Best Makeup Colours : True Winter
June 24, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 12 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.
A Soft Autumn Case Study
April 30, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 20 Comments
You find yourself telling this person your dreams.
They integrate Autumn’s open minded acceptance of new personalities and ideas and Summer’s gentle kindness. Autumn’s very natural disposition, completely without airs or pretense, is still here but tempered to lessen the more abrupt honesty. One feels so comfortable in this presence that our own masks and guards fall away. There is no threat, no tension, and no judgement.
For us all, our best appearance happens when our truest inside is projected on the outside. We find a profound peace in that place. The Soft Autumn’s eyes/skin/hair are of similar colour intensity, which is to say very muted. There are 2 concepts here and we wish to repeat both in personal decoration:
- The colours of the hair/skin/eyes are themselves very muted and soft.
- The transitions between the colours are very muted and soft.
Hair color analysis
For both Soft Seasons, the natural hair colour can be a medium gray-brown. These women feel much more alive with hair colour. Done right, it can amplify everything sensual, almost organic, about this palette.
Hair that’s too pale and yellow, the ubiquitous blonde highlight of which there are too many out there, doesn’t even look like their hair. For too many of us, it began as a few highlights, and pretty soon nobody can remember when they weren’t blond.
Too dark is very severe. It competes with the skin, and wins, setting up shadows and aging effects.
They often have a copper subtlety in the hair or freckles in the skin, and someone along the way will have suggested some shade of red. This can be wildy successful, but red is also tough to get perfect from a bottle. It has to be extremely gentle, so the viewer isn’t even sure if it’s there. Full on True Autumn’s molten, burnished heat isn’t here yet. This is the end of September. (See How The 5 Autumns Add Brown To Hair Colour)
Don’t get frustrated with the hair colour, it is the biggest struggle of all. It takes most of us 4 times to get a shade where we go to the colorist and just say “same as last time”. You really do learn interesting things with each hair attempt. This hair (actually the same colour as in the first picture) may be a bit dark and red, but it has found the warm copper in her eyes. Nobody can do metallic color in the eye except Autumn and it is remarkable. You’d want to keep some of that, either in the hair or in clothes.
The color mistakes
1. Black. It is dark, cold, heavy, dense, everything this group is NOT about. Even black mascara looks fake. Their better-than-black is milk chocolate or maybe a bit darker.
2. White. Stark and draining, it adds years. Like black, white is at the extreme end of the contrast scale, in opposition to the basic concepts of this coloring. Their neutral opportunities are enormous, with the coolness and heat both present. From eggshell and sand, through buff, honey, and caramel, mocha, dove grey, endless choices.
3. Dark lines. Eyeliner, lipliner, eyebrows, any sharp colour transitions. All you see is the dark line. The most dominant colour block will draw the eye. Everything else will recede. Dark lines in makeup, like dark details in clothes, look severe and aging.This Season looks very good in flesh and nude tone lips. On most coloring groups, lips need more definition to add youth on mature faces. Here, softer tones look warm, glowing, and natural even on older women, since that is the basic energy of the group.
4. Avoiding the feminity. Though they certainly look more Autumn, their nature is nurturing. Rather than the soothing feel of Summer, this trait is more about fostering and encouraging the growth and happiness of those they love, very womanly aspects. Their husbands have stopped asking who they’re making asparagus quiche for this week. They know the SPCA staff by first names. Heirloom “it was my grandmother’s” jewelry or floral prints combine the more Autumn personal colour palette with these very loving, deeply female characteristics.
5. Only using metals in jewelry. Antique and vintage jewelry, heirlooms, pearls, hair accessories with flowers or natural beads and stones or scarves are fabulous here. Even textured metal is inherently hard, though it certainly can work in soft gold and copper.
6. Missing out on a gentle bronzer. Their look is not made up. It is natural and real. Bronzer can be so flattering and warming. Much of what’s out there is dark, red, orange, or dull. This should be a light golden tan colour.
Lipstick
You’ll be wanting to know what lip colours the model is wearing. The first picture is Bobbi Brown Rose Brown. The second is Chanel Incognito. You’re not staring at the makeup, right? It is neither stronger or weaker than the face. The skin is calm, even, and real. The harmony between who she is inside, how that is depicted in the color story on the outside, and the all the colors she has added is so perfect that it becomes fascinating. An effort is required to pull your eyes away from hers.
