RSSMakeup Model : Soft Summer
April 21, 2009
Soft Summer and Soft Autumn can be similar. You could be Jennifer Aniston or Amanda Bynes, respectively (or, these women give the impression of these Seasons). In the wrong colors, you can look blah. Hair is neither light or dark. Skin is neither either. You can get lost in medium-ness. Getting your colors right is what takes you from medium everything to fabulosity.
These two seasons hold hands to straddle a neutral line very closely. Both have some warmth, but the Autumn season has more. Many Soft Summer women color their brown hair to look warmer when they would look better in a more neutral brown or cooler brown.
If Cool Summer, coolest of all, has enough blue to be look best in lilac-pink,
and Light Summer is so fair that cotton-candy-pink is most appealing,
you’re the next level of warmth.
You are still defined by what is predominantly Summer, so coolness, lightness (but that’s also deepening now), and muted haziness. It’s that color so many companies create in a blush and call it Desert Rose.
Lipstick: Bobbi Brown Italian Rose ; Laura Mercier Gilded Garden collection Hibiscus (English Rose might work too but appears brown enough to be more Soft Autumn), swatched here by the wonderful karlasugar that I’ve introduced before. This woman is saving us time and money, and teaching about color by comparison.
Blush: Dior English Rose ; NARS Deep Throat.
Eyeliner: MAC Technakohl Earthline ; EsteeLauder Automatic Eye Pencil Duo Walnut.
Eyeshadow: Dior Flirty Brown; MAC Malt, Quarry, Copperplate; Just looking for Suede Brown here. Get an idea of the shades from karlasugar’s most amazing MAC eyeshadow swatch post. Vote for her with the Best Blog About Stuff button on her site.
Eye hilite : MAC Vapor, which you can see at MAC’s eyeshadow page or at karlasugar (last box in the MAC eyeshadow article).
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Hi Christine!
Your site is SO helpful! I had my analysis done by SciArt at one of their training sessions, but have been having a bear of a time buying makeup (even with my swatches) but you’ve done the work for me!!!
THANK YOU!
Here’s my new color confusion. My hair has always been an ashy brown, but my hairstylist colored it considerably warmer. Should I start wearing the soft autumn colors now? My soft summer clothes look a little off with my new hair…
Thanks for your help!
Lisa
Lisa,
You are so far ahead of the game if you know you’re a Sci\Art Soft Summer. I’m interested to hear you say that you find it difficult to buy makeup with your swatch book because I believe most women would agree with you. One day, I hope not long from now, I want to be able to give you your makeup in a customized collection.
In the meantime, regarding your color confusion. Your season was determined based on what the colors in that season did for your skin. Your skin doesn’t change when you color your hair but warmer hair may give an overall warmer look and Soft Summer can take some warmth, or at least more neutrality than True Summer. You could choose some slightly warmer colors from your kit and you probably could wear a few Soft Autumn colors. Or, could you foil in some cooler hair chunks? I’ve been in this position before too and I find that a good remedy to buy some time. After a few weeks, the red should be gone from your new hair color and it will be easier to work with. I’m no hair colorist but a pro can help you.
Thank you so much! The Nars blush worked wonders on my skin, and you seem to have me convinced that I am, indeed, a soft summer. But please, please, please: could you recommend additional lip colours, since it is agonisingly hard to get those shades by Bobbi Brown and Laura Mercier in Europe. More Dior, Estee Lauder or Mac, perhaps?
Mia,
Let me work on that. I have easy access to Clinique and Estee Lauder. Clinique probably has loads of choices, this is the sort of colour they seem to do a lot of. Can you get that brand? If not, I’ll look at a MAC counter later this month.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Clinique is perfect.
Hi Christine!
Thank you so much for your invaluable articles and recommendations! I am not sure that I am a Soft Summer, but as far as I read somewhere on the net that Angelina Jolie could be a soft summer I am in doubts. Her coloring resembles mine – blue-gray eyes, naturally rather dark, fair-medium neutral skin. She (and me too) doesn’t look really clear, but can`t be dark or light, which leaves us soft. But it seems unbelievable that she shares the same palette with Jennifer Aniston. I think Jolie is somewhere in between Soft summer and Clear winter (if it makes any sense). What do you think of Angelina Jolie`s colortype?
I am looking forward for your lipstick choices from Clinique because we also have problems with finding Laura Mercier and Bobby Brown. Could you please check Clinique Long Last Lipstick No. 95 Tabasco, I see it is a bit warmish, but works wonderful on me, just livens my eyes and face without overpowering. Not for work , rather for evening. Similar but cooler shade Clinique High Impact Lip Colour Cider Berry doesn`t work for me. To which season’s palette could Tabasco belong? I have so many pains with finding the right shade of lipstick for me and I am very sensitive to the wrong lipstick color on my face; maybe your advice will give me some clue if I really could be a Soft Summer? Maybe I am warmer or clearer?
Thank you very much for your wonderful site!
Natalia,
Angelina Jolie, like all the medium-intensity coloring people out there, is very hard to put in a season without seeing the woman herself and trying various colours. As an analyst, I like these people best because it is impossible for me to jump to conclusions about which season they are. I have to let the drapes show me so I’m certain I am not forcing the evidence towards a particular season. With the very light and very dark people, season momentum can take hold and it’s all I can do to truly and objectively convince myself that they are indeed a Light something or a Dark something or a True something. You can most certainly have 2 people who appear to have very different skin be in the same season, most particularly in the medium groups.
Important statement : It’s NOT so much the coloring itself that we look at as how the skin REACTS to colours (which is why hair and eye colour are of no significance in my analyses).
I looked for Cider Berry and Tabasco, neither available here anymore. The saleswoman says Tabasco has been replaced by Paprika, or some similar name, but that’s of no use to us right now.
Mia and Natalia,
Soft Summer is a pretty season. These are the very pretty roses, soft plum, pink-browns, and some dusty colours. I saw less at Clinique than I expected to. This season can handle some brown and that company always seem to do a lot of that, but most of it seemed too warm. I liked Raspberry Glace, possibly a little too cool and sharp, Glazed Berry (really did like this one), Violet Berry. PinkABoo might work but it’s a little too warm and too brownish. This season is still predominantly cool and soft. Cool Pink With A Tan would be a good description of the idea colour (but it wasnt’ there).
There isn’t the choice and organization in cosmetics to find the precise shade in each of the 12 groups, unless you had time to sit down with all the brands and products. Also, there’s great variability among the individuals in any season. Sometimes, the same shade will work across a couple of seasons.
Hi Christine!
Thank you very much! I`ll check the colors you recommend, yet the more I learn about Soft Summer the less I see myself in this season. But your site is very in-depth and really helpful. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for the Clinique shades. I got Violet Berry, which is less than half a shade darker than my own lip colour. Putting on all the colours you recommended today (the Nars blush, Mac eyeshadows and Clinique lipstick) made me truly amazed: I looked naturally pretty – not at all made up, since the colours blended perfectly with my own colours, enhancing them without overpowering or making me look harsh.
I am in total awe. This is makeup at its best, as it should be. Thank you ever so much.
Natalia,
Was it you who commented recently that you wondered if you might identify your season in a backwards, but still very viable, way by going from the makeup back to the season? In theory, that would work. I thought about it a lot at one point too, wondering if it might be possible. IRL, there are too many boobytraps.
Soft Summer, in fact all the medium-coloring seasons, in fact all the season blends, are complicated. Still, you might move in a new direction by trying those colours. And I’ll tell you, just because the makeup colours don’t seem good on you (even regardless of whether your clothes or hair or other makeup are interfering), it may be that not every member of each season can wear each colour. I’m still working through that. I just need to get to a point where I’ve draped 10 or so people in each season.
Mia,
I am so very glad that it worked. This was easy! The fact that it FEELS so right means that it probably is. Colour is felt quite viscerally. People don’t know why it feels good to look at right colour but they certainly sense the relief of it, the dissolving of the tension. I feel closer to one of my dreams of being women’s personal makeup shopper. Thanks for this.
