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FINDING YOUR BEST COLORS

Maija Armaneva
Aug 12, 2016
3 min read

This time I'd like to talk to you about the colors and how important it is to find those that complement us the best. If you still haven't found your colors or you are not sure about them, then this article is a perfect guide for you!

*Me wearing knitted cardigan and aquamarine necklace by Pas de Marque.

But before we go on to the essentials, let me show you the impact of right colors on my own example. Here my skin looks luminous, my eyes are glowing and everything seems to be in it's own place. Why? Because I have chosen those colors that complement my color type, which is cool and bright. The blue cardigan is cool, the white top and denim are bright and my total outfit is in cool&bright tones. When all these aspects match, then it's a click!

Color analysis

Finding your right colors is very important because wrong colors will badly affect your skin tone, create dark circles under eyes and won't complement you at all. There are three steps to find your colors but you will need to have all the colors available so that you place them near your face (it can be your clothes, color papers or anything that you can easily use in front of the mirror). Before you begin your own color analysis, make sure to stand in front of a window with a mirror so that you are in a natural light.

STEP 1 Are you cool or warm?

Take something from the cool color and something from warm, and place both colors on your shoulders or next to your ears. Now you should clearly see which color looks best near your skin. Take a closer look at your skin tone and under eye area. If your eye color looks more radiant, if your skin tone looks healthier and you don't see dark circles under your eyes, then that tone is yours! Moving on.

STEP 2 Are you bright or muted?

Now choose some bright color from the first row and some muted color from third row (the second row in the middle for now is not very relevant). Place both of them near your face as you did the first time, and again - analyze which tone, bright or mute, looks better near your eyes and skin tone.

STEP 3 Are you light, medium or dark?

Now you should start off with light color vs dark color. See which one looks better - it is very essential that dark color doesn't make you look tired or heavy, and just the opposite - that light color doesn't make you look pale or ill. And then after finding which is your best - light or dark - you can also see how further you can go by trying on the middle between light and dark.

Of course there are also those summer, spring, autumn and winter types but this technique is more specific, more personalized. But if you are too curious to find out who you are by the season, you can have a look at this gallery below.

SPRING

SUMMER

AUTUMN

WINTER

FYI - not all dark haired girls belong to winter type and not all blonde girls belong to summer or spring type. Blondes can be winter types and red heads can be spring type. And when you do your own color analysis, remember to look at your eyes and skin color first, not your hair color, because your hair can be colored in the wrong color.

But if you still feel the need in an expert's color analysis and a wardrobe analysis, feel free to contact me. I still work as a stylist, personal shopper and image consultant, and will be happy to help!

Before I end this topic on color analysis, let me show you some tips:

Tip Nr 1 RED can be cool (like raspberry red - the first circle) and it can be warm red (like tomato red - the centre circle)

Tip Nr2 If you haven't found your yellow, then you haven't tried hard enough. Start by choosing between cool (lemon) and warm (banana)

Tip Nr3 If white (paper white, winter white, bleached white) matches perfect with your skin and looks astonishing, then you are a definite winter type. The same applies to cool grey tones. If this white doesn't complement you, then try milky white or cream white.

Different whites:

Tip Nr4 The same is with black. Black color looks most complementing on winter types. You can always look for shiny black material if you see that matte black doesn't do any good to you.