RSSMakeup Model : Clear Winter
June 16, 2009
I get a lot of emails from women who know they’re Winter but don’t know which one. Good on them to know that there are 3 versions of each season. The Clear Winter (Sci\ART’s Bright Winter) is the bridge to Spring. That means that it still respects the deep, clear, dark colors of all Winters, and is predominantly cool, but it is just slightly warmed by yellow.
Clear Winter is the clearest, least muddified color out there. It is clear saturated color from both its Winter roots and its Spring tendencies, both seasons of pure (not dusty or grayed) tones. Look at the 3 pinks.
From L, Clear (Bright) Spring, Clear (Bright) Winter, True (Cool) Winter.
The colors in the swatch book do not look the same as these, but they illustrate the point well enough. Beginning in reverse, on the right, you see True Winter pinks as the coolest of all. There in no warmth in those tones. They are all about blue and black. Moving to the left, you see Clear Winter in the middle. Though the color is still vivid and strong, you see that it has warmed up a little. Moving still more to the left, you see Clear Spring on the far left. The colors have warmed relative to True Winter but they have also lightened, meaning that they contain relatively less black or blue.
Subtle, I know. Interesting to think about, but nothing you need to know as long as you have your own swatch book. When we color analyze you, we find the colors that naturally exist within you and hand them to you in this nice book. The colors of these 3 groups are close. The correct shade will disappear into the skin tone of people of that season, or will be just slightly discordant on the wrong coloring.
Clear Winter is Elizabeth Taylor when she was 30. Dark dark brown hair, the color of 85% cocoa chocolate, the color of black coffee. Even as a child, her hair was very dark. Strikingly colored eyes. And very white skin. There is high contrast here, a lot of distance between the lights and darks. We’d have to look at her without makeup, wearing various colors to decide for sure but she gives the impression of the classic version of this season.
No season can have such wild variation in hair color as Winter so there are many possible looks, all the way to blonde (often with dark eyebrows). You would find that they’d be washed out in Spring’s soft, warm colors. It takes the intensity of Winter’s brights to balance the degree of color in the complexion. Who is an example of that? Marilyn Monroe in her platinum hair phase.
Makeup to try
Lips: Estee Lauder Gloss Stick in Golden Violet , Berry Pink; EL Long Last in Candy; EL Signature in Rich Berry ; Clinique Butter Shine in Raspberry Rush.
Blush: NARS Crazed. MAC Breezy and Dolly Mix. Kevyn Aucoin Liquifuchsia. Clarins Framboise blush 30.
This was challenging blush to find. I wonder if these colors are more intimidating for women and companies stick to safer brownish colors. The option of just using your lipstick as blush (if the formulation is not too greasy or glossy) could be considered.
Eyeliner: MUFE Aqua Eyes Waterproof eyeliner 1L ; MAC Suite Array Pearlglide liner in Black Russian; Revlon Colorstay in Black Brown; Clinique Quickliner in Black Brown.
Eyes: Chanel Smokey Eyes eyeshadow quad. As ever, KarlaSugar does the browsing for you. You’ll see the liner and shadow in this post.
Eye hilite : Paula’s Choice Shell or Cream.
Mascara : Black
Comments
43 Responses to “Makeup Model : Clear Winter”
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Hello!
Thank you for this article, I’ve been waiting for it! Now I can’t wait to go to the EL counter and try some of those lipsticks…
I’m sorry, but I didn’t get the Marilyn Monroe bit. She was a Spring, wasn’t she?
Kristina,
In her early, unaltered days, she certainly appeared to be resemble the Spring stereotype. Once her hair was progressively more bleached, with the dark eyebrows and eyes, she had the ability to wear colours of the Winter intensity. There was a strength and a darkness and a contrast to her coloring that would have overwhelmed pastel soft colors. I’m not sure what she really was. We never saw her without makeup and controlled photography. Her character certainly had some of both seasons. Maybe she belonged to that neutral Spring that shares some colours with Clear Winter.
Please tell me what you think of the lipstick colours if you find a moment. I match them to the Bright Winter swatches but have not put them on a real face. I’m very curious to hear your thoughts.
Christine, thanks so much for this. Can’t wait for the Cool Winter article. Like many of your readers, I’m at a loss as to understand which Winter I am, exactly. I have naturally medium ash hair (very gray, absolutely no red or gold at all), beige skin with a purplish-pink blush, black eyelashes and eyebrows and greenish-grayish-brown hazel eyes. I’m trying to return to my original hair color and in the process I’m finding that the warm colors are suiting me less and less. the main thing however seems to be to keep the colors strong and bright. Is there any way to figure out which Winter I am? I almost thought I might be a clear or a cool (btw, I was born with violet eyes which later changed color), but because my eyes now are neither extremely bright (hazel is a pretty subdued color) nor cool, I am having doubts. Any suggestions? Thank you in advance! PS I looked great with the Clinique Raspberry Rush…
Hi, Valeria,
There is a short and correct answer to which Winter you are. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any other truthful answer. You just need to get to a colour analyst. Let me know if you need help finding one. You probably know from my writing that hair and eye colour are neither here nor there in determining season, according to the system I use. That is especially true in a Winter where colouring can be all over the map. Also, a PCA is looking for very particular skin effects that you might not notice if you’ve not been shown how. I didn’t see it in my family till we learned what to look for. It is really hard for people to grasp this idea that you can forget what your hair and eye colour is, but you clearly have a sensitivity to colour. You would love watching the analysis process. It is quite fascinating.
I’m so glad you like that lip colour. I love it when women give me feedback on how these colours actually work, so thank you for that. It’s not an easy one to wear. It is too cool and too bright for me, making me think that Cool Winter or Bright Winter seem likely (I’m Dark Winter) but nobody can get closer till you are PCA’d. If you live anywhere near a rough path between Ontario and Florida, I’m hoping I can bring the system to you one day. And across Canada.
