What Season Am I? Warm? Cool? What?

WARM OR COOL - HOW TO TELL!!

Note - this is OPPOSITE to the whole MAC thing, so if you figure you are WARM with this, then you'll want a C or NC foundation/powder/etc from MAC, or if COOL here, then look at W and NWs there.

First, look at your wrist veins. Do they look more blue, green or purple/lavender? If blue or purple/lav, you probably have more pink in your skin than yellow. If green/olive, then you have more yellow in your skin than pink.

Now think about what looks better on you. Do you look best in a shirt that is

white or cream?
pink or peach?
red or orange?
fuschia or eggplant?
black or brown?
silver or gold?

If you chose colors from the first ones mentioned, then you prefer cool tones. If you chose colors from the second ones, then you prefer warm colors. Does that match up with what you saw re your veins? If you prefer cool colors to wear, do you also have more pink than yellow in your skintone?

Don't worry if you don't - and DO NOT get balled up about having "yellow" skin and being relegated to wearing warm shades.

Here's why:

On a color wheel, you have the whole spectrum running from red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Usually we see the wheel positioned with red on the left top and violet at the right top, We draw a line down the middle, and red, orange, yellow are on the left (warm) and violet, indigo, blue are on the right (cool). But what I see is that YELLOW should be right up at the center top when thinking about skintone, because yellow is actually a very neutral tone. Here's why:

Melanin, the pigment in skin, is always yellow based. How it reads through your skin is dependent on skin thickness, veining, circulation, and so on.

Think of the old season classifications - color me beautiful and stuff. Spring and Fall are warm seasons. Summer and Winter are cool seasons. Gorgeous olive skinned Mediterranean and Asian women are *usually* categorized as Winters, and look FABUOUS in cool jewel tones with high contrast and intensity.

A Fall might also have yellow undertones, but her's will likely be more golden peach, and that places here in a Warm category.

So, yellow is netural - it can take you into Cool territory if it has a green tone to it (this is subtle - you do NOT look green if you have olivey skin). Or yellow can take you into Warmsville if it moves into orange/peach.

Now that you've got your skintone deciphered, you can REALLY Play with color. If you have a warm skintone and want to look natural and polished, use warm colors (colors found in your own skin, hair and eyes). If you want more drama, choose OPPOSITES - break out those cool purples, pinks and blues. And the inverse - if you have cool toned skin, cool tones in your makeup will be easiest to wear and look natural, polished and pretty. Up the drama by bringing in some warmer colors in moderation.

Lastly, think about your overall contrast level - skin vs hair when seen in a b/w photo. Are the close in value? THen you are lower contrast, and should find it easiest to wear colors that are of similar depth value (again, a more natural and polished look). If skin and hair look very different - ie dark hair and lighter skin, or platinum hair and dark skin, then you'll fare best in higher contrast colors - choose darker, brighter or lighter than your skintone by several degrees.

And yeah - always exceptions, and never rules. But this should get you started!