Thank you for this. I am a mix of cools and warms, some contrast and some softness, and the season (Autumn) I was given years ago makes me look sickly! I have no clue what I am other than some colors from a few different seasons look good on me, but not all from any single season look healthy.
Thank you for adressing those points! Its true, color is not the only property of a garment. The fabric type plays a role, as well as the other clothes. Adding a jacket to an outfit shifts the perception so much. E.g. I have a light blue summer dress which is too light for me (I think I am some kind of autumn), but when I pair it with my brown faux leather jacket, or a white knit cardigan, it instantly looks very different. Personal taste plays a huge role too, as well as how you feel that day. Sometimes I want to wear colors that make me stand out, sometimes I want to blend with the background. Sometimes I look at a photo of me and hate the colors of the dress and when I look at the photo the next day, I suddenly like it. Color theory might be scientific, but human taste and societie's expectation is not.
Yes! I think that one of the most common failures of 12 season analysis is people who look good with colors that are dark, cool, and very muted. They can't be summers because that implies light colors, and they can't be winters because that implies bright colors. I think that there are actually a lot of people who fit into this category, but I bet most of them are not white. You are so right about the proportions thing. I also find that certain colors work for me in some types of fabric, but not others. Like I might be able to pull it off in a light, silky fabric but not in a t-shirt fabric. Or it might work as part of a floral pattern but not solid. Also, thank you for using the YMC color wheel! You are the first color analysis person on the internet I have seen do that. I am an oil painter and I find that it makes so much more sense. It puts a logic behind the fact that those three colors are the lightest in their most pure forms, and it also works so much better for understanding warm vs cool. It is super odd to call periwinkle a warm color (or to call lime green a warm color for that matter). Maybe the color analysis people should to come up with some other explanation for why these colors sometimes look good on these people.
What helped me is that in certain cases correct INTENSITY of the colour (the impact it has on the appearance) becomes more important than the hue (the cool / warm category). This can be the bright winter that can stray into the bright spring territory. Of warm spring that can cross over to warm autumn (still a warm palette, but the autumn colours are better for work wear). Or deep winter / deep autumn. If one of these subgroups are identified - the verification is as follows: can the client also wear the other supgroup that is again a different hue (cool / warm). If not it is doubtful the analysis is correct. "Deep" becomes more important than cool / warm. Or soft summer / soft autumn (soft in that context means muted so with some gray) - those seem to be hard to identify - again the softness becomes more important than the cool / warm category. (this is from the other system with 12 colours - they do not have "true" winter, summer, spring or autumn. The dark winter and dark autumn is likely the same as the "deep" winter / autumn in the system that I know. Correct intensity becomes also more important for persons of color. There is a hue (cool or warm) even for very dark skinned people but it is less noticable - and therefore the clients also can stray more and switch to the other hue. They cannot switch as easily to a different intensity within their hue (so the winter types cannot switch to less intense summer - instead they leave the lane of cool and borrow from warm spring (which generally is characterized by "brightness". so another intense collection of colours. Bright winter to bright spring to be specific, other subgroups of winter can hardly cross over to spring. Or the other way round. So the 12 subgroups can accomodate people of colour. Not only the right hue but also the right intensity is also important for caucasians and the subgroups within the seasons take care of that. And giving intensity more weight determines the correct subgroups for people of colour (or darker skinned Mediterranean types), so the system can serve them, too.
Honestly, this is by far THE BEST video I've seen on SCA. You meantioned everything I was thinking about and explained it so well. And thank you for using light spring as an example in this specific context, it's like you described me. When I got my colors done, I was a bit shook at first, because I honestly thought I was a muted season. Getting (light) spring as a result was like busting everything I thought I could be. I was very sure to be neutral-warm before the consultation, but not that light in value and not that clear in chroma. To be fair, I actually mistook my natural hair color for a shade which is two to three shades darker (I haven't worn my natural virgin hair color for ages and did not realize that it hasn't changed after the age of 9 not only do I own a strand of my hair from back then, I also have lots of photos from that time. My hair has gold in it and it also is pretty light. Judging my natural hair color from my fresh roots next to the pale bleached strands was really not doing me any favor. I did ultimately see that the colors from the light spring palette do add vibrancy and clarity to my complexion, they make my eyes look aquatic and my teeth appear more white. They also make my natural lip color look very nice (almost as if I already wore lipstick) and they soften my features. But (and this is a HUGE point for me) I missed the "contoured and chisled" look I get when I wear black, I missed the edgy, almost vampiric vibe I get when I wear dark (and cool) colors, I missed the almost white, cool toned blonde I had, I also missed the high contrast (between my coloring and the clothes I wore) which imho created a very interesting look. I do enjoy how I look wearing my colors, but that doesn't really feel like myself. What I did learn though: Me wearing autumnal colors gives off a very grungy vibe (which I do like to rock sometimes), wearing winter colors gives a very stark and severely contrasted effect that I do enjoy and wearing my own colors is very feminine, youthful, ethereal and playful. I play around with all these effects depending on my mood that day. And having the knowledge and understanding SCA can teach us, is an amazing toolbox to create whatever effect you want in terms of color. Do I look very pale and de-saturated when wearing black (or other winter colors)? Absolutely. But I like it. That's me, sitting here with a peach toned shirt because I was too lazy to apply make up this morning, being fully aware that this light, pastel peach is one of my best colors. I don't need any make up when I wear my colors, but since I enjoy playing with contrast in make up, I do it whenever I find time for it. And I want that to be reflected by my outfits too. (At the moment I wear my hair in a rather neutral pale blonde to make it work with any of the aesthetics I wanna go for, and tbh it's also easier to maintain than the super cool toned white-ish blonde.) If someone steps into my apartment and looks at my interior design style, they can actually tell pretty easily what my favorite aesthetic is. Dark, moody, broken up with lightness that adds the beautiful contrast of absolution which to me feels very calm and soothing. Also striking and strong. I have ONE piece of furniture in a bottle green, which is my huge couch and green happens to be one of my favorite colors. I enjoy the fact I do have such a nice variety of colors in my own palette, but I also enjoy creating a totally different effect. My facial features give off a very ingenue vibe naturally and people usually think I am way younger than I am. Wearing my own colors just adds to that effect and that's most of the time absolutely not what I want. I enjoy being 36, I don't need or want people to think I was 22. Knowing that I actually lean warm has still helped me a lot. I choose lipsticks, nail polishes and blushes differently now. I also do prefer to wear swimwear in my own colors (because they show so much skin and it just looks more flattering against my pale skintone). I also had thought I look awful in pinks (in general), but ever since I know my actual season, I can easily pick a pink that looks great on me. Blues and yellows though are both colors I just don't like to wear. I prefer my oranges, pinks, greens and purples (while I do think that the peaches, corals and pinks look best on me). I am still looking for a peach summer dress that isn't too frilly for my liking (I feel like many are either made super girly or look like a night gown and that's both not what I want). So yah, to sum it all up: I LOVE SCA, I also love seeing the effects wearing the right colors can have, but I still love fashion looks too much to stick exclusively to my own palette. And hey, I do enjoy wearing men's wear and workwear (and incorporate them in my regular outfits), so I can probably break the rules even more and wear colors that are absolutely not in my own palette. I love playing around and experimenting with style, why would I ever stop doing that? My fav colors to wear: black, medium to dark grey, burgundy, soft olive green, sage green, emerald green, chocolate brown, coffee brown, peach, coral, indian red and pink, marsala, pastel pink (warm toned), rust, caramel, burnt orange, army green, cognac, a very pale tint of yellow, vanilla, champagne, mocca or milk chocolate, khaki, lilac, teal (green or blue) and medium purple (leaning more towards red-purple rather than a very blue based purple) and I do love to switch between gold and silver jewelry. Fun fact: I was walking by the crafting isle of a store with my mom a few weeks ago and there was crafting paper in pastel rainbow colors. I held that below my face and said "These look like they are absolutely my colors", and my mom smiled and said "100%". I actually have a knit sweater in pastel rainbow colors and love it. So no, I'm not always all moody and dark...
Interesting post. I am a cool summer but if the mood strikes I venture for very bold winter colours and they show annother side of me. I borrow some intensity one could say and like the effect. Technically speaking a colour analyst might tell me they are too intense for me. True, I should be healthy, well rested and maybe wear a bit of eye make-up when I rock them. I cannot go into yellow based (warm) territory, I have a bit of a grey undertone in my very fair skin so colours with a yellow hue make me look sick, or are visibly unflattering. A friend, a femal rocked the gothic style some years ago. (She is likely a winter, dark hair, brown eyes, good contrast). She also likes textile crafts and then started knitting herself a sweater. Which her then boyfriend commented as follows: The Queen of the Underworld wears soft pink. Meanwhile she is a mother of three and not into gothic anymore (or soft pink for that matter).
Excellent video - you explained SCA and the challenges associated with it. And finally someone who uses the blue based vs yellow based language to describe colors….
Very thoughtful and well-considered video! I definitely agree that color analysis is both a tool and more of an art than strict science. I like to think of it as a guide, not a mold. I find that a lot of people online who haven't trained their eye to color in general struggle to make sense of color analysis while looking to it as a hard and fast set of rules, when that's quite far from how it really should be used, but does make it easy for others to jump on the trend and make money analyzing colors even to dubious results. I find that the color analysis professionals that I lean toward watching and learning from are precisely those who take the points you raised into account: how can the system work for a wider variety of skin tones without automatically putting them in a box? Is the system used systematized, clear, and consistent, if not also straightforward and relatively simple? What kind of color balance are they focusing more on: harmony or contrast? How rigid are they about using seasonal colors as a guide vs a strict necessity, and do they take into account social conventions that exist for colors, accessorizing/pops of color, etc? Over time, I've found that the best color analysts work by addressing all of those things using color analysis as more of a guide than a mandate. They also work with deeper skin tones more regularly, stepping a bit more away from Color Me Beautiful. Ultimately, because of the proliferation of people doing color analysis and the slight variations between systems, the most important thing is to check out the systems being used and find professionals whose work checks off those boxes in a way that makes visual sense IMO. The best guide is always going to be the one that's the most intuitive to follow!
