So difficult for women. Taking ourselves seriously.

Men do it easily and fake it easily.

I’m not quite there yet.

By now, we should look very steady, not swaying with every new wind. We might not be where we expected, but that doesn’t mean we failed.

We try too hard to play no-win games. The best of what we have become is inside us.

Heaven help you if your hair is medium brown. You’ll have had highlights, lowlights, been blonde, red, often several at once. We fall for every kind of advice. We wear pointy toed shoes that hurt. We wear painted on eyebrows, despite becoming a living cliché.

The Soft Seasons have naturally mouse-brown hair. They look great with finely woven caramel light. The Light Seasons speak of sunshine, so the brightening effect of pale yellow sun highlight is very consistent with their energy.

On everyone else : a distraction…that too often escalates over the years to become a highlight that has coalesced into one big uni-streak. That was me for years. Eventually, that was how I was used to seeing myself. What good is beach blonde when it makes your eyes gray away?

In Hollywood, you probably look odd without the yellow helmet, or the implants, for that matter. In the real world, at the office, in the car, at school, does Gwyneth’s yellow wall work in your favor?

The rich warmth of the Autumns, their spicy heat, and the dark force of the Winters is shattered into 10,000 pieces by blonde light. Give them a hot molten glow and a still, simple gleam, respectively.

Not everyone is flattered by blond, even if you’re 20. Which girl will be taken more seriously (ignoring the earrings)? Which twin’s eye colour is stronger?

When you’re blonde and you shouldn’t be, it feels tense to be around. Remember the relief when Pretty Woman took off the blonde wig? You FELT your insides relax.

Forced beauty feels so demanding.

Would Nick Arrojo, whom I love, have I ever told you, do tricolour stripes?

Accidental beauty could have happened by itself. Easier to be. Easier to look at.

Being taken seriously is one of the gifts of aging. Too many of us squander it by being blond when we shouldn’t be.

Perhaps there is only one person who should not take you seriously, and that’s you.

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© 2007–2010, Christine Scaman. All rights reserved.

Since I’m forced to do something essentially boring, I’ve had time to ponder why so many more good ideas come to me on the bike than when I’m having a hot bath. Same thing with driving-or anytime that I am not free to write. I believe that my left brain feels busy and important, or thinks it is, so the other side is free to wander.  The usual message from  the dominant, analytical, pessimistic left is “That will never work”.  When that side is busy, it loosens the clamps on the right, which it must perceive to be silly. So I’ll keep biking, but I have to do something else sometimes.

You have your Creator picture and I have mine. Mine looks something like this.

Bad events must be the signal to switch gears. The more horrible the event, the louder the Creator is singing the MAKE A MOVE song. The Universe is trying to tell you or show you something. These are the times when I try to make decisions I would never normally make. From the article about Jennifer Kries Life Force Power DVDs (AGT article The DVD I Use To Heal), you know I’m really taken by this program. I’m in no hurry about the knee and feeling very receptive to any direction.

I felt I should explore that a little further. Yoga often feels too static, but Cardiyoga isn’t out there. I watched the Flow Yoga  selection video clips at Collage Video. It spoke to me. Flow Yoga looks like where many of the movements from Pilates and jazz came from.

At first, the workout looks absolutely like a trance, like you’re having altogether too much fun by yourself. Nevermind, I said that I was committed to change and going somewhere new.

We hear a lot about “mind-body” exercise but I never really see it described as more than “consciousness about the movement”. My Deeper Self always looks for the connection that makes my children think I’m odd, and I cannot disappoint them. I see it like this. Since there is no distinction between your mind and your body, which I wholeheartedly adhere to, when one goes one way, the other has to follow. If they are united without barriers, if they are “one”, then whatever is happening in your mind mirrors to the molecule what is happening in your body, and vice versa. When the barriers in front of one are removed, so do they dissolve for the other.

Exercise shifts the control over to my body. If you’re read the Esther and Jerry Hicks books, there your control is over the mind, and the calming of the body follows. This is the reverse. The body settles in and the mind starts to realize it feels good. I ordered Shiva Rea’s Fluid Power Vinyasa Flow Yoga. When you watch the clip, you might think “I don’t think I have enough internal endorphins enjoy that like she does”. Neither do I, trust me. My kids would tell you that I have almost none. To get somewhere new, you have to move your feet that way.

The program is kind of fabulous. Do I chant? Only in my head. For now. There are 213 minutes, divided into about 30 or 40 short sections that you mix and  match, or play pre-set 30-100 minutes sequences. As Shiva says, it’s like “land swimming”. After 20 minutes, my concentration is all over the place. But for those 20 minutes, I go to places I have never been. It is a heck of an eye-opener. And, may I say that I’m very proud of myself for making this choice.

Having been raised in Prince Edward Island, where a large part of my soul resides, where I am truly at peace, my connection to any ocean is very strong. Is it coincidence that the rhythm of the waves and of our breathing is so similar? I think not.  Nature conserves energy, so when she finds a pattern, structure, or beat that works, she uses it at every level.

These programs are about teaching your mind to feel (instead of your body) through the metaphor of reaching for the tidal rhythm of the ocean, “the one breath that unites us all”. The visualization metaphors, what women were made for, are wonderful and very fresh – at least to me, who doesn’t know Yoga jargon. Shiva’s voice and the production quality are hypnotic. Shiva sways naturally when she talks. The movements are so graceful and rock gently back and forth with each breath.

This DVD keeps the left mind busy and takes you outside your preconceptions all at once. We really are all connected, to each other, to every molecule on this planet by very real beams of energy that we can barely understand. Though still in its infancy, the internet is the best visualization of that reality. The ocean and the star-filled sky simulate the same vision of humanity as one being with one collective mind.

Look at the borders of your comfort zone. Make a conscious decision to go outside them. It won’t happen by itself. Imagination and possibility await in a no-limits Universe.

With respect and with thanks to the Universe, and to you for your place in it.

