Thanks for that, Christine. Meeting you would be a delight.

Following my (eventual) diagnosis as a Deep Autumn type, I ordered the deluxe swatch of 60 colours from Lori at Pretty Your World. They arrived last night, and… boy O boy O boy…

It is like coming home.

According to Lori’s system (and the swatch) these colours are warm, muted and dark. I do not match that perfectly, being warm, clear and darkish. However, the swatch shades are much less muted than I expected, and they really are gorgeous. Many of the shades are (to my eye) definitely clear enough.

So many things about this swatch feel so perfectly RIGHT. I have been ’scared’ of red all my life, restlessly searching for a shade that would suit me. Failure after failure. Well, this swatch has just one red shade amid a sea of blues, greens, purples, deep burnt oranges and browns – that one perfect red is called ‘earth red’ and PERFECTLY matches the only red lipstick I can wear – ‘Tomato’ by Colour Me Beautiful.

There are shades of purple on the swatch that I have seen, loved, and occasionally (and courageously) bought, but been nervous to wear. No longer. I KNOW they suit me now. Grin.

Oh, and the greens… my goodness, the greens. There are 14 of them, from sea green through hunter green to various olives. It is like being given a present of nearly every shade I love.

But the best bit is the fact that if I fan the colours out they flow so well, and create a balanced harmonious wheel that has a very clear ‘presence’, that I am going to be able to carry in my head when I go shopping.

(still haven’t done the skin shade paint sample thing yet, we have had snow and weird light, so will have to wait a while).

You sound like a most determined and interesting woman. If we ever have a reunion, we’ll have to have it near your home so you’re sure to come.
Let us know how the colour cards go. There is an analyst whom I respect called Bernice Kentner; she uses cards in a similar way. The process has merit.

Am off to B&Q later today to get my various colour sample cards (and a radiator shelf). This is almost as exciting as when I went for colour analysis.

Light peach is too close to my skintone. If I were to wear a light peach top, I would look like I’m not wearing a shirt. Corals and warm, bright pinks are better, given that I have lots of contrast.

Speaking of moles, freckles and whatnot, one of the other posts (it was a spring — can’t remember if it was warm or light) described Nicole Kidman’s skintone as “looking like it’s about to freckle” or something. My skin could described as that. I have no visible freckles or moles (despite having parents who have lots), but I have light patches of, I guess, what could be freckles had I not been protecting myself from sun damage for the past decade.

Being the daughter of a redhead, I have my fair share of moles. They are all the same warm-brown, but vary in intensity/depth from very dark to much lighter. It will will be VERY interesting to see if my ‘best’ shade is related to those colours!

Christine, I hear what you are saying, but since I HAVE been analysed, and the closest I got to an analysis of skin colour was ‘Your skin is warm and clear’, I think this is something I have to do myself.

Kathy, thanks. Your answer hit the root of my question. The most perfect, natural and invisible skin match I have ever found is by Estee Lauder. The foundation is Bone (1W1) and the powder is Linen (1W2). They are definitely warm yellow, not cool pink. When I tan (which is NEVER nowadays) I go a lovely golden brown for a few days, then fade to a jaundiced yellow that lasts for weeks.

Maybe, as Christine says, no one can gauge their own skintone, but surely we can get somewhere near the mark? Common sense must allow us to make SOME progress?

If you, Kathy, know that you are peach, then that is a great step forward – peach is somewhere between pink (red+white) and orange (red + yellow), so I would guess your skintone is somewhere neutralish/warm, yes? And that is bourne out by your Warm/Clear dilemma, and your proximity to Clear Spring, yes?

(see thread on Clear Spring for the back story)

So Kathy, with that peach skintone, do peach fabrics, in all shades of light to dark, look absolutely stunning on you?

Or is apricot a better shade? I think apricot is warmer and less pink than peach.

My own skintone questions are more along the lines of ‘what shade of yellow am I?’ and ‘is my skin really yellow, or very pale beige, or just a very dilute warm brown?’

Heck, I don’t even know how you would go about mixing paints to produce beige!

I really need to speak to an artist, I suppose, someone with that sort of colour combining experience – yellow is one of the primaries, but brown is a combination of red and green – ultimately a mix of red, yellow and blue…

Oh. Lightbulb moment. Of COURSE!!!!

Do you have those paint mixing machines over in the US and Canada? The ones where they drop the pigment into a tin of ‘base’ and it mixes the exact shade you want?

First I need to get to some paint shade cards – the ones in yellow, beige and brown, graduated from light to dark.

Then I need to sit in the garden on a cloudy day and lay them over my arm, eliminating them until I get the best, most ‘natural’ tone.

I will end up with a single card showing a ‘colour’ presented in 6 different intensities.

Then I have to go back to the store and ask them what ‘recipe’ they use. I have watched them, you see. The computer gives them a list ‘1 part violet, 1 part yellow, 3 parts crimson…’

I wonder if it will work…

Thanks ladies, as usual, you have been a fantastic sounding board and incredibly helpful!

As for foundation, you really need to try it on before buying it. Fortunately, most department store lines will give you a small sample good enough for a couple days — and you really need to see how it look on your skin in daylight, not dim store lighting.

Undertones stump me too. For the longest time I though I was cool, pink-toned, because I was certain warm skin tones are golden or yellowish. I’m not. But I’m not truly cool-toned because my skin is more peachy than pink. (More noticeable when I’m wearing warmer shades. Very cool blush and lipstick shades make me look sallow.)