I'm glad the youtube algorithm has shown me this video, explaining what I was thinking but in better way, and it was very enlightening to see all the very illustrative photo examples you have used (what does soft/muted mean, sandwiching colours). I've been in online season spaces recently and the stress of people trying to put themselves into a box while doing unrealistic digital draping or fabric draping and getting different answers - some answers focus on what makes pop, some focus on complete blending (trap that comment below criticising your makeup has fallen into, I thought it was a fun accent touch, so it's interesting to see what people are really looking for!). It's rare for stark black drape not to swamp someone without makeup and hair hidden in white cape, yet lots of people do look good in black with pearl necklaces and make up etc in formal settings. Finding colours and building whole mix-and-match wardrobe around it is quite a hard work, can be a bit more practice than colour palette and a single expensive draping session may (over-?)promise.
I recently got typed as a soft autumn. I'm also one of those Yohji types - I wore Yohji almost exclusively for years. I still wear Yohji, but I've added a lot of Jil Sander and some Prada. And as we know, brands like these are heavy on the blacks (Jil Sander might be the least monochrome though). I started adding some navy and creams a couple of years ago, and they do suit me better than black. What I've taken from my analysis is that I might explore more beige and muted colours. Colour is important, but switching from black to some muted brown or navy won't transform me from a hideous beast to a stunning beauty. I'm not getting rid of the bulk of my wardrobe!
This was *the best* video about colour analysis I have ever seen! I'm now subscribed :) PS The "absolutes" that are prevalent in seasonal colour analysis can really make things harder than they need to be; because I was blonde as a teen and have light grey eyes I was always put in the summer category... but those colours look horrible on me. Since I started wearing the soft autumn colours that suit my now brown hair, and warm tan skin, I look healthy and happy...
LOVED this video on color analysis! Really great points to consider. I'm a soft summer, period. And intuitively, without knowing about color analysis, I gravitate towards that palette with a mix of soft autumn. For the past two weeks I've been diving into this topic, and there are many misleading concepts about color in general. Color is not just color; colors have texture as well. All colors that we use in clothes and design are derivates of what we see in nature. In my opinion, not only the hue, contrast, tint, saturation, brightness, etc. has to be taken in consideration. Also, fabrics texture and clothes structure. Even a person's body type and personality traits. In my case, as a soft summer I don't look good in girly outfits, because I have a subtle edge in my personality and my body type is a natural. As delicate as that palette can be, I need to wear those colors in a style that is more artsy, with unique details.
I really like Merriam Style's approach to color analysis. She is very conscious of POCs and the struggles we have to fit into a system that really wasn't built for us. She also eliminates the confusion created by the arbitrary groupings of colors (Cool yellow? Warm blue? There is no such thing! There is only slightly-less-warm yellows.) In her system, I am 1) Cool 2) Bright 3) High-contrast 4) Olive. The only one of those affected by my features is #3, the rest is all skin. My dark hair and eyes just mean that a deep, clear plum will look more harmonious on me than an icy pastel pink, though both are in my 'season'. And my pale olive skin means that on the green-to-red spectrum, I am on the green side and lack the pink so many cool ladies have, meaning I often get mistyped as warm and finding a foundation match is a nightmare.
I know of the system that Colour Analysis Studio uses (also 12 subgroups) and they also concentrate on the skin. What I learned from their videos (full consultations). in certain cases correct INTENSITY of the colour (the impact it has on the appearance) becomes more important than the hue (the cool / warm category). This can be the bright winter that can stray into the bright spring territory. The client was a black model. (she was fairly dark). Or warm spring that can cross over to warm autumn (still a warm palette, but the autumn colours are better for work wear). That was a white male. Or deep winter / deep autumn. If one of these subgroups are identified by Colour Analysis Studio - their verification is as follows: Can the client also wear the other supgroup that is a different hue (cool / warm). If not, it is doubtful the analysis is correct. "Deep" becomes more important than cool / warm. Or soft summer / soft autumn (soft in that context means muted so with some gray) - those seem to be hard to identify - again the softness becomes more important than the cool / warm category. This is from the other system with 12 colours - they do not have "true" winter, summer, spring or autumn. Correct intensity becomes also more important for persons of color. There is a hue (cool or warm) even for very dark skinned people but it is less noticable - and therefore the clients also can stray more and switch to the other hue - as long as the intensity is correct. They cannot switch as easily to a different intensity within their hue (so the cool winter types cannot switch to less intense but also cool summer - instead they leave the lane of cool and borrow from warm spring palette. Spring is generally characterized by "brightness". So another collection of _intense_ colours. Bright winter to bright spring to be specific, other subgroups of winter can hardly cross over to spring. Or the other way round. So the 12 subgroups can accomodate people of colour. Not only the right hue but also the right intensity is also important for caucasians and the subgroups within the seasons (and considering the sister groups) takes care of that. Fiving intensity more weight determines the correct subgroups for people of colour (or darker skinned Mediterranean types), so the system can serve them, too. Plus there is an inner logic to it. During the draping there is attention to hue AND attention to intensity. And whether one is more important than the other. Which determines the recommendations to borrow (more or less) from other subgroups.
if you end up falling in between colors, not so dark not so soft, not so bright.... you have to chose the best range of the colors in your palette season based on your contrast. there can be different results if you take your color analysis done by different people cause we see colors differently. it depends on the light, and how trained you are to see how the colors interact with the colors of the client. there's also the psychology of the colors, or how they make us feel, so as an image/style consultant and color analyst, i always say to my clients to not get stuck with the palette, just know what to do with it. we say to wear the colors next to the face cause the face is the focus point to where people look when they're interacting with you, where it makes the most difference. the bottom parts not necessarily have to be in your palette if you don't want to, even when you show skin, cause you can't tell if your leg looks tired of washed out as much as you can do with your face. that's unnecessary worry. same with the nails. color analysis is based on harmony, but a lot of people don't want harmony in their looks, so working correctly with contrast is the way you can mix and match clashing and different colors, you just gotta know what and why you're doing it.
I am not using the colour analysis vocabulary anymore. My background is in visual art and up until i started dabbling in fashion it was Somewhat straight forward re: vocabulary. It's very common in colour analysis to use the word Saturated for something Desaturated, and it is So Confusing. And they also swap out all other words like.. instead of saturated, it's bright. Instead of desatirated it's muted or soft. It's bc ppl feel Bad being defined as desaturated, but... YOU'RE not desaturated. Desaturated colours Fit You. So defining yourself by your season can be more sensitive than it needs to be i find. You give up objectivity for comfortability in a way that makes it harder to find what colours fit you i think. This is a great video i love it ♡♡
Loved the point at the end about the different stories people want to tell- its such an overlooked point. Theres an assumption that people want to tell a particular story of health and harmony in their appearance, but that just isnt always true ! Wish we could have mire content that acknowledges our style goals can be very different from each other Though having said that....i do think saying 'their are no warm blues and no cool yellows' is...a bit innaccurate? Its understandable, especially if your looking at colours digitally, but in the real world its not actually true. Computers can do something that nature cant- it can produce a single wavelegnth of light without issue, meaning ot can produce a pure colour. Pure colours NEVER appear in nature - even the most vibrant dye on the whitest fabric will produce a fabric that reflects a range of wavelegnths, with the wavelegnths that are more frequent/dominant becoming the main 'colour'/hue. But the other wavelegnths are still there and bring their own character to that particular hue. So you can have a peice of fabric that primarily reflects yellow (making it a yellow) but also reflects some blue- not enough to turn it green, but enough to sap the warmth out of the hue and turn it icy, like early moning sunlight on a frosty day, or like lemon rind. And i actually quite like this approach! I hated wearimg yellow before because it always made me look genuinly sick (not 'mysterious goth' sick, more 'liver failure' sick) and looking for cool yellows means i now have yellow shirts that look good on my and make me feel happy to wear them! Not a major issue but i think the ability to find 'unexpected' colours you feel happy in is actually a stregnth of colour analysis.
@@thestyletoolkit If one adds only a bit of yellow to a blue it reacts strongly to it and the hue changes to warmer. BECAUSE blue is a very cool colour even a bit of warm mixed in has such an impact. And the yellow undertone in the colour of the fabric seems to disproportionally highlight the yellow pigmentation we have in our skin. (Or a rosy undertone in case of cool colours). We humans pay a LOT of attenion to the faces of our peers, the mimic but also the skin (and any signs of sickness) and we have good colour detection abilities (fruit eaters that mast find the yellow and red fruits within the green leaves). Likely this is why we can perceive such a thing as a blue that is _relatively_ warm compared to a primary blue. And even minor percentages of a warm or cool mixed in are noticed.
I am in confusion at all times. I remember back in the late 80's having color analysis done at a special "work meeting" (can you imagine it happening today?) and was told I was winter. But I can't really tell. I put on a lavender top and I look jaundiced. My makeup is neutral, I wear a lot of navy/black/creme/burgundy. I can't imagine shopping with a little swatch book. I bough my red Fleurette pea coat online and it's fabulous. I have an orchid/magenta old Tahari top from at least 2011 that each time I wear it I get complements. So, I've taken a page out of how some Bollywood actresses dress, not worrying so much about cool or warm and just wearing what I like and what seems to fit in the "gets complements" arena. Which tends to be cooler. I agree that the "system" is so arbitrary and so full of nonsense at times. There seems to be no science behind it.
You are super knowledgeable and I love all the graphics you show!! Really helps me understand what you are talking about. I am having fun with my personal style journey but the whole seasonal color thing can be confusing!
I really appreciate how you mention a color's cultural significance plays a role in clothes and color analysis. I majored in Global Health and the majority of my education centered on the anthropological study of culture and its intersection with society. Seasonal color analysis has a distinct bias in how that society attaches cultural values, perspectives, and morals to specific colors. The most poignant example of this I can think of is the colors worn to funerals in different countries. For example, in a majority of Western countries, you wear black to a funeral, thus associating black with mourning. Meanwhile, the color of mourning in Ethiopia and Buddhism is white. Additionally, countries that have experienced a significant amount of war and bloodshed, the mourning color is often red, which is seen in the Republic of South Africa. Here, red has been the color of morning since the Apartheid era.
