A couple of things (OK, maybe 3 or 4…):

You mentioned brown above as a good color for you. Which brown(s)?
-very dark , almost black
-dark and rich (chocolate)
-dark, rich and warm (mahogany)
-medium/dark warm (coffee)
-soft and rosy and a bit cool (rose brown)
-medium/light (cocoa or bronze)
-medium and rich (golden brown)
-light and warm (camel)

When you look at the ensemble of colors (in the CMC book) for clear spring, warm spring and warm autumn, deep and soft autumn, which one seems to have the right overall degree of intensity/depth and clarity (or mutedness)? Which are the colors in that season that you feel you cannot wear?

Which color do you think you look your best in:
- clear salmon, light peach, pumpkin, salmon or peach?
- kelly green, light moss, or olive?

Kathy, it would be great if you could list your best colors and the colors you cannot wear. I have seen them in different postings but it might be helpful too for others wishing to offer their suggestions to have a summary. Does it look as if I’ve given you homework?

Give the Soft Autumn idea just a bit more thought. It may end up not being it, but it seems to be the one season the can combine warm colors such as yellow-green and olive with cool “reds”, not exactly raspberry, but claret, damson and geranium. Can you imagine some color combinations that would not be too weak? Charcoal and verbena, chocolate and soft violet, pewter and geranium, light navy and emerald turquoise (from the Color me Confident book). Also in the book, there are some suggested color combinations that look close to yours above: olive/light moss, yellow-green/greyed-green, damson/olive. Regarding makeup, there are some commonalities between soft autumn and clear spring, not exactly the same, but some common colors (do you have the 1991 CMB book?).

The logical thing moving warmer and less clear from Clear Spring would be warm spring, deep autumn and soft autumn. The other season that could have the kind of olive/raspberry combo that you mention would be deep autumn, not exactly, but something like olive/burgundy or olive/damson. I remember not so long ago, CMB had ruby lipstick as one of the options for deep autumns. I thing it kind of goes with your idea of olive/raspberry. Also, deep autumn has the winter influence, which brings the possibility of the cooler colors. Deep autumn doesn’t seem to have anything as light as a yellow-green (other than lime) but it use to have a light moss in the old days. Warm spring used to have a violet in the old days.

Kathy, is there a well-known person that you think has similar coloring to yours? Or you may give us a summary of your personal coloring as a refresher. I will continue to think about it.

The sort of muted, dusty colors of soft summer/soft autumn are generally too weak for me.

One of my favorite color combinations is a warm olive green paired with a raspberry shade. Or olive or yellow green and brown. I see to gravitate to mid-contrast shades with some clarity, but not really bright warm colors. I could wear them, but feel… silly? I thought I might be a clear spring for a while (and frankly, the makeup works), but those bright, clear blues and turquoises are deadly.

Totally agree with you. And I have such a fun time watching people’s huge makeup collections on youtube (I know, I need to get a life…). But the point is, what’s the point of having too much and so wrong? I find it interesting also that we share an appreciation for Paula Begoun’s work.

Color analysis just fascinates me, perhaps because though some may think it frivolous, I find that the joy and confidence it brings also has an effect in other areas of our lives. Sometimes I think we just have a duty to bring out what God has given us, all of it. Over the years, I have come across different systems that at times seem contradictory, but have found something valuable in all of them, and the ability to look at a greater number of factors involved.

One of my go-to places for sweaters and tees is Landsend, especially for rich and neutral dark colors. Have a look among the large number of items they have, I’m sure you’ll find something under sweaters or T-shirts:

http://www.landsend.com/ix/mens-clothing/Men/Shirts-Sweaters/Mens-Sweaters/index.html?seq=1~2~3~4&catNumbers=1~8~20&visible=1~2~1~1&store=le&sort=Recommended&pageSize=12&tab=1

Kristina,

It makes me happy if you think you’re finding your way with this color thing. I had a look at the Lancome site and the items you mention seem to be well worth a try. The blush looks like a pretty neutral rose, and the eyeshadows a great pairing of pale pink (possibly your best highlighter for eyeshadow and clothing) and a medium brown/cocoa.

If you are at the Lancome counter, see if you like the Color Design Chic Cassis cream blush. I am curious to see who else suits this color. It applies richly but also sheerly, not heavy, and as a neutral, clear plum, not as a muddy, too cool plum.

Also, MAC Del Rio and Touch lipsticks look a bit like a mauve brown, and Bobbi Brown’s Hot Cocoa is definitely mauve brown but may be too dark.

All the best and I look forward to continuing to hear about your color discoveries. Fil

Lovely to have you join the conversation Thanks for the kind words. I certainly have grown into my own skin in the new colours. I am told they have more force.

Part of bringing out the best in women, in everyone, is developing a thicker skin when it comes to advertising, as you say. They lie in hundreds of ways to get our money and we seem powerless to resist. It’s a study in itself. The more I look at the clothing offerings, the more unbalanced and disorganized it becomes. I’ve been looking all morning for a Men’s Dark Winter sweater for the bulletins I send clients. I’ve been to Old Navy, Banana Republic, Nordstrom, J Crew, LLBean, GAP, so far nothing. Of course, the sites seldom show colour as vividly as IRL, but how are people supposed to shop online? It should not be this hard or this discouraging.