Christine, thanks so much for your feedback! I would absolutely love to be professionally matched as the whole process is fascinating to me. I would love to follow your advice, and if you can recommend someone in the Boston area, I would be eternally grateful
Or maybe you will consider visiting our lovely city one day! 
Hi, Valeria,
Everyone who gets PCA’d loves it … and is surprised by the things we find in you that you didn’t know existed. It is fascinating to the analyst as well that so much detail can come out of a face. Maybe because I’m still building my experience, these are aspects of the person’s features that I have never seen before (even if I’ve known them a long time) and that they’ve never seen either.
To find an analyst, look under the Appointments link on the left on this page,
http://www.ColorAnalysis.com/Personal_Color_Analysis_s/90.htm
I didn’t look under Boston but I hope you find an analyst. If you’re ever near western Michigan, I can most definitely recommend a fabulous PCA.
Who knows, Boston is not far from here. I drive past it every December on my way to Eastern Canada. I’m thinking of starting a waiting list so I can plan a US Colour Tour.
Hello! I found your site while googling various color analysis topics…seems like you know your stuff, so I hope it’s okay if I bug you with a few questions…
I’m a bit confused when it comes to establishing the dominant characteristics:
My best friend is dark/deep; it’s the first thing you notice: Her black hair and almost black eyes. Her skin is neither light nor dark…beige-olive, I’d say. I assume the obvious thing to do would be to check for deep autumn or deep winter. I’ve draped her with some towels and she is obviously cool: Any golden brown or orange-y earth tone is wrong for her. Cool pastels are harmonic but a bit boring. And the deepest colors like black, dark blue, burgundy are okay but too muted. She needs Superman-blue and hot pink – the pure hues. I’d say that because she doesn’t have pale skin and jewel-like eyes with her dark hair, she’s not a bright/clear winter. I’d classify her as a cool winter even though “cool” is not the first tonal characteristic I noticed about her. Can I do that? And if the colors she needs are (rather) dark, cool, and bright/clear, I figure she is a “classical” winter in the 4-season system…so is the “classical” winter the same as the cool winter?
Same problem with Claudia Schiffer: First thing I notice is that she’s light. Then that she’s cool. But soft/muted as in a “classical” summer in the 4-season system? No. And I feel the really powder-y, light pastels wash her out and she needs a bit more power to her colors. Since I wouldn’t want to put a winter label on her blonde self, I’d go with cool summer (though I do feel that between cool winter and cool summer, the swatch wallets look almost identical?). Again, can I do that when “cool” is only the second thing I notice about her, not the dominant?
And me, personally, I have no clue where I fit into the 12-types system. I’m a spring – in bright daylight, you notice my golden-brown hair and the mossy green eyes, pale golden skin. So I’d say I’m bright/clear. But I don’t fit the bright/clear spring profile, because I look hideous in blue of any kind. I’m too dark to be a light spring. The color palette in “Color Me Beautiful’s Looking Your Best” that represents pretty much all my best colors is for warm spring (even though I’m neither golden/straweberry blond or red, nor do I have ivory or porcellain skin with freckles). But again, warm is not the first thing one notices; that’s bright/clear…can I still be a warm spring?
And finally…I always hear that any season can wear purple (or variations thereof)…apart from the fact that I don’t agree with this, nobody seems to know why. Do you have any idea?
Wow, that got much longer than I’d planned.
Hi, SBunny,
You have a great sense of colour! and a very analytical thought process.
Your thinking is quite sound, but I may be the wrong person to ask these questions because we use 2 different analysis systems. In the CMB system that you refer to, hair and eye colour is taken into account. In the Sci\ART system that I follow, hair and eye colour are absolutely irrelevant to the season. They can be all over the map for any season. When we do the draping, the paramount thing is how the colour of the drape affects the skin. Yes, the right colour will heighten eye colour and do other good things. And yes, sometimes people have warm skin and cool eyes and in the early stages of the analysis, it may seem as though you’re getting conflicting results. As the analysis progresses, as long as you keep basing every decision on which colour most perfects the skin, you’ll come out right in the end for hair and eye as well.
You ask if classic (True) Winter is the same as Cool Winter …. they’re as close as possible, given the different criteria the systems use to analyze a person. So, between CMB and Sci\ART, the analysis process is different. Once you are put into a season, the palettes are similar. I did a post recently on The Season Naming Systems, describing the closest equivalents between the systems.
By my approach, what would put you into a Warm Spring (pretty close to True Spring or might be moving into Autumn, it will be one or the other) will ONLY be whether those colours made you SKIN look poreless and flawless.
My biggest challenge as an analyst is to regard every person as any possible season till the drapes PROVE which they are. It is inevitable that we guess but it is wrong to do so. I’d meet you and assume you could be Light Summer, Dark Winter, or anything in between.
You know who really gets the CMB system inside out? Lora at http://www.prettyyourworld.com. She can see people’s colours something amazing and knows the Dominants, the Secondaries, and the variations.
PS – the ONLY question that ever bugs me is the one that didn’t get asked.
Hello again! And thanks for the compliment!
Would it be alright then if I pointed Lora in the direction of this post so she can jump in with comments here?
Yes, I posted before I saw your other post on the different system and that you’d change the names to the Sci\ART ones once you were done with this series of posts…I’d seen “Clear Winter” and automatically assumed you were using the CMB system.
Me, I have to say the tonal/seasonal combination makes the most sense to me. But I find that the theory behind it is hardly ever explained. For instance, a lot of color consultant training places only use Itten – but I thought we’d learned recently that the primary colors aren’t red/blue/yellow but red/green/blue or yellow/magenta/cyan based on how the light works and that therefore Itten’s theory is now flawed.
