First of all, do you look better in white or in ivory? Drape yourself in both colors and you should get a sense of whether you’re warm or cool. If you do better in ivory than in white, then you’re likely warm and you can rule out Soft Summer. If you look fresher in white and it doesn’t wash you out, you can probably rule out Soft Autumn and Warm Spring.

Second, when’s your better shopping season? Do you find more clothes in July, in September or in March and April? Your colors probably match your more successful shopping season. I’m Soft Autumn and I can’t find summer clothes to save my life. I have to buy summer clothes during the warmer months of the spring season or else go without. But in September, I have a field day in the stores with the new fall fashions and accessories. Autumn colors melt me whether I can wear them or not.

As a Soft Autumn, I can get away with Warm Spring colors in a pinch. You’re right, there’s a lot of similarity. But Warm Spring gives me a different color personality that I’m not sure fits me as well as the fuller-bodied colors of Autumn. I can always find powdered warm colors in the Warm Spring palette, but the “clear and bright” look is a little too artificial, delicate and bright for me. It shows especially in makeup, where bright coral and peach are too overpowering for my pale skin. I think my personality and my coloring mesh more naturally with the muted and stronger Autumn palette. It may be the other way around for you. I can’t tell from your post. I just raise the issue of different “color personalities” to see if it helps you determine your own best colors.

As a Soft Autumn, I know I’m not a Soft Summer because of the bluer tones in Summer clothing. The dusty and muted colors of Summer leave my pale skin looking dull and washed out instead of clean and fresh, the way you’re supposed to look in the summer months. In Summer colors, I look tired and pale, and people keep asking me why I don’t go outside and get some color in my face. I look invisible in Summer colors and, no matter how “fun” or cheerful the color, many people wind up asking me why I don’t “lighten up”….

Also as a Soft Autumn, I don’t really look good in orange and gold, either. I wind up avoiding both colors and, without any help, I naturally incline toward warm berry shades and neutrals instead. In other words, being a “warm” season doesn’t necessarily mean you will look great in orange and gold.

Here’s another question: do you look better in gold jewelery or silver? That’s an easy one for me. I prefer gold jewelery to silver. But strangely enough, the “natural” gemstones often recommended for Soft Autumns don’t seem to do anything for me. I’ m much better, for some reason, in the deeper jewel tones like amethyst and emerald green. I think it’s because these stones pop out my hazel green eyes better than the neutral gemstones, although I have to be careful: if the gemstones are TOO dark, they can get lost against my brown hair if I wear them as earrings.

You could be right about your being a Warm Spring, but be aware of the individual variations within each color season. Even in your correct season, some colors will suit you better than others.

Maybe you could visit a local makeup counter or makeup artist to help you decide what color your eyes are and help you pick out eyeshadow shades to bring them out. That might also help you decide whether you are warm or cool, and how to treat those gorgeous hazel eyes of yours that seem to change color. Like a lot of us with hazel eyes, you probably don’t know how lucky you are, and probably won’t until a good analysis shows you.

Hope this helps. I’m not an analyst, but I’ve had issues similar to yours, and maybe my experiences can help you decide. And have fun looking! These issues aren’t cut in stone, and sometimes even when you find your best colors, it pays once in a while to think outside the “color box” when you find an unusual and interesting color combination or accent. For instance? I’m never without black, even though I never wear it close to my face. Soft Autumns usually do not do very well in black. I know I don’t. But that doesn’t stop me from buying a black evening dress or a black leather purse when they’re just irresistible and the style is “me.” I seem to live for black. Maybe I have a few things in common with Deep Autumn! But I mainly look lousy in black blouses and turtlenecks, so I just don’t wear them. Don’t be restricted by your palette and the need to buy the “right colors.” Your palette is supposed to help you, not lock you in a box. Still, if you pick your colors right, you’ll find your wardrobe (and your look) mysteriously melts into place no matter when you buy your clothes and accessories. My mother and my sister do this naturally with their Summer wardrobes, but I needed a little help to learn to do the same thing with Autumn because my mother’s and sister’s choices influenced me just a little too much.

Hope this helps just a little. My comments are intuitive, not scientific.

I’ve gotten a couple books on the subject and spent quite a bit of time here and at Pretty Your World attempting to figure out my season. Unfortunately, I still have three options: Soft Autumn, Warm Spring, and Soft Summer.

I was, for quite some time, mostly convinced I was a Warm Spring. But often, something could be too orange or too yellow (like gold), making my sensitive skin’s ruddiness more apparent, and that didn’t strike me as being particularly correct. And there were other issues as well. So each time I found something wrong, I would dive back in and re-analyze myself, looking at a range of pictures and trying on clothes, and always ending up back at Warm Spring.

A couple of days ago, I had an epiphany that I might be a Soft Summer, but the bit of red in my hair brought me quickly to also considering Soft Autumn.

I know that these seasons line up awkwardly at best, but I have seen pictures of women (or men) in all three categories that I can, and have, shared coloring with. I’ve never even really known what to label my hair as. People (including myself) have perceived it as red, almost red, strawberry blonde, rich medium brown, almost blonde, and ashy brown, or some mix of the above, and it can coincide with the lighting and what I’m wearing and sometimes… it doesn’t. The same goes with my skin and my eyes. I have extremely pale legs, and often, the rest of my skin looks pale as well (Spring). But it can also have the slightly hardier look of a Soft Summer or Soft Autumn as well, and it can certainly be very red as I’ve had issues with acne for as long as I can remember and my skin is just plain sensitive on top of it. My eyes can be grey, grey blue, green blue, or grey green, and they have a light yellowish amorphous ring around the pupil.

I am totally at a loss, and I’m a starving college student so paying for an analysis is just way out of the question right now. So, my actual question is if there is one particular color I could find to drape myself with to tease out which of the three I truly am? And I currently use my bathroom for this process, where there’s a window high in the room that floods it with natural, but not direct, light. This is the optimal environment for testing colors, right?

I am so sorry for the exceedingly long post…

I sent you the Analyst Directory from the Sci\ART site in a private email. If you did not find what you need, don’t hesitate to contact me again.

Read your blog top to bottom! Thanks for all your help!

I am rediscovering my palette. I thought I was a winter for many years because of dark brown hair and clear blue eyes. Now I am 55. As I went gray, I successfully highlighted my hair with golden blonde – everyone said it “belonged” to me – but – my color crisis began!

I’ve been pouring over the internet and think I’m a soft Autumn! Golden/butterscotch highlighted hair, a slightly sallow complexion, blue eyes with tiny flecks of gray and brown. I put on a soft lemon yellow sweatshirt the other day and LOVED IT! When I look back over the photos of me as a winter, the strong jewel tones washed me out! My make-up looked garish!

Now I’m trying to find someone who can tell me definitely what I am but I am having trouble finding someone. I live in Chicago – any ideas?

Thanks,
Kay

Will you be doing makeup recommendations on there eventually?

That was an ambitious post!

I have never tackled perfume, though I think about it. It is just SO personal. No question, though, certain scents fit better on certain people. Other scents might seem pleasant, but are better on someone else, just as certain colours are better on your walls than your body. I find perfume difficult to verbalize but I enjoy the blogs by women who are good at it (nowsmellthis, graindemusc, and others).

I’ve been wearing Nina by Nina Ricci lately and feeling very comfortable with it. I like its simplicity and sweetness, without being too candy-like.