Leaving your mind behind is fun sometimes. It clears the head wonderfully. Clearing the skin is much easier to do. It’s automatic when you wear the right colours. It’s harder to explain. At 12Blueprints, a video so you can watch it happen in Clearing Skin With Colour Analysis.

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I absolutely believe our body can heal in an accelerated way, just like I believe you can accelerate your life.

I believe that your food contains your medicine till proven otherwise. Food can be powerfully anti-inflammatory (and anti-aging) if you make the right choices.

I believe that there is no division between Nature and our bodies, between the energy fields around us and within us. There is also no distinction between what is happening to your body and what is happening in your mind. Your Deeper Self and these forces are one and the same, fully swirling and intertwined.

I believe that when something happens, there is a reason for it. It is the time to push you in a new direction.

I believe that you better be careful what you ask for because you will get it.

I believe that if something in your life isn’t going as you wish, your first step should be to flip the mirror 180 and look harder at yourself.

Having laid that groundwork, and since I instantly become a pessimistic wreck if I can’t exercise somehow, I decided to hobble over to WalMart to look at the Pilates selection, while I await my Pilates/flow yoga order from CollageVideo.

I found this. For $5 (they only had Level 1), how could it be bad?

Below is the 4 video set, available on the Jennifer Kries website.

Well, it’s far better than bad. It’s simply awesome.

The program has about 8 sections. There is a 20min. session of each yoga, Pilates, and ballet, all appropriate to a Level 1 of 4 position.

This is way more. It’s a brilliant integration of mind with body, taking the concept further than just repeating the “mind-body”expression, but actually explains and demonstrates it. There are fabulous sections on understanding and awakening energy sources, meridian medicine, chakras, and ancient healing beliefs in Chinese medicine in ways that will work for you today. Everything is short and concise, not overly meta-energy. She is a serious practicioner, a graceful athlete, and so pleasant to listen to.

I haven’t really been open to those ideas, or I’ve never had to be.

So what was the message? What was I supposed to learn? Why did I have to be forced to open up to this type of movement and thought?

Could this be the big flashing sign in the sky saying “lean back and stop pushing”? That it’s time to allow and to receive and wait quietly, and accept that I’ve pushed hard enough for long enough. A change is needed.

In this clip, Jennifer explains the Hot Body Cool Mind workout concept.

On this page, you can read about Waking Energy. I do the Sitting version 3 times a day. The more I do it, the better it feels. I like the doing part. I’m not good at just sitting, though I seem to be headed that way.

At beYOu.tv, this is a preview of Waking Energy Standing. You can find Jennifer on YouTube too.

My knee is getting better all the time.  My heart is feeling cautiously extra-pumpy that something good is going to happen.

At 12B, answering the question of whether you can borrow colours from your neighbor Seasons. Why, yes, I did use the picture at the top in that article too, but I like it a lot. It’s how life should be.

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Then, She: “OK, but there must be some colour everyone can wear”.

Me: “No. Maybe neutral champagne beige. “

Her: “I know you’re trying to sell this and everything, but is there anything you can say that would apply to everyone? For instance, I look good in grey. Can everyone look good in grey?”

Me: “I’m not trying to sell anything. I don’t have to. Everyone can wear some shade of grey. But, no, I cannot come up with a colour Reese and Keira and both wear well.”

Her: “ Ok, what about turquoise? That’s new this spring. They say everyone can wear it.”

Me: “Some shade of turquoise can be worn by most palettes, but not the same shade. Some shade of most colours can be worn by most palettes, but not the same shade.”

Her, getting testy: “So, there’s nothing you could tell me that could apply to everyone? Does black make you look thin, as they say?”

Me: “No, it makes light people look 10lbs heavier on the bottom half. Care to know why that is?”

Me: “Not only do the colours vary in each of the 12 Seasons, so does the way they are worn. But here’s a rule that always applies : in big blocks, in prints, in footwear, find colours that are the same as your hair, not going darker than the darkest tones in the hair.”

And there it ended.

How many times has a relative called, wondering if you died in the recent tornado she heard about on TV, and you’re thinking “What tornado?”

I’m running out of respect for media, or at least the story-gathering division. I watch no TV, except the occasional 60 Minutes if Katie Couric is not on. Her stricken-faced “Have you ever wondered what could have been?” questions force the reactionary response, which somehow overrides critical thinking. Sure, Katie, we all wonder that all the time, lost limbs or not.

They don’t tell the approximate truth. They tell the grim stuff out of all proportion to the good news. They are ONLY interested in the sensation. In an increasingly sensational world, we are left drained and exhausted.

I’m not media-trained. Maybe one gets used to handling this interrogation style. Me being me, I was irritable. I felt uncomfortable being pushed into a corner to say something I didn’t want to say. I’m not saying she would have lied to her readers…but she would have been quite OK with me lying to her readers. Allowing me to compromise my integrity was a better solution than saying “Why? Why are you saying that the conventional beliefs are wrong?”

The answer is always the same. The marketers would tell you anything to sell you stuff. They do not care if the item sits in your closet unworn for 10 years. The store brought it in and they want it out the door ASAP. It’s our job to learn the truth before we buy, not theirs to offer it.

Is the fashion industry really going to come out with 12, or even 6, shades of turquoise? Or are they going to tell you that everyone can wear the colour in the jumbo bolt of cloth they got with the volume purchase discount?  or goddess forbid, is the cosmetics industry going to dream up how to tell us turquoise eyeliner is elegant? Telling you the truth makes their life much harder. They know most consumers will buy the lie and they will never be held accountable, because the next snow job is waiting in the wings to distract us.

For the reporter, the deadline came first. She should maybe have gotten an earlier start.

At 12B, one of my meta-colour excursions, wondering if your clothes can make you (and others) feel greenish about the gills?

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© 2007–2010, Christine Scaman. All rights reserved.

Imogen’s blog is at Inside Out Style. Her webpage is at Bespokeimage, linked from View My Complete Profile under her picture.

I don’t buy into North America’s adulation with the winners of the fame and fortune lottery, so I particularly enjoy sites and blogs written by non-North-Americans. We hero worship celebrities and in trying to look like them, we don’t like our own looks. But it’s THEM that look crazy. We’re the ones who look normal.