I’m actually looking for consultant training that can explain to me why a blue undertone is cold and a yellow one is warm – because color temperature suggests that blue is the coolest color, but the warmest is red/orange – so why are we looking for a yellow undertone when orange is the ultimate warm color? And why can a spring wear emerald and aqua? It makes sense on the RGB/CMYK color wheels, where they are positioned halfway between blue and yellow. But on an artist’s color wheel, aqua to me seems like light blue – why does that work with my warm skin tone (and it does)? So which law of mixing colors should a color consultant best use – one based on light or mixing paints? And what exactly is a “cool winter yellow” when yellow is supposedly the ultimate warm undertone? A yellow that has been neutralized with grey? How can there be a warm blue? And, again, why can supposedly every season wear variations of purple?
I find that even a lot of color consultants have no clue about these questions or have never in fact asked them. So yes, you were absolutely right – I do have an analytical personality when it comes to things.
Based on that…would you tell me a bit about Sci\ART training? I’ve been to their website and saw that they sell a training manual, “Understanding Your Color” and say they put a lot of emphasis on sound color theory. Have you used that manual in your training? Would it/the Sci\ART approach be able to clarify the above questions for me?
Again, thanks for answering! =)
SBunny,
In an moment of software breakdown, my reply to your latest comment appears to have been mislaid in here somewhere. Maybe you’ve seen it, so I’ll do an abbreviated version.
By all means, draw Lora’s attention to your questions. We’re good friends and I think she checks in here now and then to read the interesting conversations. She may answer your questions better than I will be able to. She and I may also disagree on certain points, but that’s fine. I’d rather hear an honest opinion that censorship for fear of offending me.
So, let’s see
- about the correct version of the colour wheel : I just don’t know which is right or wrong. I don’t mix colour.
- about undertones : it seems to me there are many many undertones, complicated by the fact that there are also many overtones. I don’t look for undertones when I analyze someone. I look at how their skin reacts to the drapes. I don’t believe anybody alive can tell a person’s undertones and overtones by looking at them, even if they’ve personally draped 40,000 people. It’s just really hard with too many variables in the equation. They have to be tested. Also, maybe 10% of people are just warm or just cool. By far most people are a blend of a cool and warm, giving them a degree of neutrality. What degree and in what direction? Back to Plan A, with the drapes or some sort of testing system. Why does aqua work on your warm skin? You’re probably warm-ish but with some neutrality and/or the aqua you’re using is the right shade for your precise skin. Other aquas might work, some better, some less well.
- about emerald and aqua and purple : there is probably a shade of each of these in each of the 12 palettes. Some will have more white, more black, more yellow, etc.
- about light or mixing paints : again, I haven’t a clue. I’m not an artist or a pure colorist. What feels wrong to me about your thinking is that you’re working in 2D color space. But color exists in 3 dimensions. It’s a sphere, not a circle. I don’t know if an artist’s colour wheel is different from the regular colour wheel, but the regular one is still just 2D. Color analysis is all about 3D. There is no color analysis without all 3 dimensions because there is no color without all 3 dimensions. This, you do learn about at the training.
- cool yellow is like lemon yellow, maybe down to dinner-mint yellow. All color is relative. There are a million yellows, more orange in some, more brown in others, more blue/black, and then less of each one. Warm blue is like periwinkly. Add/subtract yellow/white/grey/etc and you can move around inside a color endlessly.
- the Sci\ART manual is a support for the course and focuses most on colour as it applies to humans physically (ie: external appearance) and psychologically. It’s not a course in color mixing, though I think I have seen a course with that title at the Sci\ART site. Would any of their analysts be able to answer your questions? I don’t know. The owner of the company, Kathryn Kalisz, an artist and colorist of vast experience, certainly could. You might look for a workshop she is hosting. I think I read of an upcoming one in Atlanta. There is also a Meet Kathryn link at the site.
Here’s my 2 cents (for whatever its worth):
You raise a lot of questions here so I will try to answer as much as I can that I know for sure, or at least think I know. I’m going to start with your second comment first. Your questions about primary colors and the ‘warm vs. cool’ colors really have to do with whether you are talking ‘additive’ colors or ‘subtractive’ colors. Additive deals with light and Subtractive deals with pigment. Adding all colors together in the additive system creates white light (and the primary colors are red, green, and blue) and all colors added together in the subtractive system create black (and the primary colors are blue, red, and yellow).With regards to human color analysis we are dealing with pigment so the primary colors are red, blue and yellow. Yellow is the warmest of the colors, blue the coolest. On a side note, the research I’ve done (and I’m not a color scientist and when I have tried to really delve into things like the history of color science, color theories other than related to beauty I realize its WAY over my head) I have realized that there is a lot of subjectivity when it comes to why yellow is warm and blue is cool . We associate warmth with the sun and cold shadows with blue. However, I read 10 pages about that subject just last night and there was so much real science and math involved, I got a headache.
Regarding your first comment, your friend sounds probably like a Cool Winter. You’re smart in identifying that warm colors do not look good on her. That is a sure sign of a Cool Winter. A Deep Winter will have some obvious warmth to her, sharing some of the deepest colors of the Autumn palette, a Cool Winter will not. I agree with Christine about skin undertones. I don’t see obvious cool and warm skin most of the time. In fact, skin tones is rarely a clue for me in analyzing someone. And even if you identify a cool skin tone, that doesn’t tell you a person’s season. The seasons which will contain both warm and cool colors such as Deeps, Lights, Softs and Clears will often times have warm skin but they favor cool colors overall and vice versa. This is where Christine and I disagree. I think hair (natural hair color) and eyes play a huge part of the analysis. Skin not so much. You are right that Claudia Schiffer is a “Light”. And that is most important to identify because once you do that, you are 75% there is figuring out your season. Even if you cant figure out your secondary characteristic, just knowing that “Light” colors are what you should wear is crucial. I agree that sugary pastels seem to drain the color from her a bit. That’s why the other option for a “Light” season is the “Light Spring” and that is what I believe she is.