Christine, I am that very Natalia. Sorry for delay in replying, I missed your latest posts.
Yes, I am still not sure what my season is – in fact I cannot tell that my coloring is allover medium, I could pass for a winter with my naturally rather dark hair and soft black eyebrows, my skin (with some yellow-rose undertone) looks definitely lighter than my hair, eyebrows and eyelashes. Yet my eyes are soft gray-green, not those “winter eyes”.
I am Angelina Jolie type and I think we are both Soft, but not to such extent as Soft Summer. Don’t you think that Soft Summer palette is too muted and muddy for Angelina? I watch her in different colors and compare with my own experience. Though Angie (me too) needs softened colors, but definitely brighter than and not as muted as I see in the Soft Summer palette.
One of the main recommendations for soft Summer is to avoid black. Jennifer Aniston never looks good in black, but Angelina Jolie sometimes does. She looks stunning in certain sorts of black- true black (without grayish or bluish undertone) in velvet texture or velvety looking, like her dress at the British Academy Film Awards -2009. But she doesn’t look her best in more harsh shiny or muddy (grayed) black. I also look my best in such velvety black with minimal makeup (I think it’s because this is the color of my natural eyebrows).
Yet I don’t look good in stark white (I think because the whites of my eyes are not so white). And I look great in some not very harsh deeper reds. I think may be because I have highly pigmented reddish lips and the color of my natural blush is red. Otherwise winter palette is too hard for me.
I know that on the whole I’ll look blah in many of Soft Summer colors and that is because Soft summer palette is the marriage of two seasons – Summer and Autumn, where one (main) is cool and the other is warm and this is exactly what I need, but they are both muted and the resulting palette is too muddy for me. I need one season in this alliance to be muted and the other to be clear, yet if I stay in the Summer basis the only option is Light Summer, but I am not light, so that palette is of no use for me.
It seems to me that the 12 seasons theory though much better than 4-seasons is incomplete because there are many ”Softs” (neutrals) out there who are not so muted as typical softs and need slightly brighter and clearer colors.
As for make-up palettes you work out for different seasons, they are really very useful; I read your recommendations for each season. I think mistakes in make-up colors are much more noticeable than mistakes in clothes` colors.
Raspberry Glace is too cool for my skin tone, PinkABoo doesn`t show up on my highly pigmented lips and I didn’t find Glazed Berry in our stores, but thanks to your site I found the best-looking lipstick for me – Apple Brandy which you meant for Deep Winter. Though I make no conclusion about my season from this, I am fully aware of boobytraps and variability among the individuals. But don’t these details indicate that I really need slightly stronger or brighter colors than I see in the Soft Summer palette?
Natalia,
In general, I’d agree that Soft Summer seems too soft, though not necessarily too cool, to define your features. You know how this works well enough to see the variability that is possible. People of mid-range coloring can swing all over when they’re draped. I have seen a Bright Winter man (during my training, so I know it was done correctly), a Dark Winter (with very light brows, though the dark brows are more often True and Bright Winter), and a Light Spring. Soft and True Autumn people seem to give off more orange tones. Hard to say what you are. I can’t comment on my experience with the variability in Soft seasons, having only draped one. For some reason, I’ve done 6 True Summers, and many of the other 2 Summers as well.
I also agree about Angelina Jolie, that she sometimes gives the impression of being able to pull off stronger colour. Like all celebrities, who knows what they really look like?
I have yet to find any reason to think the 12 season theory will miss anybody or place them incorrectly (speaking only for the Sci\ART system here that I know much better than the others). We need to get you draped.
Each palette, even for the 2 Light seasons which never go particularly dark, have some relatively darker colours. From what I see so far, most women within any season look best at the 1/2 – 3/4 darkness point in their Colours Book choices. The darkest colours do look fine in makeup but would be worn at night or very sheerly. Apple Brandy seems like a lot of colour kick for Soft Summer, though it is fairly sheer and might have application across a few seasons.
And, you are so right that makeup colour mistakes are more obvious than clothes, I suppose because they’re being painted right on the skin. You cannot avoid looking at them.
Saw this terrific base hair colour for Soft Summer:
http://www.reelmovienews.com/gallery/angelina-jolie-pic/
Hi Christine,
I was coloured matched as Soft Summer a few years ago by CMB. I am pretty sure that’s what I am. I am definitely cool rather than warm and my colouring is muted and light to medium – pretty similar to SJP.
What do you think of Clinique’s High Impact shades of Honey Blush, Nearly Violet and Rose Spectrum for someone like me? I’ve got the first two shades and they’re pretty but I’m not sure if they are too warm for a summer person.
Here they are at:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/__8kI11wxo2I/SLaXjumtrdI/AAAAAAAAAe8/-4c4sUa4cD0/s1600-h/Clinique+High+Impact+1+(Medium).jpg
and
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__8kI11wxo2I/SLaXjiRa3mI/AAAAAAAAAfE/0wXmugyyP3A/s1600-h/Clinique+High+Impact+2+(Medium).jpg
Oops – forgot to say that I love your site – it’s lovely to read a blog when someone has a real passion about their subject.
Jay
I like Nearly Violet, and maybe Toasted Rose. Karla’s arm is tilted a bit so the Nearly Violet is harder to see. I agree that Honey Blush and Rose Spectrum might be too warm but it depends on your coloring. True Summer’s lip colours are certainly too blue for you and you need some warmth, though not very much in Soft Summer. The warmth is barely noticeable till you get to your neighbor, Soft Autumn.
Thanks for that Christine, i love reading about colours. I mostly know what my best colours are but i find it awful hard finding good stuff for work. I like nice separates but because my look is meant to be blended i.e no strong contrasts it can end up a bit boring and grey. I like wearing pink and there’s a nice medium shade that always gets me compliments when i’m wearing tops in that colour. But finding a good colour for my bottom half when I’m got pink on top is hard. Maybe dresses are the way to go??? (I love wearing trousers though)
I agree, Jay. A work wardrobe is very hard to find. Trust me, even if you can wear black and live near a huge American mall and can spend what you want, it’s still all boring. This really is a service women need refined.
Do you have the Colours Book for your particular season? Even the very light ones have some dark shades for work clothing, browns, blues, grays, etc. As a general rule, repeating the tones in your hair is very successful to create a connected image. You can go as dark as your darkest hair tones. Your description of “no strong contrasts” puts you in a Soft season? You can wear various colours together, not monochromatic at all. Sea-sand-earth-sky colours. And though it may be hard to find clothing, the makeup choices abound.
Oh that’s helpful, thank you. I will keep the sea, sand etc colours in mind the next time I go shopping. I think my best darkest colour is a pewtery mix so I’ll keep trawling through the shopping sites.
Jay
Christine, here’s my observation on wearing out-of-season dark (deep) colors. Have you noticed anything similar?
Some seasons, esp. Summers and Springs, tend to borrow the darker colors of their opposite season for more drama. These colors are not the most naturally complementary, but if they are modified by an open neckline and makeup adjustment, they seem to pass. Some seasons are naturally complemented by black, for example, but other seasons may be fine with only the contrast of lighter hair/skin on black. The features disappear somewhat, but the contrast will stand. For those who borrow darker colors, the more successful seem to be those with medium coloring who wear it off the face and balance with darker eye makeup.
Angelina Jolie has mastered this look–soft, neutral coloring but with a bit of drama–not Elizabeth Taylor level full glam. Maybe a lighter coloring could brighten the makeup more to offset a deep color?
You make some excellent points. My tendency is to be a purist about this, but that attitude seldom can be expected IRL. Angelina is a brilliant example of someone who has learned to work another look passably well, and with more drama than in naturally inherent in her-but I think about her colouring a fair bit. She’s complicated. The photos Brad Pitt took of her with the new twins in Life showed a dark woman. But who knows, ay? She’s coloured and altered beyond belief.
