If you’ve found this blog, chances are you have seen Color Analysis taking over TikTok, Google, TV and want to see what all the fuss is about. Maybe you even had your colors done in the 80’s when Color Analysis was first around (shoulder-pads, anyone?) and want to investigate how it’s evolved.
No matter why you’re here – one thing is for sure – you are looking for solutions to dressing confidently and looking amazing in every piece from your closet.
This post will walk you through the basics of Color Analysis:
- What Color Analysis is
- An explanation of all the different techniques
- How to get started yourself
What is Color Analysis?
Color analysis is a technique used to determine the colors that best compliment someone’s natural features: such as skin tone, eye color, and hair color. The goal is to identify a palette that enhances your natural beauty, ensuring you look vibrant and harmonious in your clothing and makeup choices. Essentially? ***The easy button to looking your best***
Methods of Color Analysis
There are two primary methods of color analysis: Seasonal Color Analysis and Tonal Color Analysis. Each method has its own unique approach to categorizing colors and breaking down results.
- Seasonal Color Analysis
This traditional method categorizes individuals into four primary seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
An analyst will look at your top qualities and use a process of elimination to find your specific season.
Each season is categorized by its three top qualities out of all six:
- Warm
- Cool
- Soft-Muted
- Bright
- Light
- Deep
Each season has a distinct palette based on specific color characteristics:
- Spring: Warm, light and bright. Think of fresh, bright, and warm colors like peach, golden yellow, coral, and light green.
- Summer: Cool, light and soft-muted. This palette includes soft, muted, and cool colors like lavender, soft pinks, and light blues.
- Autumn: Warm, deep and soft-muted. Rich, earthy, and warm colors such as olive green, mustard, burnt orange, and deep reds are part of this palette.
- Winter: Cool, deep and bright. Bright, clear, and cool colors like black, white, jewel tones, and icy shades fall into this category.
Since the 80’s, the seasonal method has expanded from 4 into 12 seasonal types.
Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter still exist, but now there are sub-categories that help narrow down your perfect colors even more.
- Spring
- True Spring
- Light Spring
- Bright Spring
- Summer
- True Summer
- Light Summer
- Soft Summer
- Autumn:
- True Autumn
- Soft Autumn
- Dark Autumn
- Winter
- True Winter
- Bright Winter
- Dark Winter
Here is a diagram I’ve created to help you see this in its simplest way.
Pros
There are a lot of pros to this method of diagnosis. It helps you find a lot of strong color choices that look best on you. 70% of the time, it works very well for most people who see an analyst.
Cons
It does not take into account neutral skin tone. Therefore, the approximately 40% of people who are neutral-toned (based on our experience) are left to try to pigeon-hole themselves into one season when they have a wider range of choices.
Most analysts that practice this method are franchised. It means they’ve gotten great training, but they have to stay in the box of that method and cannot easily branch outside of it – especially when it comes to products like makeup or clothing that they sell.
2. Tonal Color Analysis
This method refines the traditional seasonal approach by focusing on specific qualities of color, regardless of season. It considers six main characteristics:
- Deep: Rich, intense colors that complement darker features.
- Light: Soft, delicate colors that suit lighter features.
- Warm: Colors with a yellow or golden undertone, flattering for those with warm undertones.
- Cool: Colors with a blue undertone, best for individuals with cool undertones.
- Soft-Muted: Gentle and subdued colors, often slightly grayed out or toned down.
- Bright: Clear, vibrant colors that pop and are ideal for those with high contrast in their features.
This method is much more expansive, taking into account neutral skin tone in a more cohesive way.
That means it adds a lot more choices to get even more specific with your color palette.
- Deep
- Light
- Warm
- Cool
- Soft-Muted
- Bright
- Deep/Warm/Muted
- Deep/Warm/Bright
- Deep/Cool/Muted
- Deep/Cool/Bright
- Light/Warm/Muted
- Light/Warm/Bright
- Light/Cool/Muted
- Light/Cool/Bright
Pros
The ability to account for neutral skin tone and specifically find colors based on your most dominant characteristic.
Cons
It can be more intense of an analysis and feel a little more confusing because of having more options.
There are analysts out there who have gotten more niche and adjusted their offers based on their own experience analyzing. Some focus only on eye color – others pull your colors strictly from the colors in your skin.
For the sake of this breakdown, we showed the two main types of analysis, but know that there are other options out there if you want a more specialized experience that isn’t common!