Christine is right about Aqua. There is a shade of aqua in every palette. Some are more warm than cool, lighter, darker, whatever. But again, because it is a mixture of both yellow and blue, it will be one of those “universal” colors that most people can wear. Purple is the same. It’s a balance of both warm and cool and with a few variations of intensity, it can look great on everyone. You can “warm” a color by adding yellow. Instead of a cobalt blue which is very cool, adding yellow to it will make it a more teal blue. Warmer than cobalt blue, cooler than green but still a warmer shade of blue.
I have a book in the works about the 12 Season Color System and how to find your season. It will talk about the dominants, secondary’s and contrast level as well as give a lot of tips in figuring out those tough cases. I hope to really simplify the 12 season system for the average person because I really do think it is the most accurate system out there. You can sign up to be notified of it on my website: http://www.prettyyourworld.com/book-launch.html
Hope that clarifies some things for you. Feel free to contact me if you have more questions.
Lora
Hello you two! Thanks for all the detailed answers!
@Christine:
“All color is relative. … Add/subtract yellow/white/grey/etc and you can move around inside a color endlessly.”
Well, that makes sense…”relative” being the keyword. I suppose what has irritated me is that for a spring, it’ll often say in books or on the net, “warm blue like cornflower blue” works. Or “cool yellow” for a winter. When the colors can be problematic for those seasons…I have observed that I look just fine in a cool winter yellow because it’s light and bright and yellow, by its nature, is warm. And my deep cool winter friend looks underwhelming in any kind of yellow but can work the warm cornflower blue (which is rather deep and in its essence still cool) much better than I ever could.
Which brings me to the theory that true colors are neutral? But I have to say even in a true blue I look horrible and even a true yellow does not work for my friend…I can’t see the neutrality.
@Lora:
“You can “warm” a color by adding yellow. Instead of a cobalt blue which is very cool, adding yellow to it will make it a more teal blue. Warmer than cobalt blue, cooler than green but still a warmer shade of blue.”
See above. Makes sense, thank you!
“That’s why the other option for a “Light” season is the “Light Spring” and that is what I believe she is. ”
See, I’m not sure…I know that technically, she’s a light, but she doesn’t seem really delicate to me, much more contrasting and clear. I know of one very experienced color consultant who even believes she’s the ultimate exception to the rule and a blonde winter.
Which brings me back to the original problem (I hope it’s okay that I don’t want to wait for your book…when does that come out anyway?): I see you’ve done for Catherine Zeta Jones what I have done for my friend on your site: Identified her as deep first, then adjusted the analysis from deep to cool winter. So does that mean that the dominant characteristic is not cast in stone?
And to both of you:
What do you do when someone is light/clear/cool or deep/clear/warm? What season does that make someone? Because someone like that supposedly must not exist within the 4 season or 12 season system? Because “cool winters” are only silver, not blonde, and even “clear springs” can be only so deep?
Again, thanks for your answers, both of you! I hope I’m not annoying you; I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this…
Lora,
Thank you for explaining all that so well! Please do chime in anytime. I’m glad to hear that we disagree on certain points. The world would be beyond boring if everyone agreed.
SBunny,
Questions are always welcome. They force me to come to an answer. In the case of the light/cool/clear person, I defer entirely to Lora. I don’t work within the system that uses those terms exactly. Lora, as you can see, is very knowledgeable and understands that system well. I also will separate myself from your other question based on hair color – not part of the system I use. I hope Lora can help, here or on her site.
In my book, I created a list of the 3 characteristics each season will have (based on temperature, chroma, and intensity) and someone like Catherine Zeta-Jones is a Winter for sure: Deep, Cool, and Clear. But which is the most dominant trait of the three? For me, if someone lacks any warmth, then to me that is most important (kind of rare) so that is her dominant trait. Secondary trait is “Deep” so that makes her a Cool Winter. However, as with any person or celebrity that I have not met in person, i can only go by the photos I see of her on the internet and I see her in a lot of black and red and blue. The few pics I found of her wearing warm colors didnt look good so I concluded she was a Cool Winter. However, Catherine is one where it wouldnt be out of the question for me to change my mind to a Deep Winter if I found enough photographs supporting it. But I dont see her as any other season than these two (Deep or Cool Winter).
According to Albert Munsell (the 19th century artist of which the 12 season theory is mostly based on) for a Cool color to be Clear, it needs to be Deep/Dark and for Warm colors to be Clear, they need to be Light. Thus a Clear Yellow will never be considered ‘dark’ (to make a dark yellow you add black and that would muddy the color). A sapphire blue is clear and dark and to lighten it you have to add white, which alters the chroma or purity of the color. So those specific combinations you listed dont exist in color analysis. Hope this makes sense. ……Lora
Hi
Great article. I love the color choices. I bought the Estee Lauder lipstick in Golden Violet. My mother in law bought the color choice for the Cool Winter.
Can you suggest another eyeshadow palette that is not as pricey? I love Chanel’s products but I stopped working to stay home with my kids so it is just not in the budget these days. I do really like Bare Escentual products.
Jeannie,
I don’t know the Bare Escentual line, I seldom get to Sephora. I’d love to talk more about the drugstore lines but I can’t talk about what I can’t test. My latest interest is Merle Norman. It presents makeup more sensibly than the rest of the industry.
For True Winter, look at lips in Blackberry and Raspberry on Ice. For eyes, look at Oyster, Ice, Pewter, Stay Steel. Eyeliner can be Charcoal, Dark Brown, Platinum. Sapphire could be good if eyes are blue.
Blush for the Winters – Lancome Aplum is still the best red-violet I know. There are remote lines that make soft fuchsia (like Kevyn Aucoin) but they’re hard to find.