The whole blond woman and black clothes is a great illustration too. As others have mentioned, you can’t help but notice hair colour and contrast with hair colour. It may work for a different set of reasons. Still, I see a lot of pale women with light hair wearing black for this reason, and toned-down makeup looks absolutely nowhere on them, while intensified makeup looks like they tried way too hard. Makeup artists and celebrities can get away with this, but that’s not me (or most of us, I’d venture to say).
Dear Christine,
I am fairly sure that I am a blend of two types–about 45% soft autumn and 55% soft summer . If this is the case, would it be preferable to choose colors from only my primary type: soft summer? Or am I better advised to choose mainly from soft summer colors but also a bit from soft autumn shades, as well? I’m wondering with regard to both clothing and makeup shades. How best to proceed for for less clear-cut, more blended types?
Thanks so much for your help. I love your site!
Adria
Andrea,
In a good PCA system, there is no shade that belongs in more than 1 Season, save black and white. Once you get into the 12 tones, the differences between shades are subtle but observed side by side, they’re obviously not the same.
You entire palette is defined by your exact degree of cool/warm, light/dark, clear/soft for every colour. Wherever you fit on those 3 scales defines your Season. The position on the 3 scales is very different for another Season, so their tones will conflict with your innate colouring and you wouldn’t share between Seasons. Frustrating, I know, and I am really absolute about it because I see how far second-best is from best…but it feels great once you figure out the common thread.
Christine,
I think I understand, now. Thanks for the helpful explanation. I would be surprised if I am other than Soft Summer. Still, I hope to someday take a visit to get draped by you. I may be in Canada sometime in the next 6 months; will email you, perhaps, to get a better sense of where you are located. Your site has become my favorite. Everywhere I go, my eyes, though untrained, seek to find seasonal correlations for the amazing array of colors before me.
Look forward to it, Andrea. I live near Detroit.
On a side note: I have finally found some favorite lipsticks, thanks to your soft summer recommendations. One that I also like is Clinique’s Pink Toffee. Are you familiar with it? I think it could be a good one for many soft summers who lean on the warm side; a rosy pink with a slight tan such as you alluded to in an earlier post.
Oh, yes, of course! I know that colour well and I completely agree with you. I keep lists of good makeup for each Season that I give clients, and that one is certainly on the list. Thank you!
What a fabulous idea. Your clients must love the makeup lists!
Hi Christine!
Oh goodness. A few weeks ago I asked a question on your “Deep Winter” article about which colors I could wear to get that same dark look that you get with black lipstick – and you were so helpful even when my question was badly worded! So anyways, I have since realised I am not a Deep Winter at all! I am just like Miley Cyrus (see the page here http://www.prettyyourworld.com/miley-cyrus.html) in that while at first I seem like I’m a winter I’m actually a soft summer! I agree with VE in that lighter seasons can pull of those deep colors for drama but look better in their season’s colors.
Thanks so much for this list! Especially the NARS Deep Throat blush. I saw it before and went “Ooh, that looks great! But it’s a bit expensive,” but now that you suggested it I’ll definitely get it because I’m sure it will look great.
You’ve probably guessed it already, but I am looking for a bit of advice. This is how I realized I am a Soft Summer too – I look fine in black but I have this soft white top with beautiful multicolored (Soft Summer colors) which I look gorgeous in. The color really flows from my top to my face! The only problem is my hair. Everything looks good together, from my hazel/green eyes to my fair skin; even my black eyebrows don’t look out of place! Then you come to my hair. It’s a fairly dark ash brown, and while it looks natural it’s like when you’re eyes are traveling up my body they are stopped short at my hair. So my question for you is do you think I would it be wise to dye it lighter? I don’t mean much lighter – I’ll probably go only one shade lighter, like a medium ash brown with some depth.
I know that wasn’t the most comprehensible paragraph either, but I’m sure being as knowledgeable as you are you’ll understand what I mean.
Thank you so much!
Boy can I blab. Oh well – I just wanted to mention that I’ve looked around and It seems like I could be between Soft and Cool Summer, which seems to be where people with Summer coloring and dark hair belong – but I don’t think I’m quite that cool. And also that where I am it is NOT actually 1 AM!
Sally,
Without putting drapes on you, I have no idea what Season you are. It makes it very hard to give advice. Some Seasons make a huge mistake colouring their hair. If your natural hair colour doesn’t work, my first thought is that the palette you’ve chosen isn’t right. Once you’ve tried chemical hair colour, natural hair colour will never seem as richly pigmented, but don’t do anything permanent. You might try staying with your own colour but applying a glaze or enriching the shade you have.
Hair colour changes are seldom very flattering, IMO. All the highlights, lowlights, etc, are like too much makeup. They’re trying to create an improvement that wouldn’t be needed if your clothes and makeup colours were right. I can’t think of a single analysis I’ve done who looked better for the busy hair stuff than she did in the colour Nature gave her. Nature will never get your blueprint wrong. She gave you the colour that you are supposed to wear, that most harmonizes with all the other colours already in you.
Almost every woman I analyze has made a decision about her Season, but I’m sad to say they’ve all been off but 1, a True Autumn. I dearly wish I could analyze every one of the wonderful women who write to me, because only a personal analysis can answer the question.
Okay! Thanks for the advice. I’m going to go and get analysed soon so hopefully I’ll know then. I am trying to avoid making any huge mistakes! I just thought I fit the Soft Summer category the best because those colors were the most flattering. Hopefully once I am I will be able to really use your lovely articles. Thanks again Christine!
Hi Christine-
A soft summer with neutralish-ish skin and cool-ish eyes could have naturally reddish hair, correct? And that might throw analysis attempts into a warmer season?
Also, what color are your mascara recommendations for soft summer? Would dark brown work or would one need a dark charcoal type color?
Thanks!
Andi,
I have ONE rule about Colour Analysis. ANY Season of the 12 can have ANY hair colour and ANY eye colour. The instant you start considering hair and eye, you’re moving down the wrong path. This is why so many women have miscast themselves. I know we’ve been taught for years that it matters, but it does NOT.
Not only that, but NOBODY is objective about their own face’s reaction to colour until they’ve proceeded through correct analysis and watched it.
And finally, nobody can describe hair and eye colour precisely enough. Naturally reddish…how red? how cool? a little cool? are you a warm hair/cool skin person? warm hair/warm skin? The answers are all over the map in EVERY Season.
Your second question is easier
Soft Summer could probably wear either dark brown or charcoal. Brown sure is easier to find. If you’re on the warmer side of the Season, brown is good, and as dark as your natural colouring. Some Summers are surprisingly dark. If you’re closer to True Summer, I like charcoal (many companies, like L’Oreal’s Voluminous, make a Soft Black that is not so densely black).
Oh, thank you, thank you! Charcoal mascara is my next stop!
The red (a very almost-red kind of color) did throw me off for quite some time (not to mention, I oh-so-wanted to embrace the warm red haired coloring). But! The soft summer colors make my eyes stand out and my skin fade cleanly to the background, with clear edges in photographs, so while I’ve never been analyzed (it’s on my list!) I’m fairly certain that’s where I fit. The hair seems to almost clash with the recommended pink lipsticks, however. Like they’re fighting each other. I assume that means I’m warm haired, but I can’t really say for sure. If that’s the case, do you have any recommended lipsticks that might not fight so much but still fit the soft summer palette?
On second reading and thought, I think I’ll stick with brown, as I’m not very dark at all, even though I’m not sure I could really say I’m on the warmer side of the season (except for the hair).
Andi,
Get thee draped and every question will be answered.
And then tell us how it turned out.
Christine,
At 12 Blueprints you talked about judging color and season by 3 criteria: Light/Dark, Cool/Warm, Clear/Soft. My question is: what season would apply to a person that is Dark-Cool-Soft?
Good Q, Kristina,
In the Sci\ART system, there is no Winter-Summer blend, which is essentially what you are asking. Other companies do have this, but Sci\ART is very much a scientific company. From a theoretical point of view, such a Season would not follow the natural order of colour. In a practical, IRL setting, it isn’t needed. I analyze many dark True Summers who just cannot wear the blackened darks of Winter. They do fine in the True Summer palette, and can use many darker colours, including black if they’re attentive to how they do it.