Which Option Is Best For You
First, let’s take a minute to be honest. A lot of people have gone through the color analysis “hamster wheel” – struggling with their results and getting analyzed multiple times. Because of this, I don’t want you to necessarily think that your first experience is going to be perfect. It may not be. (Especially if you’ve only tried ChatGPT!)
Every person sees color slightly differently and even the best analyst in the world is coming into the session with their own levels of color bias and perspective.
We want you to feel empowered by discovering your colors! That may happen with an analyst, that may happen by you learning how to diagnose yourself. There is no one “right way”. Know that you have options – and we will always provide as much information and as many options as we can for you.
Let’s start with showing you the options you have when it comes to getting started:
- Working with a professional in-person
This is probably the most well-known option right now (don’t worry, we’re working hard to open up more options!). A certified color analyst that works in-person will most likely have the right tools, setup and swatches to give you a great experience.
Pros: It’s always nice to be walked through the process and see the drapes face to face. Certain analysts will give you a before/after photo, a swatch book and even apply the correctly colored makeup.
Cons: It can be very pricey. We’ve seen sessions cost up to $500. It can be a big upfront cost when you’re not sure if they’ll get the right result for you. It also might not be feasible financially if they’re not located nearby, as you’ll have to pay for travel costs.
- Working with a professional virtually
This is also a popular method to get analyzed by a professional while living anywhere in the world. It also usually costs less. Many analysts provide virtual services and give a nice, detailed breakdown of your results.
We offer this service and have found it much easier to provide results with a video session, complete with digital drapes we’ve created, to get nitty-gritty into which color diagnosis is best for each person.
There are, however, some important things to ask your analyst before hiring them.
- Is their monitor recently color-calibrated?
- Do they have access to digital drapes to give you to put as your background?
- Are they doing video or photo? (Never get your analysis done based on a photograph!)
Pros: It’s very easily accessible and in most cases much more affordable.
Cons: There are a lot of elements to consider when hiring a virtual analyst. For example, do they regularly color-calibrate their monitor? If not, the colors they see can be completely different than what’s actually there. We also do not like providing services based on images alone. Video is a much more accurate display of how someone’s skin pigments interact with natural sunlight.
- Analyzing yourself
Huge amounts of people choose this option and
Groups: There are dozens of Facebook groups – with hundreds of thousands of people – to prove how many are trying to figure out their own colors themselves! It’s always risky getting hundreds of people’s opinions, but it can be really helpful to start seeing the differences in yourself.
Virtual Filters: Yep, we’re talking TikTok. Analysts like @magnifisenses and @colorpsychologist have released very accurate color filters that let you explore your qualities to get closer to finding your season! Plus, it’s just plain fun.
Online Class: We’ve actually created a class that walks you through how to analyze yourself step by step! (insert course link here) We will help you identify your key features and assess your specific season. If you have an eye for color or fashion, then it’s totally 100% doable for you to analyze yourself!
Trying a software: Sometimes, you can find an app that works pretty to roughly diagnose your season or quality. Our biggest hangup with it is that apps usually work off of a photo, which is not an accurate representation of true skin tone.
How to Get Started with Color Analysis
1. Determine Your Skin Undertone
Your skin undertone is the foundation of color analysis. There are three main undertones:
- Warm: Yellow, peachy, or golden undertones.
- Cool: Pink, red, or bluish undertones.
- Neutral: A mix of both warm and cool undertones.
Methods to Identify Your Undertone:
- Vein Test: Look at the veins on the inside of your wrist. If they appear greenish, you likely have warm undertones. If they appear bluish or purple, you have cool undertones. If it’s hard to tell, you may have neutral undertones.
- Jewelry Test: Hold gold and silver jewelry against your skin. If gold looks better, you have warm undertones. If silver looks better, you have cool undertones. If both look good, you might be neutral.
- White Paper Test: Hold a white piece of paper next to your face. If your skin looks more yellow, you have warm undertones. If it looks more pink or rosy, you have cool undertones.
2. Analyze Your Features
Take note of your hair color, eye color, and overall contrast level (the difference between your hair, skin, and eyes). These features play a crucial role in determining your color palette.
Examples:
- Jennifer Aniston: With her warm, golden undertones, honey blonde hair, and light blue eyes, she is often classified as a Spring.
- Nicole Kidman: Her cool, pink undertones, light red hair, and blue eyes make her a classic Summer.
- Kim Kardashian: With her deep, warm skin tone, dark hair, and dark eyes, she fits into the Autumn category.
- Janelle Monáe: Her cool, porcelain skin, dark hair, and blue eyes are typical of a Winter.