Thank you for your commitment to great comments. You appear to be a good critical thinker, one of my favorite things!

I’m glad everyone is reading Irenee Riter’s site. I find her colour system complicated, and I don’t fully align with her cool/warm makeup suggestions (or just don’t understand them fully), but there is a great quantity of inspired information there, from a very experienced consultant.

Nice to know you feel like a Soft Summer (Soft and Cool). I meant to mention also why I thought you might not be one of the other two Summers, Light and Cool:
- as you said above, Light Summer (Light and Cool) could be a bit too light for your coloring, although there are many colors in common (or slight variations) with Soft Summer.
- Cool Summer (Cool and Soft) could be too cool, and then there is the issue of black and other dark neutrals, which feature more prominently than the few ones (just Charoal, really) on the Soft Summer palette.
- your favorite colors also say Summer, medium blue, periwinkles, cocoa, rose/brown, soft white, pastel pink. But when you add coral to the list, it says to me Summer with Autumn influence.
- not Autumn though. Your dislike of rusts, olive and black seems to indicate not a Warm or Deep Autumn. Also, when you compare yourself to your brother wearing his lime green, I picture you more wearing verbena, emerald turquoise and jade.
- Autumn eyes: I also thought I had Autumn eyes, but looking at Irenee’s charts they look more Spring, and the green rim I have that I thought was olive green is actually apple green.
- make-up for Cool Summers starts to go into soft fucshias (you mentioned fucshia lipstick is not so granola) and blue-pinks. There are variations of your favorite rose/brown, rosewood that suit other seasons, but when I hear rose/brown and cool season I immediately think Soft Summer (as I do when you say softer, rosy, browned, cool, saturated/i.e. not light).
- the Bobbi Brown cream blushes you mentioned from the Karlasugar site (isn’t she wonderful? She has saved me from myself more than once…) do indeed look like they could suit you. I actually wear the Pink Truffle and I think it might work for Soft Summer too. Velvet Plum is the one I would more readily asssociate with SS if it doesn’t apply too dark.

I am not surprised you’ve been through all the other seasons and find something in common, but not quite it. This seems to be quite common with Softs. Also, although the contrast in Soft Summer is not a sharp one, there is a soft contrast in the layering of the (not so) dark and light neutrals (which give you the typical monotone of Softs) with soft medium brights. I can picture this same contrast on you, your hair, eyes and skin providing the darker and lighter (and contrasting) neutrals, and the medium blues, blue/greens, mauves, neutral pinks, soft/light reds adding to the soft contrast with pops of color. I would agrre with you that soft==less sharp, as opposed to light.

Red and Freckles from sun exposure: freckles possibly both from the Soft and Autumn influence (an attempt at tanning).

If you are not able to do your draping now, the following may help:
- do some “retrospective” draping and take notes–think back of all the times you loved how you looked, felt healthy and confident, got compliments and admiring looks.
- go “no-shopping” shopping–take an afternoon and go shopping with no intention of buying. I believe you will fill an attraction to your best colors. Then go back another time and purchase the one or two items you can’t seem to get out of your head.
- get samples and try the makeup colors you like.
- buy scarfs or knit them in your favorite pop of color colors.

You are so right, and that’s what’s caused me to be in the wilderness for 25 years, would you believe it! It is amazing we look at ourselves in the mirror several times a day and so often we don’t see what’s really there. I’ll tell you, when I read Christine’s comment about finding the colors we already have, it sounded truly revolutionary!

I read some of your descriptions of your coloring above, and you sound just like a dear friend of mine who also has very dark eyes and medium/dark/golden hair and peach/pink skintone. She is a Soft Autumn, who is able to push it into the Warm seasons depending on what she does with her hair, although she runs into a problem with mustard and other like colors.

I would have guessed you could be a Soft Autumn (Soft and Warm)too:
- you mention your peachy/pink complexion, neutral body, red face, pale, to me this coloring suggests balance and neutrality, i.e., Clear or Soft
- you seem to be some type of Warm season rather than Cool, but clear or sharp colors are sharp/garish, which suggests perhaps one of the Soft seasons, not Spring, and also not Summer since it is cool
- Deep Autumn (Deep and Warm) colors seem to be too heavy and I wonder if Warm Autumn (Warm and Soft) and Warm Spring (Warm and Clear) are the best for you given what you said about stronger yellows (I’m talking mustard, amber, daffodil, and even orange and other decidedly warm colors)

In addition to my friend I mentioned above, I have found over the years people with brown/golden hair with very dark eyes are often Soft Autumns (pardon the generalization), except when it comes to women of color, where very dark eyes with darkish hair and some contrast between hair and skin tone is often an indication of Clear Spring (Clear and Warm).

