Choosing Your Best Colors!
We've talked a bit about colors for redheads before, and in that post I laid the groundwork for thinking about the 3 qualities of color - temperature (warm/cool), Contrast (light/dark) and clarity (muted/clear). You should be well on the way to figuring out your own best colors, the ones that make you look and feel alive. But man alive, there is nothing more deadening than figuring out that you are warm/muted/low contrast and looking at the basic Spring palette and then feeling completely, utterly disappointed and dejected because you just really do not like coral, cantaloupe, butter yellow, sage green, whatever...And where on earth did your amazing strong periwinkle go, the one color that you ALWAYS feel awesome in, and which ALWAYS garners you oodles of compliments? Oh - there it is, tucked over in WInterLand, far far away from your new address in SpringVille.
Grrr.
Here's something else to spin your heads - you can definitely borrow colors from other palettes and look FABULOUS in them if you get 2 of the three mail qualities in harmony with your own coloration.
So - three qualities -
Contrast - high vs low, or how saturated the color is. Pastel colors are NOT saturated, they have lots of white in them. Richer, darker colors ARE saturated. THink of it like taking a glass of water and adding a single drop of blue colorant, then dipping a tissue in it. It's a very pale tint of blue. Tint = white added. Now add in 99 more drops of blue. Your water will be very saturated with color - might even be verging on midnight or navy looking. Now dip your tissue - the color is a deep, rich, saturated, VIBRANT blue.
Mutedness - muted vs. clear, or how much black (or brown or beige) has been added to the color. This in painting talk is called SHADE - literally adding in shadow to the color (HUE). So, let's consider a glass that has had 50 drops of blue colorant added to it, then a tissue dipped. The color is very clear, since it is a pure hue (also medium saturated, enough to really see the color). NOW, drop by drop, add a black dye to the glass - you'll see an entire range of blue SHADES moving from the clearest (no black) to the shadowiest (50 drops of black). The shadowiest also gets darker, of course...BUT you can take your SHADE of blue and add white to obtain a MUTED TINT of blue. So it is muted, but is lighter than the starting midtone blue.
Temperature of color - warm vs. cool. It is important to remember that the color wheel is a wheel, not a line. And actually, it's a color SPHERE, with an infinite number of possibilities for HUE, SHADE and TINT within the division of warm and cool. WARM = ORANGE and RED, COOL = BLUE AND GREEN.
If you nail all 3 qualities, you will look AMAZING! Clear, glowing skin, bright shiny eyes, smooth skin, happy, vibrant, alive, balanced! WOO HOO!
If you tag 2 of the qualities that are your own, you will look really great - and you will find that you can go brighter or softer on lipstick or gloss than you usually do, or might have fun working a serious colored shadow or a smokey eye, or going betterthannude with your makeup. It's FUN!
If you match up with just one quality, you won't really look like yourself, but rather perhaps like a "mom" version of yourself - a bit drabber than normal, not hideous or "OH My Gosh, I cannot beLIEVE she's wearing that color."
If you miss all three, people will start suggesting you lie down, drink some water, give up red meat or start eating some, or something. You might even be sent home from work! (If you do, actually, get sent home, I suggest NOT going home, but going shopping instead for a blouse or shirt in a perfect for you color. Think of the miraculous recovery you will have effected when you flounce into the office the next day in a GREAT color!!)
And for those of you still lamenting the discovery of yellow undertones in your skin, check this out:
Check out a visual of a color wheel. Oh year - YELLOW is in the MIDDLE between orange and green...Yellow can be THOUGHT of as being a "neutral" tone for the purpose of skintone definition. And Red abuts Violet, so red, COULD be cool...depending on if it is a blue-red (violet, cool) or an yellow-red (orange, warm).
So lets imagine that in your foundation tests, you have determined that the "coolest" AL shades of foundation - the Ps and Cs - DEFINITELY don't match your skin. Put the P on and you look a little pepto bismol. Put the C on all over, and you look like you've been frying yourself in the sun and are burned, or in the throes of a hot flash, or both. GOOD! You now know that your undertones are not PINK/RED.
So you check out the "warm" shades of Y (yellow tones) and W (peachy tones).
If the W looks great but the Y looks a bit pale or sallow (usually it will just look pale if you have peachy golden tones), then you can play with the Ws perhaps in combo with the Ls to soften the peachy golden undertone.
If the Y looks great, but the W looks either pink or oompa-loompa ish, then you need the Y, perhaps with a bit of L to soften the strong golden/"olive" undertones.