Hi Christine,
Thank you for your reply (and sorry for my late one!).
I think I’m beginning to get it. I’m starting to see what you mean when you compare Winter and Summer colors. I’m also starting to believe that’s where I (and the color analysts I’ve seen) have gone wrong. They’ve looked at my brown hair and eyes (=quite dark colors) and thought “Winter or Autumn”. Winter feels right when it comes to its coolness, Autumn feels right when it comes to its softness. However, I can’t do Winter’s “blackened” colors, as you say. I can’t wear Winter’s dark royal blue or pine green, so that would always steer me towards Autumn. But then there were the bronzes and the burnt reds and I’d go totally jaundiced.
I never really considered Summer at all, because the descriptions don’t fit me at all.
I think there must be a lot of “Dark Summers” out there who have been misdiagnosed over and over. I’m not sure I’m one of them. My trial and error continues, but like I wrote in another post today, that lilac shirt with plum butterflies gave me a face I didn’t recognize – in a good way!
Hi Christine,
I was wondering if you know if any of the Maybelline Color Sensational lipsticks are for a Soft Summer? Born with It seems like it might fit for a lighter SS like me.
(I’m moving the discussion here to try being tidier with my comments
)
Kristina,
Although Cool Summer (or Cool Winter for that matter, although you seem for have a preference for Summer when it comes to the 12 CMB season-specific colors) could give a greater degree of contrast and color saturation while still being a soft palette (Cool Summer), the main issue for me is the color brown. While you like cocoa, and rose brown, and possibly also chocolate, all in the Soft Summer palette (in addition to stone and natural beige, not really brown, but typical Soft Summer base colors), Cools really only have “honorary browns”–taupe and pewter (again using the CMB colors–CMC book).
It might still be possible for a Cool to wear brown balanced with their cooler colors, but it is more uncertain than with Softs. Also, your connection with Autumn, is more suggestive of Soft Summer than Cool Summer.
Interestingly, cocoa and rose brown, which are less warm browns anyway, are in the Cool Summer palette in the 1991 CMB book. I still like to look at it for comparison and makeup suggestions. For example, on page 165, which of these color groupings would you use to create a capsule wardrobe?
- Blue charcoal/soft white/raspberry/icy pink (Cool Summer) or
- Pewter/amethyst/dusty rose/soft white (Soft Summer)
As far as makeup is concerned, again, brown is the issue. Brown looks good on you, whereas gray doesn’t. As a Cool, the right shade of gray would be one of your best eye shadow colors. With regards to lipstick and blush, your preference is colors that are not too cool/do not have too much blue. I believe it is possible to be a seasonal type without going to the extremes of cool or warm in that palette, but the cooler/blue-er shades were probably made for the Cools.
Another thing that was a bit fuzzy in my mind but is now more clear after I spoke to Irenee, is the fact that the different colors in a given palette may have different uses, and this would depend on a person’s specific characteristics, such that two different people with the exact same seasonal palette may use their colors differently. Irenee talks about colors that one would use for full dress and near the face (this would be one’s best colors), in addition to colors to be used away from the face or as accents. These are the colors that would be used to balance, complement and create contrast with the colors above, and to create a dark accent or an illuminating effect. I understand better now how to use some of my lighter or blah colors, they can actually create a rather beautiful effect when used in the right combination, the right amount, and in the right location.
A thing to do could be to see what percentage of colors in each palette is less you, and then analyze why (too cool, too dark, too soft?), and whether those colors can still be used away from the face, etc.
Cools also have black, dark navy and royal blue in their palette (and charcoal), which may or not work for you (I’m thinking royal blue may be too sharp or cool for you?), whereas Softs have charcoal and chocolate as your darker colors or colors to use as dark neutrals, in addition to a lighter navy and a charcoal blue.
An idea would be to do the free questionnaire on Irenee’s site. When you are done, you’ll have a nice summary of your characteristics, and access to detailed information about the colors in all of the homebase seasons, plus the additional colors in each type, for a total of 12 seasonal palettes, which are so harmonious and gorgeous to look at. She also has different booklets for each homebase, that include the homebase colors plus the additional colors for the different variants, and all sorts of useful tips).
As you suggested, CMB (UK site seems to still be using the 12 seasonal palette season) is a great source for ideas for makeup colors and comparison. I was just looking at the CMB US site, which looks like it has been redesigned since I last looked, seems to be using the 4 season system, but when I looked under makeup, there are some very interesting suggestions. For Summers, they have a number of lipstick colors, including “French Carmelian” and “Soft Plum”, which may give you that more saturated and cooler color effect, without being too cool.
I am still thinking Soft Summer, although if you turned out to be a Cool Summer it would not be a shock. One more thing to consider is CMC’s test to distinguish between Cools and between Softs. It is not a direct comparison but may be helpful: lavender, amethyst (Cool Summer, although they are also Soft Summer colors) vs. orchid and sea green (Soft Summer, ditto). Consider also the color combinations suggested for each type.
I am thoroughly enjoying my current readings on color and lines, and will be sure to share any pertinent bits.
Hi, Louise,
I’ll go look. The thing about these lipsticks is that the colour deposit is heavy so they go on a bit dark and solid. As you know, your Season is guided by gentle colour transitions and a light touch, since the delicacy of the complexion is overwhelmed by dense, solid, heavy, and dark. Still, they make a wide selection and with a gloss over top, it is a good lip product for the price. I’ll get back to you on this.
Kristina,
One more thought. Who says it has to be a 12-palette system? Perhaps some of us need greater fine-tuning than others.
If we think of a 24- or 48-palette system (I’ll do the math another time…
), perhaps you fall between Soft Summer and Cool Summer, with neither extreme (i.e., too cool or too soft) being your best colors, i.e., your full dress or near the face colors.
You may even be able to bring in a few Deep Winter and Clear Winter colors (and perhaps one or two Autumn colors), and then work out your best color combinations from this mix.
Hi Fil,
Sorry for this late reply. Somehow I couldn’t get the time to myself to really read and re-read your comments these past few days.
Hmmmm. OK, I’ll try to sort out my thoughts:
I did the questionnaire on Irenee’s site. According to her, I’d be far too dark to be anything but Winter or possibly Clear Spring (which I know for a fact I’m not, the Kelly green is simply awful on me). Also, it might be my monitor, but the Summer colors on her site look positively garish to my eye, even the softer ones. So not much help there for me, I’m afraid.
Anyone who’d look at me quickly would probably say Winter or Deep Autumn. But you know how good you look when you wear the right colors – and how tired and nervy you look in the wrong ones? The latter is what I feel like in Winter’s colors. Like they “demand” so much of me. There’s no peace.
Something else that I’ve been thinking about these past few days: maybe 12 seasons isn’t too few but actually too many??? You pointed out that Soft Summer has the browns and Cool Summer has the grays (mainly). But when I look at CMB:s Summer palette, it has both the browns and the grays. I look good in rose-beige, cocoa and rose-brown, but I can definitely wear light blue-gray, charcoal blue-gray and grayed navy also! Looking at the 12-season systems in CMC etc, it seems I’d have to choose either-or. Also, in the Cool Summer palette, it feels like too much Winter has been mixed in and the beautiful, clean Summer colors are no longer what distinguishes it from Winter. Similarly, the Soft Summer is a palette where they’ve muddied the Summer colors, if you see what I mean, and it’s not to the CMB Summer palette’s advantage.
It’s true I can’t wear gray eyeshadow. It makes me look tired. I can’t do greens either, not even greenish browns, as those colors bring out my ruddy complexion. I wear mineral makeup mostly, and my favorite eyeshadows from Alima Pure (wonderful, wonderful company in Oregon, US) are Chai, which I’d say is like a light rosy brown-beige, and Chocolate, which is a deep rose-brown. These colors bring out the blue in my brown eyes and turn them into cocoa brown.
When comparing the colors you suggested, I favor orchid and sea green, simply because the amethyst and the lavender look too “grayed” on me. I need “cleaner”, though not necessarily “clearer”.