I look best in bright, dark, or cool colored clothes, but the bright and dark are more important than the cool. Larger and higher contrast patterns look better on me. But for makeup, warmer tones tend to look better and highlights make more of a difference than contour. Lighter or more muted eyeshadows look better on me than darker or more dramatic shades. I think some of it is face shape, and some of it is that lighter colors counteract the shadows cast by my glasses. I also have central heterochromia, so different clothing and makeup colors bring out different colors in my eyes, which is really fun to experiment with. I try not to limit myself overmuch, but keep these guidelines in mind to make putting together an outfit easier.
I’ve not long realised anything grey toned in the tint, makes me look grey and clashes with my skin, and anything warm toned with a brown or black tint usually suits me. I’ve considered black my favourite clothing colour, forever😂 but now having to face the fact that it’s the worst colour for an autumn… but I do like the darker spectrums of autumn colours like dark greens and dark reds and dark grapes based with a black tint (and not a blue/grey tint that you would find for winter) which could become my new “blacks”…
@rebeccaw9656 black and some other deep winter shades can look pretty good on deep Autumns. Like 90% as good as wearing dark brown. So wear if you want to and it suits you. Deep Winter and Deep Autumns are sister palettes so you can dip into DW as an extension if you want and it suits you.
I too am an Autumn, but I also look good in a lot of shades of blue, aqua, and purple, some in the Spring category and a few in the Summer. Orange and mustards and heavy browns overwhelm me even though I’m supposed to be able to wear them as an Autumn. I think seasonal analysis can be helpful as a starting point, but that we are all different and can’t be put into 4, 12, 16, or more boxes. We are unique in coloring.
16:50 Your Contradictions section is the only hangup I've had in my many years of CA exploration. Some sources explain that all colors are relative to our socially situated perception of color categories, which makes sense. (e.g. Some people would say yellow is the warmest color; others say it's orange. I think it's right in the middle.) Yet that still doesn't explain how you tell what pallette any given color belongs to. For example, teal is a warm blue... Or is it a cool green? Is it cool or warm relative to its category? The answer affects how it's viewed by others at a glance, right? The other thing is that (as your color wheel depicts), as you add either black or white to a color, it gets more muted. So by nature, the brightest (clearest) colors are neither very light nor very dark. The four True seasons of the twelve, perhaps? Because True Autumn and True Summer have quite bright colors too, not just winter and spring.
7:53 Yes! That's exactly me!!! I was always so confused if I'm a cool winter or cool summer but both aren't perfect for me. You just described perfectly my problem. Also I actually can wear some warm colors, they just have to be combined with cool colors and have a specific brightness. For example a bright apricot color actually suits me. I think I'm just a specific bright. 😂
The late Sandy Dumont , the Image Archetect was the analyst who believed human beings needed cool colours to be distinct from nature and common furnishing colours. I believe the company was taken on by someone else later.
That's a very interesting take. I do find that cool colors feel more man-made and warm colors more natural, but obviously this is a big generalization and how we interpret colors is also context dependant.
I just watched all your videos and I love your Tools-not-Rules approach, the depth of your perception of style and your open mindedness. I have found the color season system useful in determining colors that are harmonious with my complexion but limited in telling the rest of my story. I have found Carol Tuttle's "Dressing Your Truth" system additionally useful for communicating about my personality, energy level, approach and drive. Carol addresses color but also focuses on things like shapes, angles, patterns, contrast level, connectedness, movement and structure and overlap of types. I believe her system has given me more "Tools", yet like you, I use the tools to develop my awareness or perception and then execute my style according to how I want to portray myself. I would be interested in your opinion of her system.
I think it'd easier to understand if you refer to the 'warmer' cold colours (nearest to centre if circle) as the terms brighter or darker ir soft or sharp rather than a warm cold or cold warm. It makes sense to me tbh that there are different temperature tones to each colour no matter where it is on the wheel. Same with Skin! ❤
Love this! What a great take on color analysis. I was recently analyzed as a true autumn. I struggle mostly with blues and greens. I look way better in a blue with a little green in it than in a green with a lot of blue in it. I do not understand this AT all! The blue is the cooler color (as you pointed out). Thank you for sharing!!
The temperature of a color is relative, not absolute. It can be warmer or cooler. Blue is a cool color but so is green. A blue with green in it is really a blue with yellow added because green is the result of blue and yellow mixed together. Adding yellow to blue makes it warmer. And a green with more blue than yellow mixed in it, is going to be cooler. It's all relative. One of the main goals in color analysis is for people to be able to wear most colors - but with the rights characteristics. Undertone being a very important aspect. It makes sense that a green with lots of blue in it (meaning little yellow/warmth in it) doesn't suit you or a blue with yellow added (meaning making the color warmer) suits you better. True autumn is a warm season. So, you are more sensitive to colors with the wrong undertone. And look better with colors with the right (warm) undertone. Undertone being a key aspect, here. A true autumn, should look for blues with yellow in it (closer to green/yellow on the color wheel) and look for greens with more yellow than blue in it (closer to yellow on the color wheel). Color analysis doesn't work for everybody and has its issues. But in your case what you describe and you being a true autumn make sense with the theory. Sorry for writing that much, I hope I was clear enough.
@@eyesonindie I would like to add, if even a bit of yellow is added to a cool colour like blue it changes our perception of the hue to warm (or warmer). We perceive how that changed hue (not much yellow really !) highlights the cool or warm hue of the skin. We react strongly to very little colour if you think about it. I suspect because whe are social animals and pay a LOT of attention the the faces or our peers (and if their faces have a healthy look. Humans do not have a pelt anymore. For whatever reason we lost our fur - maybe because we could see even more w/o fur). And we have a good ability to distinguish colours (our ancestors were fruit eater that had to find the yellow, red, orange fruits among the green leaves. And later see the snakes scorpions etc. in the dusty Savannah - our sense of smell is not the good so we had to LOOK out for dangers. Or the predator hidden in the grass or the bushes).
Thank you! I will die on the hill that seasonal color analysis doesn’t capture all the possible combinations of the three color features. For example, I’ve been typed as a cool summer and a cool winter by two different professionals. Cool, light, and bright colors suit me best but that’s not an option within the 12-season system!
I think it does fit, it just comes down to what 'contrast' means for you individually. If you're dark skinned, light colours = high contrast which means you'd be winter; if you're light-skinned, light colours = low contrast.
Are you familiar with Kitchener's colour analysis system? I feel like it touches on a lot of the points you talk about in this video. From my understanding Kitchener's system has its roots in the seasonal colour analysis system, but instead each person has a colour harmony that is a blend of the four "colour seasons" and likewise each person gets their own custom palette. Of course this also means that Kitchener's system is not as accessible as SCA, since there really isn't any easy way to DIY. I totally agree with you that SCA can serve as a great starting point for creating your own colour palette, but then you should listen to your own intuition and customize the palette and add colours to suit your own taste and what you feel like you look great in.
Your hair is so beautiful! I agree that certain colors look best on specific skin tones but all this color analysis theory makes clothing fashion very frustrating and not fun for me. I tried the Dressing Your Truth program where they tell you that you belong to a certain type of personality and element like water, fire and so on and so forth. At the beginning I was very excited to dress in colors they told me looked good on me. Truthfully, now I despise the whole idea of it. For almost two years I was so unhappy and started feeling brainwashed and controlled by it. Now I pay the consequences because every time I see a piece of clothing I like I think; "is it the right color, right texture and shape for my personality?" Fashion just stopped being fun for me and very frustrating instead! I was already wearing colors that compliment my skin tone, like burnt orange and teal blue ( burnt orange is my favorite color and teal and peacock blue are second favorites) I wish I would have found your video before trying all that brain controlling nonsense that is making somebody filthy rich. I feel that your video is so good because you just give suggestions and do not force anyone to be in some sort of a program and pay a monthly fee. Your video is so refreshing and I really enjoyed watching it. Thank you! PS: (Sorry about such a long comment)
So I have to say that I have a very similar view to you, I love color analysis but you have very good points about it. For me as a Warm Spring I don't feel as warm as they say I should be lol I hate peach and yellow on me, olive green makes me look sick; all of these comes to the fact that I have a neutral tone leaning warm, but i love periwinkle and cornflower blue. Also, the case you made for periwinkle in the warmer seasons, we could make for the lemon yellow that is advised for Winters and Summers, yellow with orange are the warmest colors, there's no such thing as a cool yellow lol.
This is true. But our eyes do adjust to different lighting conditions and the light affects everything, skin and clothes, equally, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. With photographs and video it is a bit more complicated.
Jinx, buy me a coke! LOL I said "Steam Punk" out loud at the same time as you while watching this! Also, thank you for bringing up that Breakfast Club example of how hated that transformation was. We want to feel more expressed and like ourselves with our color choices, as well as being flattered by them, and that was a prime example of going the opposite way from her personal style..really just a Molly Ringwald knockoff, not her at all. I was typed a Light Spring recently (my hair is naturally blonde, not the obviously dyed bright red of my pic anymore) and luckily I love those colors, but when I look at some of the palettes I do start to feel like I might end up looking like an Easter egg if I were to follow them to a T. I'm playing around with shifting away from a very black wardrobe, which I really wasn't enjoying and needed some ideas on new colors, so it's interesting to try these lighter warmer colors, but I am also working on how to make it my own, and not just a formula to follow. I loved your video. You brought up a lot of the more nuanced issues around color analysis. Appreciate it!
Yes, absolutely, color has cultural significance. Cool, dark colors are generally perceived as more formal, sophisticated & serious (not coincidentally business colors) while warm colors are more casual & if too bright, can be seen as juvenile or frivolous. Brown just doesn't have the same psychological impact as black, even if it's very dark.
Bro i haven't seen a better dark autumn representation than you ETA : Imo ppl only have best colours and worst colours. Everything in between can be handled via makeup, hair, adjusting the colour's saturation and depth a lil bit, etc. Like i CAN NOT tolerate a baby blue. I feel annoyed wearing it. On the other hand dark nuetral brown and a desaturated warmish barely white looks really good on me if i can also add a lil contrast. But who has that amount of patience. I just need to remember : dont wear light summer, light spring and true spring.