We all have about 4 lipsticks that will look custom-colored for our face – more if you get into subtleties, but most of us would be beyond happy with 4 perfects. A Neutral Season, with both warmth and coolness, can play with this in makeup color (the Colour Analysis cosmetic colours are precisely rendered in the Colours Book, easy to match at the makeup counter). A warm pink is one of Soft Autumn’s choices. A more orange (but not peach, this is an earthy Season) light terracotta, is the other, the pink-orange of a flowerpot in the late afternoon sun. Lips like these cost the industry big coin and a lot of Photoshopping.
Eyeglass Frames
We wondered about eyeglass frames. This is an old pair she sometimes wears.
How about these choices?
These frames repeats the copper-red now in the hair, so effective at intensifying eye colour. There are no hard horizontal lines to diminish a large round eye. There are no hard lines or corners at all.
Great shade of copper. Softened frame shape. A little groovy chic with the upward flare of the corners, a nice soft flowing curved line (the Summer element integrated! coincidence? I think not). Not heavy at the temples. Unobtrusive but elegant, delicate but strong, an addition to Adriane rather than a fight for attention.
In our model’s own words
Anyone who has experienced a Colour Analysis learns that looking your most beautiful and genuine is not about what you do or don’t spend. It is about what you do or don’t buy.
My friend is a writer and an eloquent communicator. She sent me these thoughts (you can read her comments in full on the Testimonials page):
In a culture eager to financially capitalize on women’s (and increasingly men’s) insecurities, we are constantly vulnerable to manipulation by the clothing and cosmetic industries. Christine’s analysis brings a halt to this grinding exploitation. Equipped with a new way of looking at color; with, in fact, utterly retrained vision, we are able to say “no” to that which does not serve our authentic selves. And when we say “yes,” it is with self-assurance devoid of indecision and guilt.
Christine often mentions how wearing our true colors makes it easier and more relaxing for others to engage with us. There is an ease; a sense of effortlessness; a lack of obtrusive striving for that which does not inherently belong. I think we all want to experience this “naturalness of expression” in our both our professional and personal lives. We’d like to give it and to receive it; we are social animals, after all. Christine offers the gift of this life-changing awareness. It is a shift-of-consciousness that is transforming and freeing, all at once.
Activewear Jackets for The Light Spring Woman
January 25, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 4 Comments
Because the Spring Season speaks primarily of movement and animation, you look great in active wear.
As always, staying true to your personal colour palette, I like this Zella jacket at Nordstrom.
Turquoise is certainly among your perfect clothes colours. It’s being marketed as THE colour this Season, but only 3 Seasons can wear a true clear turquoise, and the Light Spring is one of them.
I appreciate the flowing lines in the stitching. In 12 Season Colour Analysis, you are a Neutral Season, blending Spring with a little bit of Summer. Those wavy lines integrate your Summer touch with the flowing water effect, while still being gently zigzagged enough to suggest motion. As a gentle Spring, this gentle zigzag is a perfect mirror to your message in colour.
By comparison, this is not a good choice.
The draping, the batwing sleeves, the heavy ribbing and neck, and the prominent zipper do not express serious commitment to motion. Fabric with a very slight shimmer, like many activewear knits, is better on you. You are not well served by heavy fabrics like velour. Light, soft knits and synthetics are better.
You will express your personality better with some colour transitions. Your Summer trace is monochromatic, but not to this degree. Repeating a colour in the print of a top with a solid bottom will do well. Since you are predominantly Spring, you can certainly mix and match colours fairly freely. The jacket above was made for another Season.
A final great choice, below, the Nike Border Long Sleeve top. The fundamental shape of the Spring Season is the triangle.
The stitching at the armpit to neck conveys the triangle. The asymmetric Nike swoosh, with its lift at the corners, is a great little detail that says movement, and so Spring.
The colour could be yellower, ideally, but if you are on the cooler side of the Season, it may be perfect.