– A correction to what I said above to Kristina, which won’t change my comments about her coloring: the new CMB system categorizes as Light, Deep, Warm, Cool, Clear and Soft, with two sub-categories in each of these for a total of 12 seasonal palettes. Then across the board the traditional seasons share a grouping of 12 colors among then. For example, all winters share 12 colors, in addition to each having their Deep, Cool and Clear colors they share with Deep Autumns (Deep and Warm), Cool Summers (Cool and Soft) and Clear Springs (Clear and Warm). The only exception is in fact the Soft Autumn (Soft and Warm). You have your Soft colors shared with Soft Summers (Soft and Cool), and then it would follow logic to have the additional 12 colors in common with all other Autumns, Deep and Warm. However, only 6 of the season-specific colors of Soft Autumn are shared with the other Autumns. The other 6 colors are shared with all the Springs (Light, Warm and Clear Spring).

This is also part of the reason I feel you could be a Soft Autumn, as you are deciding between Spring and Autumn. Not only are several colors shared, but also the “mediumness” of the Soft Autumn colors can feel a bit spring-y, albeit softer, less clear.

Christine,

I want to thank you for such a lovely site, I love the topics discussed and I love your motivation to bring out the best in each woman. I also look into the sites that have the latest of collection x or y, but there’s no love in that, is there? By the way, you look beautiful in your new Dark Winter colors!

According to Irenee Riter’s site, I’m a spring with an autumn influence, or a spring with a winter influence. I think the spring/autumn blend suits me better than spring/winter. My skintone falls right in line with spring, but my hair and eyes look “typically” autumn.

What I have notice, looking at some of the examples here and other sites, is that deeps have a skintone that could be described as rich. And although some have fairly light skin, most do not have super pale skin like mine. (Which explains why I get lost in dark, vibrant colors.)

“People often place dark haired people as Deeps, ”

This is my biggest problem with the CMB system: dark hair and eyes = deep. And absolutely nothing else.

(It’s also very flawed for women of color, giving anyone with a deeper skintone one subset of winter, deep or dark winter, when clearly that is not always the case.)

One more interesting site I found when Christine’s observations made me think I needed to think cool (in my case cool neutral rather than really cool) as opposed to warm:

http://www.bellasugar.com/Explore-Cool-Makeup-Shade-1860045

In fact I decided to give the Rimmel blushes a try (good reviews at Beautypedia and cheap!) and indeed both Berry and Plum (applies more like a soft neutral red with a light hand) are great, much better than the warm colors I had been using, which clashed with my natural colors.

Long comment, I know. How’s that for making things easier?

http://www.thescienceofpersonaldress.com/inter-seasons.htm

http://www.thescienceofpersonaldress.com/makeup_eyebrows.htm

(continues…)

The suggested make-up colors for Soft Summer are Rose blush and Mulberry, Soft Mauve and Pink Shell lipstick (in the 1991 book, also Pink Brown and Soft Plum blush and Tan Pink, Dusty Rose, Plum Rose, and Rose-brown lipstick), and for Soft Autumn Sienna blush and Sandalwood, Spiced Peach and Nutmeg lipstick (Cinnamon, Salmon, Tawny Rose, and Spiced Peach blush, and Spiced Peach, Mahogany, Terracota, Brick Red, Salmon, Soft Brown, and Tan Pink lipstick).

I think the Soft Summer colors in the 1991 Color Me Beautiful book show even better a predominance of medium-toned blue, blue/green, rose, and pink colors.

Do Christine’s suggestions for Soft Summer make-up and Irenee’s Balanced Soft colors ring a bell or am I totally off here?

http://www.agreenertea.com/makeup-model-soft-summer/

(continues…)

- soft white
- stone
- taupe
- natural beige
- rose brown
- cocoa
- chocolate
- pewter
- charcoal
- sage
- grey-green
- verbena
- emerald turquoise
- spruce
- mint
- jade
- turquoise
- teal
- sky blue
- light periwinkle
- charcoal blue
- sapphire
- light navy
- soft violet
- purple
- damson
- blush pink
- claret
- geranium
- shell (a pale pastel pink?)

And these are the ones specific to all Autumns:
- buttermilk
- light gold
- camel
- golden brown
- yellow-green
- light moss
- olive
- salmon pink
- salmon
- rust
- light peach
- peach

— and to all Summers:
- eau de nil
- sea green
- icy grey
- bluebell
- lavender
- amethyst
- icy pink
- icy violet
- powder pink
- soft fuchsia
- orchid
- rose

(continues…)

Although I also agree that nothing beats draping, I am going to venture a guess and suggest that you may be a Balanced Soft, i.e., a Soft Autumn or Soft Summer. I now am really going out on a limb and suggest you may be a Soft Summer (in spite of your dark hair/eyes), for these reasons:

- your preferred word to describe your look is “soft”
- your dark hair color is softened by the silver and lighter brown;
- your coloring (including your hair) has a balance of cool and warm colors;
- you have a preference for medium colors (if you were a Clear Winter for example, you would favor both medium colors and dark neutrals);
- you prefer softer bright colors to really bright colors;
- your lips are mauve and you dislike warm-toned lipstick;
- your skin has a light olive complexion and does not tan easily. I suspect what comes through when you have sun exposure is a cool neutral mauvish pink.

(continues…)