What I still don't get, is that for every season, there's a colour that suits me so well and really does make my skin and eyes look nice. Some of them are warm colours but definitely not all of them. And I don't think it's like Merriam says, that 'warm tone people still look ok in cool tones'. I just think that it doesn't always work for everyone. I might be some type of autumn, because warm mustard and sunflower yellow look so good, and my best nail colours are very warm dark green and warm dark red-brown. But I can wear hot pink too. Not on my lips, but in clothes yes. I can get away with soft medium to dark blues, teals and navy and I look good in black-and-white just as I look good in mahogany or olive or mustard. But on my lips - soft rose or warm rose is best! Nothing too cool or pastel OR too warm or too bright. And I don't fit even in 12-season, no matter how many people whose content I watch. I'm going to have to just go with what I know.
I seem to be both a light spring and a light summer. I think my skin tone is fairly neutral -- the best powder match I have found is a neutral. I am naturally drawn to light summer colors and most of my wardrobe is mostly those colors. I'm not a huge fan of the spring pallete honestly. But, I have hazel eyes. Anyway the thing I struggle most with is contrast -- because when I see my reflection most of the time I feel like I do not have enough contrast in my skin/hair and I feel like I want to play up as much contrast as possible, but color analysts talk about matching and bringing out your natural contrast. nWhich for me would be to play up my lack of contrast since my hair and skin color are just very low contrast... so low contrast that in some light my eyebrows disappear which has always bothered me.
You can also borrow colour from the textiles you wear if you feel you have too little intensity / contrast / visual interest. The make up colours (or how the companies label them) do not matter, and the eye colour does not define your season or subgroup either. A spring can often have blue eyes and a winter has often dark eyes - but it could be different so for those that do not fit in a common combo it only adds confusion. There are cool gingers and blonde winters. And yes olive skin can have cool undertones and the client would be in a cool season. A lot of freckles often but not always mean a warm undertone. It is also possible that your defining characteristic is light and not the warm or cool hue. But it seems like the shared characteristic (light) does not flatter you. Maybe a preconceived idea about what suits you may stand in the way ?? .... "naturally drawn to light summer colours" Do you think they suit you, do you get compliments when wearing them ?. Most colour analysts say it is harder to identify the colours correctly for oneself, so many ideas and concepts and feelings are attached to colour. Even identity. The same analysts said they had more trouble finding their own subgroups. It is easier to see it for other people. Spring btw does have some intensity in their natural colouring. Often golden hair (not ashy) bright blue eyes .... clearness in the features and in the complexion. Skin with a golden undertone. And the skin tone is never neutral, the hue may not be very visible but it is always either warm or cold (however it is possible that the correct intensity is more important than the hue. But it does not sound like that is you: the intensity "light" does not work well for you. Can you wear orange or a soft shade of orange (peach). What happens if you drape a green with a yellow tint to your skin. (must not be an intense shade). If you are not a warm season it will not look good.
I think mary in the breakfast club didnt look great in the pastel outfit because it was yin dominant and created a youthful essence that she doesnt carry. whilst mary is yang dominant, causing her to look a bit like an over grown child. It also enhances the yang broadness in her bone structure, whilst the colours dont do anything for her and lean the outfit more into the yin
My color palette is a mistery: I am one of the few people who can wear orange and I find it very flattering on me, but if I try a lipstick on the orange side of the spectrum it looks awful on me. How comes?
Hard to say without photos and more info. For lips, we usually reach for red and red-based colors to give us a flushed look, and orange and purple lipsticks are easier to wear if they also lean more red.
It would be interesting to see when people realise that using only white and black (and grey) to change other colours is way too simplistic. You get such beautiful muted colours when mixing different pigments and leave gray completely out of it. I think this is the mistake of colour analysis.
So the reason they talk about adding grey is that if you add another colour thrn what youve changed it the hue....thats quite literally what the secondary and tertiary colurs are? Thats how you can have cool leaning and warm leaning versons of the same colour. if you add many different colours theyll become brown, or perhaps take on a 'muddy' character despite keeping their dominant hue. But thats not to do with them being 'muted' or not. What your changing between soft and bright is the intensity of a colour- literally 'how many pigment bits in this area are there'. High concentration->high intensity, low concentration-> soft. This is true regardless of the actual hue of the pigment. So you can have a blue or purplish-brown that might appear less clear compared to a single blue-red mix purple (likely to be very strickingly purple)- but it can still have the same intensity, ie. the same amount of colour pigment. So intense versions of each would be a sort of woody-mulchy-loamy brown for the first and a vibrant violent for the second, and the soft versions would be a sort of cool-beige and a liliac-y periwinkle. If you want to see this for yourself - go to ms paint and wiggle the slider around the colour square for a single hue! You might be suprised what you see :) Not a hater or anything, but i felt like clearing this up would be helpful- colour analysysts already mix different colours, theyre just called the.. well colours 🤷♀️
@@ems9616 May r you should learn colour mixing first before you attempt to “clear sth up”. Nobody said anything about “adding many different colours” - why would you make that assumption? It only shows how little you know about mixing pigments. You can mix dozens of greys that don’t have black and don’t turn brown. Maybe try this as an exercise, see how many greys, warm, cool or neutral, you can mix with only 2 pigments, and you don’t even need a grey to mute a colour.
@@ems9616 Also you can’t use MS Paint for this, as the digital palette creates greys just with black. I’m talking about mixing actual pigments, on a palette, with paint. The same pigments they use to dye clothes.
@@RaeWolfe-t5w sorry if i missunderstood, but you're suggesting adding different pigments to each other without using grey? The reason i thought it might be worth clearing up is that you actually cant acheive a muted colour without adding grey white or black. And adding many greys together wont add to brown because grey (like white and black) isnt strickly speaking considered a hue ('colour') in the art sense. White grey and black behave differently from the other colours when mixed, and are reffered to as 'values' - managing the dark-light spectrum rather than wavelegnth-of-light spectrum. Its a really common misconseption, but im sorry if i overstepped
I've NEVER heard those generalisations you mentioned from any trained colour analyst. You wouldn't judge doctors as the cause of what random people say as health advice. So why imply Colour Professionals are to blame for some bad colour advice you heard from a friend? It feels like picking on small business women because they are alone and an easy target for video content.
As a whole the winter palettes clash with my skin, though I can do cool colors of if they are dark enough. Autumn blends with my features more seamlessly and I have a visible yellowish golden/peachy hue irl.
Oh, I see. You look lovely. I just came across your channel. You have a pleasant voice and manner. I was analyzed years ago by a color me beautiful rep. I was a Deep Winter, I still have my fabric swatches! However, I am now 59, with curly very silvery hair. Eyebrows still dark. I am unsure of colors now. Any suggestions? Should I be analyzed again? I look better in cool colors, jewel tones, silver jewelry. I live on OC, CA. Thank you.
I've never heard a professional say any of the things that you've said. I've never heard anyone say all olives are cool. So many olives are warm and quitting yourself. . The modern viewpoint is not generalizing at all that's why there's so many categories. If you know color theory this is pretty easy. I haven't never heard a color Analysis professional saying all dark skin is cool ? Where did you get this information from? I have always seen every skin tone represented in every shade. So many black girls have warm skin.. I've seen a lot of brown skin Color analysts. Maybe you should have done a little more research.
As a dark skin person, I have often heard people say all dark skin is cool. Some ppl’s analysis system is based off of hair and eye color, so there was a strong belief that if you have dark hair and dark eyes you were cool (likewise if you had hazel eyes and auburn hair your were fall, dark blue eyes winter, etc) so by their logic most people with dark skin have dark brown hair and eyes and were therefore cool. It’s an outdated system that I noticed isn’t used as much now that people are taking into account more cultures where people have similar hair and eye colors.
There are several color analysts here on youtube that I’ve heard make the generalization that “most olives are cool”. Sounds like you’re the one that needs to do your research.
@@laurenlewis6838I think that there's the group of colour analysts that take into consideration a person's eye and hair colour and the other group that says the only think that matters is skin's undertone (meaning someone with dark brown hair for example could also be a summer and they call it "deep summer"). Maybe the second is a more accurate way of looking at people but it does make it difficult to analyze oneself - basically you can only go on if a certain colour suits you really well (as in people have complimented you) and then see which category that fits into.
I absolutely don't mean it in the bad way, so please don't take it badly. This comment is here, because YT suggested me your video and I was about to click out of it, and I think it will help your future endavours if you know why. I don't think your make up is all that harmonious with your colouring. Both the lipstick and the eyeshadows seem to bright -- are they even in your palette? I'd see you in something more muted and possibly darker. This matters for me as a viewer a lot, because if you don't present your best colours on yourself, what kind of credibility your content has? Saying that, I did end up watching the video and I think you have superb things to say. So I hope this criticism is taken in the genrous spirit it is given.
I like the contrast, honestly... at least with that jacket and the hair. I think it makes clear that color analysis is not a science: you can wear something not in your color palette if it matches in the right way with your clothes or hairstyle of the day.
Thank you for this. I am a mix of cools and warms, some contrast and some softness, and the season (Autumn) I was given years ago makes me look sickly! I have no clue what I am other than some colors from a few different seasons look good on me, but not all from any single season look healthy.
Phenomenal video content! Thank you for saying all the common sensical things about color analysis that not enough people are saying! 👍👍🎉❤
Thank you for adressing those points! Its true, color is not the only property of a garment. The fabric type plays a role, as well as the other clothes. Adding a jacket to an outfit shifts the perception so much. E.g. I have a light blue summer dress which is too light for me (I think I am some kind of autumn), but when I pair it with my brown faux leather jacket, or a white knit cardigan, it instantly looks very different. Personal taste plays a huge role too, as well as how you feel that day. Sometimes I want to wear colors that make me stand out, sometimes I want to blend with the background. Sometimes I look at a photo of me and hate the colors of the dress and when I look at the photo the next day, I suddenly like it. Color theory might be scientific, but human taste and societie's expectation is not.
Great points! 😉
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Yes! I think that one of the most common failures of 12 season analysis is people who look good with colors that are dark, cool, and very muted. They can't be summers because that implies light colors, and they can't be winters because that implies bright colors. I think that there are actually a lot of people who fit into this category, but I bet most of them are not white.