The Reason For The Season is YOU
January 11, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 2 Comments
Among the 4 True Seasons in Personal Colour Analysis, there are 2 groups of people whose coloring has a blue-pink (or cool) undertone. They are the Summers and Winters. Their nature also tends to be less energetic and a little more reserved and slow-moving.
The Warm Seasons of the Springs and Autumns have skin with a yellow-to-gold undertone. They are lively, busy, talkative, and active.
Colour makes us feel certain feelings and think certain thoughts. A big block of why that is comes from the most primitive associations humans have made with colour. It is embedded in our genetics and the evolution of our brains from the beginnings of our consciousness.
Just as the energy of the 4 True Seasons follows the course of the year, from
the short-lived but almost frantically busy, almost reckless, activity of Spring
to
the hazy, flowing, genteel days of Summer
to
the time of yields and returns in the fields, of efficiency, and security, and responsibility in Autumn’s solid personality
to
Winter’s withheld reserve and its contrast of frozen yet shocking beauty. How can such austerity and colour severity be so beautiful? How can something so motionless be so compelling?
So does the warmth and coolness of the Seasons alternate in every 24 hour cycle.
Spring is a colour riot. It corresponds to the early morning’s optimistic business. The light is pale yellow, but there is a definite promise of heat to come.
Summer’s colours are seen between 12 – 3 PM where activity slows as the heat induces a softness and relaxed peacefulness to how we feel, as well as what we see.
Late afternoon light mellows and heats the colours of the world around us, just as it does to the coloring of people in the Autumn seasons.
Winter individuals, whose personal decoration in clothing, makeup, jewelry, and hair colour is stately, formal, and symmetrical, look best in the colours of the darker time when motion settles. This is a feeling of colour restraint worn in simple, contrasting ways.
Though there are 12 colour groups, or Seasons, among human beings, each has their special edge, their special effect. Learn what yours is and your appearance will crackle. Colour is above all a FEELING. People will keep looking for why you send sparks but they will not know.
Your thoughts project outward from you as a vibration. They are like your inner colours. You send an energy vibration by the colours of your body too. You have a wavelength all your own. Wearing wrong colours is a constant irritation because the wavelenghts don’t jive. You’re emanating too many frequencies that are all clashing.
Trying to look like what you could not be never works. Think about how you were INTENDED to look. You came here, meant to look a certain way. Are you close? You’ll feel it when it happens.
Elisa Is A True Summer
January 7, 2010 by Christine Scaman · 17 Comments
Elisa has always believed herself to be a Spring. Her freckles, warm brown hair, and natural flush in her skin caused her, and others, to conclude that the colours in her design followed Spring’s colour rules. When assessing a colour, be it in you or outside you, we ask the same 3 questions, because any colour has 3 properties.
Spring colours are all:
Lightness or Darkness? > light, or at least never very dark
Warm or Cool? > warmed, and by yellow NOT orange
Clear or Soft? > clear, or highly saturated, NOT dulled
The premise of Seasonal Colour Analysis is that every colour in your natural colour composition answers those 3 questions in the same way. Your swatch book is a group of colours that fit on those scales in those exact same positions too, thereby replicating the colours in your design. That is how the magic happens.
I can see how one might look at the light-medium warmish brown hair and see warmth, light, and clarity.
Her eyes are not warm though. They are a medium-dark blue-grey.
The dark brows could make Winter cross your mind.
But nevermind the hair and eyes. We established long ago that they are not used in defining the Season, they’ll just lead you astray. We look at skin.
Without a proper analysis, you can’t really understand skin. You have to watch how it reacts to colour. Are freckles not a sign of warmth? No! They’re another red herring, kind of like the “clear eyes” concept. You have to look beyond them, at the skin. So we’re back to Plan A, with how did the draping go?
Both Elisa’s skin and her eye patterns performed precisely as True Summer does. The moonlit, luminous translucency that only True Summer does so well was there for sure. The absolute inability to handle the slightest degree of heat, or it’s instant pasty skin, was there. This skin tone seems to look turquoise in turquoise, and melon in melon.
In fact, Elisa is a study in contrasts. She has warm hair, dark eyebrows, deep blue eyes, and freckles (which feel warm). She could be placed in any number of Seasons, but none would feel right. Once we neutralized all the variables, it was clear that she is a True Summer.
