Color Clarification

June 6, 2009

Makeup Model : Warm Spring was posted on Friday. I wanted to change that content before it published but the week got away from me. I so dislike the month of June, you have no idea. I know women who find September to be the month of lunacy. Me, it is June, no contest.

I did change it this morning. I won’t repeat what I said before. My point should have come across more strongly as needing to see the person being analyzed in many colors. Instead, it sounded like “my system is the only right one”.

The article got written that way as a crash between my perfectionist self, my very inexperienced self, and the requests I get to tell people their season or have “color parties”. When I say it can’t be done that way and nobody can look at someone and know their season, the look I get back is one of “well, you must not be any good then, because I was told I’m a Spring and I like yellow and you must be holding back so you can be paid”.

That’s frustrating on many levels. Out of that frustration, I implied that color analysis MUST be done in person and that the system I use is the only right one.

What I do sincerely believe is that in any system, the analyst has to see the person in a variety of colors in slightly-overcast-midday light. Early day has too many blue wavelengths. Later on, too many yellow wavelengths. Too much sun overexposes. It is hard to look at one rendition of that person, be it photo or in person, and be able to tell the season. Maybe that’s just me, because I understand colour best by comparison with other colours and their effects.

Secondly, well, yeah, I guess I do want to get paid for what I know and the resources I use. At least, I’d love people to not make the assumption that it’s a hobby and I could just tell them their season off the top of my head if I were really their friend. I realize nobody means harm, it’s just a relatively unknown field and few people have been exposed to how it works (or the life-changing value it has). Most particularly, I want to get paid to get it right.

For many people, whether for reasons of distance or cost or other, personal analysis with the whole drape thing is not an option. That doesn’t mean that there are no choices. Having a PCA done in person costs upwards of 150 to 300 and takes 2-3 hours minimum. Online services like Pretty Your World, which is I still believe is the most powerful image tool available to most people, costs half that. Lora Alexander and I had a project going together awhile back. We’ve ended up taking different directions, but I learned an enormous amount from her. I also believe she has the most thorough and multifaceted online PCA out there.

The analyst might want to see you in specific colours. They might prefer your hair up or down. They might not mind makeup or forbid it. They will guide you in all these issues. You will still be so much further ahead in understanding your personal coloring. You will have a swatch book, which is worth its weight in gold for the clothes and makeup shopping mistakes it spares you.

The point is you need to send many pictures. Drape every piece of clothing you have across yourself and take a picture. Lora, if you read this, please comment but I think you’d agree that the more pictures, definitely the better.

Bottom line, if I had the chance to have an online analysis or not have one done at all, I have no hesitation in recommending you have it done online. I swear to you that it is an amazing experience in finding your place and your look. We look less fat, old, and ugly in our right colors because like colors find one another and enhance or complete the appearance. That’s why they’re called complimentary colors, the red-greens and so on. Unlike colors fight the whole time. What we’re trying to find are the colours that you were painted with at birth. It all happens for a reason.

Perhaps all PCAs go through this at the beginning and get used to it. I wonder when I’ll outgrow saying things I don’t mean and behaving like someone I don’t even like. I have no respect for anyone who tries to get ahead by pushing anyone else down. If you can’t climb on your own merits, then you shouldn’t climb at all. It disturbs me to think that I seemed to do that very thing. Still learning, I guess.

Whether you’re raising children or dogs, or practicing medicine, or doing color analysis, I really believe there are as many right ways of doing it as there as people trying. I am not someone with a lot of unilateral beliefs about raw food diets for dogs and cats, spanking children, religion, and most other hot button topics. If I sounded rigid and inflexible, I sincerely apologize. I’m not that guy but I sure sounded like I was.

Note : Things are happening in a funny order here. I just posted this and see that Lora wrote a great reply to the Makeup Model : Warm Spring article. It got diverted to my spam, I don’t know why, but it’s posted now. Read it. Talk to us.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Color Analysis

Comments

2 Responses to “Color Clarification”

Sonja on June 7th, 2009 12:47 am

name for company: Complimentary Colors
What do you think?
May on June 7th, 2009 12:52 am

I never thought you were coming across as hard line. I just didn’t get that impression from your articles. People might perceive this as a hobby, and therefore ask you for freebies, because they know you as a vet.

Sometimes it is hard for others to accept that someone has shifted gears. There can be a lag time between the “old” you and the “new” you. People need time to adjust, and unfortunately, some people react negatively to change. Persevere, everybody will adjust. They always do in the end.