You are so right about the proportions thing. I also find that certain colors work for me in some types of fabric, but not others. Like I might be able to pull it off in a light, silky fabric but not in a t-shirt fabric. Or it might work as part of a floral pattern but not solid.
Also, thank you for using the YMC color wheel! You are the first color analysis person on the internet I have seen do that. I am an oil painter and I find that it makes so much more sense. It puts a logic behind the fact that those three colors are the lightest in their most pure forms, and it also works so much better for understanding warm vs cool.
It is super odd to call periwinkle a warm color (or to call lime green a warm color for that matter). Maybe the color analysis people should to come up with some other explanation for why these colors sometimes look good on these people.
What helped me is that in certain cases correct INTENSITY of the colour (the impact it has on the appearance) becomes more important than the hue (the cool / warm category). This can be the bright winter that can stray into the bright spring territory. Of warm spring that can cross over to warm autumn (still a warm palette, but the autumn colours are better for work wear).
Or deep winter / deep autumn. If one of these subgroups are identified - the verification is as follows: can the client also wear the other supgroup that is again a different hue (cool / warm). If not it is doubtful the analysis is correct.
"Deep" becomes more important than cool / warm.
Or soft summer / soft autumn (soft in that context means muted so with some gray) - those seem to be hard to identify - again the softness becomes more important than the cool / warm category. (this is from the other system with 12 colours - they do not have "true" winter, summer, spring or autumn. The dark winter and dark autumn is likely the same as the "deep" winter / autumn in the system that I know.
Correct intensity becomes also more important for persons of color.
There is a hue (cool or warm) even for very dark skinned people but it is less noticable - and therefore the clients also can stray more and switch to the other hue.
They cannot switch as easily to a different intensity within their hue (so the winter types cannot switch to less intense summer - instead they leave the lane of cool and borrow from warm spring (which generally is characterized by "brightness". so another intense collection of colours. Bright winter to bright spring to be specific, other subgroups of winter can hardly cross over to spring. Or the other way round.
So the 12 subgroups can accomodate people of colour. Not only the right hue but also the right intensity is also important for caucasians and the subgroups within the seasons take care of that. And giving intensity more weight determines the correct subgroups for people of colour (or darker skinned Mediterranean types), so the system can serve them, too.
I've heard soft winter...
Honestly, this is by far THE BEST video I've seen on SCA. You meantioned everything I was thinking about and explained it so well.
And thank you for using light spring as an example in this specific context, it's like you described me.
When I got my colors done, I was a bit shook at first, because I honestly thought I was a muted season. Getting (light) spring as a result was like busting everything I thought I could be. I was very sure to be neutral-warm before the consultation, but not that light in value and not that clear in chroma. To be fair, I actually mistook my natural hair color for a shade which is two to three shades darker (I haven't worn my natural virgin hair color for ages and did not realize that it hasn't changed after the age of 9 not only do I own a strand of my hair from back then, I also have lots of photos from that time. My hair has gold in it and it also is pretty light. Judging my natural hair color from my fresh roots next to the pale bleached strands was really not doing me any favor.
I did ultimately see that the colors from the light spring palette do add vibrancy and clarity to my complexion, they make my eyes look aquatic and my teeth appear more white. They also make my natural lip color look very nice (almost as if I already wore lipstick) and they soften my features. But (and this is a HUGE point for me) I missed the "contoured and chisled" look I get when I wear black, I missed the edgy, almost vampiric vibe I get when I wear dark (and cool) colors, I missed the almost white, cool toned blonde I had, I also missed the high contrast (between my coloring and the clothes I wore) which imho created a very interesting look. I do enjoy how I look wearing my colors, but that doesn't really feel like myself.
What I did learn though: Me wearing autumnal colors gives off a very grungy vibe (which I do like to rock sometimes), wearing winter colors gives a very stark and severely contrasted effect that I do enjoy and wearing my own colors is very feminine, youthful, ethereal and playful. I play around with all these effects depending on my mood that day. And having the knowledge and understanding SCA can teach us, is an amazing toolbox to create whatever effect you want in terms of color. Do I look very pale and de-saturated when wearing black (or other winter colors)? Absolutely. But I like it. That's me, sitting here with a peach toned shirt because I was too lazy to apply make up this morning, being fully aware that this light, pastel peach is one of my best colors. I don't need any make up when I wear my colors, but since I enjoy playing with contrast in make up, I do it whenever I find time for it. And I want that to be reflected by my outfits too. (At the moment I wear my hair in a rather neutral pale blonde to make it work with any of the aesthetics I wanna go for, and tbh it's also easier to maintain than the super cool toned white-ish blonde.)
If someone steps into my apartment and looks at my interior design style, they can actually tell pretty easily what my favorite aesthetic is. Dark, moody, broken up with lightness that adds the beautiful contrast of absolution which to me feels very calm and soothing. Also striking and strong. I have ONE piece of furniture in a bottle green, which is my huge couch and green happens to be one of my favorite colors. I enjoy the fact I do have such a nice variety of colors in my own palette, but I also enjoy creating a totally different effect. My facial features give off a very ingenue vibe naturally and people usually think I am way younger than I am. Wearing my own colors just adds to that effect and that's most of the time absolutely not what I want. I enjoy being 36, I don't need or want people to think I was 22.
Knowing that I actually lean warm has still helped me a lot. I choose lipsticks, nail polishes and blushes differently now. I also do prefer to wear swimwear in my own colors (because they show so much skin and it just looks more flattering against my pale skintone). I also had thought I look awful in pinks (in general), but ever since I know my actual season, I can easily pick a pink that looks great on me. Blues and yellows though are both colors I just don't like to wear. I prefer my oranges, pinks, greens and purples (while I do think that the peaches, corals and pinks look best on me). I am still looking for a peach summer dress that isn't too frilly for my liking (I feel like many are either made super girly or look like a night gown and that's both not what I want).
So yah, to sum it all up: I LOVE SCA, I also love seeing the effects wearing the right colors can have, but I still love fashion looks too much to stick exclusively to my own palette. And hey, I do enjoy wearing men's wear and workwear (and incorporate them in my regular outfits), so I can probably break the rules even more and wear colors that are absolutely not in my own palette. I love playing around and experimenting with style, why would I ever stop doing that?
My fav colors to wear: black, medium to dark grey, burgundy, soft olive green, sage green, emerald green, chocolate brown, coffee brown, peach, coral, indian red and pink, marsala, pastel pink (warm toned), rust, caramel, burnt orange, army green, cognac, a very pale tint of yellow, vanilla, champagne, mocca or milk chocolate, khaki, lilac, teal (green or blue) and medium purple (leaning more towards red-purple rather than a very blue based purple) and I do love to switch between gold and silver jewelry.
Fun fact: I was walking by the crafting isle of a store with my mom a few weeks ago and there was crafting paper in pastel rainbow colors. I held that below my face and said "These look like they are absolutely my colors", and my mom smiled and said "100%". I actually have a knit sweater in pastel rainbow colors and love it. So no, I'm not always all moody and dark...
Interesting post. I am a cool summer but if the mood strikes I venture for very bold winter colours and they show annother side of me. I borrow some intensity one could say and like the effect. Technically speaking a colour analyst might tell me they are too intense for me. True, I should be healthy, well rested and maybe wear a bit of eye make-up when I rock them. I cannot go into yellow based (warm) territory, I have a bit of a grey undertone in my very fair skin so colours with a yellow hue make me look sick, or are visibly unflattering.
A friend, a femal rocked the gothic style some years ago. (She is likely a winter, dark hair, brown eyes, good contrast). She also likes textile crafts and then started knitting herself a sweater. Which her then boyfriend commented as follows: The Queen of the Underworld wears soft pink.
Meanwhile she is a mother of three and not into gothic anymore (or soft pink for that matter).
Excellent video - you explained SCA and the challenges associated with it. And finally someone who uses the blue based vs yellow based language to describe colors….
Very thoughtful and well-considered video! I definitely agree that color analysis is both a tool and more of an art than strict science. I like to think of it as a guide, not a mold. I find that a lot of people online who haven't trained their eye to color in general struggle to make sense of color analysis while looking to it as a hard and fast set of rules, when that's quite far from how it really should be used, but does make it easy for others to jump on the trend and make money analyzing colors even to dubious results.
I find that the color analysis professionals that I lean toward watching and learning from are precisely those who take the points you raised into account: how can the system work for a wider variety of skin tones without automatically putting them in a box? Is the system used systematized, clear, and consistent, if not also straightforward and relatively simple? What kind of color balance are they focusing more on: harmony or contrast? How rigid are they about using seasonal colors as a guide vs a strict necessity, and do they take into account social conventions that exist for colors, accessorizing/pops of color, etc?
Over time, I've found that the best color analysts work by addressing all of those things using color analysis as more of a guide than a mandate. They also work with deeper skin tones more regularly, stepping a bit more away from Color Me Beautiful. Ultimately, because of the proliferation of people doing color analysis and the slight variations between systems, the most important thing is to check out the systems being used and find professionals whose work checks off those boxes in a way that makes visual sense IMO. The best guide is always going to be the one that's the most intuitive to follow!
I'm glad the youtube algorithm has shown me this video, explaining what I was thinking but in better way, and it was very enlightening to see all the very illustrative photo examples you have used (what does soft/muted mean, sandwiching colours).
I've been in online season spaces recently and the stress of people trying to put themselves into a box while doing unrealistic digital draping or fabric draping and getting different answers - some answers focus on what makes pop, some focus on complete blending (trap that comment below criticising your makeup has fallen into, I thought it was a fun accent touch, so it's interesting to see what people are really looking for!). It's rare for stark black drape not to swamp someone without makeup and hair hidden in white cape, yet lots of people do look good in black with pearl necklaces and make up etc in formal settings. Finding colours and building whole mix-and-match wardrobe around it is quite a hard work, can be a bit more practice than colour palette and a single expensive draping session may (over-?)promise.
I recently got typed as a soft autumn. I'm also one of those Yohji types - I wore Yohji almost exclusively for years. I still wear Yohji, but I've added a lot of Jil Sander and some Prada. And as we know, brands like these are heavy on the blacks (Jil Sander might be the least monochrome though).