Hi
Thanks. I often forget about Merle Norman but I do like the products. Would a taupe or plum brown eyeshadow be good for a clear winter? I had a makeup artist suggest apricot/plum for me. My eyes are blue but not a true blue.
I enjoyed seeing pictures of your new makeup since you had your colors redone. Are your eyes blue, I can not tell from the picture? With your coloring, what makes you a deep winter vs. a clear winter?
I find all of this interesting because color makes such a difference in someones appearance. If I wear neutrals, I look very dull, I like turquoise and red…make me look alive even if I have only had 4 hours sleep.
Jeannie,
I agree, I forget about them but I don’t dislike the product. Part of why I forget them is that they’re not at Beautypedia. I don’t buy much that I can’t look up there.
There are shades of taupe eyeshadow that would be fine, like MN Suede or Stay Steel. Plum Brown makes me think of Mist, which I see more on Soft Summer. Since the plums and browns in your palette book are not blended together, but quite pure and clear, one of Winter’s defining features, I wonder if it might look too soft and dusty on your eye.
You dont’ have apricot in your palette. Orange is your enemy. As for plum shadow, I don’t care for purple/green/brown eyeshadow. It’s feels not grownup to me and too attention-seeking in its own right.
My eyes are blue, green, with some Autumn brown smudged around. The Season you are comes NOT from how you look sitting there, but what the colours that perfect your skin best have in common when you compare them. Colour judgments are made by comparison, not description. In my case, The Dark Winter drapes cleared my skin best. It can be very subtle. Remember too that hair colour and eye colour are IRRELEVANT to determining your season, though I appreciate that you’ve learned otherwise. The goal is all and only about perfecting skin.
Colour makes a huge difference, you’re so right. We react to it viscerally, it makes us feel a certain way when we look at it. It’s also the first thing that’s noticed about us.
It does make more sense to me that eye color and hair color doesn’t matter. CMB’s descriptions of the seasons can be confusing and not inclusive. I have yellow (kind of pale olive) in my skin, I could pull off the clear Springs warm pink but not the Autumn’s warmer colors. CMB’s describe’s a clear winter as having clear eyes…I wouldn’t say I had clear eyes like Courtney Cox but the clear colors seem to look better next to my skin. I have found the Pretty your World website helpful…definitely love the hot turquoise as a power color.
I have the MN Iris/Zinc combo but it seems a little cool. The pewter and stay steel are nice colors.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=242635&l=8b20c0c489&id=1513456186
Can you tell me if I would fall into the clear winter? I know I am a winter just not sure which one. This is the only way I could figure out how to post a photo.
Thanks
The whole “clear eye” thing is probably the biggest issue I had with CMB. What the heck is a clear eye supposed to be? Elizabeth Taylor is said to be a Clear Winter with her clear eyes, but I don’t see much heat in that skin.
Until I realized that this is all and only about the colours that perfect skin, I couldn’t settle in and trust a system completely. Maybe some Clear Springs have that transparent colored-glass eye, but can you go by that for every one? There is far too much variability among humans to lock everyone down to one rule.
Clear (Bright) Spring means the best colours are Spring’s, very clear, but a little darker and cooler. Bright Winter goes to the next step, where skin-perfecting colours are Winter’s but a little more yellow and light, still incredibly pure. Do Winters and Springs tend to have more clear eyes to go with their clear everything-else? Yes.
I guess you could, there doesn’t seem to be the hard winter edge. Quite honestly, I can’t tell from photos unless you’re really average. To me, Zooey Deschanel looks Bright Winterish. I could buy Bright Spring, but I could buy a Summer too.
I do this by watching your skin react to colour. I can’t do it with a photo. Very few people are what they think they are.
Thanks for taking a look. Lauren Battistini’s ,from Color my Closet, skin seems to react to color like mine. It is hard because anytime I get a tan (I can get quite dark) it makes it harder to tell because I have a little olive in my skin tone. The woman like Zooey and Courtney Cox seem so easy to identify, such clear skin.
I would love to get a consultation but I think Lauren is the closest to me which is 5 hours away.
Your articles have great information.
Hi Jeannie,
I just wanted to let you know that I know what you’re going through! And I agree with Christine – it’s very, very hard to know which season you are just from those standardized descriptions in the color analysis books out there.
Christine has helped me out tremendously, because I had a really hard time finding my season. I have dark hair (with gray, white and a few dark reddish strands), brown eyes with some yellow and some green, very pale skin. If I were to go by the books (and I did, for too many years) I would always fall into either Deep Winter or Deep Autumn. But I was never happy with that.
Since I live in Sweden I couldn’t make an appointment with Christine, so with her help I had to try different approaches. The one that helped me finally pin it down was the elimination process. What am I not? And having realized I wasn’t Soft, Warm or Light, that left me with Deep, Cool or Clear.
Yes, I have Deep coloring, but was that my main characteristic? And yes, I was Cool also, but there wasn’t a total lack of warmth and therefore Cool wouldn’t be my main trait. I finally figured out my main and most obvious characteristic was “contrasting” (pale skin, dark hair). That took me to Clear, although I was a bit reluctant to try those colors on, they seemed intimidatingly – well, clear. The contrasts were scary, almost. But when I tried the Clinique Raspberry Rush it was obvious where I’d gone wrong before. Yes, I needed cool colors, but they couldn’t be too heavy, nor too blue. I needed some warmth, but not Autumn’s orange warmth. I needed Spring’s yellow in my Winter colors.
It’s been a lot of work and many trials and errors, but now that I’ve found my season it all feels so obvious! Makeup might be a good way to find your colors, since it’s applied directly on your skin and the effect can be very dramatic. When you go from the “nahs” via the “okays” to the “wows” you know you’ve found it!