You know I think the whole “anti-aging” gig is a marketing assignment to sell you more stuff. I’m all for health, but beyond that, I don’t agree that younger is worth admiring as much as we do. Which one of us was our best self at 25? or 35?

Colour Analysis and Style go hand in hand, but I find few sites showing clothing styles I could see myself in. This one, I relate to. There is advice here I really would use. Her posts of Jan. 7 and 8 discuss women’s sizes and body image concepts. Everyone of us has a position on these topics.

Imogen discusses many of the same colour theory topics that I do. Sometimes, reading another explanation of the same topic can help clarify it for you. If you have an interest in colour theory,  the posts filed under Colour Guide are great.

As an Image and Style Consultant, you’ll find many categories addressing clothing specifics for various body types and concerns, all described under Labels in the right side column.

Here’s a great video about why black is NOT slimming on light people, a point that can’t be made strongly enough.

She has wonderful taste, real-world, sensible taste, but she’ll still tell you to ignore the rules (and how to do so) and find ways to wear what makes you feel good. We tell others who we are with our dress, and it never feels quite right when our message isn’t truthful. We can’t settle in and feel fully confident in what we’re projecting.

The shoe section is a favorite. It’s the style choice that is most often forgotten or wrong, with little good advice out there. You’ll find so many good articles here. Seeing women hobbling around in heels that are too high, just to look sexy to some man, makes me feel humiliated. Heels are terrific, you feel long and look better and stronger, but within reason. If it hurts, you feel weak. If you’re unsteady, you look weak. You will not be taken seriously by anyone in either situation. Why do we do it to ourselves?

What Colour Shoes To Choose is great, illustrating the concept that shoes should connect with hair colour to present a unified (read “in control”, “organized”, and “strong”) appearance.

You might find a few places where our policies diverge. I don’t pretend to be an Image Consultant. When I talk about clothes and makeup, it’s only what I think looks good according to the principles for that Season. We use different Personal Colour Analysis systems. Imogen devised her own system and I look forward to reading about it.

With links to articles regarding the 100% meaningless truth behind most cosmetic and skin care marketing claims, encouraging the consumer to get herself informed, and her love of chocolate, Imogen seems a woman like us – intelligent, empowered, style conscious but not at the expense of sense, spending, and time.

I completely enjoyed wandering about her blog for when Sally introduced me to it. From an organization viewpoint, the Blog Archive is a treat. Just click on the arrow beside each month and the list of article titles opens. I visit frequently. It’s realistic, refreshing, and not about celebrity culture.

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© 2007–2010, Christine Scaman. All rights reserved.

I had to do it twice because she didn’t feel these colours could be hers. (True Summer). She saw only grays and old lady colours, instead of the fabulous roses and blues.

She felt the personality was nothing like her. She sees herself as a firecracker, but that’s only a small part of her being. She can soothe everyone around her into loving one another, even if they don’t like each other. She is highly capable, steady, diplomatic, and sensible. Courtesy and decency are central to her nature. She also has beautifully shaped hands. She is a True True Summer, and not even the darker version.

She said “they don’t make clothes in my colours”. I’ll grant that professional clothes are hard to find, but I know for sure that there are True Summer clothes out there. In fact, it’s the Winters who need full colour saturation who have trouble finding interesting colours, except in workout wear. There’s loads of black and some generic teal and plum thing, but not much really beautiful stuff. (There’s more True Summer and saturation talk in Elisa Is A True Summer, at 12B).

This was before we shopped for makeup. We tried eyeliners. The energy was wrong. It felt sticky. Her eyelashes looked too thin. We went for coffee to think about it. We finally settled on some lovely colours.

She called me recently. The makeup was dull and made her look old. Even the foundation that was perfect 6 months ago, was off.  People told her she looked better in the crimson and black she used to wear. She wanted makeup that would make her look more alive, or even a bit alive.

Make no mistake, I enjoy these challenges A LOT. I like to encounter the resistance. I lived it too. I also feel sorry for her frustration. It most certainly takes time to teach your eye how to find your colours, and to resist the observations of your Book Club and the lady at the post office. You have to exercise big patience while you go about getting the elements of the picture working together. But Karen’s is more than usual.

The thought that came into my head was “You are MAKING this be hard.”

Yes, we all have things we’re better at, but this was like going looking for obstacles. So, why?

Next thought : Do I do it too? What am I making be hard?

Revealing answer : “This is how Karen felt watching me trying to register a business name and deal with Revenue Canada!” I was all in a fluff and she was thinking “Why are you MAKING this be hard?”

Next example : Christmas gifts. People tell us that they want nothing, but we still go sweat it out on our own on Dec. 23, worried that they won’t like it. Why did we make that be hard?

We make things hard if we NEED them to be hard. Is it about not being able to release the control over the situation? Is it that we need to feel just a little under-appreciated?

Watching men think is fascinating. Generally, they are great simplifiers. They do the obvious and don’t worry. They ignore whatever doesn’t agree with their first assessment. Very seldom does a man choose the harder path intentionally.

Men are also able to proceed without all the information. So, not only will they choose the easiest path every time, but they will also make a move to get on that path without knowing what lies ahead. Sometimes, all they know is that they want the end result, that they will follow the most obvious path in getting there, and they will fill in the rest of the blanks as they go along. You know, it makes a lot of sense. Women, on the other hand, we clutter up our lives with over-emotion and over-analysis.

I am delivering the intention to look for the most effortless and uncomplicated solution. The difference between 80% and 100 is not important. 99% of people won’t even notice. Whenever I start feeling freaked out, my first words to myself are “Christine, LET this be easy”. I am exploring the possibility that most things really are as easy as they seem, before I muckled on to them and made them hard.

Chances are nobody else watching is finding your particular difficulty very hard except for you. For some reason, we chose for it to be hard. Time to stop that.

Try it for one whole day. Decide to let everything be easy. Don’t make it be hard till you are given a reason to.

