a lovely living

Ok friends, we’re now onto the third week of learning how to make color work for you. Last week I led you through the process of determining whether you are a cool or warm season. Now we’re going to take this one step further to determine which specific season you fall into. If you decided you are a cool season, you’ll now find out if you’re a summer or a winter. If you have come to the conclusion that you are a warm season, you’ll now break it down to see if you’re a spring or an autumn.

If you were a COOL season, please continue reading here to determine if you are a WINTER or a SUMMER. (WARMS, please scroll down)

WINTER’S:

Hair: Winter’s have dark brown, black, silver or white hair. If you are a Winter, you will not have blonde hair (although it may be possible in you youth).

Skin: Winter’s can have a wide range of skin tones. They can include porcelain white, beige, rosy beige, olive, cool beige, almond, cocoa, mocha, mahogany, and ebony to black with blue or redish undertones.

Eyes: Most Winter’s will have dark colored eyes but they can also have a cool hazel with blue or a green. A few Winter’s may have dark blue, gray blue, gray green or charcoal eyes. Gray rims around the iris are another Winter indicator.

As a visual, here are a few notable Winters. You’ll often see them wearing black and red which are perfect colors for them.

Winter’s, here is the color palette that will look the best on you. You are the lucky, and only, season that is able to pull off black and pure white. The rest of us should try to keep them away from our face as best we can. Winter’s should never wear shades of brown, orange or ivory. Winter’s should choose dark, bright and clear tones in contrast to Summer’s who would choose muted, softer and less intense colors.

SUMMER’S:

Hair: Summer’s have gray, brown or blonde hair. Browns may be light, medium or dark ash brown. Grays will be a pearly cool gray or a gray blonde. Blondes will only have ashy tones, no gold.

Skin: Summer’s will have pink, rose or blue undertones. Skins tones range from porcelain to pale, neutral, cool or rose beige. If there are freckles, they are rosy or charcoal gray.

Eyes: Their eyes will typically be blue or green with white flecks, gray blue, aqua, blue green, blue gray, or cool hazel with blue or green.

Here are a few notable Summer’s as a visual. Note how well the softer shades work on them.

Here is the Summer color palette. This palette is full of soft colors with blue undertones. Shades of orange should be avoided.

WARMS, this is where you come in. You will fall into the Autumn or Spring categories.

AUTUMN’S:

Hair: Autumn’s hair can range from copper red to chestnut brown. Tones include golden brown, golden red and dark warm brown. If brunette, they’ll have golds or reds through their hair.

Skin: Autumn’s will have gold undertones appearing more orangish than blue. They’re skin can be ivory, peach, golden beige, coppery, bronze, caramel, maple or golden brown.

Eyes: Eye color will vary but can include dark brown, golden brown, green and amber. There will be a golden warmth in the iris. Occasionally an Autumn will have aqua or turquoise eyes which will typically be accompanied by red hair.

Here are notable Autumn’s as a visual guide.  Note how well they wear golds and browns.

Here is the Autumn color palette. Golden undertones work very well for this season. Colors to avoid include pink and gray.

 SPRING’S:

Hair: Spring’s will have blonde hair in shades of gold, strawberry or beige. It can also be caramel, copper or champagne.

Skin: Spring’s will have warm or gold undertones which can be creamy, ivory, peach, peach beige or golden beige. Typically Springs (along with Summer’s) have light skin.

Eyes: Spring’s tend to have blue, green or aqua eyes. They may also have warm amber, warm hazel with golden brown or green gold tones, blue green, topaz, caramel or turquoise eyes. Golden flecks may also be found around the iris.

Here are notable Spring’s for reference.

Here is the Spring color palette. Peach, golden yellow and golden brown look great on Spring’s, but they should typically avoid shades of pink.

Phew, that was a mouthful! I’m hoping that this post was helpful in allowing you to figure out your correct season. Which are you?? This is the start to being able to dress and feel your best. I should also note that while I was searching through various pics of these celebs, I found many of them wearing colors that weren’t in their palette, yet they still looked flawless. Let me just remind you that these beauties also have a team of make-up artists that can work wonders. For those of us that don’t have any such teams in our bathrooms, it’s probably best to use this as a guide and enhance your natural beauty.

I’ll be continuing next week with more tips and tricks, so stay tuned.

Note: All information is being adapted from the Color Me Beautiful book by Joanne Richmond.