d learn a lot doing your analysis.

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