I started adding some navy and creams a couple of years ago, and they do suit me better than black. What I've taken from my analysis is that I might explore more beige and muted colours.
Colour is important, but switching from black to some muted brown or navy won't transform me from a hideous beast to a stunning beauty. I'm not getting rid of the bulk of my wardrobe!
This was *the best* video about colour analysis I have ever seen! I'm now subscribed :)
PS The "absolutes" that are prevalent in seasonal colour analysis can really make things harder than they need to be; because I was blonde as a teen and have light grey eyes I was always put in the summer category... but those colours look horrible on me. Since I started wearing the soft autumn colours that suit my now brown hair, and warm tan skin, I look healthy and happy...
Thank you!
LOVED this video on color analysis! Really great points to consider. I'm a soft summer, period. And intuitively, without knowing about color analysis, I gravitate towards that palette with a mix of soft autumn. For the past two weeks I've been diving into this topic, and there are many misleading concepts about color in general. Color is not just color; colors have texture as well. All colors that we use in clothes and design are derivates of what we see in nature. In my opinion, not only the hue, contrast, tint, saturation, brightness, etc. has to be taken in consideration. Also, fabrics texture and clothes structure. Even a person's body type and personality traits. In my case, as a soft summer I don't look good in girly outfits, because I have a subtle edge in my personality and my body type is a natural. As delicate as that palette can be, I need to wear those colors in a style that is more artsy, with unique details.
I really like Merriam Style's approach to color analysis. She is very conscious of POCs and the struggles we have to fit into a system that really wasn't built for us. She also eliminates the confusion created by the arbitrary groupings of colors (Cool yellow? Warm blue? There is no such thing! There is only slightly-less-warm yellows.) In her system, I am 1) Cool 2) Bright 3) High-contrast 4) Olive. The only one of those affected by my features is #3, the rest is all skin. My dark hair and eyes just mean that a deep, clear plum will look more harmonious on me than an icy pastel pink, though both are in my 'season'. And my pale olive skin means that on the green-to-red spectrum, I am on the green side and lack the pink so many cool ladies have, meaning I often get mistyped as warm and finding a foundation match is a nightmare.
I like that she focuses on skin rather than hair and eye color. I find that hair color can be misleading.
I know of the system that Colour Analysis Studio uses (also 12 subgroups) and they also concentrate on the skin. What I learned from their videos (full consultations).
in certain cases correct INTENSITY of the colour (the impact it has on the appearance) becomes more important than the hue (the cool / warm category). This can be the bright winter that can stray into the bright spring territory. The client was a black model. (she was fairly dark).
Or warm spring that can cross over to warm autumn (still a warm palette, but the autumn colours are better for work wear). That was a white male.
Or deep winter / deep autumn. If one of these subgroups are identified by Colour Analysis Studio - their verification is as follows:
Can the client also wear the other supgroup that is a different hue (cool / warm). If not, it is doubtful the analysis is correct.
"Deep" becomes more important than cool / warm.
Or soft summer / soft autumn (soft in that context means muted so with some gray) - those seem to be hard to identify - again the softness becomes more important than the cool / warm category.
This is from the other system with 12 colours - they do not have "true" winter, summer, spring or autumn.
Correct intensity becomes also more important for persons of color.
There is a hue (cool or warm) even for very dark skinned people but it is less noticable - and therefore the clients also can stray more and switch to the other hue - as long as the intensity is correct.
They cannot switch as easily to a different intensity within their hue (so the cool winter types cannot switch to less intense but also cool summer - instead they leave the lane of cool and borrow from warm spring palette. Spring is generally characterized by "brightness". So another collection of _intense_ colours.
Bright winter to bright spring to be specific, other subgroups of winter can hardly cross over to spring. Or the other way round.
So the 12 subgroups can accomodate people of colour.
Not only the right hue but also the right intensity is also important for caucasians and the subgroups within the seasons (and considering the sister groups) takes care of that.
Fiving intensity more weight determines the correct subgroups for people of colour (or darker skinned Mediterranean types), so the system can serve them, too.
Plus there is an inner logic to it.
During the draping there is attention to hue AND attention to intensity. And whether one is more important than the other. Which determines the recommendations to borrow (more or less) from other subgroups.
if you end up falling in between colors, not so dark not so soft, not so bright.... you have to chose the best range of the colors in your palette season based on your contrast. there can be different results if you take your color analysis done by different people cause we see colors differently. it depends on the light, and how trained you are to see how the colors interact with the colors of the client. there's also the psychology of the colors, or how they make us feel, so as an image/style consultant and color analyst, i always say to my clients to not get stuck with the palette, just know what to do with it. we say to wear the colors next to the face cause the face is the focus point to where people look when they're interacting with you, where it makes the most difference. the bottom parts not necessarily have to be in your palette if you don't want to, even when you show skin, cause you can't tell if your leg looks tired of washed out as much as you can do with your face. that's unnecessary worry. same with the nails. color analysis is based on harmony, but a lot of people don't want harmony in their looks, so working correctly with contrast is the way you can mix and match clashing and different colors, you just gotta know what and why you're doing it.
I love the inclusivity of your take on color analysis ❣️
I am not using the colour analysis vocabulary anymore. My background is in visual art and up until i started dabbling in fashion it was Somewhat straight forward re: vocabulary.
It's very common in colour analysis to use the word Saturated for something Desaturated, and it is So Confusing. And they also swap out all other words like.. instead of saturated, it's bright. Instead of desatirated it's muted or soft. It's bc ppl feel Bad being defined as desaturated, but... YOU'RE not desaturated. Desaturated colours Fit You. So defining yourself by your season can be more sensitive than it needs to be i find. You give up objectivity for comfortability in a way that makes it harder to find what colours fit you i think.
This is a great video i love it ♡♡
Loved the point at the end about the different stories people want to tell- its such an overlooked point. Theres an assumption that people want to tell a particular story of health and harmony in their appearance, but that just isnt always true ! Wish we could have mire content that acknowledges our style goals can be very different from each other
Though having said that....i do think saying 'their are no warm blues and no cool yellows' is...a bit innaccurate? Its understandable, especially if your looking at colours digitally, but in the real world its not actually true. Computers can do something that nature cant- it can produce a single wavelegnth of light without issue, meaning ot can produce a pure colour. Pure colours NEVER appear in nature - even the most vibrant dye on the whitest fabric will produce a fabric that reflects a range of wavelegnths, with the wavelegnths that are more frequent/dominant becoming the main 'colour'/hue. But the other wavelegnths are still there and bring their own character to that particular hue. So you can have a peice of fabric that primarily reflects yellow (making it a yellow) but also reflects some blue- not enough to turn it green, but enough to sap the warmth out of the hue and turn it icy, like early moning sunlight on a frosty day, or like lemon rind. And i actually quite like this approach! I hated wearimg yellow before because it always made me look genuinly sick (not 'mysterious goth' sick, more 'liver failure' sick) and looking for cool yellows means i now have yellow shirts that look good on my and make me feel happy to wear them!
Not a major issue but i think the ability to find 'unexpected' colours you feel happy in is actually a stregnth of colour analysis.
I should have clarified I think warm blues works in relative but not in absolute terms.
@@thestyletoolkit If one adds only a bit of yellow to a blue it reacts strongly to it and the hue changes to warmer. BECAUSE blue is a very cool colour even a bit of warm mixed in has such an impact. And the yellow undertone in the colour of the fabric seems to disproportionally highlight the yellow pigmentation we have in our skin. (Or a rosy undertone in case of cool colours).
We humans pay a LOT of attenion to the faces of our peers, the mimic but also the skin (and any signs of sickness) and we have good colour detection abilities (fruit eaters that mast find the yellow and red fruits within the green leaves).
Likely this is why we can perceive such a thing as a blue that is _relatively_ warm compared to a primary blue. And even minor percentages of a warm or cool mixed in are noticed.
I am in confusion at all times. I remember back in the late 80's having color analysis done at a special "work meeting" (can you imagine it happening today?) and was told I was winter. But I can't really tell. I put on a lavender top and I look jaundiced. My makeup is neutral, I wear a lot of navy/black/creme/burgundy.
I can't imagine shopping with a little swatch book. I bough my red Fleurette pea coat online and it's fabulous.
I have an orchid/magenta old Tahari top from at least 2011 that each time I wear it I get complements.
So, I've taken a page out of how some Bollywood actresses dress, not worrying so much about cool or warm and just wearing what I like and what seems to fit in the "gets complements" arena. Which tends to be cooler.
I agree that the "system" is so arbitrary and so full of nonsense at times. There seems to be no science behind it.
You are super knowledgeable and I love all the graphics you show!! Really helps me understand what you are talking about. I am having fun with my personal style journey but the whole seasonal color thing can be confusing!
I really appreciate how you mention a color's cultural significance plays a role in clothes and color analysis. I majored in Global Health and the majority of my education centered on the anthropological study of culture and its intersection with society. Seasonal color analysis has a distinct bias in how that society attaches cultural values, perspectives, and morals to specific colors. The most poignant example of this I can think of is the colors worn to funerals in different countries. For example, in a majority of Western countries, you wear black to a funeral, thus associating black with mourning. Meanwhile, the color of mourning in Ethiopia and Buddhism is white. Additionally, countries that have experienced a significant amount of war and bloodshed, the mourning color is often red, which is seen in the Republic of South Africa. Here, red has been the color of morning since the Apartheid era.
Excellent point!
Thanks for covering this. I'm cool but some winter colours are too bright at the same time summer colours are often too light and wash me out 😂
wow such a great video. everyone researching color seasons should watch this video first
You have absolutely fabulous hair! I’m a hairstylist. I’m retired now, but your hair looks beautiful like that.😊
I look best in bright, dark, or cool colored clothes, but the bright and dark are more important than the cool. Larger and higher contrast patterns look better on me. But for makeup, warmer tones tend to look better and highlights make more of a difference than contour. Lighter or more muted eyeshadows look better on me than darker or more dramatic shades. I think some of it is face shape, and some of it is that lighter colors counteract the shadows cast by my glasses. I also have central heterochromia, so different clothing and makeup colors bring out different colors in my eyes, which is really fun to experiment with. I try not to limit myself overmuch, but keep these guidelines in mind to make putting together an outfit easier.
