Archive for May 2009

Choosing A Business Name

May 27, 2009

It feels very cleansing to get rid of half the stuff you own but you need a good reason to get to it. The Color Analysis studio is taking shape. It needs a name.

Have you ever tried to name a business? or a website? Essentially the same thing nowadays. It ain’t easy.

So I started with

Color Compass or Clock CA (Color Analysis) – because the color wheel is a circle, and the hands point to a position. But too navigational.

Stopwatch CA , also a clock, but with a “lock-and-load”, “you’ve arrived” connotation; this might be better for a line of anti-aging gimmicks creams.

Color Path CA - it’s a journey of self-discovery… yadayada, what isn’t?

ColorWorks CA – here is where I realize that the word “color” is being repeated too much.

There’s way more. It makes my head swirl.

EnergyWorks CA - that’s a yoga studio.

Rainbow Energy CA – Can you see doves being released in the background and hear music playing?

Image Accelerated CA – hardly restful.

New Confidence CA – too generic.

Chroma CA – how many people know what Chroma means?

YDS Definition CA - YDS is for Your Deeper Self ; first question people have is, of course, what the heck is YDS? or did you say YSD? is it all one word?

Precision CA – sounds like a tire balancing service but I liked the sciency- ness which appeals to my analytical nature.

Perfect By Nature CA – because you are; that’s the whole point. But it sounds like a line of organic yogurt.

Organic CA – to convey the innate, unadorned truth of the colors you were born with, but all I can picture is yogurt.

Natural Selection CA – like, what has Darwin got to go with this?

Exclusively You CA – a dress boutique, a rather standard and expensive one at that.

Imagine CA – my daughter’s favorite, after Tie-Dye CA. Why, yes, she is very creative, now that you ask. For those who know me, why, right again, it is the middle child.

Imagine Perfect CA – insert here sound of celestial voices raised in song to convey excessive New Age-ness. Might as well call it “On Your Own Wings”.

Very nice. I’m more this guy.

I had a Hungarian mother, see.

Picture Perfect CA – a children’s photography studio. Or maybe pets.

First Impression CA – too common.

Experiment with Success CA – better as a tagline on a business card.

Power Source CA - too scary.

Intentionality CA – what???

UAccelerate CA (I’ve seen Star Trek twice and am going back again and again; it has me thinking in terms of forward momentum and exploration, though I felt Command Center CA was a bit much for all of us) ( and I figured iColor was copyrighted).

Envision CA, probably my favorite; it goes with other cool words like Engadget and Encarta. And Enterprise and Energy. Is that auspicious? And Entertain. It speaks to me about imagination and possibility, 2 things I like a lot.

Enlighten CA (my sweet children tell me the last 2 sound like “where Jesus gets his colors done” ; they told me I might as well call it Lamb Of God CA, the little turkeys).

Into Focus CA – boring name, though that is what happens. Our eyes don’t lock onto other people’s eyes because the person is not in focus. When your colors are right, the gaze doesn’t keep wandering all around because the edges aren’t smudged anymore. People look right at you. And you look right back.

Color Specialist CA – feels too self-promoting. Maybe you have to get used to that when you run your own business.

The Colors Within CA – repeats the word color again.

Accent on Color CA – too broad. Sounds like a Home Decor place.

Full Circle CA – from the color wheel but rather general.

Cycle of Seasons, or something about Season Flow – sounds menstrual. The tagline could be Menopause and Makeup.

The Key – to suggest unlocking. The Key sounds like a spy agency. I asked my children for another word for “unlock” and they suggested “Alohomora”, which is Harry Potter for unlock. Special.

Transformation CA – synonymous with The Biggest Loser.

Yes, I know that perfect is the sworn enemy of good and it’s not that important. If you have any inspiration here, dearest readers, please help me out.

I’m better at taglines and slogans. I found Businesscardland, a great site where you can print your own business cards. I can use a different color combination and tagline with every run.

End the uncertainty.

Stop wondering.

Imagine knowing for sure.

Imagine 60 Perfect Colors.