Christine said somewhere that once you find the right makeup colors you can pile them on, as those colors are already in you and therefore they look great. Well, I can pile on cool browns and roses (deeper shades), but although the base color of my hair is a dark charcoal, I can’t wear that color on my face. It’s too heavy.
I’m going to go through your posts again and get back to you with more thoughts as they come along. I realize it’s a bit controversial wanting the 4 season system back, but somehow I think a lot of what Carole Jackson meant with those pure palettes has gone missing when mixing in the other palettes and leaving out the original ones altogether. (Running for cover.)
I’m linking the discussion to where we left off on the other thread, and then back here on March 4th:
http://www.agreenertea.com/women-and-cosmetic-advertising/#comment-1914
Kristina,
This must be some kind of transatlantic thought sharing. After I wrote my last comment to you, I wondered whether by mixing the Summers in CMC, and leaving certain colors out, one would get the original Summer in the CMB 4-season system. Unfortunately, I gave my Carole Jackson book away many years ago, but I ordered one from Amazon already
). I am very curious to see how the seasonal palettes compare to the original seasons. The oldest CMB book I have from the early 90’s already has the 12-palette system, that it is still in use by CMB UK. By the way, they seem to have updated CMC with a new edition that was out just this month.
The UK CMB company, which I believe no longer has a connection to the US-based CMB, which still uses the 4-season system (not sure if they were ever connected), also operates in Europe and many other countries outside of Europe. I noticed on their website they have a consultant in Sweden. Given all the issues you would be able to raise regarding your particular coloring, you may have a better outcome with them this time around (I came out a Deep Autumn in 1991 because of my black hair and because I don’t do stark white very well, but if I had to do it again today, I would be more aware of the pitfalls and might get to the right conclusion with CMB).
Irenee would be very interested in your particular case, I think. The system in my opinion is more flexible then it looks in terms of hair color determining your season automatically. I think she will also incorporate new information in the questionnaire that will help with its accuracy. For me, her system is more helpul and flexible than CMB. As she says, I am a Winter, but not a very good one, and she is spot on!
Hi again, Fil!
Wow, that’s so funny, we had the same thought simultaneously!
I have the 1991 CMB version and the CMC version, besides the original CMB book from 1980 (I also had to get a new one, because the one I had was falling to pieces and the colors had begun to get really pale). When I got the new copy of CMB I was pleasantly surprised to see so many beautiful, clean Summer colors. They are most definitely different from Winter’s colors, but they are not at all the muddied colors of Soft Summer, nor the very cool, crisp colors of the Cool Summer, and certainly much more powerful than the Light Summer colors.
I realize there must be a need for these “mixed” seasons. I get that. What I can’t understand is why they have left out the original Summer colors (as you will see when you get your book), because there are obviously people who look best in those and who can wear both the browns and the charcoals.
In CMB Carole says: “Many brown-eyed or green-eyed Summers mistakenly think they are warm seasons…” (page 44) and “The dark brunette Summer is expecially good in the vivid colors of her palette and may find that the palest pastels are best mixed with brighter colors. She is the woman who just missed being a Winter.” (page 70) The mixing in of other season colors wasn’t invented at that time (or known to Ms. Jackson) but she didn’t seem to see a need for it, as her suggestion was to just wear the colors accordingly. I have no idea what she would say about the extended version of palettes today, but I’m pretty sure she’d miss the Original Summer! So I guess that would make my opinion the following: there needs to be 16 palettes – or just 4.
Oh wow, this is the closest to rocket science I’ve ever come. LOL.
Oh, and I forgot to say:
I will absolutely contact Irenee to get her opinion, if possible. Thank you for the tip!
That’s the conclusion I’m coming to. In my opinion, the 12-palette system has definitely been very helpful to many people. I see it for example when it comes to Winter women and wearing brown: Cool or True Winter women do brown less well, if at all, Clear or Bright Winter women can do a very dark, blackened brown but not a warmer brown or a lighter brown (other than taupe or pewter, which are gray-browns all Winters can do), and Deep or Dark winter women, with their connection with Autumn, can also do a warmer chocolate, in addition to black-brown. If, as a Winter woman, you are lucky to fall nicely into one of these 3 categories, this is indeed very helpful.
What I started to think, as you did too, was what to do about the people who have connections within their own season, say for example, a number of characteristics from the different Summer types–what are they? If it is too cumbersome to add all sorts of additional categories and combinations to the 12-palette system, might they be better represented by the original 4-season system–as you suggest, a 16-palette system?
It seems the original system was ditched too much in a hurry, but there must be a reason why people continue to find it useful. If you ever do the draping with CMB in Sweden, you could perhaps try to focus also on the colors in the original book to test this for yourself. The description certainly seems to fit you better than any one of the Summer types in CMC.
I was looking at the post below to help make sense of our discussions, and noticed there is indeed a 16-palette system–Color Me a Season!! I hadn’t paid attention before, but isn’t this interesting?
http://www.agreenertea.com/the-season-naming-systems/
Hi again, Fil!
Yes, I certainly agree. I’m starting to think like this:
If my color analysis had been correct from the start (Deep Autumn) or even from the second time (Deep Winter), then I wouldn’t have felt something was wrong. I mean, we all know the difference between what looks good and what doesn’t, and also what looks “kind of right, but not 100%”. I mean, even on days when we’re tired or we feel bad about ourselves or our situation for some reason, the right color looks good. I never got those “highs” in the Winter or Autumn palettes.
I tend to think like you that the original system might have been ditched too quickly. I certainly think that there are 4 palettes missing in the new system (I don’t know the Sci/Art system, so I can’t say anything about it). Also, I tend to think hair and eye color would matter, after all. I’d love to see some blond Deep Winters and some really dark Light Springs, just to get to see the strength of that type of system.
I doubt if I will ever go to another CMB analyst. We don’t have any in my home town and frankly, I think I’ve gotten a LOT more help from you than I did from them! I think I’ll just get some tops in Summer’s colors and see how I feel in them. If they don’t look good I can always pass them on to my daughters…
Kristina,
I believe you are very right at this point to trust your observations, your intuition, your thinking, and that wonderful feeling of being in just the right colors for you. And have some fun dreaming up the wonderful combinations you can create with your favorite colors.
I was browsing through the SCI\Art book, and it seems to me their true seasons are more the equivalent of CMB’s 12-palette Cools (Cool Winter and Cool Summer) and Warms (Warm Spring and Warm Autumn), rather than of the original 4 seasons. It is difficult to assess though, as the book does not show the color palettes, but, instead, an image depicting the overall color feel for a given type, and a listing/description of some of its colors and best combinations. It is all very interesting, and I hope to learn more about the SCI\Art system at some point. I also don’t have Carole Jackson’s book in front of me as I write, it’s been quite a few years since I last saw the 4 seasons in her book.
I would agree with you on the topic of hair and eye color. Actually, for me, it is how the connection with season is presented. I would agree that the draping process seeks to find the colors that will be in harmony with skintone. However, it is also true that a greater percentage of Deeps than of Lights have black or dark brown hair, ditto for Warms vs. Cools having auburn hair, and for Cools vs. Warms having silver or ashy hair. The SCI\Art book has the same descriptions of typical skintone, eye, and natural hair color as the 12-palette 1991 CMB book, which is kind of reassuring, I guess. It also mentions brown as a typical eye color for Soft Summers, which the CMB book does not.
I truly appreciate your kind words. They were especially important to me at this time, as I am contemplating a career change, there is a certain non-profit organization here I would like to work with…
Hi Fil,
First of all let me say, that it is I who should be thanking you for all the help you have given me! You have truly gone out of your way and I am incredibly grateful for all your advice and your clever input. Thank you! A career change… That sounds intriguing. May I say: go for it, and good luck! I’m sure you’ll do wonderfully well, whatever it is.