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© 2007–2010, Christine Scaman. All rights reserved.

Lora follows a slightly different analysis process than I do, but many of the concepts and palettes are very similar.

This is an announcement for the release of her new book.

It is available from Amazon or from the publisher.

The quote from the publisher is as follows:

Color Revival aims to simplify the advanced 12 Season Color Analysis system. Easy to understand charts and photos help explain it in its simplest terms. Included are full palettes for each of the 12 seasons, as well as plenty of case studies of ‘real people’ who have been successfully color analyzed by the author. Besides understanding the principles behind it, people will see how color analysis in general will help one save time and money while always looking their best.

I am in the process of buying my copy. Having seen some of the preliminary work, I know that it will provide a modern and comprehensive explanation of the topic. Lora has the experience to know where people get tangled and what the most common questions are. She will address those, and more, in this book.

I love the title she chose. The time is right for the next wave of Colour Analysis for the year 2010.

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NARS Outlaw blush.

I’ve had this issue on my Product Search list for months.

90% of what’s out there can be canceled for being too brown or peach. The defining premise of this skin tone is that any amount of heat causes unattractive results.

I zeroed in on Estee Lauder Fresh Plum awhile back. It has a soft colour deposit. It’s not as blue as Lancome Aplum, my Dark Winter personal favorite (though it could be improved on with a breath of brown, just enough to turn it mulberry).

True Summer skin is usually not colourful. By December, Fresh Plum’s dusty softness doesn’t perk it up enough. Bronzer looks crazy on True Summer skin in the hands of real-world women because it adds heat to skin that inherently has none.

MAC Breath of Plum is too pink.

Most of the Rose Somethings out there are too warm. The trace of peach they add just ruins it. It looks coral.

What I wanted was a cool, fairly light Summer red-rose.

Here are a few other contenders:

MAC Breezy blush.

MAC Mineralize Gentle blush.

MAC Mineralize Love Thing blush.

The wonderful Karla has swatched the NARS product for you here.

I am asked if other Seasons can wear the makeup colours I suggest. Because the cosmetic industry offering is disorganized and random and unevenly weighted and I’ll just stop there, you pretty well have to. Soft Summer can wear Outlaw too. Dark Winter could try it ; on my skin, it appeared as a cool coral red.

NARS make beautiful blush. It is to be applied lightly. The shimmer is not enough to get in the way.

Any True Summers who try it, PLEASE let us know what you thought!

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Daynah Burnett, a Paula’s Choice employee recounts her tale of embarrassment and insult at an Ulta store. Can this store be this dumb?

Recently, my favorite beauty blogger was escorted out of a Barney’s store. All the woman does is swatch makeup colours, Lipstick Queen’s line this time. How humiliating could that be? I don’t think Poppy King would want her client base treated this way. She probably has a clue about the power of consumers talking to one another for amplifying sale numbers exponentially.

Whether you use Paula’s Choice skin care products is not my issue. There are plenty of good choices. There are plenty of horrible choices too. Why women would spend money without researching a product, given that nobody else on the planet is providing the information this company does, now that is quite beyond me. But that’s another story.

The point here is that they could have treated any consumer the same way. It could have been you or I. What did the staff members feel so threatened by? Did they take it upon themselves to make these idiotic marketing decisions or were they told to? Is there a behind-the-scenes agenda?

These stores haven fallen out of the idiot tree, hit every branch on the way down, and written themselves off my shopping option list. Read the story and imagine being told that you have to behave their way and follow these crazy rules to shop there. Would you conform? I doubt it.

On a lighter note, a new colour analysis post at 12 Blueprints. Louise and Stevan belong to the same season but look very different. How can that be?

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I bought a cabbage the size of a pumpkin for 99 cents and made cabbage soup. The house is fragrant with baked squash and apple pie. Truly, I could sometimes fall on my knees in gratitude to have been so blessed.

On Sunday, the oven goes on at noon, after workout and lunch. It sees a steady stream of food go in and out of its front door all afternoon. It warms the house and I don’t have to cook for days. If I’m going to peel one onion, I may as well peel 6. The kitchen counter is a balancing act of roasted and baked food. In the tin foil is a pan of beets. I can never understand boiling a root vegetable when roasting is so fantastic and easy. Wrap a bunch of them, unpeeled, in foil. In the oven for 1-2 hours, cool them, peel them, taste so much richer and sweeter. Throw in a medley of different ones, even better.

I’m on a pumpkin kick. Not Pumpkin Pie Filling, oh never. Just E.D. Smith Pure Pumpkin in cans. At our stores, it’s on the shelf beside the pie filling. Maybe your store has the squash/pumpkin combo, and it would work just as well.

Yellow vegetables take a little more work to figure in to every day. I put a plop in lentil or bean soup.

But my favorite thing is this bread . I make it 2 loaves at a time so I can just use 1 whole can of pumpkin. I added  millet and wheat bran to this one. Every loaf’s a new adventure.

Ingredients

• 5 small or 4 larger bananas, mashed
• 1 can pure pumpkin, the big can, 796ml/28oz
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/2c honey (I often leave this out if it’s for the family; they won’t know if you don’t tell them, my whole philosophy to cooking, and perhaps a good title for that cookbook we’re all going to collaborate on)
• 1/2 c oil, I use a canola/olive blend
• 4 eggs
• 5 c spelt flour (or whatever flour)
• 2 t b pdr
• 2 t b soda
• salt if you want to; I don’t cook with it myself
• 4 t pumpkin pie spice
• 2 t cinnamon
• anything you’re trying to use up; flax, wheat germ, the cereal your kids forced you to buy and wouldn’t eat (I’m presently adding 3c of Bran Flakes to this recipe and you can’t taste it; I would not add Honeycomb or Count Chocula, but it’s quite forgiving)

Method

You know already. Fling it all in a bowl, stir till you figure it’s stirred enough or somebody needs you for something. I make a child stand there and stir while I add ingredients over their shoulder. When they whine that it’s too hard to stir, you’re pretty well done. 325, 1 hour.