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It feels very cleansing to get rid of half the stuff you own but you need a good reason to get to it. The Color Analysis studio is taking shape. It needs a name.
Have you ever tried to name a business? or a website? Essentially the same thing nowadays. It ain’t easy.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Color Analysis, Outside The Box | 14 Comments

The Season Naming Systems

May 20, 2009

Simpler Season	Color Me Beautiful	Color Me A Season	SciArt
Pure Spring (light and clear Warm)	Spring (in the 4 Season system only)	Absolute Spring	True Spring
Lighter Spring	Light Spring	Pastel Spring	Light Spring
Clearer Spring	Clear Spring	Striking Spring	Bright Spring
Warmer Spring	Warm Spring	Glorious Spring
Pure Summer (light and soft Cool)	Summer (in the 4 Season system only)	Absolute Summer	True Summer
Lighter Summer	Light Summer	Sunshine Summer	Light Summer
Softer Summer	Soft Summer	Indian Summer	Soft Summer
Cooler Summer	Cool Summer	Moonlight Summer
Pure Autumn (dark and soft Warm)	Autumn (in the 4 Season system only)	Absolute Autumn	True Autumn
Darker Autumn	Deep Autumn	Striking or Bronzed Autumn	Dark Autumn
Softer Autumn	Soft Autumn	Gentle Autumn	Soft Autumn
Warmer Autumn	Warm Autumn	Golden Autumn
Pure Winter (dark and clear Cool)	Winter (in the 4 Season system only)	Absolute Winter	True Winter
Darker Winter	Deep Winter	Sunset Winter	Dark Winter
Clearer Winter	Clear Winter	Firelight Winter	Bright Winter
Cooler Winter	Cool Winter	Snowfrost Winter

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There are a few big players in this game, each with its strengths and particular ways of approaching color analysis of human beings. They all use different naming systems, making the entire subject seem more complicated than it is. When a given season has 3 or more different names depending on who is talking about it, it’s not surprising that people are confused.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Color Analysis | 14 Comments

Makeup Model : Light Spring

May 16, 2009

This is a big range of women. You’re Ellen and Kate Hudson (or at least, Kate looks like Light Spring. Have you seen Ellen’s pic from high school? Reddish hair. Although the blond hair she wears is beautifully done, sometimes I think it makes her eyes look bloodshot. Ellen, you need to don the gray showercap and draping cape of truth and uncover who you really are). You can be the fairest softest coloring and you can be the blond beach ideal.

In general, Spring looks better in peach than pink. If you think you like both, what you might be liking is the lightness of the two shades. The basis of color analysis is understanding what the colors that flatter you best have in common. So, we’ll have to push the extremes to decide if you’re Light Spring or Light Summer. Take the peach all the way to coral in clothing or makeup – only the Spring will pull it off, while the Summer will be more beautiful in a cooler rose pink color.

Or try the ultimately Springs Only color of yellow-green. Summer would probably refuse to even put the item on and negotiate hard for cool, light turquoise. Spring would be sneaking the yellow-green into her purse.

Light Spring represents that type of coloring that is most prominently Spring (warmed by clear yellow) but has some cool carryover from Summer. Your colors follow suit, with pink-peach instead of pure peach or yellow colors, and tan-brown instead of golden brown in your eyeshadow.

Colors to sample

Lips: Clinique Colour Surge Butter Shine in Pink-a-boo; look at Poppy Love while you’re there. I love these lipsticks, so wearable and comfortable.

Eyeliner: Estee Lauder Softsmudge Brown.

Eyes: MAC BrownDown, Kid, Wedge; Stila Champara, Tolima.

Eye hilite : MAC Wisp, BlancType; Stila Chinois.

I am loving the blog The Next Best Thing To Going Shopping Yourself (TNBTTGSY) for the swatch posts. Follow the link to see the MAC eyeshadows. On the site, you’ll also find all the Stila eyeshadows swatched in a different post. Shop at home thanks to the wonderful woman who does all this work.

Look very attentively at the iris of your eye. Is there a soft yellow in it? Many Spring eyes have a yellow light in their eyes to correspond with the yellow light that their entire body coloring emanates. If you see that color there, emphasize it with a yellowish hilite. Have you looked at Paula’s Choice Chiffon? It is fantastically colored, fantastically matte, and fantastically priced.

Mascara : Dark Brown – be sure it’s darker than your eyeliner or the liner can look too harsh.

Bronzer : This is light skin. It can handle warmer tones but in a gentle dose. MAC Select Sheer Pressed powder goes on well and some of the lighter shades have some peachiness that could work as bronzer for this group. Go easy with the application so you don’t end up with an overly colorful face. That’s just practice.

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In general, Spring looks better in peach than pink. If you think you like both, what you might be liking is the lightness of the two shades. The basis of color analysis is understanding what the colors that flatter you best have in common.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Color Analysis, Makeup | 20 Comments

Great Budge-proof Mascara by Estee Lauder

May 9, 2009

I’ll begin by getting the poor review out of the way because I did try it.

Product Review : Revlon 3D Extreme Mascara

Dry and sticky is the first impression. The stickiness makes it easy to push the lashes upwards and they stay there, like they’ve been hairsprayed. You can really work that aspect with more coats. It is very controllable.