Thank you also for your description of the Sci/Art book. If it’s more or less the same ideas as the 12 palette system, then I probably won’t bother with the palette. I’ll just go to a print shop and make a copy of the Summer palette from my CMB book, and that will probably do excellently at this point. As you’ll see when you get your new copy, there are so many beautiful colors in the Summer palette (it’s true for all the 4 seasons, although I haven’t compared the others to what the new 12 palette system, so I can’t say what the differences are there). I don’t want too cool (i.e. Summer mixed with Winter) nor muddied (Summer mixed and softened by Autumn), at least not at this point. I may very well be a Soft Summer, in fact it’s probably the most likely option, since I feel more Soft than Cool in terms of personality, but that’s another story…
I’ll have a look at the Color Me a Season, just to see if I can find what I’ve been missing from the 12 palette system.
I wrote to Irenee, but she hasn’t replied yet. I’ll let you know if and when she does.
Spring is coming to our country. The sun is shining, the snow is melting off the roofs, little birds are singing everywhere. And the light! Makes me wonder how we ever get through winter time each year…
Thanks, Kristina! My intended change of direction has to do with women, color, and supporting new beginnings…
I think it’s going to be a wonderful Spring and “Summer”!
OK, just one more thought, I promise…
I was looking at Irenee’s site just now, and it struck me, her system is probably a 16-palette system also. There is nothing to say that one has to be one of the 12 inter-seasons. One may also simply belong in one of the 4 homebases (seasons), without further complication. It is also quite amazing that she came out with the inter-season or balanced season concept as early as the early eighties.
Hi Fil,
Wow, your career move sounds very exciting. Women, color, new beginnings… Judging from all the help you’ve given me on this blog, I’d say that must be the ultimate career for you, it will fit you perfectly. Again, good luck! I think it’s very brave to do what you’re about to do.
Color is truly fascinating – and quite addictive, wouldn’t you say?
Yes, I agree with your thoughts on Irenee’s concept. Nothing states that you have to be an inter-season. (She stil hasn’t replied, by the way.) I’ll have a look again and see if anything new hits me. Have you gotten your new copy of CMB yet?
I’m thinking a lot about color these days, not only my own but thaat of other persons as well. My youngest daughter for example, she would be a hard nut to crack: very, very pale fair skin with pale rosy cheeks and which tans pretty easily into golden, medium brown hair with lots of ginger and auburn, amber eyes – and black eyebrows and lashes. By first glance one would think some kind of Autumn, but peach doesn’t suit her and she looks great in watermelon, dark rose pink and violets. So I’m thinking some kind of Spring or Summer. My oldest daughter is fairly easy, with her very pale olive skin (cool, no warmth at all), dark brown hair with red and wine highlights, dark green eyes with a sunburst of mahogany. She’d be the perfect Deep, although she has a very soft quality to her look as well… DH on the other hand has rosy skin, silvery salt-and-pepper hair, very dark eyebrows and lashes, and clear blue-green eyes. The typical Clear Winter. Or Cool Winter. Or…
Hi again, Fil.
Okay, so I went ahead and printed out the questionnair from Irenees site and finally did it, very thoroughly.
If that test is anything to go by, I’m nowhere near a Soft Summer. In fact, I’m nowhere near Summer at all! I ended up having 11 points on the left side, the one for Intense-Clear-Balanced colors and only 4 on the Soft-Dusty-Balanced.
The result was Spring: 2, Clear: 4, Winter: 5 – and Autumn: 2, Summer: 2, Soft: 0.
I’m not totally sure if that means that I’m a Clear Winter, since I tend towards Balanced but not another “season”. Do you know?
It would explain a few things though:
I need cool, but not too cool.
I need slightly warmer, but not warm.
It’s what Irenee describes as the Goldilocks syndrome!
Please feel free to comment if you want, I’d love to hear your opinion. I’m very, very surprised the left side dominance was so overwhelming (11 to 4).
Hi Kristina,
Interesting… in a comment a few days ago, I mentioned you might be able to borrow some Deep and Clear Winter colors, You may remember from the “Letting things be easy” thread, I first thought you were what Irenee calls a neutral-cool Balanced Intense or Clear (a Clear Winter), as your struggles seemed so much like mine. Over time, with additional information, I am (still…) leaning more toward Soft Summer (perhaps mixed with Cool Summer) in the 12-palette system, or simply a Summer in the 4-season system, given your strong preference for the softer, less intense Summer colors, compared to Winter colors.
It is possible that the choices for hair color in the questionnaire immediately put you in the Winter/Balanced-Clear section, while your hair color(s) might be softer than your base color indicates. If this is something that should be corrected for, it might flip back your clear vs. soft results.
I’ll share some of the things I’ve been thinking about regarding my own colors, as some of these seem to affect the way I wear them:
I have little doubt that Clear Winter is where I belong in the 12-palette system, but was still intrigued by my connection to Cool Summer that I mentioned before. Why did I have this feeling of being a bit softer than I imagined a Clear Winter would be? After I did my questionnaire, I spent a couple of hours on the phone with Irenee to go over it again and discuss my best colors. According to her system, I am a “Balanced Intense/Cool-Neutral”, which is the equivalent of Clear Winter in the CMB system. I also had some colors on the “balanced soft” side, and a few others elsewhere. I think this is where individual characteristics come into play, and certain colors that are “ouside” of one’s palette may still have some “chemistry” with one’s personal coloring (I am also trying to learn a bit more about skin overtones and undertones, and how different pigment mixes lead to them being cool, warm or neutral).
We concluded that I did medium contrast best, as opposed to high contrast, and that helped a few things fall into place for me. I thought I ought to do high contrast well, but always preferred medium contrast. I also am not likely to wear the very bright and lighter colors in my palette as my best/near the face colors, but instead, in prints, where they look wonderful in small amounts, or as small accents.
Just as temperature and hue have a neutral point and various degrees of warm and cool, and depth or value also has a medium point between light and dark, so does intensity or chroma, I.e., there is a neutral point between clear and muted, and everything in between. For me, what works are the Clear Winter colors (better than any other palette), with the darker colors (my hair is soft black) and medium clear (or just, just slightly muted) colors being my best ones (for example, emerald green, emerald turquoise and a deep/bright periwinkle). My best contrast is a medium contrast between my dark and my medium-clear colors, or even a low contrast between my dark colors. Very bright and lighter colors are not my best colors, but are the ones I look for in a print, mixed with medium and dark colors. That is my way of doing High contrast, by having all kinds of contrast going on a print. Bright colors as accents in small amounts also work well.
Clears and Softs have as their predominant characteristic chroma or intensity, Clear colors having high chroma, and Soft colors having low chroma. Just as Clears may do high and/or medium contrast, Softs can do low and medium contrast, and perhaps also a medium-high contrast between their more extreme colors, say chocolate and ivory. Again, this is probably where individual characteristics come into play, so that our best color contrasts in clothing mimic the contrast in our personal coloring, and so another Clear Winter will use their colors in a way that is different from mine. In conclusion, my issue with softness was in fact an issue of contrast in color combinations.
Lora Alexander sent me some notes on Clear Winters some time ago, and just now I am appreciating some of the things I glossed over before. It is possible she has more on contrast in her book “Color Revival”, which I hope to read soon, after the few I’m juggling at the moment.
Hi again, Fil!
Thank you so much for your thorough comment!
No, what put me in Winter’s category was my fair skin (I also checked pale skin in Autumn and light porcelain skin in Summer), a slight widow’s peak, dark eyes and dark eyebrows. I checked Autumn’s warm brown hair, since one is supposed to describe the colors one had in one’s “prime”, and curly hair in Summer’s homebase.
The more I think about this, the more confused I seem to get. I mailed Irenee my question above while waiting for your reply, and she wrote back very quickly “Yes, sounds right, send me a picture”. Which I did, but I haven’t heard back after that. (Maybe she’s as confused as I am…)
I didn’t have a single trait in the Balanced Soft category. Not one.It was the only category where I couldn’t tick a single box.
About chroma and clarity I’m afraid I’m much too ignorant in those subjects to make an intelligent comment. What you write sounds logical though. I’m going to have to go through your reply a few times to understand it better.