Olive skins are not necessarily just pure "yellow". Olive skins contain a degree of "green" tinge (which sounds so unflattering in relation to a skintone, but it is gorgeous - do NOT judge skintone by labeling with hues - NOBODY wants green, yellow, orange or red skin. We prefer cool olive, golden, peachy, rosy descriptors, don't we?). And that green/olive tinge comes from what? Yellow + X = Green? Solving the equation for X we get the following:
X= Green - Yellow
X = BLUE.
SO a yellow based skintone that is OLIVE is a cool tone due to the blue content.
A yellow based skintone that is GOLDEN could be described as a warm tone due to the slight reddish or peachy content.
So, yellow straddles the divide between WARM and COOL vis a vis skintone descriptors, because it COULD go either way, depending on additional undertone.
Next, we can get into the matter of how these different tones play against each other. Adding yellow to a red skin will bring it more into a peachy appearance, because yellow + red = orange (peach). If you wish to soften the appearance of strong yellow tones in your skin, you can add a bit of lavender, because yellow + purple (lavender) = brown (beige).
Then you can begin to play with how color sets up a complimentary and flattering vibration against your own skintone. Remember in grade school staring at the red box on the white paper, then quickly shifting your gaze to the blank white paper and "seeing" an image of a green box? Those are color complements, opposites on the color wheel. Another example is to place two blocks of color against each other - try red and yellow - see how they hum and buzz and visually have lots of energy? Red and green practically dance off the page. Red and orange are easier/softer to look at. Purple and yellow are vibratory, purple and red are less so.
The more visual vibration/activity, the more tension or drama.
So, if you have a beautiful cool yellow/olive skintone and want a dramatic lip, you can play with a saturated cool violet shade. The cool purple tone is the color wheel opposite (complement, like complEtion, not complIment, like a nice thing to say), and creates tension, drama, high impact.
For a less dramatic look, perhaps even bordering on blah, that same beauty could select a lipstick in an ambered honey tone. That's orange, basically, but a muted, earthy "natural" shade of orange. There wouldn't be much contrast at all between her skin, her lips would just sort of melt into her face, and she might look boring, dull, blah, "beige" washed out, or as though she had no mouth.
She will look more interesting, more dramatic, in the sharp cool violet lipstick. And she will look GORGEOUS and soft, pretty, approachable if you keep the HUE of the lipstick the same and then muted it (shade it) with some brown tones, and maybe tint it lighter with a white tone, to bring it all into harmony with "natural" human coloring (I haven't seen anyone with a naturally occurring deep vibrant sharp cool violet lip yet, have you?)
Anyway, no matter what your skintone, you can choose to wear colors that compliment (do nice things for it!) via playing with the visual energy of color combinations intentionally.
And all the "rules" in the world should on be in place to SERVE YOUR NEEDS! Do you need to (want) to look soft, approachable, trustworthy, authoritative, powerful, aloof, untouchable and so on? Choose colors to create the sort of response you want.
I remember a while back we had a new poster on the Aromaleigh forum who sadly didn't post much beyond one or two entries. S/He said that there were far too many thin lipped women here wearing way too dark lipsticks, which weren't flattering at all and we should be instead only wearing nude shiny shades to amplify the paltry lips we did have (I am paraphrasing, not quoting, and I've got me some paltry little lips, too). While her advice was in fact correct (light and shiny colors and finishes bring things forward, dark and matte finishes push things back), she was also totally WRONG because how you dress your body and how you make up your face MUST be descriptive of who you are, how you are feeling, how you desire to be treated, what response you wish to elicit from viewers. There's something about a dark dangerous lipstick that I really do love. I KNOW it's not my best look - deep aubergine eggplants and blood reds are both sorta "too cool" for my 1N or 1W skin, red hair golden freckles and green eyes. They are also too intense or saturated, given that my coloring is mid to high contrast (my hair is dark, but it's not espresso or black, and my skin is very light, but it's not Alabaster or Ghost in depth) AND somewhat (not terribly) muted. And my facial features don't really lend themselves easily to high drama looks, as by today's beauty standards I'm more "wholesome" than "dominatrix." Wish it were the other way around, really. And I could probably get there if I had some stylists lurking who could help dress me and make me feel ok enough about the "costume" to walk about out in public. So for so many reasons, that deep dramatic lip really just isn't "me," BUT I LOVE THAT LOOK!!! And I WANT TO FEEL LIKE A DOMINATRIX. Sometimes. Or at least make folks back off a few feet because I might be dangerous, and maybe even bite. So, on occasion, I channel my inner Natasha (from Rocky & Bullwinkle - remember her, that angular beautiful Russian spy always "out to get Mooose und Skvurl"?) and wear that plummy aubergine or dark red lipstick.