I’ve not long realised anything grey toned in the tint, makes me look grey and clashes with my skin, and anything warm toned with a brown or black tint usually suits me. I’ve considered black my favourite clothing colour, forever😂 but now having to face the fact that it’s the worst colour for an autumn… but I do like the darker spectrums of autumn colours like dark greens and dark reds and dark grapes based with a black tint (and not a blue/grey tint that you would find for winter) which could become my new “blacks”…
Thank you for sharing!
@rebeccaw9656 black and some other deep winter shades can look pretty good on deep Autumns. Like 90% as good as wearing dark brown. So wear if you want to and it suits you. Deep Winter and Deep Autumns are sister palettes so you can dip into DW as an extension if you want and it suits you.
I too am an Autumn, but I also look good in a lot of shades of blue, aqua, and purple, some in the Spring category and a few in the Summer. Orange and mustards and heavy browns overwhelm me even though I’m supposed to be able to wear them as an Autumn. I think seasonal analysis can be helpful as a starting point, but that we are all different and can’t be put into 4, 12, 16, or more boxes. We are unique in coloring.
16:50 Your Contradictions section is the only hangup I've had in my many years of CA exploration. Some sources explain that all colors are relative to our socially situated perception of color categories, which makes sense. (e.g. Some people would say yellow is the warmest color; others say it's orange. I think it's right in the middle.) Yet that still doesn't explain how you tell what pallette any given color belongs to. For example, teal is a warm blue... Or is it a cool green? Is it cool or warm relative to its category? The answer affects how it's viewed by others at a glance, right?
The other thing is that (as your color wheel depicts), as you add either black or white to a color, it gets more muted. So by nature, the brightest (clearest) colors are neither very light nor very dark. The four True seasons of the twelve, perhaps? Because True Autumn and True Summer have quite bright colors too, not just winter and spring.
This is a really insightful video. I enjoyed it and benefited from it. Thank you!
This is an excellent video, how to you not have more subscriber ?
7:53 Yes! That's exactly me!!!
I was always so confused if I'm a cool winter or cool summer but both aren't perfect for me. You just described perfectly my problem.
Also I actually can wear some warm colors, they just have to be combined with cool colors and have a specific brightness.
For example a bright apricot color actually suits me.
I think I'm just a specific bright. 😂
The late Sandy Dumont , the Image Archetect was the analyst who believed human beings needed cool colours to be distinct from nature and common furnishing colours. I believe the company was taken on by someone else later.
That's a very interesting take. I do find that cool colors feel more man-made and warm colors more natural, but obviously this is a big generalization and how we interpret colors is also context dependant.
The best and more objective video on color analysis. Thank you
I just watched all your videos and I love your Tools-not-Rules approach, the depth of your perception of style and your open mindedness.
I have found the color season system useful in determining colors that are harmonious with my complexion but limited in telling the rest of my story. I have found Carol Tuttle's "Dressing Your Truth" system additionally useful for communicating about my personality, energy level, approach and drive. Carol addresses color but also focuses on things like shapes, angles, patterns, contrast level, connectedness, movement and structure and overlap of types. I believe her system has given me more "Tools", yet like you, I use the tools to develop my awareness or perception and then execute my style according to how I want to portray myself. I would be interested in your opinion of her system.
Thank you. I tried her quiz once but I don't see myself in any of the types. Glad it works for you.
I think it'd easier to understand if you refer to the 'warmer' cold colours (nearest to centre if circle) as the terms brighter or darker ir soft or sharp rather than a warm cold or cold warm. It makes sense to me tbh that there are different temperature tones to each colour no matter where it is on the wheel. Same with Skin! ❤
Love this! What a great take on color analysis. I was recently analyzed as a true autumn. I struggle mostly with blues and greens. I look way better in a blue with a little green in it than in a green with a lot of blue in it. I do not understand this AT all! The blue is the cooler color (as you pointed out). Thank you for sharing!!
The temperature of a color is relative, not absolute. It can be warmer or cooler.
Blue is a cool color but so is green. A blue with green in it is really a blue with yellow added because green is the result of blue and yellow mixed together. Adding yellow to blue makes it warmer. And a green with more blue than yellow mixed in it, is going to be cooler. It's all relative.
One of the main goals in color analysis is for people to be able to wear most colors - but with the rights characteristics. Undertone being a very important aspect.
It makes sense that a green with lots of blue in it (meaning little yellow/warmth in it) doesn't suit you or a blue with yellow added (meaning making the color warmer) suits you better. True autumn is a warm season. So, you are more sensitive to colors with the wrong undertone. And look better with colors with the right (warm) undertone. Undertone being a key aspect, here.
A true autumn, should look for blues with yellow in it (closer to green/yellow on the color wheel) and look for greens with more yellow than blue in it (closer to yellow on the color wheel).
Color analysis doesn't work for everybody and has its issues. But in your case what you describe and you being a true autumn make sense with the theory.
Sorry for writing that much, I hope I was clear enough.
That was CRAZY helpful @@Spheniscidae_ Thank you for taking the time to lay it all out!!
@@eyesonindie You're welcome, I'm glad I was helpful :)
@@eyesonindie I would like to add, if even a bit of yellow is added to a cool colour like blue it changes our perception of the hue to warm (or warmer).
We perceive how that changed hue (not much yellow really !) highlights the cool or warm hue of the skin. We react strongly to very little colour if you think about it.
I suspect because whe are social animals and pay a LOT of attention the the faces or our peers (and if their faces have a healthy look. Humans do not have a pelt anymore. For whatever reason we lost our fur - maybe because we could see even more w/o fur).
And we have a good ability to distinguish colours (our ancestors were fruit eater that had to find the yellow, red, orange fruits among the green leaves. And later see the snakes scorpions etc. in the dusty Savannah - our sense of smell is not the good so we had to LOOK out for dangers. Or the predator hidden in the grass or the bushes).
Thank you! I will die on the hill that seasonal color analysis doesn’t capture all the possible combinations of the three color features. For example, I’ve been typed as a cool summer and a cool winter by two different professionals. Cool, light, and bright colors suit me best but that’s not an option within the 12-season system!
I think it does fit, it just comes down to what 'contrast' means for you individually. If you're dark skinned, light colours = high contrast which means you'd be winter; if you're light-skinned, light colours = low contrast.
Are you familiar with Kitchener's colour analysis system? I feel like it touches on a lot of the points you talk about in this video. From my understanding Kitchener's system has its roots in the seasonal colour analysis system, but instead each person has a colour harmony that is a blend of the four "colour seasons" and likewise each person gets their own custom palette. Of course this also means that Kitchener's system is not as accessible as SCA, since there really isn't any easy way to DIY.
I totally agree with you that SCA can serve as a great starting point for creating your own colour palette, but then you should listen to your own intuition and customize the palette and add colours to suit your own taste and what you feel like you look great in.
I know of Kitchener, but have not been trained by him. 🙂
Thanks for this and mentioning what colors don’t look good on you even as a typical warm palette.. like orange 15:36
You're welcome! 😉
I’m an Autumn who can’t rock orange (unless it’s VERY muted or part of a print) too.
Your hair is so beautiful!
I agree that certain colors look best on specific skin tones but all this color analysis theory makes clothing fashion very frustrating and not fun for me.
I tried the Dressing Your Truth program where they tell you that you belong to a certain type of personality and element like water, fire and so on and so forth. At the beginning I was very excited to dress in colors they told me looked good on me.
Truthfully, now I despise the whole idea of it. For almost two years I was so unhappy and started feeling brainwashed and controlled by it. Now I pay the consequences because every time I see a piece of clothing I like I think; "is it the right color, right texture and shape for my personality?" Fashion just stopped being fun for me and very frustrating instead!
I was already wearing colors that compliment my skin tone, like burnt orange and teal blue ( burnt orange is my favorite color and teal and peacock blue are second favorites)
I wish I would have found your video before trying all that brain controlling nonsense that is making somebody filthy rich. I feel that your video is so good because you just give suggestions and do not force anyone to be in some sort of a program and pay a monthly fee.
Your video is so refreshing and I really enjoyed watching it. Thank you!
PS: (Sorry about such a long comment)
Thank you so much. I am sorry to hear that.
So I have to say that I have a very similar view to you, I love color analysis but you have very good points about it. For me as a Warm Spring I don't feel as warm as they say I should be lol I hate peach and yellow on me, olive green makes me look sick; all of these comes to the fact that I have a neutral tone leaning warm, but i love periwinkle and cornflower blue.
Also, the case you made for periwinkle in the warmer seasons, we could make for the lemon yellow that is advised for Winters and Summers, yellow with orange are the warmest colors, there's no such thing as a cool yellow lol.
I remembered, that even natural light can have diferent color in diferent day time and diferent seasons, I wonder how it could affect colour analysis
This is true. But our eyes do adjust to different lighting conditions and the light affects everything, skin and clothes, equally, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. With photographs and video it is a bit more complicated.
Jinx, buy me a coke! LOL I said "Steam Punk" out loud at the same time as you while watching this! Also, thank you for bringing up that Breakfast Club example of how hated that transformation was. We want to feel more expressed and like ourselves with our color choices, as well as being flattered by them, and that was a prime example of going the opposite way from her personal style..really just a Molly Ringwald knockoff, not her at all. I was typed a Light Spring recently (my hair is naturally blonde, not the obviously dyed bright red of my pic anymore) and luckily I love those colors, but when I look at some of the palettes I do start to feel like I might end up looking like an Easter egg if I were to follow them to a T. I'm playing around with shifting away from a very black wardrobe, which I really wasn't enjoying and needed some ideas on new colors, so it's interesting to try these lighter warmer colors, but I am also working on how to make it my own, and not just a formula to follow. I loved your video. You brought up a lot of the more nuanced issues around color analysis. Appreciate it!
Parabéns Débora, muito esclarecedor o vídeo!❤
Obrigada 🥰
This is the best video. Really highlights some of my thoughts surrounding color analysis! Thank you!
Yes, absolutely, color has cultural significance. Cool, dark colors are generally perceived as more formal, sophisticated & serious (not coincidentally business colors) while warm colors are more casual & if too bright, can be seen as juvenile or frivolous. Brown just doesn't have the same psychological impact as black, even if it's very dark.
