Colour typology

Today I am opening up on a topic that is a big challenge for many of us, colour typology and finding the right colours to match you as a person! I don't say it often but in this case it really helps to have a second opinion. Some come on and lets take a friendly look at this complex topic together!

Unfortunately we all have a tendency to push on with using the colours that we like but maybe it is time to admit that we use them even though they don't respect our natural looks and they just don't fit us.

 
I think this is where taking a step back really helps, just like a good friend can help. So with that in mind I would love it if you could take this article like an open discussion and write to me with your comments and your experiences with colours and how they look on you. 

Coco Chanel said that "The best color in the whole world is the one that looks good on you." 

In the typical colour typology we work with 12 seasons. Each colour season uses its own colour palette. There are so many possible combinations but essentially deciding which of these palettes is good for us depends on our natural colour of hair, skin and eyes. 

A colour typology professional uses fabrics in seasonal colours that are put near your face to easily see which colour is "your colour". Ok ladies it is true, at home it is not so easy. We are all busy and not everybody is an owner of the samples of fabrics in the correct colours that she can use. But we try.

So how can we recognise our colour type?

The main seasons are Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Commonly we interpret that Spring and Autumn are warm and Summer and Winter are cold. On the colour wheel, the distribution of these colors is as follows. 

But not everybody fits into these four main seasons exactly. Also remember that each season has variations. For example each season will have a central colour - a True colour - and also a light and a dark variation. So four seasons with three variations each, so how do we narrow it down?

A good starting point is deciding and knowing what is your undertone. A very good way of determining this is to look at your veins. What is their colour? Green or blue?

In general green suggests a warm palette (Spring, Autumn), while blue means cool (Summer, Winter)

This little trick helps you narrow down your choices very much. Great, knowing your undertone cuts the possible seasons in half.  

If you don't notice a contrast it is possible to be medium (middle). It is a good idea to understand our contrast type because it helps us find out if we are a True season colour or a lighter or darker variation. 

As a rule generally the Light versions of a colour season will apply to faces that have less contrast. The True (middle) colour of a season will be for a face with a middle contrast and the Dark seasons will be for types with high face contrast.

For example: I am a warm palette type with low contrast in my face. My season will be the Light spring or Light autumn. But how do I decide which is the right season for me? Light spring or Light autumn? Here it helps to have someone else's opinion, time to call a friend.  

But seriously to begin to sort out which of these two seasons we are we must try to ask are we bright or are we muted?

In general bright type persons will have faces that are striking in terms of strong and vibrant colours on their face, lips and eyes. Bright colours are also called true colours because they are clear and fully saturated without grey hues. On the other side muted colour palettes are less pronounced forms of the true colour and may include grey shading.

Great. So in my case I am muted so back to my example, I am Light autumn. And so you see, muted is for Autumn and bright is for Spring!

So for someone else muted may relate to Autumn and Summer while bright would be either Spring or Winter.

Ladies, I hope this helps you with your colour palette journey. It is complicated but it is something we can all work with.

I hope that you find this information interesting. I would love to hear from you on this. reach out to me if this is something that also interests you.

Next time I look forward to writing to you more about individual seasons!

For those of you that don't have time to test out different colours to find your typology I would like to introduce my new Colour Typology service. This service is online here and only this month is available for $70 (more details available online).