The brush is tiny. I prefer that to gigantic for ease of handling but this one is also rather flat, like a little wee spatula. Actually, the bristles are short and unless you clean off all the extra product, not much of the bristle sticks out. Still, it works better than I expected it to. I had to press the product off on the sides of the tube to get the picture.

Revlon 3D Extreme Mascara.

You expect clumps to form but they don’t. The lashes don’t separate so well either. In fact, they stick together fast! It’s like those hair products that dry and stiffen within 4 seconds from some very volatile chemical or other so you have no time to work with the hair before the product sets (that would be Redken Rough Paste).

It wears moderately well but I still had a few smudges if I put too much on the bottom lashes.

Wash? Terrible. Black smears, with or without makeup remover. Just as bad the next morning. I didn’t do so well with this product.

Never support animal cruelty

I’d love to try Elizabeth Arden’s Ceramide Lash Extending Treatment Mascara because it’s said to leave lashes feeling soft but there’s no freakin’ way. There is too much animal suffering as it is. What kind of pathetic excuses for human beings are we when we support animal testing in an industry where it is not only unnecessary, but also in the minority.

From Vogue Australia Forums, a very comprehensive list of cosmetic companies with info about who tests and who doesn’t. For A to H, for I to Q, and for P to Z. Bookmark those pages, they’re hard to find again.

It was back to Clinique High Impact. It might not be perfection but it’s pretty darn good. I should know better by now than to vex the gods by veering away from it. I want to believe that great cruelty-free mascara can be bought at the drugstore but I can’t find it.

I decide to take my chance with the gods yet again.

Product Review : Estee Lauder Zero-Smudge Lengthening Mascara

I don’t try $25 mascara without a good reason. I read about this one in the Best Beauty Products Of 2008 Report from Paula Begoun and her group. I was attracted by the ease of removal comment.

Mascara is one of the few products where I don’t rely on MUA (Makeup Alley). I have the filters set to show reviews from worst to best and it’s the same for every single mascara. Even the repurchase rate hovers around 60% for every product.

Here are the reasons I love this one:

1. It doesn’t smudge. Doesn’t move, fade, or change over the day. I like to add moisturizer to soften the lines under my eyes during the day and now I can, without black smudges. It really is zero-smudge. I moisturize to my heart’s content and there are NO smears.

2. Doesn’t clump, easy to work with, separate , and add. The job gets done fast.

3. It DOES come off with water. Easily!! Even High Impact didn’t do that!! I don’t even use a separate eye makeup remover. Hallelujah for that alone!!! There may be the odd black fleck the next morning but it removes easily, unlike the tarry smears that take some work. You just splash water on your eyes and rub gently and the stuff comes right off. You might need an eye makeup remover for your shadow or liner but not your mascara. Big selling point here.

4. The brush is grand. It’s long and skinny and straight. The product doesn’t goop all over it. The corner lashes can be coated without smearing it on the skin. The maneuverability of this brush is terrific, maybe because it goes back to the brushes we all learned with 30 years ago. The big bottle-brush style and the curved designs, never could get used to them.

5. Lashes are not too stiff or crunchy. I really don’t like that at all.

6. I’m wearing mascara on my lower lashes again. I like to wear a little more makeup on the center of my eye because a rounder eye looks a little younger and it draws attention away from the outer corner where not-so-good things are happening. I can use all I like, wherever I like. It will not move.

Clinique High Impact, does apply better. Thicker, smoother, creamier, softer. But it will leave little smears under your eyes.

This formula seems a little stickier, a little drier, than what you may be accustomed to but it gets the job done fine. They sell it as an extraordinarily lengthening mascara. In that respect, it’s fine but not astounding. Estee Lauder also claims that “the lash you see in the morning is the lash you keep all day”. That is true.

Who in the world can look at our lashes and know what mascara we used? Nobody. You never really notice other women’s eyelashes unless they’re at an extreme of underdone, overdone, or oversmeared. Mascara is all about application and removal.

Clinique Lash Power gets similar reviews for ease of removal and it will be a little cheaper, so it’s next up.

Note that this is not for you if you’re after major volume or length. It gives real-looking lashes and that’s all I really want in this world - makeup that looks real.

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6 reasons why I’m really loving this mascara. Length is not one of them.
Perfect? No. If there were perfect, we’d all be using it. Universal formulas don’t exist.
In several important ways, it is very impressive.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Makeup | 5 Comments

Makeup Model : Deep Winter

May 6, 2009

How do you know if you’re Deep Winter?

Dark eyes and dark hair are common but not a requirement. Your skin can go from Porcelain to Ebony so that’s not helpful.