Makeup often seemed too conspicuous so became something to avoid. We looked at how to accentuate her features with the same understated elegance that is true of her entire palette. These are Grace Kelly clothes and colours. This is the skin and eye colour that was made for BlueGrey eyeliner (Annabelle makes a perfect (and perfectly inexpensive) pencil by that name). Everyone can wear makeup beautifully, but the fragility of this skin is easily overwhelmed.
Elisa has some natural shadowing around her eyes. It was least pronounced in the True Summer colours, but wasn’t obliterated altogether. That’s called Photoshop. Many women fight that (and many other “imperfections”) with too much concealer, which ends up looking caked and even more obvious. There is a little foundation here, but no concealer. I usually apply concealer or foundation, but seldom both. Those products are overdone, and take a lot of time. I want to show you how to recognize your cosmetic colours.
Cosmetics counters and makeup artists are usually good at matching foundation. If they won’t allow you to take a few samples home to try in daylight, don’t buy the product. I ask women to bring their foundation to their PCA. So far, none have been wearing the right colour but they knew that already.
In your right colours, you will see the area under the eye become as illuminated as possible. Wear a little makeup, but allow your face. Ignore our magazine-obsessed culture that has us trying to delete our individuality.
One of the biggest misconceptions about True Summer’s colours is that they are all dusty lavender and Wedgewood blue, “old” colours. In fact, the most important feature of True Summer colours is NOT their dustiness, or softness, or grayishness, all the same idea. It is the COOLNESS.
These are not at all confined to being light colours, though Summer is thought of as light. Relative to Winter, it is lighter, but they can do surprisingly dark colour.
In this graphic, the high saturation (hi sat) colours are on the left, as you can see. The lo sat colours are only softer BY COMPARISON. They’re the colour of denim and flower petals. The True Summer personal colour palette contains these same beautiful colours, at about 50% saturation or less.
The hi sat shades on the left are pigment-saturated, pigment-soaked, pigment-logged. Winter needs them and usually doesn’t wear them saturated enough, in part because they’re hard to find except in workout clothing. Few women over 25 feel safe buying these colours.
Elisa is married to the most mannerly man you’ll ever meet. Aggression and confrontation are disturbing to this personality. Hurry and pressure flusters them more than most. It is very calming to this character to be able to depend on certain things, especially decency and kindness. Courtesy is the most essential prerequisite of all.
Soft Summer Jewelry 1
December 15, 2009 by Christine Scaman · Leave a Comment
It always begins with the same question. What does this person feel like?
How we decorate what’s INside on the OUTside?
The Soft Summer person
These people are very True Summery in most ways. They are not reclusive, shy, or introverted. They don’t need to be the boss, though they could be good at it. They don’t require center-stage attention. Theirs is a more subtle, serene, quiet energy.
The trace of Autumn puts a different spin on things. The Soft Summer is usually more sporty, with faster and more focused physical energy. They have a cut-to-the-chase practicality that gets the story told or the job done sooner, without True Summer’s inclination to dwell on details.
Petal and pearl necklace. Love it in charcoal too. Love it.
Jewelry for the personality
To speak for them, their jewelry must follow the same tendencies. The pieces are less lacy and feminine than True Summer. There is a feeling of more solidity, but they’re by no means chunky. Autumn and Summer combined can make for a very headstrong individual. The jewelry should not feel retiring or lightweight. These can be among the most persistent, immovable personalities so a persevering quality in the jewelry is appropriate.
The metal is silver, unless they border their warmer neighbor of Soft Autumn quite closely. Theoretically, as a Neutral Season, gold could be worn in small proportions. It would be the deeper, more mellow gold of Autumn, rather than Spring’s very yellow gold that just looks cheap on anyone else.
Good behaviour and personal restraint are the hallmarks of the Summer personality. What better jewel to define that sophitication than pearls? I think they suit the Soft Summer colours even better than the True Summer. The colours of a misty morning, of a foggy harbor, with the light of day coming through…I love the feeling of that with a seashell- coloured pearl. Creamy pearls would even work well, just not too yellow.
Soft Summer’s colour code
Just as clothing colour combinations can venture further from True Summer’s best monochromatic (several shades of the SAME colour) look, so can jewelry. Different colours can be combined, as long as they all remain true to the personal colour swatches in the Colours Book.