Pour into 2 waxed-paper lined (if you want to ) loaf pans.

My friend makes quick breads by brushing butter on the inside of the pan and sprinkling/coating with flax seed. It’s really good.

I love it with honey.

Love it with soup.

Love it with this ED Smith More Fruit Cherry Blueberry Jam, which I can no longer buy because I have a little problem with it.

Since no visit with me is complete without some talk of colour, visit 12 Blueprints and see what happens to the True Summer base when you blend in a touch of Spring, in Sonja Is A Light Summer. Colour is so deeply embedded in human psychology that we feel it more than we see it. Nobody is impervious to it but not everyone can explain their reactions. Watch what happens when you  take a woman who hasn’t been a student for several years and has decided to understand how to buy clothes and makeup that let her feel like her best self, in Pam Is A Dark Winter.

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Despite the $30, which I have not regretted, I had to buy it for 2 reasons:

1. Paula Begoun wrote a special post about it on her blog. I found it funny that she bought Rose and Coral, but I couldn’t ignore the recommendation.

I bet Paula is a Dark Winter. To achieve what she has, against those odds, would take a resolve and determination that no other season as a group could match. In the words of Color Me A Season’s Bernice Kentner, whom I hold in the highest esteem, in her book A Rainbow In Your Eyes, “there is nothing that these individuals cannot achieve”. If I would choose a colour for her, it would have been Plumberry, but maybe it went on too dark.

Paula’s issue with lip colour is bleeding. Mine is comfort, colour, and lasting strength.

2. The colours are gorgeous. In general, EL is good at lipsticks in clear colours.

My great friend, Gina, and my best ambassador, wrote it better than I could in a recent comment :

I bought Stay Ruby….I know I am a Deep Autumn but this colour looks fabulous! That being said the texture is not too dry and not too moist ( my hair can still get stuck on it at dance class but that is forgivable). Here’s the kicker…..this stuff does not move….SERIOUSLY it doesn’t feather, bleed, leak, run, walk, saunter, promenade….it is as sedentary as cream cheese on a knife that has gone through the dishwasher. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it…Lord have mercy! I am saved!

This is an interesting product in many ways. I think it looks different on whoever tries it. It changes depending on how many layers you apply, as it dries, and when gloss is added. Don’t discount a colour till you try it. The saleswoman here wore Stay Ruby and, like on Gina, it’s a red-brown. On me, the same colour is a strong pink-red.

Any product with staying power has a strong colour imprint. Blue pigments can seem too blue, and browns too brown. For fair complexions, it’s challenging to find a shade that doesn’t look too opaque or colorful. Here, even a single coating will feel good, last well, and look light. I like this product as a base for a lipstick or gloss. The gloss lightens the effect, helps it look less flat, makes the colour more interesting, and still hangs on forever. Pink and Pinkberry are very beautiful shades for light complexions.

It fades some, who really thinks comfortable lipstick is going to last all day, but it does not crumble. It leaves great colour even after you think it must all be gone. You go to the washroom and you’re surprised at how much colour is still there.

I apply the slightest lip liner after this lipstick just to refine the shape. There’s no need for any more. It won’t move. A gloss over top might try to slip between the lines, but it’s controlled far more than with lipliner alone.

You would not apply it without a mirror. The tip is wide. You won’t be reapplying often once it’s on, but it’s not for a day at a picnic. Use this as the base, and reapply a lighter product over top. You’re good till the next meal.

I bought Mauve and Ruby. The mixture becomes a colour that moves nicely into red-violet terrain, very much a signature colour of the Winter group. Let’s hope they add more colours to the range. Could I cast a vote for Mulberry?

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© 2007–2009, Christine Scaman. All rights reserved.

Think of it as a horoscope and nothing more than that. It can be a curiosity. Buy into it as much as you want, or not at all. For many, the association between colour and personality is a matter of fact.

Children are unguarded in showing, and using, their personality. There is no artifice in how they show, and use, their character.

The True Summer child, article here, is never the discipline problem. She is angelic. She also takes 3 hours to clean off one shelf because she gets caught up in every book and knick-knack.

The True Spring Child, here, is here for the party. This child will make you laugh. He can talk about anything and will play every game.

Ah, The True Winter Child. Recognize anyone?

1. The drama and the trauma. Will not be controlled by parents, siblings, or anyone else.
2. The power and the glory. Emotionally brutal. Can be ruthlessly determined adults as well, but oh, so sensitive when it’s their turn.
3. Most likely to ride on the Children’s Camp float in the Old Home Week parade. Will ask why they can’t have a float of their own. Made for show biz.
4. May appear cool and detached, but often besieged with worry and insecurity. Very concerned about what others think of them. A season of inward contrasts (to match the outward contrasts in their body colouring and best clothing).
5. The opposite of nurturing. It’s all about them. Ask her how her hair turned out today and she’ll tell you, for half an hour. Won’t notice if you have hair or not.

1. Physically interesting to watch. Will choose furs, sparkles, satin, diamonds, you get the idea. Stock up on glitter. Boys look very good in dark suits and are born ready for Broadway. Strike statue poses just buttering toast.
2. May shy away from being noticed, but performs amazingly well once on stage. They’re used to being looked at, almost expect it.
3. If she’s suffering, you’ll know about it. She has the power and she’s taking you down with her. The True Winter husband is much the same.
4. Have high expectations of what others should take from them (as opposed to the Summers who have high expectations of what others should expect of themselves). And everything is your fault because they’re never wrong.
5. Intensely creative. So perfectionist that they get in their own way.

To go along with this, Winter’s Jewelry at 12 Blueprints.

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There is a long-standing discussion about whether you can wear black, or any colour that is not in your personal colour palette, as long as it is not near your face.

Of course, it comes down to taste and how relaxed you feel about your appearance. To my eye, it usually doesn’t work, except in certain situations.

As an overall rule, the darkest colour that will work on you is the darkest tone in your hair. When Reese  Witherspoon wears black pants, the eye of the beholder will be drawn to the black. The weight and intensity of that colour is stronger than the intensity of her own colouring.

