Anyone ever had their colours done

[Gales]

and said "what a waste of money" afterwards?

All I've seen heard is it was the best things I ever did type comments, but usually from people with a vested interest.

After 10 years of being that mum in the fleece with no make up I really need to get my act together, but I don't think I had much of an act before and this seems a good place to start. I like the idea of the whole colours, personal style and make-up lesson thing. It's a lot of money, but I can justify it on the basis I haven't spent anything on myself in years Don't want to waste it though.

[Hopefully]

emmsy colours is just colours (but that is a huge amount of information alone) and we make sure you're confident using your colours/swatch book before you leave the class. Style analysis is the 'next' step, which combined with colour helps you know exactly what works for you, your body shape, personality etc. it's an incredibly full day, lots of stuff on capsule wardrobes, putting a look together, dressing for work/casual etc.

Most consultants also do personal shopping/personal stylist stuff as needed as well.

[williaminajetfighter]

I did in about 1985 and it was pants!!!

[CarpeVinum]

I can't get my colours done professionally, becuase it is practically unheard of in the country where I live.

I worked out my own for fun initially, after several hours ...which turned into several days cos I got over excited...I worked out I was probably a True/Cool Summer. Which seems right in retrospect, becuase the clothes I feel best in and get the most compliments in are true summer colours.

The best bit for me was a cheap and quick experiment, buying mascara and eyeliner in grey rather than the black and warmish dark brown I had, as advised by many of the sites talking about your colours and make up. Overnight I stopped looking at myself post make up and wanting to hurl myself out of the window cos I looked so old and tired. I'm still frayed around the edges, only botox and possibly a face lift, will ever make me look seriously less worn. But I look way better than I did. I also dug my heels in at the hairdresser and wouldn't let her use the colours she wanted to go with to "warm up" my hair. I wasn't keen, but post doing my own colours I had a stronger idea why I wasn't keen and saved myself from what I think would have been a expensive mistake that would have made me look older and washed out.

It was nice spending all that time thinking about how I look. I started making an effort again. I'll go have my colours done properly in the UK next time I get the chance, just in case I got the Cool bit wrong. I don't think I'm soft or light, but I'd like to double check before I have to make any significant investment in makeup and clothes. Absolutley certain I'm a summer though.

[Ogooglebar]

God yes carpe so many hairdressers have tried to 'warm up' my hair with colour and shop assistants seem to want to sell me orangey foundations 'to give me a bit of colour' I now know to resist them!

[CarpeVinum]

Arggg...the terminal orange face issue. At least now I have learned how to clock a cool/blue based pink.

I am wearing blusher for the first time in thirty years. I no longer look like death warmed up or tangoed in it either. Which is always a plus

Embracing my low contrast, cool fizzog and hair may not have turned me into a fetus fresh, supermodel, but at least I look and feel better enough to not try and slither down a convienent drain when I catch sight of my reflection in a shop window.

Which is a start.

If anybody has any colour analysis "highly recommended" in the Basingstoke or surrounding area, let me know. Or London even. Basically most of hampshire. I'd rather get a startlingly good analysis than an OK one living practically next door to my sister if you see what I mean.

I'm really looking forward to a sort of well pulled together road map and good demonstrations of what works. I've made boards on Pinterest for clothes and make up colours to start training my eye (cannot carry colour in my head to save my life) but I thnk I need a one on one with a proper trained person before I feel confident enough to to do more than favour the exisiting clthes I have, buy the odd bit of make up and refuse any attempt to dye my hair for the time being.

[CarpeVinum]

I actually went looking for Navy inittially, cos you don't get cooler than blue. But nobody had any, so went with the single offer grey that three hours of mooching round shops turned up. And I got a a navy eyeshadow to try instead of my usual warm brown for my eye sockets.

The navy eyeshadow was amazing compared to my normal brown, I looked elegant rather than knackered, but when you get close you can see the shimmer, and unfortunatly I had to conceed that the advice for su mers not to go glittery but aim for matt is certainly true in my case.

So I threw away all my colourless lipgloss and now use a chapstick instead, which looks much better. It's not perfect but will have to do for now becuase lipstick is a nightmare for me and I can't face being besiged by Scary Italian Make Up Saleswomen when I am tip toeing through my "I have never had a lipstick I actually liked or suited me in my entire life" issue and trying to repeat the mantra "look for COOL pink with no GLITTER".

I will come out of a shop clutching a wildly expensive mistake in vile tangerine or bright red and the hump. I just know I will. I want to go in there with a specific colour swatch to waggle defensivly at people, feeling bolstered by proper concrete confirmation that I know what I'm doing.

Italian Make Up Salewomen are very scary. So I may have to buy a lifetime's supply of the right colours in the UK right after having my colours done properly over there. Just to be on the safe side.

[ZadokTheBeast]

Yes, total shite I thought, and has ruined my confidence in my own choices nd made me unable to buy anything except blue. Oh and raspberry, which I hate but does -I'm told -suit me.

[CarpeVinum]

zadok

That doesn't sound very good at all. I was a bit surprised when I discovered that it was maore about light/dark, bright/muted, warm/cool, depth of chroma etc and less about "wear this colour, don't wear that one".

I knew yellow and orange made me look like hell on wheels so wasn't surpirsed when they didn't feature on the shade card. But a variation or three of most colours are on there, just in a form that is more likely to work with my skin tone and hair.

Did you not get something like this, but better, like in fabric swatches so you had a tangible reference when you were out and about?