So, Penelope Cruz is a classic Deep Winter…or at least, she looks like she would be. She can wear black but she has some ability to wear a few warmer colors. Her best spectrum wouldn’t be as cool and sharp as Elizabeth Taylor’s whom you just wouldn’t put in rust.

What about Salma Hayek? If you’re not sure, push the extremes of the 2 possibilities. Deep Winter holds the neutral line with Deep Autumn, where Deep Winter is cooler. You could take a Deep Winter all the way to blue-black hair and red-violet lips and they’d still look pretty good. You could take a Deep Autumn to bronze hair and beyond to orange-brown and it would be wearable. I can see Salma in the black hair and violet lips. I do not see her in orange hair.

Now, this doesn’t work backwards. You can’t assume red hair is automatically Autumn. Not at all. Often they’re Spring or Summer, many times, Winter. Why do books keep showing Autumn with red hair? I don’t know. Maybe because red hair goes well with orange clothing (analogous colors), so the extrapolation says the person must be Autumn. The closer to orange the hair, the more possibility it belongs to an Autumn.

Julia Roberts has dark hair and eyes. Since blue-black hair and purple lips would be ghoulish, but orange-brown hair is good, she’s likely a Deep Autumn.

Keira Knightley? Tricky. Very difficult. I’ve seen people conclude both. I side with Deep Winter but black hair isn’t perfect; neither is orange hair. This auburn here is good, and a Deep Winter can do auburn. It’s creating some odd shadowing around her nose and yellow around her mouth but it may be the makeup or lighting. For me, her eyes are more arresting and her makeup better in pure Winter colors. They might clear the yellow and turn her skin to milk. Maybe she’s neither. This is a woman who probably needs to be draped in person to figure this out.

Jeanne Tripplehoorn? I cannot see her in orange hair.

Jessica Alba? She’s almost surely Deep something but her hair’s been dark and her lips have been cool red lately and I think it looks forced. I see her better in orange, tawnies, copper colors. Likely some sort of Autumn. With the dark neutral brown hair below, her skin looks washed out and the creases from nose to corners of mouth become noticeable.

Sophia Loren? She can have quite lion-colored hair and bronze lips, so she’s Deep, but it’s probably Autumn.

Anne Hathaway? Blacker hair and redder lips work fine. If ever skin had a lack of warmth, that would be it. She is surely Winter, the incarnation of Miss Snow White. Is she Deep Winter, or cooler yet as Clear Winter or Cool Winter? Probably Cool Winter, because I don’t see much compliment from warmed reds, but who knows without drapes.

Katie Holmes? I can see auburn hair or wine hair but not orange hair. She can wear rust and tomato red as well as the cool dark colors, so probably a Deep Winter.

Colors

Lips: NARS Dolce Vita Sheer Lipstick and lipgloss are good cool coral colors; the gloss is gorgeous in texture and durability, as are all NARS glosses.

Now you need a plum-violet color: Mary Kay Berry Kiss is about as blue-pink as you can go, but this is a nice one (bluer, pinker, and brighter than the picture below). If it seems too pink, try Whipped Berries, warmed up just a little but so slightly foggier and darker, for darker women.

Mary Kay Amber Suede appears more orange and it goes on very dark and pigmented. If you blot if well and apply a gloss over top, the color left behind is quite lovely, again for darker women.

L to R, Whipped Berries, Amber Suede, Garnet Frost, Berry Kiss

Are you looking at these thinking “I thought she said she doesn’t like dark lips?”. I am. The thing is, once you find a color of makeup that repeats a color already in your face (a concept we’ll come back to often) or body, it’s amazing how heavily you can apply it. You can literally pack it on and it looks real because you already have the color in you. Maybe I’ve made this point too obviously, but you see, herein lies the strength of color analysis. It will identify the colors that were used to paint YOU.

So what is your “color-within” lip, your neutral, since those above are all pinkish : MAC Slimshine in Scant will be close. It contains some brown, as this season needs since it’s the bridge between Autumn and Winter.

Much as I believe in neutral makeup, I think all 3 women up there look a little flat with lips the same color as their face. I need to come up with a new term. Neutral means neither warm nor cool, a medium tone type of beige or brown or gray. Many would call the lips in those photos neutral. When I say neutral, I extend the definition to include “any color already in your face is your neutral”.

However, I’m realizing that’s confusing and seems contradictory. Nude just means “like you have nothing on”. Maybe the word I need is Natural. That seems to work. I’m thinking as I type so it’s coming out stream-of-consciousness here. I’ll clarify in a separate post because I just thought of it now.OK, shut up, Christine, and get on with it.

