I’m glad you found something useful here. One of the best things about makeup that works is that you’re released from the need to buy more makeup. Once I got my colours sorted, I haven’t bought makeup in months. That’s a whole new concept in my life.

Some people remain the same season all their lives. Others deepen with teenage/maturity between 14 and 18, and then cool and/or soften later, around the 50-60s. The 4 Season concept was a great beginning but not nearly enough.

I love your analogies. I always have enormous respect (and a little envy) for people who can use language in powerful and imaginative ways. Reversible raincoats is so good. The phrase “part of your skin” is right on. That is EXACTLY what right makeup looks like.

Now, Christine, I so appreciate your taking the time to check out cosmetics for us. I went straight out and bought Clinique’s “Copper Canyon” duo and it’s perfect!!!!! This may become an all-time favorite for me.

And for Lora– I’ve been analyzing myself for years without much help. I knew for a long time that something was not quite right with the original four seasons. I thought I was a Spring and everyone else thought I was a summer (?) or an Autumn (too deep). But the idea of “flowing” into Autumn wasn’t quite right either. The flow colors mostly seemed a bit strong.

Where did I read it–? Someone said that a good way to tell your true season is to look at childhood photos. Well, my photos show a strawberry blonde slowly darkening into a light golden brown that sometimes looked red in the sun and sometimes looked ash in certain lights. To totally throw me off, I found nothing about my eye color in the Autumn or the Warm Spring category initially. My eyes are sort of like reversible raincoats. They change colors from bright blue to hazel to olive green. When I was a child, they were nearly black.

Now I’ve got streaks of gray running through my hair (not like the bright redheads pictured) and it looks kind of like a dusty gold, having faded (though I could have been a redhead from a bottle and it would have looked okay). But I’ve left it alone for now–hate messy stuff and touchups.

But you, know….once I saw the warm spring colors and tried on the Clinique duo, it seems to pull the whole thing together. It’s still warm. When you get the right colors, they seem to be a natural part of you like your skin. I’ve never had that happen before. So thank you both. This has been great.

You are an awesome woman to type all this and give us both a chance to clear anything. The comment suddenly appeared in the Spam folder when I was uploading a response. Digital weirdness.

As you’ve said, we’re still probably more on the same page than we (I) realize. The more philosophies go into building an idea, the stronger it will be. And yes, my bulldozer personality, that I don’t like very much at times (many times) took over on the Warm Autumn thing. I was completely wrong. I had no idea what effect I was looking for from the colours I wore.

So glad you’re as diplomatic as you are. I haven’t at all given up the hope of meeting in the food court in Fort Wayne (which I’ve calculated as the halfway point between my house and Lora’s). The other project is still a go in my head. I’m trying to find a blush for the Bright (Clear) Winter and Spring and True Winter to finish my Makeup Model articles before the end of June, and it is not easy. I figure that type of pink isn’t made because it wouldn’t sell well. Women would be intimidated by that colour unless they belonged to those seasons and actually applied the color. Women NEED us.

And men need us too. I’ve been looking at the Sports Announcers for the Stanley Cup playoffs. The money they must put down for those suits..and most of them look 20lbs heavier than they need to around the sides of their face.

Very best,
C.

For any of your readers I would like to clarify how this difference in thought came about but I feel very responsible for the split. Christine has talked about me a lot on her blog and I am grateful to her for that. But when we became email buddies and, like I said, agreed on nearly everything, she wanted me to tell her how I would analyze her from photos so she could write about it in her blog. She was adament that she was a Warm Autumn even before she sent me her pictures. At first I thought she might be a Deep Autumn (even sent her one of my eswatches) but she said she couldn’t imagine herself in those dark colors. Anyway, she sent me lots of photos of herself and while she was sort of a tough one, I agreed she was a Warm Autumn. Long story short, after her Sci/Art analysis, she found she was not a Warm Autumn, and at this time I forget which one she was determined to be (and the CMB equivalent name.)

I take full responsibility for not analyzing her more in depth. If I have ANY doubt at all about a person’s colors, I ask for more pictures and ask a ton of other questions. I didn’t do that for Christine because, and again, this was my fault not hers, that she was absolutely certain she was a Warm Autumn so any doubt I would have would have been eased by her having such good knowledge about color. We’ve emailed each other at least 500 times and we were in such agreement about nearly everything else I just didn’t put in the effort to really question her assessment about herself. Once Christine was found by another analyst to be a different season, she pretty much stopped believing that a person could be analyzed from photos and they can ONLY be accurately analyzed in person, being draped, etc. I feel bad about this split in our thinking but it is what it is and I respect her opinion and the experience she went through.

However, that said, I am confident that if good quality photos are submitted, my accuracy in analyzing someone’s colors are as good if not better than doing it in person. I’ve had so many people tell me they were “professionally” analyzed and the results were simply wrong!. And these people were draped and everything. So you need to take in to account the training the analyst has had (obviously there are people who are ‘certified’ analysts who just have no clue!) So being draped won’t help someone who doesn’t understand color in the first place.

After the Christine experience, I counted how many clients I’ve analyzed virtually and all but 3 I asked for additional photos to make my analysis. Sometimes it takes a photo from when they were a teenager or younger to see what their true coloring was/is. The 3 I didn’t need additional photos for sent a huge, high definition picture that simply showed me their true colors just as well as if they were standing right in front of me. I have no doubt I analyzed them correctly. In fact I will be showcasing them soon on my site as an example of how I actually analyze someone.

But anyway, back to my first statement: I do believe that all people can be analyzed from photos (with good quality pics of course) and this includes celebrities. Some are tougher than others to be sure, particularly when they change eyes, skin and hair color every other day. But there is no way that Kim Kardashian is anything other than a Deep Winter. And Ellen is anything other than a Light Spring. Draping them won’t reveal any big surprises. Lindsay Lohan is a Warm Autumn. You only need to watch “The Parent Trap” and see all of those freckles, green eyes and red hair to know that.

I’m not saying I’m perfect and will never make mistakes. I can get tripped up on someones color like anyone else. But it has nothing to do with whether I’m draping them or not. Its just because their colors are very tricky. Anyway, I’d like to thank you Christine for letting me post my comments. I’ve felt bad about our split in philosophy about draping vs. virtual analysis and it feels good to clear the air about this with your readers.

sincerely,

Lora Alexander
Color Analyst from http://www.PrettyYourWorld.com