Remember that while you may mix different colours from your personal colour palette, such as antique rose and jade green or pearl with orchid, how beautiful would that be, all the colours themselves are of low saturation. The whole look of this season revolves around that concept. We saw in What Are Clear And Soft Colours? that these colours are all closer to grey than in the Clear Colour seasons. Are they dull and drab? No way. They’re just relatively a little grayer. They’re willow, sage, and clover, not grass.
I’m so happy to be doing this season, I get to talk about one of my favorite companies, J.Crew. All the pictures are linked back to their site.
Shadow facet bracelet at J.Crew.
The bracelet above is gold, but there’s not much of it. The colours are of low saturation. This mauve or brown-tinged gray is basically your eye shadow. The weight is heavier but there’s a classic and understated feeling.
I’ve been wanting to put these up. They are so sweet. You’ll find many types of pearls on this site, but these are so pretty.
A dainty but more solid pearl.
The Pearl Twisted Hammock necklace is stunning.
J.Crew doesn’t do a lot of silver in jewelry or I would have posted it. Also, keep watches in mind for all 5 seasons comprising some Autumn, or jewelry that DOES something. Autumn’s song is the “search for the truth and get the job done”. Functional pieces represent the efficiency they exude.
You’ll find more of these pieces. Look for classic with a kick, the summary of the Soft Summer person.
True Summer Jewelry
December 1, 2009 by Christine Scaman · 12 Comments
Presuming that cameos and pearls have been done, though they’d be most appropriate, what does the most feminine season of all wear?
True Summer word pictures
I find True Season personalities more faithful to their Season than are Neutral Season characters, who show far more variability.
True Summer is deeply decent, sensitive, and so civilized that they put the rest of us to shame. For Summer, the word pictures are flowing, the most beautiful blues and roses, pastel, still water, hazy, graceful, precise, detailed, refined, fine, and understated.
Just as Summer’s colours are soft, so is the feeling and reflection of the jewelry. Nothing moves or changes quickly. Matching elements and pieces are in keeping with the monochromatic scheme that suits Summer best.
Multiple different styles : feels too much like a miscellaneous assortment on Summer’s soothing ambiance.
Sparkle, dazzle, and movement : excessive energy variation feels inexpensive and random.
Summer is quiet, focused, and particular. The message on their answering machine is slowly and clearly enunciated. Ask for directions, and you will be awhile listening, but you’ll get there on the first try. Ask a Spring to meet you at a certain time and you’ll be lucky to see each other the same day.
Big, heavy, chunky pieces : no (proportionate to the person wearing them) . The size of Summer’s jewelry is small. It does not insist on the spotlight. The size is intended to convey an uncommon jewel of extreme value.
Metals
The metal is certainly silver, though you could veer towards the warmer white gold if you approach the warmer Soft Summer (like Jennifer Aniston), or rose gold if your 12 Season colour analysis showed your skin tone to drift the other way, towards Light Summer (Princess Diana gave that impression). If you have a Wintery air, you can harden the metal to platinum.
Sapphire
Stones from your personal colour palette always work. Sapphire in pink or blue are perhaps the best. This brooch was custom-created, but it perfectly represents the rarity, the investment piece (as Searcy said) quality of this Season.
Diamond, fine cut
If you once thought yourself a Winter and live in the True Summer’s darker realm, as do many Summers that I see, you can integrate a Winter element. Jaclyn Smith and Farrah Fawcett gave that impression. Both dramatically weakened their impact when they chose yellow in their hair over dark ash brown and ash brown, respectively. Use diamond, but choose one that is more delicately cut. You can also use blue sapphire with diamond, but choose a piece that is exquisite and detailed, rather than heavy or bold. Summer is not an attention-seeking presence.
Tourmaline
Tourmaline is not a single mineral, but a group with similar properties. There are many perfect colour options among these stones.
For green-eyed summers, there are some uncommon options among these stones. Watermelon Tourmaline is a rare and beautiful gem.
Rose Quartz
For the lighter women in this group, rose quartz is very beautiful. It is perfect in its soft lustre and very compatible with your colour palette.
Look at the purple amethyst while you’re there.
