What is Colour Analysis? Is it actually useful?
Long story short, colour analysis is a a method of determining the colours that harmonise with a person’s skin complexion, eye color and hair colour with the benefit of being able to use this tool for wardrobe planning and style consulting. Color analysis demonstrates how certain shades are capable of being flattering or, conversely, unflattering.
The wrong colors will draw attention to such flaws as wrinkles or uneven skin tone while harmonious colors will enhance the natural beauty of the individual making them appear healthy and fresh-faced.
When and how this method begin?
In the 20s, a colour revolution had occurred in the United States with the development of new colour industries and the possibility of producing color swatch books used as a marketing tool. Personal colour analysis reached a height of popularity in the early 1980s with a recent resurgence in the 2010s after further development and promotion of different versions of seasonal analysis by image and color consultants worldwide using the “seasonal analysis” placing individuals in a specific season, which had a specific suitabile color palette.
However 4 seasons weren’t enough as exists a larger variety of skin complexions, so the scheme was extendend up to 12 color palette: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn, and
their sub-variants. However, the approach can vary greatly among different schools of thought. Some color analysis systems classify an individual’s personal combination of hair color, eye color and skin tone using labels that refer to a color’s “temperature” (cool blue vs. warm yellow) and the degree to which the hair, skin and eye colors contrast. Cosmetic colors are often determined by hair or eye color alone.
The analysis I do includes all these traits, but I don’t place you in a season because I don’t believe in standard categories as each one of us has peculiar and personal features . This also means that the colour scheme I’ll give you is a specific one for your actual look, if you dye your hair, use coloured lenses or tan, your colour scheme changes so you’ll need to update it.
Which factors are essential for a colour analysis as I intend it?
– skin temperature (meaning your undertone + eye and hair colour)
– contrast (like pale skin + dark eyes and hair)
– hue saturation (meaning bright or dark colours)
I’d like to take a moment for explaining the difference between warm and cool colors VS warm and cool tones. A warm color, like red, has both warm and cool tones and the same is for cool colors like blue, it also has warmer and cooler tones.
I wanted to make clear this detail because sometimes when a client take a look it his/her colors’ palette they ask me bewildered “But I thought I should only wear cool colors and I’m seeing some red in this palette. How is that possible?”
It is possible because what flatters you are not cool colors ( nobody should be said to only wear cool colors as blue and purple; such a narrow choice is sad and unfair….and bullshit!) but cool tones.
To further help you understand and visualize what the heck I’m talking about, I made a picture with cool and warm colors and their cool and warm tones.
Colours Analysis, basically, places you in a precise spot on the chromatic wheel and basing on that it’s easy to understand which colours one should avoid, like complementary colours (be aware that these rules apply for clothes and accessories, as for the make-up there are different rules and methods). For example, if you are in the violet(ish) spectrum, colours on the opposite side (yellow) should be avoided and you can see it in the first picture with my own colour analysis.
I hope this short explanation clarified your doubts helping you to understand why I always suggest you to make me prepare your color analysis alongside your body analysis because the right clothes are pointless if you wear them in the wrong colours and a mistake like that could actually lead you to think that perhaps you look bad because I gave you the wrong tips while it’s the colour’s fault and my advices were just incomplete.