If you still think these are dark, mix them with a clear gloss or a lighter lip color like Estee Lauder Elizabeth Pink.

Good ol’ Clinique Black Honey lip gloss that you see in every magazine suits this group nicely.

Body Shop 05 (I believe the color is Strawberry) can work as a bright.

Blush: Your color-within “natural” blush : take a close look at MAC Breath of Plum. If it’s too pink, look at Lancome Aplum, my favorite. It is cool, red-violet as all Winters need, and doesn’t seem too blue or brown. It just fades into the skin, just as a Natural colour will.

If you want to put a little more on it, Clinique Berry Delight is a good cool coral to go with Dolce Vita lipstick or gloss (don’t buy Dolce Vita blush, it’s too dusty red-brown; NARS Amour is a better contender – Winter is a season of color clarity, not dullness).

Another red-violet blush to go with the lips above : Mary Kay Bold Berry ; Clinique Breathless Berry is cooler than Berry Delight but not as cool as Bold Berry.

Eyeliner: Clarins Waterproof eyeliner in 03 Grey, a sparkly dark grey; Annabelle Kohl Eyeliner in 77 Charcoal, terribly smudgy but great color so powder over it.

Winter is the only group that can wear black eyeliner if the depth of their coloring supports it. If not, the darkest grey or black-coffee brown are darker colors that appear less hard.

Eyeshadow: Clinique Totally Neutral ; MaryKay makes Charcoal eye shadow, a lovely matte midtone dove grey for the cooler women. Paula’s Choice Charcoal is also a beautiful matte grey-brown, more brown than the MaryKay, a fantastic shade for those who are close to Deep Autumn but need the coolness of Winter.

Your natural color : Merle Norman Mink.

Eye hilite : Paula’s Choice Beige. ( Note that Paula’s Choice is selling off her eyeshadows for $4 or less. These are great products, perfectly matte, all available as samples. You will never find a better beauty deal anywhere.)

Within each season, there can be great variety of hair, eye, and skin tone so these color suggestions are generalities. I’m a Deep Winter. Once I get my hair color adjusted, I’ll show you how it looks. Just changing the makeup has made a big difference. Good thing I buy my clothes at Value Village or we’d be living on a raft.

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How do you know if you’re Deep Winter?
Dark eyes and dark hair are common but not a requirement. Your skin can go from Porcelain to Ebony so that’s not helpful.
So, Penelope Cruz is a classic Deep Winter…or at least, she looks like she would be. She can wear black but she has some ability to wear a few warmer colors. Her best spectrum wouldn’t be as cool and sharp as Elizabeth Taylor’s whom you just wouldn’t put in rust.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Color Analysis, Makeup | 65 Comments

3 Workouts You Should Know

May 1, 2009

The Collage Video site and the customer reviews do a great job of describing each program so I’m not going to. The hurdle with Collage is sifting through the 750+ choices to find the gems. Here are 3 superstars that I would not be without.

1. Squeeze with Tracy Effinger.

If you get through it with a 2 lb weight, you’re a powerful woman, regardless of what you usually lift. I can’t complete the arm section with 1.5 lbs. It gets into the movement and the muscle something unbelievable. There are stretching breaks, lots of bonus sections, total body attention, and the time flies. No question, this is one of the best examples of how much you can accomplish by exercising at home. Any kind of ball will do.

The title above is linked to the Effinger search page. Click on any title there to take you to the details for the program.

2. Cathe STS Ab Circuits

Part of the new Shock Training System, which consists of 40-some discs, but you can buy this one separately. It includes 6 separate ab workouts based on weights, yoga, Pilates, and more. Delivering no less than the excellence and challenge you expect, these are not beginner moves. Cathe never does anything bad, but she is now at her peak. She is at her most professional, calm, beautiful best.

3. Karen Voight Energy Sprint

Quite possibly the best designed workout ever made, by another pro who never does anything less than superb. It’s been out 15 years or so but it never dates. It’s as hard as you make it. It’s safe. It is so thorough. You can do it without the step but it’s better with it. It takes the cardio up and part way back down and up again a little higher with masterfully calculated objectives. The cardio and strength crescendo together and drop back in a deliberate design that amazes me.

While you’re there, check out my wish list:

Patrick Goudeau Play Ball

Patrick Goudeau Hard Work Conditioning 2

Squeeze : Stronger with Tracy Effinger

Squeeze : Lower Body Challenge

Amy Bento Kickbox Surge and Core Training – watch the clip for this one!! it looks SO good! Amy always has the best music. I’ll be ordering this within the week.

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Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Move Thy Body | 8 Comments