Find Your Best Color, Part One

You know how some days you look in the mirror, and everything just works–your skin looks radiant, your eyes are glowing, and your face can do no wrong? Then the next day you look blotchy and sickly. What’s the deal with that?

I’d say it’s the colors you’re wearing.

Color can instantly transform your looks either positively or negatively–it’s your choice. The good thing about that little fact is that all you have to do is choose the right colors, the hard part is that you have to train yourself not to sabotage your beauty with bad hue decisions. That’s not always easy. For one, it’s easy to give into the “it” colors of the season even if they make you look like poop and, secondly, when we look awful we usually just blame ourselves. But, seriously, even the most unattractive person in the world will see improvement if he or she is wearing the right colors.

Step 1: Let’s figure out what you’re working with. Are you a warm or cool?

1. Grab something white and something off-white –it can be a towel or a shirt, whatever, just make sure one is bright white and one is egg-shell (you can also use silver and gold for this test, too)
2. Take turns putting each color to your face. Wrap it around your shoulders so that all you can see is your face and the garment.
3. Which one made you look better? Likely, one will make dark spots on your complexion more visible, while the other will make you look more vibrant.
4. If white made you look better, your a cool tone, and if off-white did it for you, you’re a warm tone.
5. Still not sure? Know this: warms generally have a yellow undertone to their skin, while cools have a bluish tinge.

Step 2: Are you a Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall? Use my equation to narrow it down:

Warms= Autumn or Spring /Cools= Summer or Winter

If you’re a Winter….

• your skin tone purely one color, has a lot of blue in it and can range from milky white to true black. You might also be true beige or olive
• your eyes are probably dark blue or dark brown
• your hair might be dark black, medium brown or white blond, but there probably aren’t any highlights or undertones–it’s pure, baby

If you’re a Summer…

• your skin has blue in it and pink undertones and can range from soft, pale beige to rosy pink, pinkish olive or dark brown
• your eyes are probably pale: soft grey, light blue, hazel or soft brown
• summer hair can go anywhere from blond to medium brown. Ash blonds and light browns are also part of this group

If you’re an Autumn…

• you have a clear yellow-gold undertone to your skin, which can range from peach to golden beige. Pale ivory and golden black skin also belong here
• your eyes are light and pure or warmly dark. Think: clear blue, green, or olive green, light golden brown or dark brown
• your hair is probably red, strawberry blonds, chesnut browns, and charcoal black

If you’re a Spring:

• pure gold is the most prevalent undertone to your skin, which is anywhere from golden and ivory peach to dark beige and golden brown
• your eyes are either dark with golden highlights or bright: bright blue, dark blue, clear green or light brown with golden flecks
• your hair may be strawberry, dark brown with red highlights, golden brown or deep black

Okay, so I know that this part can be confusing, but you’ve got to just find the category that you fit in with the most. It could take some doing and some serious mirror gazing to figure all this out, so I’ll give you until tomorrow, when we’ll get down to the nitty gritty to find your best colors.