Basics
What if you shop at Sears? Circular silver hoops are a staple. Where the classic shape of the oval defined Winter’s Jewelry, Summer’s circle is associated with childhood and grace.
These hoops are silver. I like the wavy lines. They feel flowing and smooth, but have more substance if you’d like something less delicate. Lacy filigree fulfills the criteria for Summer’s jewelry but as Searcy points out, it doesn’t always look expensive.
Opal
Opal, of course, must belong in this group, as do turquoise and aquamarine. The Shades Of Blue wire necklace feels right to me. These are made upon request by the artist, Janine Antulov. Follow the link to read her description of the creation of this piece.
It doesn’t have to feel like ultraconservative Grace-Kelly jewelry. The rules are guidelines, intended for you to add your own spin. That’s how we speak for ourselves subconsciously. Design something unique that resonates most strongly with your True Summer colouring and personality.
Dark Autumn Jewelry
November 21, 2009 by Christine Scaman · 8 Comments
As in any of the 12 groups in Seasonal Colour Analysis, the variability is enormous. My Dad is a Dark Autumn. Here we are, the proud parents of our first pie. As a younger man, he appeared to have black hair. It wasn’t black in the sense that Asian people have ink blue-black hair, but it was blacker than the blackest coffee. His eyes are dark hazel. It would have been very easy to confuse him for a Winter, but the sleek shiny Winter look was all off. His character is practical, not emotional or theatrical. Like most Autumns, he had a sense of what suited him, but wore far more brown than anything else.
Halle Berry could be a Dark Autumn, with her bronzed colouring.
My friend Gina is too. Her skin tone has an olive quality and her overall colouring is vivid and dramatic. She has all the fiery sparkle in her character that she has in her appearance.
These are the Autumn individuals who integrate a trace of Winter’s darkness, coolness, and formality. The colours are exotic, spicy, and more warm than cool. They are also dark.
The jewelry is strong and metallic, with heavy touches of copper, gold and bronze. The weight of Autumn jewelry is found but the regal touch of Winter calls for more simplicity, fewer pieces worn at once.
The look is expensive, rare, and precious. The feeling is of age and extreme value, as in heirloom pieces and vintage reproductions. The colours are deeply glowing embers. Just as there is weight and luxury to the fabric that suits Dark Autumn, so is there a strong essence to the jewelry. Flimsy fabrics belong to another Season, as does dainty silver filigree.
Diamond is a classical Winter stone, as might be Ruby and Sapphire, but worn in warm metal settings, they add drama and opulence. The proximity to Winter certainly allows silver settings too, depending on the clothing being worn. Any cut stone in your personal colour palette will be perfect and with the tolerance for warm and cool, there are many to choose from.
The 1928 Jewelry company’s pieces always come to mind. The antique aspect gives the feeling of ancient treasure. The metals are a little darker and more heavily textured than the standard gold strand. The chains and links are usually considerably heavier than the delicate fixtures of most jewelry. The richly luxurious colours lend a precious and ornate feeling. The ambiance is of great wealth, of a library in glowing evening light, burning coals in the fireplace, touches of gold and and deep greens in the room, plush velvet and satin fabrics, and a dark burgundy wine.
With the personal colour palette of fiery, spicy, passionate colour and the unique ability to wear striking and vivid contrast, this group comprises many of the more exotic shades and prints. Far-off spice markets and bazaars are evoked by paprika, cinnabar, and bay leaf. There are numerous lighter shades and neutrals, including black, but the defining terms are darkness and heat. Likewise, unusual and original jewelry looks custom-made and one-of-its-kind, adding to the impression of affluence.
Frivolous effects, casual clothes, and youthful touches are not in keeping with this strong bold energy. This Season delivers a serious visual impact. Clothes and accessories are important, creative pieces. Of course, the size of jewelry is always in keeping with the size of the person wearing it, so the pieces need not be enormous.
These people may be capable, often forceful, organizers and leaders. Potent personalities need to be reflected in an exterior that is equally powerful. Anything soft or moderate just becomes a person wearing someone else’s clothes. The bridge that links the inner to the outer being, and translates into a compelling presence, will not be made.