Bro i haven't seen a better dark autumn representation than you
ETA : Imo ppl only have best colours and worst colours. Everything in between can be handled via makeup, hair, adjusting the colour's saturation and depth a lil bit, etc. Like i CAN NOT tolerate a baby blue. I feel annoyed wearing it. On the other hand dark nuetral brown and a desaturated warmish barely white looks really good on me if i can also add a lil contrast. But who has that amount of patience. I just need to remember : dont wear light summer, light spring and true spring.
Love the ideas and the photo examples!
I misspelled holistic 😬
👍🏼
What I still don't get, is that for every season, there's a colour that suits me so well and really does make my skin and eyes look nice. Some of them are warm colours but definitely not all of them. And I don't think it's like Merriam says, that 'warm tone people still look ok in cool tones'.
I just think that it doesn't always work for everyone. I might be some type of autumn, because warm mustard and sunflower yellow look so good, and my best nail colours are very warm dark green and warm dark red-brown. But I can wear hot pink too. Not on my lips, but in clothes yes. I can get away with soft medium to dark blues, teals and navy and I look good in black-and-white just as I look good in mahogany or olive or mustard. But on my lips - soft rose or warm rose is best! Nothing too cool or pastel OR too warm or too bright. And I don't fit even in 12-season, no matter how many people whose content I watch.
I'm going to have to just go with what I know.
I seem to be both a light spring and a light summer. I think my skin tone is fairly neutral -- the best powder match I have found is a neutral. I am naturally drawn to light summer colors and most of my wardrobe is mostly those colors. I'm not a huge fan of the spring pallete honestly. But, I have hazel eyes. Anyway the thing I struggle most with is contrast -- because when I see my reflection most of the time I feel like I do not have enough contrast in my skin/hair and I feel like I want to play up as much contrast as possible, but color analysts talk about matching and bringing out your natural contrast. nWhich for me would be to play up my lack of contrast since my hair and skin color are just very low contrast... so low contrast that in some light my eyebrows disappear which has always bothered me.
You can also borrow colour from the textiles you wear if you feel you have too little intensity / contrast / visual interest. The make up colours (or how the companies label them) do not matter, and the eye colour does not define your season or subgroup either. A spring can often have blue eyes and a winter has often dark eyes - but it could be different so for those that do not fit in a common combo it only adds confusion. There are cool gingers and blonde winters. And yes olive skin can have cool undertones and the client would be in a cool season. A lot of freckles often but not always mean a warm undertone.
It is also possible that your defining characteristic is light and not the warm or cool hue. But it seems like the shared characteristic (light) does not flatter you.
Maybe a preconceived idea about what suits you may stand in the way ??
.... "naturally drawn to light summer colours" Do you think they suit you, do you get compliments when wearing them ?.
Most colour analysts say it is harder to identify the colours correctly for oneself, so many ideas and concepts and feelings are attached to colour. Even identity. The same analysts said they had more trouble finding their own subgroups. It is easier to see it for other people.
Spring btw does have some intensity in their natural colouring. Often golden hair (not ashy) bright blue eyes .... clearness in the features and in the complexion. Skin with a golden undertone.
And the skin tone is never neutral, the hue may not be very visible but it is always either warm or cold (however it is possible that the correct intensity is more important than the hue. But it does not sound like that is you: the intensity "light" does not work well for you.
Can you wear orange or a soft shade of orange (peach). What happens if you drape a green with a yellow tint to your skin. (must not be an intense shade). If you are not a warm season it will not look good.
I also think you would stand out in cool tones- dark black hair and a red lip!
I think mary in the breakfast club didnt look great in the pastel outfit because it was yin dominant and created a youthful essence that she doesnt carry. whilst mary is yang dominant, causing her to look a bit like an over grown child. It also enhances the yang broadness in her bone structure, whilst the colours dont do anything for her and lean the outfit more into the yin
My color palette is a mistery: I am one of the few people who can wear orange and I find it very flattering on me, but if I try a lipstick on the orange side of the spectrum it looks awful on me. How comes?
Hard to say without photos and more info. For lips, we usually reach for red and red-based colors to give us a flushed look, and orange and purple lipsticks are easier to wear if they also lean more red.
Yes, periwinkle is a. warm PURPLE. PURPLE is not a warm color, but it is a warmer version of that color
This such an important video. Many thanks.
It would be interesting to see when people realise that using only white and black (and grey) to change other colours is way too simplistic. You get such beautiful muted colours when mixing different pigments and leave gray completely out of it. I think this is the mistake of colour analysis.
Great point.
So the reason they talk about adding grey is that if you add another colour thrn what youve changed it the hue....thats quite literally what the secondary and tertiary colurs are? Thats how you can have cool leaning and warm leaning versons of the same colour. if you add many different colours theyll become brown, or perhaps take on a 'muddy' character despite keeping their dominant hue. But thats not to do with them being 'muted' or not.
What your changing between soft and bright is the intensity of a colour- literally 'how many pigment bits in this area are there'. High concentration->high intensity, low concentration-> soft. This is true regardless of the actual hue of the pigment. So you can have a blue or purplish-brown that might appear less clear compared to a single blue-red mix purple (likely to be very strickingly purple)- but it can still have the same intensity, ie. the same amount of colour pigment. So intense versions of each would be a sort of woody-mulchy-loamy brown for the first and a vibrant violent for the second, and the soft versions would be a sort of cool-beige and a liliac-y periwinkle.
If you want to see this for yourself - go to ms paint and wiggle the slider around the colour square for a single hue! You might be suprised what you see :)
Not a hater or anything, but i felt like clearing this up would be helpful- colour analysysts already mix different colours, theyre just called the.. well colours 🤷♀️
@@ems9616 May r you should learn colour mixing first before you attempt to “clear sth up”. Nobody said anything about “adding many different colours” - why would you make that assumption? It only shows how little you know about mixing pigments. You can mix dozens of greys that don’t have black and don’t turn brown. Maybe try this as an exercise, see how many greys, warm, cool or neutral, you can mix with only 2 pigments, and you don’t even need a grey to mute a colour.
@@ems9616 Also you can’t use MS Paint for this, as the digital palette creates greys just with black. I’m talking about mixing actual pigments, on a palette, with paint. The same pigments they use to dye clothes.
@@RaeWolfe-t5w sorry if i missunderstood, but you're suggesting adding different pigments to each other without using grey? The reason i thought it might be worth clearing up is that you actually cant acheive a muted colour without adding grey white or black. And adding many greys together wont add to brown because grey (like white and black) isnt strickly speaking considered a hue ('colour') in the art sense. White grey and black behave differently from the other colours when mixed, and are reffered to as 'values' - managing the dark-light spectrum rather than wavelegnth-of-light spectrum. Its a really common misconseption, but im sorry if i overstepped
Smart smart smart
I've NEVER heard those generalisations you mentioned from any trained colour analyst. You wouldn't judge doctors as the cause of what random people say as health advice. So why imply Colour Professionals are to blame for some bad colour advice you heard from a friend? It feels like picking on small business women because they are alone and an easy target for video content.
Question? I think you are a winter. Have you tried winter colors?
As a whole the winter palettes clash with my skin, though I can do cool colors of if they are dark enough. Autumn blends with my features more seamlessly and I have a visible yellowish golden/peachy hue irl.
Oh, I see. You look lovely. I just came across your channel. You have a pleasant voice and manner. I was analyzed years ago by a color me beautiful rep. I was a Deep Winter, I still have my fabric swatches! However, I am now 59, with curly very silvery hair. Eyebrows still dark. I am unsure of colors now. Any suggestions? Should I be analyzed again? I look better in cool colors, jewel tones, silver jewelry. I live on OC, CA. Thank you.
@@kham7571 what I've noticed with my husband is that if he wears gray it does harmonize with his hair, but bright cool colors still make his skin pop.
I've never heard a professional say any of the things that you've said. I've never heard anyone say all olives are cool. So many olives are warm and quitting yourself. . The modern viewpoint is not generalizing at all that's why there's so many categories. If you know color theory this is pretty easy. I haven't never heard a color Analysis professional saying all dark skin is cool ? Where did you get this information from? I have always seen every skin tone represented in every shade. So many black girls have warm skin.. I've seen a lot of brown skin Color analysts. Maybe you should have done a little more research.
As a dark skin person, I have often heard people say all dark skin is cool. Some ppl’s analysis system is based off of hair and eye color, so there was a strong belief that if you have dark hair and dark eyes you were cool (likewise if you had hazel eyes and auburn hair your were fall, dark blue eyes winter, etc) so by their logic most people with dark skin have dark brown hair and eyes and were therefore cool. It’s an outdated system that I noticed isn’t used as much now that people are taking into account more cultures where people have similar hair and eye colors.
There are several color analysts here on youtube that I’ve heard make the generalization that “most olives are cool”. Sounds like you’re the one that needs to do your research.
@@laurenlewis6838I think that there's the group of colour analysts that take into consideration a person's eye and hair colour and the other group that says the only think that matters is skin's undertone (meaning someone with dark brown hair for example could also be a summer and they call it "deep summer"). Maybe the second is a more accurate way of looking at people but it does make it difficult to analyze oneself - basically you can only go on if a certain colour suits you really well (as in people have complimented you) and then see which category that fits into.
I absolutely don't mean it in the bad way, so please don't take it badly. This comment is here, because YT suggested me your video and I was about to click out of it, and I think it will help your future endavours if you know why. I don't think your make up is all that harmonious with your colouring. Both the lipstick and the eyeshadows seem to bright -- are they even in your palette? I'd see you in something more muted and possibly darker. This matters for me as a viewer a lot, because if you don't present your best colours on yourself, what kind of credibility your content has? Saying that, I did end up watching the video and I think you have superb things to say. So I hope this criticism is taken in the genrous spirit it is given.
I will take it into consideration, thanks.
I like the contrast, honestly... at least with that jacket and the hair. I think it makes clear that color analysis is not a science: you can wear something not in your color palette if it matches in the right way with your clothes or hairstyle of the day.
Make a false claim then "debunk" the rumor you just spread a second later? It's an old trick.
I think these are really common misconceptions! Though maybe not from professional color analysts.