The Basics of Color Analysis

The year was 1973. The first thorough guide to color analysis was published. Color Me Beautiful,  was written to help women find the colors that work best for them. And while a lot has changed since 1973, the fundamentals found in Color Me Beautiful have proven to hold pretty steadfast.

In the guide, colors are divided into seasons, and from there, readers work to determine whether they are have a Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter color palette. Seems pretty straightforward so far, right? While finding your match might really be that simple, most of the time there are exceptions to the rules. That's when things like freckles, natural highlights and what color your cheeks turn when you blush come into play. But working through each of those details only helps you get a better feel for your accurate color palette. 

The guide's first 3 factors in deciding your coloring are: 

Skin: Undertones are either warm or cool. 

Hair: Undertones are golden and warm or ashy and cool. Color contrast is either high or low. 

Eyes: Each eye color is categorized under its corresponding season. 

The 4 Seasons

Each season is matched with the different coloring possibilities of skin, hair and eyes. You are a Spring or a Summer if your natural hair color is lighter than a medium brown. You are a Winter or an Autumn if your hair is any color darker than medium brown. 

If your natural hair and skin tone both have warm undertones or you have red hair naturally, you would either be a Spring or an Autumn. 

If you natural hair color is ashy, you don't have golden or red highlights and your skin has a cooler undertone, you are either a Summer or a Winter. 

After reading each of those descriptions, 40% of readers are probably able to easily identify their season. But what about the other 60%? Some were probably able to match up with part of the season identifiers but then either their hair or skin undertones didn't match up with the second part of the description. So where does that leave everyone else? 

The original edition of Color Me Beautiful stopped at the four seasons, leaving a lot of readers wondering if they really determined their correct color palette. The author, Carole Jackson says that everyone fits into one season and one season only. Coming from someone who doesn't fit easily into a single season, I was left to wonder where I really fell on the seasonal spectrum.  

Luckily, for everyone who also didn't easily identify as a Spring, Summer, Autumn or Winter, the four categories were extended to help people whose coloring is close to neutral and to differentiate within the seasons.

This new variable that can be factored in is your coloring's most defining quality: light, deep, clear, soft, warm or cool. These factors are meant to help those unsure of their season narrow down an adjacent palette (think of this process as something similar to filling out a Venn Diagram). 

If you're having a hard time determining your coloring between two palettes, it's likely because they highlight your most defining quality. Those with deep overall coloring can sometimes find it hard to decide between Autumn and Winter palettes. 

If Color Analysis is something that you are serious about incorporating into your wardrobe, continue through these additional factors that might help you pinpoint your exact coloring. In a later blog, I'll provide my opinion on Color Analysis and the role is plays in your closet, but for now, we'll continue to explore Color Me Beautiful's six secondary factors. Keep in mind, these factors are meant to be added to your season as an added descriptor. For example; Deep Autumn, Warm Spring, Cool Winter, etc. 

6 Secondary Factors

Deep: Dark brown or black hair and deep brown, green or hazel eyes mean you are either a deep Autumn or a deep Winter. Rich and vivid shades of your palette work well on you. 

Light: Light blonde or light brown hair color, skin is considered light for your ethnicity and eyes are light blue, green or grey means you are either a light Summer or a light Spring. Soft, muted and light shades of your color palette work best on you. 

Warm: If your skin, hair and eye colorings each have a distinctive warm undertone to them, you are either a warm Spring or a warm Autumn. Hair will be either deep auburn, strawberry blonde, or golden blonde to brown and your eyes are green, topaz, hazel or light to medium brown. Colors in the mid-range of your palette work best on you, nothing too rich and nothing too pastel.

Cool: Whether you have light or dark skin and hair, your overall coloring has an underlying cool quality to it, meaning you would be either a cool Summer or a cool Winter. Like the warm variation, shades in the mid-range of your color palette work best on you.

Soft: Your overall coloring is considered relatively neutral when there is is little contrast between your skin, hair and eyes, meaning you are either a soft Summer or a soft Autumn. Hair color is neither very light nor very dark and eyes are green, grey-blue, hazel or brown. Muted shades from your palette work best of you. 

Clear: Your hair, skin and eyes are high in contrast and saturation, meaning you are either a clear Winter or a clear Spring. Hair will be either a medium brown to black or a vivid, bright blonde, and your eyes are blue, bright green, topaz, amber or turquoise. You look best in saturated, clear colors of your palette.