The target is always to perfectly harmonize your inner core and exterior self. Your skin’s heat, your body size, your personal vitality are all expressions of the same energy form that came together as YOU. Learning to listen to the language of your soul creates a visual communication that just feels so right.
Louise and Stevan Are Light Springs
November 11, 2009 by Christine Scaman · 9 Comments
Spring personalities were put on Earth to make the rest of us smile. Louise and I work together ( she is a veterinarian too) and I’m grateful for it every day.
Although Louise gets the credit for making me laugh (not easily done), her husband David is a pro photographer. He took this picture as well as the breathtaking pictures of Louise that follow.
A quintessential Spring, Louise can talk about any topic under the sun. She is always open and friendly, assertive, sincere, optimistic, and FUNNY. As she says “If you can’t look on the bright side, what’s the point?” Louise says what comes into her head. She is spontaneous, not careful or rehearsed. She is not withdrawn. On Take-Your-Child-To-Work Day, my kids want to be with Louise for the day, not their serious, business-like mother.
As always, colours repeat not just how you look but your personality. These are ice cream dessert colours. They’re happy and impulsive.
These clothes are certainly not menswear tailored, but neither are they always flouncy. They may be sporty but they are mostly about movement. The relaxed, informal personality looks natural in jeans and comfortable textures. With the Summer feminine blend and the light delicacy of the colouring, this could be an ultra-feminine person, but Louise is the easy and casual type.
Many Springs are fascinated by the natural world. They jumped in the puddles as children, not over them. Louise is never happier than in her garden. She looks great in beautifully coloured fleece. If she chooses, she can look very feminine, but she does not carry dark/serious/formal so well.
You might look at Louise’s hair colour, see the medium ash brown (it is more ash IRL) , and say 2 things:
- She’s too dark to be a light season >> Remember, hair colour is irrelevant. It is hidden during the analysis so that we don’t make this exact mistake. Hair colour can be anything. We are only concerned with perfecting the skin.
- Her hair is too cool; Springs have golden hair >> She certainly is closer to her cool neighbor on the Summer side, but her skin perfection colours are more yellow. This is the Summery version of this season. Not everyone falls precisely into their season. They may be closer to one neighbor or the other.
What does it look like when the person veers on the warmer side of this season, moving very close to True Spring. Meet Stevan. His colours are still light and he and Louise share the same personal colour palette. He is as handsome, sunlit, and friendly as he appears in this picture. Stevan smiles easily and is genuinely interested in others, the hallmark of a Spring. His hair is as golden as his skin tone and his character. (Before anyone asks, Stevan is the bigger one, but that so-cute baby has golden potential.)
I’m such a fan of nature’s contrasts. When cool hair is paired with warmer skin, as you see with Louise, or the reverse combination we saw in Pam Is A Dark Winter, these are striking to look at. The one is a showcase for the other. It is especially important to understand your coloring if this is your blueprint because sales people will (inadvertently) match clothing to the degree of warmth/coolness they see in hair and eyes. They have little choice. Without personal colour analysis, it is impossible to understand the precise degree of warmth/coolness of skin tone.
Pam really has to stick to her guns when someone tells her to wear warm lipcolour or add copper highlights. Her skin is mostly cool so her makeup and clothes are mostly cool. She knows her cosmetic colours from her swatches. Louise has to insist on apricot, salmon, and warm pink when someone tries to sell her fuchsia. Her Spring colouring dictates that she must avoid dusty, grayish colours at all costs. She looks for CLEAR and LIGHT, but as the cooler example of her season, it’s a pink-salmon rather than a coral-salmon.
However, in her hair colour, her highlights will only be barely yellow, not too golden, respecting the summer coolness of her natural colour. Stay with the contrast you were born with and heighten its elements. If Stevan were to highlight his hair, he would use a much more yellow colour than Louise, respecting the clear, pale golden warmth of his natural colour.
Can she wear black? No. She looks sad and severe. As you know from Wrong Colours Away From The Face, I believe you look most connected when your darkest colour (especially for big items like coats, pants, and shoes) is no darker than your darkest hair tone. There’s altogether too much black out there anyhow. It’s an evasion for not knowing what to really wear. Though a light season, Louise has a deep emerald turquoise, a Chinese blue, a gorgeous violet. They are not oppressive. They are sophisticated with the incredible neutrals of champagne, cameo, and seashell.