You’ve reduced this to the ultimate question : How do you tell your skin undertones? The thing is you can’t except by a personal draping process with precisely coloured drapes that carefully work through the various levels of every colour’s 3 parameters: its coolness/warmth, darkness/lightness, and clearness/softness. Nobody can. Nobody. There are too many variables, hundreds of them, that confuse and complicate.
Even hair and eye colour are deceiving. Yes, it’s effective to repeat hair and eye colour in dress, BUT the emphasis is foremost on perfecting skin. The person with warm hair and cool skin will be endlessly confused and buy the wrong thing. The skin must be respected first or everything else deters from it. Once you match the skin, say it’s cool, then your makeup and clothes are cool, and the contrast between cool skin and warm hair becomes that much more remarkable. Skin first. You must be analyzed. I am very glad that you found some good makeup, always brightens the day.

(Sorry about the length of this, I was on a roll)

I thought I would pop back here, now that I have found my real home as a Deep Autumn.

Decided to really go for it and get some of the makeup you suggested above (eBay is a wonder). Absolutely amazing, seeing what it does to my face. My haul is far from complete, but as I said, the effects are fascinating.

I didn’t like the Cargo Deep Neutrals AT ALL when I first put them on. I thought they made my eyes go small and murky, but I there wasn’t time to re-do so I shrugged and reached for the lipstick (Jane Fardon Bronze from http://www.janefardon.com, a sheer bronzy brown with golden brown highlights) and it was as if my whole face snapped into focus – eyes bluer, deeper, clearer, edges of my face neater, cheekbones higner. Everything fit together and was right somehow.

It is as if the brown of my hair, eyebrows, lips, blusher and Cargo eyeshadow all needed to balance, and the balance let ME be more visible than before.

I know, I am waxing rather lyrical, but… that was definitely the effect.

As usual though, I am left with a million questions:

How do you work out the undertones of your own skin? There are so many different tones and so many different descriptors (ivory, porcelain, yellow, pink, beige, peach, sallow… ad infinitum).

Jennifer Butler’s site has some videos on it, and in several of them she makes the excellent point that if you identify your skintone, then that shade, both lighter and darker, will PERFECTLY suit you. Such a simple concept, but also mind-bogglingly brilliant. She says to do the same thing with your hair and eye colour, and you have the basis of your own triumvirate of perfect colours.

Fairly easy to gauge hair and eye colour, you just need a mirror and good natural daylight, but skin… that stumps me. For me, yellow toned foundation works, but how to accurately guage whether it is pale yellow (and which shade of yellow?), pale beige, pale peachy-yellow, pale bisque, pale mushroom, pale ???

Any ideas?

Glad you asked. The rules about eye colour are NOT rigid. In any colour analysis system, I think most consultants would agree that there are averages of hair and eye colour, but there are certainly people in any season that fall outside the average. So it’s not usual to see a brown-eyed Summer, but it could certainly happen. Blue-eyed Winter, black-haired Autumns, all possible.

You may have noticed from reading this site that I consider hair colour and eye colour to be irrelevant in determining season. Absolutely of no consequence. The first and only mission is to perfect your skin. Once we have that down, we’ll know exactly which tones in the hair will most keep that perfect skin. Your natural eye colour will be automatically intensified once you are wearing the best colours because Mother Nature never makes a blueprint mistake. If you wear your natural colour, it will be fine too, though most agree that the transition time to gray can sometimes be difficult, especially for the warm seasons.

Dark seasons are often those with the most hair/eye/skin contrast. Similarly, it is not your skin tone itself that determines the season but how your skin REACTS to colour. It is a dynamic process.

So, short answer. ANY season can have ANY hair or eye colour. If you hold onto inflexible rules like Dark Autumn never has blue eyes, you’ll miss the few that do.

I get that I am warm. That part is EASY. Ihave a pale, warm skintone. Then I have naturally brown hair (red highlights) that I henna (which REALLY suits me). Clear bright colours are less good than Autumnal ones, so that would make me an Autumn.

But…

Can a person be Deep or Warm Autumn and have blue eyes?
I just think there is too much contrast between very fair skin and my chestnut hair for me to be a Soft Autumn.

But this contradicts everything I am reading. Everyone declares in their lists of eye colours that Soft Autumns can have blue, but Warm and Deeps are green, hazel, brown or topaz eyes.

Are the rules really that rigid?

Don’t worry, I’m not looking for analysis via internet – I am just asking, ‘is a blue-eyed Deep or Warm Autumn possible?’

I’ll be getting to Soft Summer very soon. That is a relatively easy season to understand and there’s tons of makeup for it. I’ll get through all 12 eventually !

Black near the face is certainly not helpful to everyone. It can hide things. It looks expensive. But it makes many faces look older. However, there are ways to wear colors that are not on your palette, black being the most common that women want to wear. A cool scarf in your colors is probably the easiest way. Makeup won’t do it – in fact, you’ll usually end up using too much to counter-balance the effect of the black. Sometimes V-necks can work too because it tends to be a more flattering neckline and the black isn’t right up against the face.

Thanks for the comment.

I’ve subscribed to your blog for several months now, and really enjoy your essays. I just had my quick color analysis done at http://www.prettyyourworld.com, and Lora says I’m a Soft Summer. I tend to agree with that, though I love wearing black clothes, which I guess is supposed to be too harsh a color for me. Oh, well.

Looking forward to a future “Makeup Model” on Soft Summers.

All the best,
Mary-Ellin
Albuquerque, NM