Where conflict exists in the world of colour, one will win and one will lose. The winner should always be YOU. Specifically, it should always be YOUR EYES. When the skin is perfectly calm and there’s nothing going on making the complexion busy, the focal point becomes the eyes.

This picture is not in focus. My children can’t sit still that long. I hope it still shows the effect.  No photo effects have been applied. My lipstick is too light, but oh well. My brother told me that I have to stop dressing like a 17 year old, even if AEO and A&F are comfortable, so I’m trying to wear professional clothes (which I’ve discovered is very difficult, because the more professional the clothes, the more boring and masculine the colours, depressing for the Summers and Springs, but not much better for the rest of us. If I went on Dragon’s Den, it would be to develop a line of beautiful, colour-correct professional clothing for women. And makeup to match. That’s my secret dream, ay? A colour empire. All the legwork is done for you. You walk into the store. You walk over to your Season Section. Done. ). All that aside, there is some sort of connection that your right colours have with your eyes.

Reese, with her $20,000/month beauty bill, can wear black. But we’re not Reese. Besides, there are still many colours Reese can wear far better than black.

What are the exceptions? Or more precisely, who among the non-Winters can wear black, since black on a Winter is a given?

The Bright Spring can do it, away from the face, and depending on the intensity and darkness of the colouring. Too near the face, you risk the older-and-tired effect of black, but with your brights, it works.

The Dark Autumn can do it, away from the face, to cool and contrast the heat in their native colouring. As the most Wintery of the Autumns, and with your dark hair, you can carry and balance this colour.

The Winterish Summers can do it, away from the face, and greatly softened with Summer colours and clothing details. Summer is a feminine season. Add flowers, lace, softly sheer fabric, and your beautiful rose colours.

Read the full article at 12 Blueprints.

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© 2007–2009, Christine Scaman. All rights reserved.

I’ve given up on Makeupalley because the reviews are all over the map for anything you look up. I guess the answer there is to find a reviewer you generally agree with and follow her. There seem to be many negative reviews elsewhere, but I’m going out on a colour limb and saying that I like this product and I like it a whole lot.

Anything that says “fall in love with colour again” and “crisper colour” is going to have me test running it. Color Sensational Lipstick is quite impressive.

The texture is fine. It is not greasy or oily. It is not of that feathery mousse technology that is supposed to feel weightless, but to me is too airy and doesn’t last anyhow. I like lipstick that is thick, fairly creamy, with a decent colour deposit, that lasts.

There were many complaints about the smell and taste. I tried 4 colours. Admittedly, my sense of smell isn’t razor-sharp, but I didn’t find anything other than a mild sweet waxy smell. I guess that’s your honey nectar at work.

Nude lips are bland, though they will have a place. They will always look fresh on a young face where the lip definition is good to begin with. Lighter lips will always balance a dark eye if a makeup artist lives at your house.

By the over 40 years, as the features fade into the face, it’s a brighter, more coloured lip that looks younger. If the colour is right, it is more than anti-aging. It also looks more interesting. More sophisticated. More confident. More creative. More exciting. More fearless. It is less safe and it gets noticed. That takes some getting used to so you don’t begin with the full face on Day 1. But is “Don’t notice me. Don’t make a fuss over me.” , really what you want to tell the world about you?

But, of course, I’m all about colour. This delivers! It is organized! The shades are great! I would venture to say that every person of the 12 Seasonal Colour Analysis groups, regardless of colouring intensity, can find a colour here. Many brands make a good attempt to organize the colour offering but are much stronger in some categories than others. This is fairly even. The colour deposit is significant and true, so the darker shades go on pretty dark, but so opaque as to be Goth.

It’s $10 in Canada, just coming into small-town Ontario now. There are a lot of us who fit the Budget Beauties profile and don’t care about name-dropping. We who have $10, 10 min., 10 things to do, 10 things we forgot to do, 10 things our kids want, and do not have Bobbi Brown for a nextdoor neighbor, can buy several over time.

It lasts outrageously well, in that it leaves a stain. I swiped some on my hand this morning at 10AM. It is 2PM, I’ve washed my hands 3 times, and there is still a (faint) stain. Perhaps my expectations were too low but I’ve been marveling at it all day.

Watch the video of the ad being filmed, on Maybelline’s product page linked above. It’s your slice of  cheap thrills today. Wear your lips like that IRL and you look demented, but it’s still fun.

Are the colours crisp, as they say? YES, they are! They know what they are and what they’re not. They’re not trying to please everyone by being pinkish-beige-brown-berry-whatever.

Do the colours look like the tube? WYSIWYG.

The colour pop thing, if that’s what you want? Depends on what colour you buy. If you are of light or low contrast colouring, the mania for colour pops is probably what scared you away from makeup in the first place. There are no pops of colour on your body and they look nuts when applied. If you own any, did you wear them once? Twice? No worries, you have plenty of softer choice here.

Play with the arrows on either side of the colour display to see all the shades. The swatch is a pretty good rendition of the tube. The colour on the tester display is not.

It’s just coming into Canada now so they don’t even have a full range of testers yet, let alone having sales. It goes on the Christmas lists.

Let it help you move to the edge of your look.

Note: I find some controversy about whether this company conducts testing on animals. Does anyone know?

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© 2007–2009, Christine Scaman. All rights reserved.

This article is at 12B, linked here.

The point is this. As marketers, when we encounter new ways of doing things, we have 2 choices.

The first is to say “Oh, that’s not how we do things. We have always done things THIS way and it’s worked for us for 15 years.” So there.

The second is to say “Have I just been whacked in the head with an opportunity to make my clients happier? Can I use this new information to distinguish myself or to exceed my client’s expectations?Let’s just see what could happen.”

Sadly, I meet a lot more of the former. The days of “We can’t. We don’t. We never have.” are done. “We flex, we change, we find” are the ideas that last.

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This explains where the heck I went for 2 weeks.