Colour conveys feeling in subliminal ways. It speaks of imagination and youth. It also conveys hot-ness. It can be done the cheap way, but that’s another evasion. Why not do look expensive? Why not look like this?
When the colours you WEAR, repeat the colours you ARE, you have a secret weapon.
True Autumn Jewelry
November 7, 2009 by Christine Scaman · 6 Comments
You’ve arrived early for the party. You take a look around at who’s already there. Immediately, your eye is drawn to the two women talking on the couch.
One is sitting quietly, straight back even though it’s a slouchy couch, laughing but not letting loose. She’ll probably sit there all night because she doesn’t like circulating and making small talk. She feels self-conscious about how to interrupt conversations. Of course, she’s all in black. Not the most imaginative colour but it undeniably suits her. She’s wearing one solid piece of jewelry.
Her friend is doing an imitation of somebody. She’s laughing freely and gesturing more freely. She’s watching people coming in. She seems able to talk to three people at once. Her outfit is a riot of wavy lines but it was made for her. It’s a batik handpainted print with a beaded fringe. The waves appear in motion as she moves. The fabric is satiny and catches every ray of light. Her bracelet is so full of life that it would be too much costume on anyone else. On her, it looks beautiful with her golden skin. It is joyful and almost mischievous.
You move into the kitchen. The woman slicing vegetables for the platter commands attention. For one thing, she doesn’t care if you’re a guest, you’re given the job of refilling drinks. She’s directing traffic so the meal gets done on time and to her satisfaction. Her energy is highly organized as she orchestrates this evening.
You wonder if she has some Meditteranean ethnicity. Her skin is lightly freckled, but she seems to belong in the sun and to reflect its heat from her deepest core. Her cheekbones and jaw are equally strong. She wears little makeup, just a sheer bittersweet red lip colour. Like the colours of her busy and productive kitchen, she is wearing a raw silk blouse in a fabulous paprika colour, with a textured chocolate brown vest over it. Well in tune with her personal colour palette, she has added a fine woolen scarf with a stained-glass design in deep autumn leaf colours. Her pants are slim and straight, not flowing. Her bracelet is lying on the counter.
The piece FEELS just like the woman who wears it. It so belongs on her that you wouldn’t be surprised to see it fly through the air and attach itself to her wrist with an electrically charged attraction. A tapestry of molten colours is reflected from its chunky, squared stones and heavy settings.
The natural stones suit the straightforward character of this woman. They are the colours of a giving Earth. This is not September, with its lingering remnant of Summer. Neither is it November where the freeze is setting in. Colour is powerfully connected to how the Earth FEELS at certain times. This is a rich harvest, a comfortable welcome, a safe, steady place.
Seasonal colour analysis is very much about personality, about reflecting the inside on the outside. If the colour feeling you show is not the colour feeling you are, your appearance feels disorganized and random. This woman never pretends. She won’t say something just to flatter you unless she believes it to be true. She cries harder than anyone at a funeral. She is fiercely loyal to her family but will not spare them hard work or spoil them with extravagance. She may seem to absorb a lot of demands but when she draws the line at enough, everyone knows it.
She has a great sense of what suits her and combines jewelry and accessories in creative, individual ways. She wears 2 rings, her solid, wide, gold wedding band and a topaz stone in a solid gold setting. Her necklace is simple, heavy links of chain in a textured bronze. Their shape is squared, which seems to repeat the squareness of her jaw.
Her entire look FEELS rich but unpretentious, busy but approachable, and glowing but natural. She can wear a lot of metal at once and it works. Her hair is coloured to look metallic, with a dark copper shimmer on a warm, but not very dark, chocolate base. When she wears makeup, she chooses lip and cheek colours with a gleaming shine. By candlelight, even her skin seems burnished.
Her 2 daughters are both Autumn blends, not their mother’s True Season. They try to borrow their mother’s pieces but the energy doesn’t work. Why do so many of those pieces, like this bracelet, look clunky on the lighter daughter and completely meh on the darker one?
When the meal is done, she’ll be in the kitchen washing dishes, unless her considerate Summer husband beats her to it, which he usually does.
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