“Raspberry rush” by Clinique looks just perfect on me as well. It looks so good that it can’t be spotted on my lips, looks just my natural lip color. But then, I wonder whether that would be really enough to decide that I am a bright winter. I am very cool with fair olive skin that either turns yellow or grey with the wrong colors and I think I am a mix of a cool summer and a bright winter. I need to balance the two seasons (well, three actually) in clothing and in makeup as well. I wear the bright winter colors for lips, but the cool summer for blush and eyeshadow and eyeliner and it looks just perfect. I couldn’t wear a blackbrown liner, I use the gray plum instead.
After checking the ireneeonline site I came to the conclusion that one can show influences from 3 seasons and what matters is the balance, which is always a very personal matter. That way the problem is no more which season I am, but what my colors are. After so much wondering about season I am very happy with the personalized conclusion I reached.
Oh, and the funny thing is that if I were to judge by my eyes, I’d have to be an Autumn! But autumn colors make me look very ill and sallow.
Aurelia/Kristina
Thank you for your comments…it is so good to know here are others who are not easy to determine. I have been doing some ‘elimination’ of some colors in my closet and re-evaluating. I lived in WA for many years with very pale skin and wore dark colors which I felt very ordinary in so I would die my hair to have more a ‘crisp’ look. I read on Jennifer Butler’s site that sometimes we wear our partners colors before we wear ours…that is what I was doing. I moved and cut all the die out of my hair, then I started trying all the colors I used to wear before I was married…everytime I wear a ‘clear winter’ I feel great.
I just added a salmon colored shirt to see if I could get away with it..it looks pretty good. Can you ladies wear yellow? I know it says we are suppose to be able to wear a few shades but I have not been adventureous enough to try. Any suggestions on color combination?
I have changed my makeup…so much simpler. I have had makeup consultants try to put purple, blue and burgundies on me…I really prefer the grays..clean look. Christine site has given great suggestions so I have tried them all.
I have very light olive skin too. I tan pretty easily which made me think I was not a winter but now I think I get it.
Hi Jeannie,
If you feel great in Clear Winter colors, then you must be a Clear Winter!
I must admit it hasn’t been that obvious for me, but I think I’ve been confusing my personality with my coloring. Being shy has made me feel more comfortable in softer, less noticeable colors before. But then again, wearing those colors never made me feel very good about myself. I’m starting to feel my own power, and at 44 I’d say it’s about time!
I can wear a light lemon yellow, it looks great. It can’t be anything but clear and clean, but not neon either. I’m not very good at color combinations, but the Clears supposedly look best in a lot of contrast, light and dark. I’ve always loved red and white, black and white, black and red. Those combinations I knew I looked good in. I think though that now, knowing which colors suit me I will have the opportunity to discover some new ones and combinations I haven’t tried before.
About makeup… I feel most comfortable in cocoa brown (my eyes are brown), champagne and pink colors for my eyes. Purple and blue – not me. Gray is okay, but I think I look more awake in brown. Burgundy works. For cheeks, I look good in clear pinks (such as the Framboise Christine mentioned, although it looks scary in the pan it makes my face light up instantly) and deep red that isn’t blue or muddy. For lips, the Raspberry Rush looks great, but that’s as far as I’ve come in that dept. for now.
Please keep us posted about what colors, combinations and makeup you find that looks good. I can use some good advice for sure.
Hi Kristina
I too can relate not wanting to stand out. It is interesting that I will be 40 next year and I am just now to a point of not caring if a fit stereotypes. I also cut almost 3 inches off my hair Saturday as apart of my makeover and ‘closet over’.
Today I went to MN to try on the eyeshadows Christine suggiested. I liked the oyster and pewter with platinum liner…not colors I would have everr picked because they seemed boring but they really looked good. I tried the Sapphire liner thinking it would liven it up but I didn’t need it. The simple grey look good. I also loved the Raspberry on Ice…again not something I would have had the courage to wear but it made my eyes stand out. I want to try the Raspberry Rush too, it looks really pretty. I shared the website with the MN consultant…she was excited at Christine mentioned their product.
I read your response right before going shopping…there was a red/black dress I had been eyes (tried it on 3 times…3 different times) after your response, I bought it. The red/black combo does really look good. Here are some color combos I got off of Lauren Bastitini’s site… grey with taupe, navy or brown or medium grey with purple/violet or berrry and emerald. She is a big fan of grey with taupe which is not a combo I would have ever picked but it looks good especially with some color as an accessory.
This info just makes shopping so much more fun and not frustrating…
“It takes the intensity of Winter’s brights to balance the degree of color in the complexion.”
It’s not clear to me what you mean with this “degree of color” in the complexion of bright winters. I have a feeling that most of the soft summers tend to have a darker skin color when compared to bright winters.
I think I am a bright winter, particularly because my skin reacts in this way to colors: with soft cool pastels tends to look greyed, with warm tones tends to look yellow and muddy, while with high contrast bright colors comes out as flawless. As it is my complexion is very fair (it seems it completely lacks color) and seems very cool, but a fuchsia lipstick clashes with some warm undertone that must be there although it’s not easily detectable, and a cherry or a raspeberry lipstick suit me much better indeed.
I am intrigued by the grey colors, it takes a small shift for greys to look just perfect or to wash me out., so I’d like to know what grey is suited for bright winters and if it’s possible to order a bright winter swatch at your 12blueprints website.
Thank you Christine, you built 2 great sites!
You’re very right, Lucretia. Good point, and I enjoy the precision you seek, since that’s my nature too.
I wrote those Makeup Model articles before I was properly trained as a PCA, and at a time when I understood the CMB system but had not been exposed to Sci\ART’s techniques. I leave those articles there because women have turned them into something of a forum, but I wouldn’t use the same expressions today. The makeup recommendations are mostly correct.