You may know that I set up a  Colour Analysis studio in my house. I thought it would be so great to work out of my house. I could schedule appointments around exercising and family.

You know what happened? I started hating my house. I normally love my dumpy-falling-down-120-year-old-you-can-kick-the-windows- farmhouse. I love the acres of space. When I saw it through other people’s eyes, I only saw faults.

I was mad at my family all the time too. I had to keep it clean and nobody cared or helped.

Besides, how am I going to become a multinational corporation who would drive to a house in the country to meet someone they’ve never met? I wouldn’t.

I rented a great room in a hair salon. It’s fab. I’ll show you some pictures once I have more. Right now, it looks a bit like this. I hope to never paint another room neutral gray, ever.

12blueprints.com is a spin-off of AGT. I split it off to provide an information/content management site for the Colour Analysis business. It’s a place for people to learn more about Seasonal Colour Analysis and to book appointments or communicate with me.

There is a blog attached. The Colour Analysis (PCA) topics will now be happening there. When a new PCA article is published, I’ll post a notice here.

The latest article, in fact, is about Cool and Warm colours. I’m going back to basics.

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If you’re a Summer and you wear ivory, you risk having a skin tone like a pale cantaloupe, and teeth to match. I was a Winter and wore ivory. I could have done better.

What about jewelry? Who wears diamonds and who wears pearls to complete a look that everyone will notice? Who wears silver? Whose earrings dangle and move and whose are set and still? If a Light Summer bride carries a big bouquet of deep red flowers, people will see 80% flowers and 20% bride.

And this is before I get into the mother-of-the-bride and the potential for meh outfits. Families are being photographed together. How do a Light Spring Mom, a Dark Autumn Dad, a Light Summer sister, and a Winter bride and bridesmaids create an arrangement so compelling that people will pause and have trouble tearing their gaze away? My family didn’t pull that off… but they could today.

Why bridal salons do not make PCA services available to bridal parties is beyond me. From a business viewpoint, this is so clear, it hurts. Family discounts, deals with tuxedo rental shops, co-ops with hair and makeup salons that understand how to use PCA.

The alternative title for this article was The Myth Of The Little Black Dress.

Why black? Because black makes you look thinner? Well not if it takes you over so all people see is your body. You know Ellen in a tux? The black and white are so overpowering that her head looks like a pimple on her shoulders. I love Ellen as much as anyone, she’s a very human celebrity and there are only about 4 of them. But the colours, oy.

Wrong colour actually makes you look 10lbs fatter. This happens because when your body’s colour tone and your clothing disagree, the edges do not come into focus. The fuzziness around the edges of your whole body is interpreted by the eye of the beholder as extra width. This would not be the look most of us intend.

Because black looks expensive? Black is overdone. Black is the excuse when you don’t know what to really do. Black is the mistake that’s ok because everyone is making it. You can look like every other woman there. Or not.

A better title for this article is Reconsider Your Neutrals.

Midnight blue, deep emerald, dusky blue, amethyst, icy grey, jade, orchid. They look better than expensive. They look rich without trying. They look aristocratic and uncommon just standing there.

If this is a business networking opportunity as well as a wedding, you have been given a chance to stand out from the crowd. Get your PCA done before you spend the money. Know exactly which are your power colours.

Colour sends a thousand silent signals. Of imagination, which speaks of youthful vitality. Of ability to take risk and succeed. Of creativity in problem-solving. You won’t have to say a word. Just remember to behave yourself.

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Thanks to Anne for the very apt title for this post.

This is where I started, 2 years ago.

I’m wearing the same amount of makeup here as in any of the other pictures but the colours are different. My weight is unchanged. Know what I see? First, the edges of my face are unclear. When the sides of the face are fuzzy, it gives the impression of pudginess or of a puffy face that blends into the neck, with the features crowded in the middle of the face. There are shadows on both sides of the bridge of the nose. The eye colour is a little washed out and the whites of the eyes look a little bloodshot.

This is the day of my return from the PCA training back at Easter. We stopped at Sephora on the way home for my first makeup purchasing experience with my Colour Book. The face seems a little fresher and the edges are clearer but the hair is even more orangey because of the cool skin contrast, and the eyes are still not sharp.

My hair was colored darker the day before to cover the orange and just to see how a cooler dark brown looks. The colour is certainly too dark, giving the impression that it is wearing me rather than balancing with my face. At the moment the picture is taken, my sweet child informed me that my hair looks like Cindy Lou Who, kind of big and loopy. I’m trying to be more faithful to the straightening iron these days. The eye colour is intensifying.

The hair colour is calming down and it gives a sense of relief. Sometimes, that’s all that right colour does. The skin is more evenly coloured and illuminated. The edges of the face are clearer. We can do better though.

The hair has grown out and needs to be cut. The orange is coming through and it’s still too dark somehow. Still, this isn’t awful. The skin seems calm and the eye colour is stronger.

This is kind of funny. I’m submitting a Success Story to the great Collage Video site, hoping to win some free videos and a donation to a favorite charity. The hair has been cut and  coloured this same day, so it is intense but looks ok. It’s still ash, but less dark. The look is more balanced. I put this here to show you how eye colour and shape become very noticeable in right clothes/hair/makeup. The effect can be seen even from a distance.

Same hair and makeup as the previous one. My hair wants to be reddish, so ok, fine. As the previous colour grows out, it may be less noticeable. The blush may be a little too pinkish, though it’s a mulberry-plum that I used. I think the face looks sharper and in focus. This is more likely the woman to run the meeting than the one at the top.

This is about where we are today. Eye colour is strong and angles are defined instead of doughy.

PCA finds the colours that are in your design from the beginning. It’s the same biology that is colouring your eyes, skin, and hair. Your melanin, your hemoglobin, your skin. Once you uncover the precise shades, if you repeat them in personal decoration, the effect is like a very believable optical illusion. It’s YOU that comes out very clearly and people see it and respond.