I'd be pissed off if all I got out of spending a good wodge on money was wear blue (which one? there are millions of variations) and raspberry.

Not surpised you are not impressed. Did you at least get a season and sub season out of it ? Cos there are loads of resources on places like Pinterest that might at least fill in some of the details that your consultant failed to mention. Hope I don't get one like that.

[mossycat]

I'm having my colours done soon and am soooo excited. Cant wait to sort/ chuck most if my unwarn wardrobe!

For those who had them done was there anything you wished you had asked/ clarified in the class?

It's quite pricey so I really want to get the most out of the session.im going to be the only one there so won't benefit from others views on the day.

[CarpeVinum]

For those who had them done was there anything you wished you had asked/ clarified in the class?

Me too! i would love to hear about that too!

[littlebitofthislittlebitofthat]

I used to be the administrator for the MBA course in the university I worked for. We got a new AMERICAN head who took one look at me and said 'that will never do' and ordered someone in to do my colours.

It was a total waste of time and money and didn't change my attitude to my appearance one jot.

now she would have had better results just getting us a uniform. that would have smartened us all up no end.

I cant even remember what she said my colours were.... other than a teal blue?!?

[morethanpotatoprints]

Hello OP.

I know this isn't the same but I bought the book "Colour me beautiful".
Now, some of the fashions were a bit 1980's but the book itself was fantastic. I have never looked back.
I bought it from our local British Heart Foundation charity shop. I think they must have had a deal with the publisher as they had hundreds. For a few quid it sorted my colours for clothes and make up and was spot on with the suggestions. Everybody is a season and mine is winter.
When i started to wear the suggested colours, patterns and make up it transformed my life. Even the base colour of foundation and blusher was perfect.
Anybody who can't justify or afford to pay a lot of money this book is well worth it.

[Ogooglebar]

Carpe and mossy there wasn't anything I wished I'd asked in the session but my friend who went with me was a bit confused - she was diagnosed as a Blue Autumn, which from what I understand is basically Warm but towards the Cooler side of warm, and she gets a bit confused about the kinds of blues that suit her (I'm confused by it too - blues look cool to me, even greeny blues. And Autumn colours all look so warm - how do you work out the cooler ones??). But she's exchanged several emails with the colours lady and is getting clear on it now. Hopefully whoever does yours will be happy to clarify things afterwards via email too.

[Hopefully]

The book can work if you are bang in the middle of any particular season, as the methods to analyse yourself work. If you aren't, it is ineffective though - every online/book analysis EVER makes me a winter, and as soon as I am draped it is patently obvious I am not one (I am an autumn, but have only just slightly warm skin tone, and very high contrast skin and hair/eyes. Only draping can show the right answer on someone less-than-obvious).

Zadok that's a real shame. Did you agree with the consultant when you were actually being analysed?

Carpe PM me if you don't get any other suggestions, I know an amazing consultant not a million miles from Basingstoke (as long as my mental map of the uk isn't failing me...)

[Hopefully]

Ogoogle I am a blue autumn too, it took me a while to get my head round it all.

[FrugalFashionista]

Zadok lots of blues and raspberry sound like a Summer to me. I'm one too and I think many of us are shell-shocked after the verdict as most of the colors are so blah. I hated being a Summer at first (Winters get all the great cool colors, we are left with faded blues, mauves and raspberries) and some of the blues are horrific Soviet/Eastern block shades that nobody in their right mind would ever wear.

But it's been almost two years now, I've had time to adapt, and my wardrobe is great. I'm happy I faced the facts and changed a lot - I get a lot of great feedback in my new colors! I really like wearing denim and smoky and cobalt blues (occasionally navy too - to me it's an inherently dowdy color). Camel and soft white and anthracite gray are good neutrals and I wear watermelon and bright reds, coral and emerald greens. I still often wear black but have found great alternatives and have been surprised to find out that cool burgundy, rose beige and pale Post-it yellow look great on me. And I don't need to wear pastels!

[morethanpotatoprints]

I hope this is of use to someone, there are different versions, but this is the one I had.


[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Colour-Me-Beautiful-Carole-Jackson/dp/0861882997/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1365595146&sr=8-2&keywords=colour%20me%20beautiful&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21]

[Ogooglebar]

That's reassuring Hopefully :) She'd been defaulting back to wearing lots of black and grey and although she can pull it off, because she's gorgeous, she looks so much better in 'her' colours.

I always think the hardest, most annoying thing about having your colours done must be being told you can't wear black or white. As a winter, I'm the only season who can, and yet ironically I never used to wear them because my mum always used to tell me I was too pale for them!

[Snowfalls108]

Roughly how much does a consultation cost?

[timidviper]

I would love to get mine done but consultants are thin on the ground round here (only 4 in a large-ish county) and I would prefer a recommendation to picking off a website if I'm going to have to travel anyway.

Anyone with any experience in Lancashire please let me know.

[morethanpotatoprints]

Ogooglebar.

I am a winter too.
colours Black, white, Navy
True colours - red, green,
No browns except taupe.

When I started using my own colours and make up I did a clean out of my wardrobe and make up bag. Obviously now I only buy the correct things and have no wastage and everything in my wardrobe I can wear.

All it cost was a couple of quid. I think its ok to have colours done at a class if you can justify the price and you want a social. I'm sure they only use the same colours and assessment as the book I used did.

[QueenCadbury]

I'm getting mine done next weekend and I'm soooo excited!!