And I love it. On those days I don't care that I don't look "pretty." I don't even WANT to look "pretty." I want to be powerful. Edgy. Weighty. Significant. And that tube of darkness brings me just that much closer to my own gravitas.
So there you have it!
Grrr.
Here's something else to spin your heads - you can definitely borrow colors from other palettes and look FABULOUS in them if you get 2 of the three mail qualities in harmony with your own coloration.
So - three qualities -
Contrast - high vs low, or how saturated the color is. Pastel colors are NOT saturated, they have lots of white in them. Richer, darker colors ARE saturated. THink of it like taking a glass of water and adding a single drop of blue colorant, then dipping a tissue in it. It's a very pale tint of blue. Tint = white added. Now add in 99 more drops of blue. Your water will be very saturated with color - might even be verging on midnight or navy looking. Now dip your tissue - the color is a deep, rich, saturated, VIBRANT blue.
Mutedness - muted vs. clear, or how much black (or brown or beige) has been added to the color. This in painting talk is called SHADE - literally adding in shadow to the color (HUE). So, let's consider a glass that has had 50 drops of blue colorant added to it, then a tissue dipped. The color is very clear, since it is a pure hue (also medium saturated, enough to really see the color). NOW, drop by drop, add a black dye to the glass - you'll see an entire range of blue SHADES moving from the clearest (no black) to the shadowiest (50 drops of black). The shadowiest also gets darker, of course...BUT you can take your SHADE of blue and add white to obtain a MUTED TINT of blue. So it is muted, but is lighter than the starting midtone blue.
Temperature of color - warm vs. cool. It is important to remember that the color wheel is a wheel, not a line. And actually, it's a color SPHERE, with an infinite number of possibilities for HUE, SHADE and TINT within the division of warm and cool. WARM = ORANGE and RED, COOL = BLUE AND GREEN.
If you nail all 3 qualities, you will look AMAZING! Clear, glowing skin, bright shiny eyes, smooth skin, happy, vibrant, alive, balanced! WOO HOO!
If you tag 2 of the qualities that are your own, you will look really great - and you will find that you can go brighter or softer on lipstick or gloss than you usually do, or might have fun working a serious colored shadow or a smokey eye, or going betterthannude with your makeup. It's FUN!
If you match up with just one quality, you won't really look like yourself, but rather perhaps like a "mom" version of yourself - a bit drabber than normal, not hideous or "OH My Gosh, I cannot beLIEVE she's wearing that color."
If you miss all three, people will start suggesting you lie down, drink some water, give up red meat or start eating some, or something. You might even be sent home from work! (If you do, actually, get sent home, I suggest NOT going home, but going shopping instead for a blouse or shirt in a perfect for you color. Think of the miraculous recovery you will have effected when you flounce into the office the next day in a GREAT color!!)
And for those of you still lamenting the discovery of yellow undertones in your skin, check this out:
Check out a visual of a color wheel. Oh year - YELLOW is in the MIDDLE between orange and green...Yellow can be THOUGHT of as being a "neutral" tone for the purpose of skintone definition. And Red abuts Violet, so red, COULD be cool...depending on if it is a blue-red (violet, cool) or an yellow-red (orange, warm).
So lets imagine that in your foundation tests, you have determined that the "coolest" AL shades of foundation - the Ps and Cs - DEFINITELY don't match your skin. Put the P on and you look a little pepto bismol. Put the C on all over, and you look like you've been frying yourself in the sun and are burned, or in the throes of a hot flash, or both. GOOD! You now know that your undertones are not PINK/RED.
So you check out the "warm" shades of Y (yellow tones) and W (peachy tones).
If the W looks great but the Y looks a bit pale or sallow (usually it will just look pale if you have peachy golden tones), then you can play with the Ws perhaps in combo with the Ls to soften the peachy golden undertone.
If the Y looks great, but the W looks either pink or oompa-loompa ish, then you need the Y, perhaps with a bit of L to soften the strong golden/"olive" undertones.
Olive skins are not necessarily just pure "yellow". Olive skins contain a degree of "green" tinge (which sounds so unflattering in relation to a skintone, but it is gorgeous - do NOT judge skintone by labeling with hues - NOBODY wants green, yellow, orange or red skin. We prefer cool olive, golden, peachy, rosy descriptors, don't we?). And that green/olive tinge comes from what? Yellow + X = Green? Solving the equation for X we get the following:
X= Green - Yellow
X = BLUE.