“Degree of colour” should be rephrased as “degree of colour saturation required to perfect the skin”. In Bright (Clear) Winter, which combines the 2 seasons of highest colour brilliance plus the darkness and coldness of Winter, these are shockingly vivid shades. Bright pink, hot golden yellow, bright coral, true red.. There are icy lights, there are neutrals, and the colours are warmed and lightened a trace by Spring’s influence, but this is intense colour saturation. Few complexions could balance and harmonize with it.
The draping process is a detective hunt. The drapes are searching and searching to connect with like colours in your colouring. When they find those precise shades, the skin magic happens. Those tones have to be there in kind to begin with.
You do have true grey, from icy to charcoal and pewter. What is distinct about True Winter’s grey is that it consists of black and white. Every other season’s greys are modified in some way, like with blue or yellow, and so on. Yours are the same as True Winter, and/or lightened and warmed one degree.
I looks like Milla Jovovich might be a clear winter although one of the CMB sites has her listed as a Summer.
I originally recommended Aromaleigh’s “Corset” for True Winters, and it might work for them (I’m not sure); but it might be more suited for Bright Winters. It’s bright and reddish, but the undertones might tend more toward neutral than cool (it’s definitely less blue-toned than the cool red “Firewoman” blush).
Jeannie,
I agree she could go either way. There’s a sharpness to her personality and a darkness to the colours she can wear that pulls me towards Winter.
RE: the Clear Winter (Bright Winter) – don’t confuse a light eye with a clear eye, though I don’t think you are. Clear means transparent, but it could be dark brown. The problem with the whole “Clear” eye concept is that it doesn’t account for the fact that both True (Cool) Winter and Bright (Clear) Winter people usually have a clear eye because both seasons’ colours are defined by being “Clear”. The whole point of being a Bright Winter is whether the skin is perfected with the slight degree of Spring’s pale yellow light or not. It’s not an eye thing.
NYC has a shade called “Ruby”; it’s a violet-red color with lots of gold sparkle. For 98 cents, it’s probably a lower-quality product, but it’s good for trial and error (which is how I found it).
Hi Christine
For ref: I’m a clear winter (confirmed by a CMB consultant) with dark ash brown hair, porcelain skin (with a tiny touch of yellow warmth) and deep blue-grey eyes (with a small yellow sunbust in centre whichcan give the impression of green sometimes)
I have just finished the first CMB book and it is very good. One thing that got me thinking was that it said that brown shadow can make winter eyes ‘look tired’ and that the prettiest shades are toned to the eye colour- for me that would be subtle blue grey and charcoal shadow. I have also heard that to bring out the colour of the eye you should use the opposite colour on the colur wheel- so i have built up a whole MAc pallete of plum/rose browns and pinks to supposedly bring out the green in my eyes- then I collected another 15 palette of violets to bring out the blue tones- and now I’m working on the grey pallete! I bought a MAC aubergine eyeliner and had to give it away as it made my eyes look heavy and tired.
So much money and effort- what is your take on this- have I wasted my money?
Additionally I found it useful that it mentioned that (Clear) winters rarely look good in lipstick with brown undertones- I have found this. i keep getting pushed towards burgundy lippies (MAC Darkside , Dubbonet and Diva and burgundy liner, Plumful and half-red liner for example) and they look wrong- the berry tones (like MAC Rebel, Media or hang up with vino liner for example- as well as my Russian red with cherry liner!) look much better. MAC Dubonett looks so good on Dita Von teese but then she has warm yellow undertones. I also lok bad in lipstick with purple undertones- too cool blue for me (MAC cyber and currrent lip liner or Revlon VaVa violet for example.
I’d really love to hear your advice on eyemake-up- can clear winters wear brown or should we stick to greys?
Thanks
Trish
Additionally – MACs frankly scralet blush is brilliant for a snowwhite blush.
Tricia,
Your explanation of blush is perfect. And I agree, Fleur Power is a great Spring blush. For a Bright Spring (Clear Spring in CMB), NARS Cactus Flower is another strong contender.
Your eyeshadow colour is dictated by is true for all the colours of your palette. There are few browns in the Bright Spring group, except black-brown, which makes a fantastic liner on brown eyes. Otherwise, you’re mostly with the greys: Winter group greys are composed of black and white. When you add a trace of Spring, the grey becomes a tiny bit yellow, so it can seem like a dark taupe. Merle Norman Suede might be an example. As wonderful as it would be if the cosmetics and fashion industries offered all the greys and browns we need, you will just have to compromise sometimes and use the True Winter greys (icy, steel, charcoal) and cool grey-browns.
Using the opposite colour to your eye colour is about the use of complements, where each colour intensifies the other. This is fine to a point, but it can conflict with a most important point, that being that skin perfection comes first. A blue eye in a red-brown shadow may intensify, but in the hands of most women, they will look like rabbits. This stuff is makeup artist territory.
Yellow in the eye might be intensified with purple, but which purple? If you don’t get it right on, then it’s way off. And is purple a grown-up look in eye makeup? I don’t know, that’s a personal taste thing.
I completely agree with your statement about “so much money and effort”. It should be NEITHER. Once you have a PCA, you should buy makeup once more to get the right shades, and then stop. Life is too short for time or money or confusion to be given to makeup.
Bottom line: pick the greys and browns in your palette that most flatter your SKIN and move on. Getting involved with eye colour specifics will get complicated. I don’t find it really enhances the beauty that much to fuss over eyeliner/eye complements.
I agree too about lipstick. The clear berry tones are far better than browns. Deeper complexions can do brown tones but otherwise, it’s a yellowed red or fuchsia that disappear into the skin.
Hi Christine
Thanks for your reply. I have focused on building up my grey MAC pallete (I have to complete it!- it’s one of those things). I added taupe-greys and bitter cold browns that I never would have normally looked at – concrete, coquete, copperplate and showstopper (LE) etc. and the black type greys- typographic, print etc. and the very few pale grey base colurs e.g. All races (LE)- and avoiding the frosts in favour of the mattes weher possible.