I’m sorry I’m pressed for time, so I can’t elaborate further. I’ll be back shortly. Be well!
Kristina,
It is getting interesting-er by the minute!
One of the things I noticed is that Irenee’s descriptions of typical skintones for the different types is a bit different from CMB’s and also from SCI\Art’s, which is basically the exact same descriptions as in CMB (1991). I am all interested in skintones these days, so I’ll be studying that a bit more to see if I an understand these differences, or perhaps at close inspection they are not that different.
When I look at CMB’s and CMC’s descriptions under Soft Summer and Cool Summer, it sounds more how I imagined you from your descriptions:
- Soft Summer: slightly pink tone, blushes easily (CMC) — but it also mentions little contrast between eye, hair and skin tone, although I think that could be stretched a bit depending on hair and eye color; ivory, beige (CMB 1991)
- Cool Summer: skin tone has a softness to it and pink undertones (CMC); soft pink, beige, rose beige (CMB 1991)
but then again, the Winter skintone descriptions could also fit, especially Clear Winter:
- Deep Winter: porcelain, olive, black with slight blue tinge (CMC); black, cool brown, olive, cool beige (CMB 1991)
-Clear Winter: porcelain skin with a pink tone to it, cool black skin (CMC); porcelain, ivory, beige, clear olive (CMB 1991)
The other thing that I am thinking is whether your eyes have that clear/bright quality of Clear Winters, although that might not be the deciding factor, and Clear Winter eyes, green/blue/violet/hazel/clear brown, can have a darkness to them. Soft Summer eyes are described as having more of a soft/muted, smoky quality, and to often change color.
You had mentioned that Winter colors were too intense/sharp/dark for your coloring, and that Soft Summer in the CMC book looked a bit too muted/grayed down, and that the Summer colors in Carole Jackson’s book were the ones that seemed right and looked great on you. I still don’t have the 4-season CMB book, but I was looking in the 1991 CMB book, the Soft Summer palette on page 45 is what I imagine your best colors to be like: the medium blues, blue-greens, pinks, roses, reds, that are a bit muted compared to winter colors, but still have an elegant intensity to them, not at all pale or light, or overly muted. The neutrals and base colors also seem to be good ones, especially if you look at the full list in the back of the book. Compare that to the Clear or Deep Winter palettes, and see what you think.
It could be that you are indeed a Winter, or it could be that you were a Winter when you had fewer silver/ash and warm brown strands. It is possible, I think, to sometimes go to a lighter type within the same season, or to a lighter and more muted type in another season when gray hair appears (as we had talked about before, Deep Winter to Soft Summer, Clear Winter to Cool Summer, and possibly other transitions). It is also possible you are still a Winter, perhaps will be a bona fide Summer one day, but for now all you need is to adjust your contrast levels and such when wearing Winter colors.
Hi Fil,
Yes, interesting-er indeed! LOL
Do you know what I did this afternoon? I hunted down every single Summer color I could find in the household (from the CMB 4 season palette) and tried them on me. I found off-white, lavender, orchid, mauve, denim, powder pink, pastel pink, cocoa, pastel aqua, medium blue-green, medium blue, periwinkle blue and grayed navy (and maybe a few more, I can’t remember now). Towels, the kids’ clothing, even a pair of home-knitted socks… I draped myself with each of those colors, one by one, two by two.
It was amazing. Every single one of those colors, alone or in combination with another, whether it was a light-dark combination or a medium-medium combination, looked absolutely GREAT on me. My double chin disappeared, my complexion cleared, I looked at least ten years younger and ten pounds lighter, like I’d had a long vacation. I’ve done a similar test once before (I think I wrote about it in another post, but I’m not sure) with fewer colors, but I couldn’t quite believe the result at that time, thinking more in terms of “I probably had a good hair day that day”. Well, not this time. It was just amazing.
Christine has pointed out that Summer would be unlikely for me, having seen my eye pattern and the color – but then again, she’s always said that before a draping takes place, no one can tell for sure. That’s what I’m going to hold on to from now on.
I see what you mean about the skin tones. The problem with the descriptions though is that I could be porcelain, pale olive, pale beige, possibly even ivory, depending on who you’d ask. I certainly come across as light-skinned with a lot of contrast, as I presume you do too?
I couldn’t find any of the colors of Soft Summer (CMC) in my home. I had wanted to look at verbena, gray-green and sage in particular. I’m still wondering if they’d really suit me. I know that anything which approaches khaki brings out the red in my face, so that’s not good. But sage and verbena might work.
It’s funny going gray. I actually have a base tone now that’s a lot darker than when I was young. In my late teens and 20’s I was more brown, now I’m more charcoal. In certain lights my hair looks blue-gray with silver strands.
Yes, I might very well have been another season before, that’s altogether possible. Do you feel you’ve been something else when you were younger, or have you always looked good in the colors you wear now? Some analysts say you change season as you age, some say you don’t. I don’t know what to believe. I just know that I was never happy in the palettes I was given before and that maybe, if those analysts had taken the time to think outside the box at those particular times, they would have found something that wasn’t expected but that would have solved the puzzle?
Would you say that the Clear Winter palette of today is more or less the same as the one in the 1991 book? I’m asking this because I will probably eventually invest in a palette, but since the old Summer palette is no longer available, I will have to choose which one comes closest to it. The palette on page 45 sounds about right, but I have the Swedish version of that book and the English version of all the others, so I can’t be sure if the colors correspond.
Oh, one more thing:
The biggest surprise today was the grayed navy. I’ve worn regular navy before, Winter navy, but I’ve always felt I looked stern in it. Well, today I found one of my husbands shirts in a soft, grayed navy. Reluctantly I draped myself in it, convinced I’d look gray and tired. Well, it didn’t happen. On the contrary my skin looked rosy and fresh and the overall effect was just as good as with the other colors. I think that was the biggest revelation of them all, that the subtle difference (subtle to me and my untrained eye) between Winter’s navy and that of Summer could have such a huge impact.
Hi Kristina,
The book is here, so I’m going to take a look and will comment later today.
Kristina,
(OK, this is going to be another long one, I tried to list the colors in comparison to CMC’s palettes to have a better sense.)
Really a trip down memory lane and so pleasant to get re-acquainted with Carole Jackson’s book. As we had discussed, it seems that Summer in the 4-season system is a combination of the Summer types in the 12-palette CMB/CMC system (I will focus mainly on Soft and Cool Summer). There are fewer colors (only 30), compared to the 48 in CMB (1991) and the 42 in CMC.
>>>Colors common to the 4-season Summer palette, and to Cools and Softs in CMC:
- Sky blue
- Soft white
>>>Colors common to the 4-season Summer palette, and to all Summers in CMC:
- Powder pink
- Orchid
- Soft fuchsia
- Lavender
>>>Colors in the 4-season palette and in CMC’s Soft palette:
- Cocoa
- Rose-brown
- Charcoal blue-gray
- Grayed navy (same as Light navy?)
- Pastel blue-green (same as Verbena?)
>>>Colors in the 4-season palette and in CMC’s Cool palette:
- Rose beige
- Light (blue) gray
- Rose pink
- Pastel aqua (same as Light aqua?)
- Blue-greens
- Blue-red
Soft Summer colors not included in the 4-season Summer palette (there may be similar colors by a different name, but it is not easy to say for sure):
- Charcoal
- Pewter
- Taupe
- Stone
- Natural beige
- Chocolate
- Sage
- Grey-green
- Turquoise
- Emerald turquoise
- Spruce
- Mint
- Jade
- Teal
- Light periwinkle
- Sapphire
- Soft violet
- Purple
- Damson
- Blush pink
- Claret
- Geranium
- Shell
Cool Summer colors not included in the 4-season Summer palette:
- Taupe
- Pewter
- Medium gray
- Charcoal
- Black
- Dark navy
- Royal blue
- Sapphire
- Bright periwinkle
- Light periwinkle
- Duck egg
- Icy blue
- Icy green
- Teal
- Light teal
- Pine
- Spruce
- Hot pink
- Baby pink
- Cassis
- Purple
Colors common to all Summers in CMC, but not included in the 4-season Summer palette:
- Eau de nil
- Sea green
- Icy gray
- Bluebell
- Icy pink
- Icy violet
- Rose ??