SO a yellow based skintone that is OLIVE is a cool tone due to the blue content.
A yellow based skintone that is GOLDEN could be described as a warm tone due to the slight reddish or peachy content.
So, yellow straddles the divide between WARM and COOL vis a vis skintone descriptors, because it COULD go either way, depending on additional undertone.
Next, we can get into the matter of how these different tones play against each other. Adding yellow to a red skin will bring it more into a peachy appearance, because yellow + red = orange (peach). If you wish to soften the appearance of strong yellow tones in your skin, you can add a bit of lavender, because yellow + purple (lavender) = brown (beige).
Then you can begin to play with how color sets up a complimentary and flattering vibration against your own skintone. Remember in grade school staring at the red box on the white paper, then quickly shifting your gaze to the blank white paper and "seeing" an image of a green box? Those are color complements, opposites on the color wheel. Another example is to place two blocks of color against each other - try red and yellow - see how they hum and buzz and visually have lots of energy? Red and green practically dance off the page. Red and orange are easier/softer to look at. Purple and yellow are vibratory, purple and red are less so.
The more visual vibration/activity, the more tension or drama.
So, if you have a beautiful cool yellow/olive skintone and want a dramatic lip, you can play with a saturated cool violet shade. The cool purple tone is the color wheel opposite (complement, like complEtion, not complIment, like a nice thing to say), and creates tension, drama, high impact.
For a less dramatic look, perhaps even bordering on blah, that same beauty could select a lipstick in an ambered honey tone. That's orange, basically, but a muted, earthy "natural" shade of orange. There wouldn't be much contrast at all between her skin, her lips would just sort of melt into her face, and she might look boring, dull, blah, "beige" washed out, or as though she had no mouth.
She will look more interesting, more dramatic, in the sharp cool violet lipstick. And she will look GORGEOUS and soft, pretty, approachable if you keep the HUE of the lipstick the same and then muted it (shade it) with some brown tones, and maybe tint it lighter with a white tone, to bring it all into harmony with "natural" human coloring (I haven't seen anyone with a naturally occurring deep vibrant sharp cool violet lip yet, have you?)
Anyway, no matter what your skintone, you can choose to wear colors that compliment (do nice things for it!) via playing with the visual energy of color combinations intentionally.
And all the "rules" in the world should on be in place to SERVE YOUR NEEDS! Do you need to (want) to look soft, approachable, trustworthy, authoritative, powerful, aloof, untouchable and so on? Choose colors to create the sort of response you want.
I remember a while back we had a new poster on the Aromaleigh forum who sadly didn't post much beyond one or two entries. S/He said that there were far too many thin lipped women here wearing way too dark lipsticks, which weren't flattering at all and we should be instead only wearing nude shiny shades to amplify the paltry lips we did have (I am paraphrasing, not quoting, and I've got me some paltry little lips, too). While her advice was in fact correct (light and shiny colors and finishes bring things forward, dark and matte finishes push things back), she was also totally WRONG because how you dress your body and how you make up your face MUST be descriptive of who you are, how you are feeling, how you desire to be treated, what response you wish to elicit from viewers. There's something about a dark dangerous lipstick that I really do love. I KNOW it's not my best look - deep aubergine eggplants and blood reds are both sorta "too cool" for my 1N or 1W skin, red hair golden freckles and green eyes. They are also too intense or saturated, given that my coloring is mid to high contrast (my hair is dark, but it's not espresso or black, and my skin is very light, but it's not Alabaster or Ghost in depth) AND somewhat (not terribly) muted. And my facial features don't really lend themselves easily to high drama looks, as by today's beauty standards I'm more "wholesome" than "dominatrix." Wish it were the other way around, really. And I could probably get there if I had some stylists lurking who could help dress me and make me feel ok enough about the "costume" to walk about out in public. So for so many reasons, that deep dramatic lip really just isn't "me," BUT I LOVE THAT LOOK!!! And I WANT TO FEEL LIKE A DOMINATRIX. Sometimes. Or at least make folks back off a few feet because I might be dangerous, and maybe even bite. So, on occasion, I channel my inner Natasha (from Rocky & Bullwinkle - remember her, that angular beautiful Russian spy always "out to get Mooose und Skvurl"?) and wear that plummy aubergine or dark red lipstick.
And I love it. On those days I don't care that I don't look "pretty." I don't even WANT to look "pretty." I want to be powerful. Edgy. Weighty. Significant. And that tube of darkness brings me just that much closer to my own gravitas.
So there you have it!
posted by Your Style Muse at 2:22 PM
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