3. Experiment with Colors
Gather clothing and fabric in various colors and hold them up to your face in natural light. Pay attention to how your skin, eyes, and hair react to each color. Do certain colors make you look more vibrant and healthy? Do others wash you out or make you look tired? This practical approach helps you see firsthand which colors work best for you. (Feel free to experiment with us in our free community!)
Practical Tips:
- Use a Color Wheel: A color wheel can help you understand which colors complement each other and can be a useful tool when experimenting with your palette.
- Photography: Take photos of yourself wearing different colors. Sometimes it’s easier to see the impact of a color in a photograph than in a mirror.
- Natural Light: Always assess colors in natural light – taken indirectly closest to mid day – to get the most accurate impression of how they look on you.
4. Consult a Professional
If you’re still unsure about your color palette, consider consulting a professional color analyst. They can provide a detailed analysis and personalized advice, helping you confidently embrace your ideal colors.
Finding a Professional:
- Research: Look for certified color analysts with positive reviews.
- Consultation: Many professionals offer virtual consultations, making it easy to access their services from anywhere.
- Workshops: Attend workshops or group sessions for a more affordable option.
Embrace Your Colors
Once you’ve identified your palette, use it as a guide for selecting clothing, accessories, and makeup. Embracing your colors can boost your confidence and make shopping easier and more enjoyable. We’ve seen incredible transformations take place with our clients – where they become more joyful, outgoing and even push themselves into different careers!
Building a Wardrobe:
- Core Pieces: Invest in core pieces in your best colors. These might include blazers, coats, and dresses. A lot of us create capsule wardrobes in our best colors because everything goes together!
- Accents: Use your palette to choose accessories like scarves, jewelry, and bags.
- Makeup: Select makeup shades that complement your palette, from foundation to eyeshadow to lipstick. This makes you glow and enhances your natural beauty with complimentary colors.
(We’ve compiled some wardrobe options by season you can search through as well.)
Celebrity Color Analysis Examples
Learning from celebrities who have had their colors analyzed can be inspiring and help the pieces of color analysis click together. Here are a few examples:
Spring: The dominant characteristics of Spring are light, warm and bright. You can see from the celebrities listed that they each have lightness, warmth and brightness to their skin. Demi Lovato shines in tinted pinks and highlighter; Taylor Swift glows in warm peaches; Jennifer Hudson looks incredible in warm, bright oranges; Jamie Chung has natural radiance in spring oranges as well.
Summer:
The dominant characteristics of Summer are light, cool and soft-muted. You can see from the celebrities listed that they each have lightness, coolness and soft-mutedness to their skin. Lucy Liu looks gorgeous in cooler colors; Jennifer Garner is the summer poster-child when she wears these colors; Shay Mitchell glows in cooler, more muted makeup; Leo DiCaprio is a natural summer with his muted features and glowing cool-blue eyes; and Huma Qureshi looks stunning in summer tones.
Autumn:
The dominant characteristics of Autumn are deep, warm and soft-muted. You can see from the celebrities listed that they each have depth, warmth and soft-mutedness to their skin. America Ferrara shines in deeper shades; Idris Elba has gorgeous Autumn depth to his features; Shalene Wooley is incredible in warmer, deeper shades; Selena Gomez beautifully wears warm jewelry and clothing tied to Autumn; Ryujin experiments with many different color palettes, but looks best in Autumn colors.
Winter:
The dominant characteristics of Winter are deep, cool and bright. You can see from the celebrities listed that they each have depth, coolness and brightness to their skin. SUGA looks best in bright Winter colors; Marion Cotillard stuns in silver; Janelle Monáe looks amazing in pure blacks and whites of winter; Cara Delevingne is a perfect example of bright, cool blue eyes; Alex Daddario’s high contrast, depth and brightness makes her a perfect winter example.
Conclusion
Color analysis will never be perfect, because color is constantly evolving and looks differently to each person. However, it remains a beautiful method to understand which types of color families look the best on each individual. Whether you’re a Spring who wears tinted clothing that’s light, warm and bright or if you’re a Cool who can pull from both Summer and Winter – color analysis gives us options to play with. However, at the end of the day, YOU have to be happy with the colors you wear, no matter what any analyst says! Remember to give your color possibilities a chance. Sometimes we don’t like a color or a type of color simply because we have no experience with it.
Embrace the possibilities of color and see if you can find what will most enhance your natural, God-given beauty. We’re here to help you every step of the way and give you as many options as possible to start on your color journey!
We hope this breakdown has been helpful. Feel free to explore our products, find one of our analysts, grab a color product or join our free community!