- Amethyst
>>>Colors in the 4-season Summer palette, but not in CMC’s Soft Summer or Cool Summer palettes:
- Raspberry (in Deep and Clear Winter’s palettes)
- Plum (in Deep and Clear Winter’s palettes)
- Mauve
- Deep rose
- Pastel pink (in Light Summer palette, but looks different)
- Burgundy (in Deep Winter palette)
- Watermelon (all the Springs in CMC)
- Light lemon yellow (in Clear palette?)
- Medium blue (but could be the same as Cornflower in Light and Cool palettes?)
- Powder blue (in Deep and Clear Winter’s palettes)
- Periwinkle (in Deep and Clear Winter’s palettes)
- Cadet blue
Kristina, take a look at the colors excluded from the Soft and Cool Summer palettes in the 4-season palette. Are these colors that you want to keep in some capacity (away from face, accents, etc.)? You may choose either the Soft or Cool Summer palettes and add colors from the other palette (and from the 4-season palette) that you think you should keep, but I am inclined to think the 4-season palette at least works for you, and it does include some CMC Clear and Deep Winter colors that we had speculated you might be able to wear. The description of Summer on pages 48-9 of C.J.’s book also has interesting insights that sound so very you.
That 16-palette system is making more and more sense to me…
Consider also the Soft Summer palette in the 1991 CMB book. It could also work (but is it still available??).
Hi again, Kristina,
I was looking at the list of colors for Soft Summer in the CMB 1991 book and noticed there are no icy colors, compared to the same palette in the CMC book. Rather interesting…
One of the nice things about looking at the 4 palettes in C.J.’s book is that one get’s this nice sense of tonal differences between the seasons. I think this is also a strong point of the SCI\Art 12-palette system, I only wished I could see all their palettes. And I would love to make a side-by-side comparison of SCI\Art and CMC on women of all 12 seasonal types. Wishful thinking…
By the way, I have a feeling SCI\Art’s Soft Summer palette might work well for you. In the book, it sounds very similar to the CMB’s 1991 palette, but it has additional colors (65 in total, vs. 48 in CMB). The full palette list in the back of the CMB book does include some of the colors in the 4-season Summer palette that are not part of CMC’s Soft and Cool Summer palettes (raspberry, blue-red [not in Soft Summer palette], watermelon, deep rose, burgundy, light lemon yellow, cadet blue, periwinkle, medium blue).
The one thing though is that the SCI\Art color books don’t show the color names, which is fine to match colors, but I love to have colors play in my mind, and having a name does help. The makeup colors suggested for each type are also pretty much the same as in the 1991 CMB book. I was also looking on Lora Alexander’s site, her description of Soft Summer colors sounds very much like your best colors.
I would agree that Irenee’s system might work a lot better by working with her in an interactive way. I got my detailed color book that she made for me after we spoke over the phone, while looking at the questionnaire, color ovals, etc., on the website as we went. She does have an intimate knowledge of color that does go outside the box. I was reading in her different materials, she began developing her color system in 1965, and copyrighted her inter-season concept in 1978. One thing to take into account with her palettes is that colors are included to have different functions, and that will also depend on individual characteristics. It is probably also the case with other systems, but perhaps not so explicit.
Kristina, you were asking about my coloring when I was younger. I think I was a bit cooler in my teens and early 20’s. My black hair was shinnier and had a slight blue cast to it. I remember I was a big fan of black patent leather shoes. I am 47 now, no gray hair yet, but my hair is more soft black, and I now prefer soft black accessories also. I may have been a cooler season before, or more likely, I could do Clear Winter even better back then. When I think back about what I used to wear, it was all-out clear winter brightness and high contrast, and I was able to go into the cooler colors of Clear Winter, which now, sometimes I can, and sometimes not so much. My skintone should be close to MAC NC45, and with softer black hair now, I seem to prefer medium contrast these days.
Hi again, Fil.
Wow, I’m so utterly impressed by your comments! You have such a great capacity to see the whole picture, something I find difficult at times. You’re so thorough!
Yes, isn’t it lovely to read CMB again? It’s so full of sound advice that really makes sense. What I like about it is that it’s quite simple, compared to the extended palette systems.
Before I comment on your extensive comparison of colors, let me just say that I found something in the color verbena (the back of a book, to be precise). It didn’t look good, I became very pale and yellow. I couldn’t find any sage yet.
What I’m thinking when I read through your comparison is, that the colors that are in the 4 season Summer’s palette, but that are excluded in the new system, actually look very good on me. I’ve always liked light lemon (and I wear it well), and plum, mauve, deep rose and the blues do look good (I tested them the other day). I’d miss them, I think. The burgundy of Summer is lighter, less clear than the Winter burgundy (in CMB). It’s not a color I particularly like, so I can’t really say what it would do for me.
I do feel a bit hesitant towards the new icy colors. They may look great for contrast though, but I’d have to see it with my own eyes.
From looking at your list, I’d say the colors I’d least favor in addition to Summer’s 30 are the ones listed under Cool Summer. They seem too much Winter for me. But same thing here, I’d have to try them and see. I admit that I do sound most like a Soft Summer in CMC, but maybe that’s only because the other two are not really an option. Yes, the 16 palette system really starts to make sense, doesn’t it! I feel the other three are essential, but one is missing.
Yes, the description on pages 48-49 do sound like me, now that I’ve started to see myself in a different light. I’m starting to see why Winter has always felt like it demands so much of me, if you see what I mean. Like it’s a bit too heavy for comfort. I think what everybody (including myself) missed was the softness of my colors. I think what would be a good approach for me now is getting to know the 30 Summer colors and then see what I can add once I’ve gotten the feel of it. Maybe I’ll need to add browned shades or cooler ones. It will be a trial and error journey, but now at least I know that it’s not a hopeless case. Having 30 different colors to begin with is pretty good for someone like me, who has lived her life in mostly black, red and white for years and years.
The palettes of the 1991 book are no longer available, they have been replaced by the CMC ones. I do get the feeling that in order to get 48 colors for every palette, some were a compromise. But I may be wrong. I agree that Lora’s description of Soft Summer seems to fit really well. I actually first started to look at the Summer possibility having seen her “Type cast” section, where that guy from “The Office” is listed as a Soft Summer. He’s dark-ish, like me. I wish there were more examples of dark Summers around, as the stereotype Summer seems to be blonde and light-eyed.
Your coloring sounds beautiful and very rare! I think Winter coloring in general is very striking. You must be one of those women that can pull off red lipstick really well, something I’ve always been envious of. My two sisters are Winters, one more Deep-looking and the other probably Cool. When I stand next to them, I look a lot less colorful and intense than they do, more rosy and softer.
Thank you so much for all of this, Fil. You know how much I appreciate it, don’t you? How are things coming along with your new career?
PS: Just came to think of it: I’m going to have a look at the American Color Me Beautiful site. They only have 4 seasons still. Do you know them? It seems Carole Jackson “kept the books and sold the cosmetics”, she said in an interview somewhere, so I think that they might be pretty true to the old version of Summer. Might be worth a look.
Hi Kristina,
You are so welcome, consider it part of my training
!
That’s what I’ll be doing these next couple of months, training, getting a certification, learning a bit more, and wrapping up some old stuff so I can move on.
You know my curiosity is going to get the better of me, and I’ll be looking at those 4-season palettes and makeup in no time… I hope to find an opportunity in the next few weeks and will let you know.
These days I love a soft neutral red lipstick (my idea of a yellowed true red that is a bit mellow, not too bright), but can never find one. I found a way to create the effect by mixing a light sweep of a mauve brown lipstick with a sheer clear plum or burgundy. It looks great with that Pink Truffle Bobbi Brown cream blush we talked about before.
Talk to you soon and go be beautiful in your Summer colors!