Once we show you you in the right colours, you will not be able to stop looking at yourself for quite some time.It is very pleasing and interesting to look at. Nobody can be objective about themselves. Nobody. Our mind Photoshops our face every time. And everyone has some degree of resistance to change.

Women who colour their hair often look very young and beautiful in their best drapes … that is until the hair comes out of the cap. The magic is suddenly lost because the hair colour is off. It is essential to repeat the tones in the hair that most flatter the skin. How could it be otherwise?

I’ll have some pro photos taken someday soon and show them to you, wearing a variety of colours.

Interesting, ay? Every season has some special edge. Once you learn what it is and how to achieve it with colour, you know everything you need about your appearance. It works on every single person.

>>cspics

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These kids are the real deal. They haven’t yet learned to temper some of their pure characteristics.

1. The party children. Playful, silly, unpredictable. Would shoot Grandma with the water cannon. As 2 year olds, it takes a lot of extended family to keep them alive.
2. Favorite topic is themself but they’ll talk about anything. Go to the bathroom and get a drink before this child gets going because they don’t turn off easily. Grownups that can talk for a long time often have a Spring streak.
3. Don’t get hung up on every little emotional upheaval.
4. Will play any game at any time with anybody. No rules? No problem. Who needs them? Staying on task to complete a chore? Now, that may be a problem.
5. Will stand in a spotlight with a bucket on their head if it gets laughs.

1. Will get caught behind the couch at Christmas eating candies with the cousins he talked into joining them. He’ll squeal and take off to commence the next antic, like eating his brother’s pet fish. Who can get angry with such a happy kid?
2. Has trouble choosing. Don’t ask which of 4 kinds of juice she wants unless you plan to be there awhile or don’t mind giving her some of each.
3. Walk in a pouring rainstorm? Sure! Might meet a bear? Great!! Pirates? Better!! They will be friendly bears and pirates in this optimistic and imaginative mind.
4. Don’t need every kid to agree. Whatever floats your boat. Would prefer not to be told what to do in return. Can dig in their heels with the best of them.
5. Smile easily and with genuine pleasure at greeting or interacting with people. This is a trait often seen in Spring men. You see their teeth (in a good way) much more often than men from other seasons.

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When contrast is high, as are the Winter seasons, the whites are pure white and the blacks are deep black. Low contrast means less difference between the lights and the darks – think of Jennifer Aniston compared to Catherine Zeta-Jones. On a black and white TV, low contrast looks like a lot of grays. When the coloring is low contrast, the shades in the palette are also closer to one another in intensity.

Here is what high contrast looks like:

It makes sense that this is only group that wear black or white extremely well, since they are the extreme high and low of the contrast scale. It also follows that the light colors are the very lightest and the very deepest of the same shades – the lightest and the deepest pinks, grays, and blues to keep the contrast high.

The more you work the particular strengths of your season, the more together your look will be. Winter is a season of stark clarity and respecting that will work the feeling best. If Spring bubbles, Summer flows, and Autumn glows. Winter gleams like platinum. This is not a season for fussy details. The colors are a little hard and the look is dramatic. There is no need to be shy with color intensity. The stronger the color, the healthier the season looks.

You can heighten your season’s impression in many more ways than colour alone. Cool Winter (True Winter), using the types of colours above, can maximize their cool, clean, shiny, expensive effect by avoiding more than 2 or 3 colours together, and choosing colours that contrast strongly. Monochromatic looks have no sparkle here, but on a Summer (low contrast season), they create a soft shine. Diamonds vs. opals. Satin vs. cotton.

Because Winter glistens, you can wear shinier makeup. After 40, shimmer and frost on a rough (wrinkled) surface draws attention to the wrong thing. On skin that stays fairly smooth, like just under the brow, a little shine in your highlighter could look good. A trace of satiny gleam in your grey eyeshadow is quite believable.

What does this season wear as contour/bronzer? There is not a lot of  yellow, orange, or gold inherent in this skin. It is about blue and red. Women with darker skin pigments have more brown, but then don’t need bronzer.

Cool Winter looks odd with a tan. The other 2 Winters are blended with a little Autumn or Spring and can carry a little warming of the skin more believably because there is a little warmth in the skin already.

It has to be cool. Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess Soft Matte Bronzer (not the duo) may be good. There’s little orange or yellow in it. Use it more as a contour but don’t use a lot.  EL’s Lucidity Translucent powder in Medium Deep and Deep, depending on your skin tone, would be worth a try.

Colour Tour

Lipstick: Estee Lauder Gloss Stick in  Wild Plum ; EL Long Last in Red Apple ;  EL Signature in Lush Rose. MAC Slimshine Grenadine, very comfortable lipcolor.

I think red lips are about as wearable IRL as black eyeliner, which is to say not. It is hard looking because these are dark, cold, strong colors. Pure red and pure black also carry too much emotional signal, at least for medium-and-lighter skin tones. If you feel you must, EL Signature Rich Red is a contender. MAC Slimshine in Urgent is too.

Blush: NARS Sin ; MAC Pink Swoon, Coygirl. Kevyn Aucoin Liquifuchsia .

What I would really like to find is a pure red blush. Slightly red-violet would work too. Does anyone know of a pure red blush? It’s not made because nobody would be confident enough to buy it, but a sheer wash of real red on Winter skin is awesome.

Eyeliner: MUFE Aqua Eyes Waterproof eyeliner 1L ; MAC Suite Array Pearlglide liner in Black Russian; Clinique Quickliner in Black Brown.

Eyeshadow: Stila Kalahoo, Kamet, Shore, Storm, and Nanda Devi at TNBTTGSY. This woman is doing a better job than the makeup companies themselves.

Mary Kay Crystalline and Onyx duet, very nice. Not too dark. A clean, cool beauty. Brown gets muddy in a hurry on these people, but a sharp gray is gorgeous. I asked a woman wearing this the name of the colour but I don’t see it at Mary Kay’s site. Steel looks close.

Chanel Mystic Eyes Quad .

Eye hilite : PC Cream and Shell. These are matte and good. If you want to try a little shimmer here, it can work. Look for icy pale colours.

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