The thing I noticed most was that when I placed the Plum pallete next to the grey one the absence of heat in the greys was realy obvious. I never thought that all those cool rose pinks and browns actually look so warm. I’ll still wear them them but as a subtle wash in the summer (i’m never heavy handded anyway). I also agree that purples are not very mature colours (and I’m about enhaning beauty not distracting from it) but i think the cool roses and soft violets could work nicely for True/Cool winter and Cool summer- looking quite natural on them- due to their cool bluish undertones (as opposed to my more pinkish undertones).
The thing that suprised me was the yellowed reds you suggested. MY CMB consultant put me in pinkier Ruby lipstick which does look lovely but i see that my slight yellow heat can allow me to wear more scarlet reds too- and i used to love MACs Brave Red and Lady bug along side with Ruby Woo- and this explains why i could wear both. My Mum has mentioned that very blue reds don’t look as good- and now I understand why- my slight heat and absence of bluish underones. I I also picked up another fuschia lippie- MAC Lustering- Lickable is a more opaque version of this. (I had Girl About Town but it was far too blue -toned for me)
Plus I took your advice on 12 Blueprints and got a charcoal grey eye liner (which i usually would avoid) – MAC’s Phone Number and it looks so lovely sumudged close to the lashline.
Thanks for all your help.
(I have one eyeshadow and a scarlet lipliner to buy and then I’m DONE!)
Kristina,
I think I have somewhat similar colouring to you (and am a Water type, as you’ll see from other discussion). I recognise that struggle you’re having with a difficult colouring. I have dark brown hair, dark green/brown/yellow eyes and very pale skin. For years I thought I was a Wintery type as there is strong contrast between dark hair and eyes and pale skin. But don’t be fooled, as I was and previous consultants, this is not true clarity. Depth yes, but although the skin is pale it has more yellow tone, not pinky blue. Clear types usually have a chilly character to them, a bit like Snow White! I could force this connection by dyeing hair even darker and more ashy, and no one could see my eyes in those days as wore strong glasses (before I had two eye operations). Getting rid of the glasses was the prompt to look into colour again and gain more confidence in my appearance. Not sure how this helps you, if at all, but just to say, don’t believe everything you see written down about colour. I thought I could not be Deep Autumn, which my trusted CMB consultant found I was, because deep golds and warmer reds looked bad on me, which they do. In fact you can be a season and just wear some of the colours, ie. I am towards the cooler end of deep autumn. If I wear Winters fuchia lipstick, most people think I look allright, as this reinforces the contrast, but anyone who really knows me, ie husband and close friends see I don’t look my best, which is in slightly warmer reds/browns, but not brown itself which would be too warm. I suspect that a lot of us are somewhere inbetween warm and cool, or as my consultant says I am, towards the cooler end of warm. Hope this doesn’t sound too narcissistic, which I fear it does! I am struggling with a new bag I asked for for my birthday, as it is deep golden brown, and I’ve always had black up to now, moving away from old habits is quite traumatic, even when they involve nice handbags! Take care and keep growing.
SBunny,
Sorry, have only just seen your questions about colour mixing. I have an MA in art and teach art and design to undergrads so maybe can help, as I teach colour and colour mixing as part of the courses.
Purple is thought to be wearable by most people as it contains both cool and warm elements, blue and red mixed together. How cool or warm depends on the mix, so it would still depend on the particular mix as to how successful on an individual. However, like aqua and turqoise and duck egg blue and to a degree peachy pinks and lilac tones these are fairly safe bets for most, as they contain warm and cool elements, which is why they are recommended for bridesmaid dresses. It means ladies of differing colourings, cool or warm, can look fairly good, if not perfect dressed in the same colour.
We are not looking for an orange undertone, as although orange is the brightest colour it is this only, not a pure primary colour as yellow is. It is always the yellow or red in a colour which gives warmth. Orange is a mixed (secondary) colour, the combination of red (another primary) and black. Colours individually are known as hues, i.e mauve or green, adding black to any colour creates a shade, adding white creates a tint, and grey creates a tone. These terms are quite precise but often misused in everyday life. Red, yellow and blue are the primaries from which everything else is mixed to create the hues. Some other systems are used, but these were devised for printing and other technical reasons and are used in certain industries for technical reasons. The science based behind even their use is still the normal primary colour system as this is an indisputable scientific knowledge.
Hope this answers some of your questions, any more and I’ll try to help! I answer questions like this everyday and this stuffs fairly easy, getting your own colours right is not so, as I know as well as any. Take care.
Tricia,
Sounds like you’re on the Bright Winter track. If you haven’t seen them, look at MAC Speak Louder lipstick and Slimshine Grenadine. A fabulous grey eyeshadow for the True and Bright Winter, as a reader mentions in another comment, is Lauder Slate.
Hi Christine.
Thanks for the recomedations. I think I have treed Speak Louder before and it’s too light for my hightly pugmented red lips but I’ll take another look. I had a session with my sister where we looked at colours and i have decided to return/replace all the brown and taupe shades as they make my grey eyes look muddly. I have also noticed that the pink-bieges that i wore as neutrals are making my eyes look tired and irritated so I’m swapping them for creamy ivorys and pale beiges with a hint of peach which wake me up- they conect with the hint of yellow in my skin. I used to think i was great with make-up but it seems that I have had it all backwards an now my make-up is the complete opposite of what it was before bugundy browns and pinks vs cool ivory and charcoal!
Hopefully i’ll have it sorted soon. I like a vintage 40’s look so the ivory is working well- better than the pink.
Regards
Trish
… ‘pugmented lips’ – that makes me smile- like a little fat dog perched on my face! I did mean ‘pigmented’.