House of Colour, Colour Me Beautiful etc

[TwoNoisyBoys]

I'm very interested in this! Some people seem to LOVE it and say it's worth doing, some not. How does it work? How much does it cost and is it worth it? Did it make a massive difference to your 'look' and if so, do you stick to it all the time? Is it easy to stick to? (So many questions!) hope someone fancies answering some of these for me please :)

Escargot, sorry I was talking blusher and lipstick. You need to get the best colour match foundation that you can. Actually I go ever so slightly lighter so that when I put on a little bronzer my overall colour isn't too dark.

The idea with make up is not to change the undertone of your skin, after all, olive is a lovely tone but you don't want to make yourself look yellow-y by wearing the wrong tones of blusher and lipstick hence the pinky tones. Hope that makes sense x

Escargot I thought the same as you until at the grand old age of 38 I went to house of colour and was diagnosed a spring, and told my complexion needed warm yellow based foundation. Oh my god the difference. I look pinky but all the pinky toned foundations I'd been wearing were just so wrong. Wearing yellow toned base has made an immeasurable difference. It's like it neutralises the pinkness in my complexion.

Here's another review....

escargot moaning is also fine! There is a foundation I use that is quite yellow toned, and although it happens to suit me (I am a blue autumn, so very neutral looking skin tone) I find myself using it on an awful lot of winters. The most important thing is that it matches your skin, regardless of whether what it looks like in the pot is pink or yellow. Also bear in mind that foundations oxidise differently on different skin tones, so what looks like it might work in the bottle can be a terrible match, and vice versa.

So, what colours make up should a Spring [pale skin] wear?I am blonde with hazel eyes.

Thanks ever so much for the make-up advice ladies, I really appreciate the time and trouble you've taken to explain.

I wear 'sand' in Clarins Skin Illusion which works well if a little light. Not sure if it's pink or yellow but it disappears after blending well.

As for eyeshadow I'll leave that for now and stick to mascara (black) and a balmy yet bright lipstick. Clinique chubby in Pudgy Peony is scary bright but better (for me) than the HoC ones in terms of balm texture. HoC are great quality but very pigmented.

Apologies for the thread hijack OP!

I had mine done with Hopefully before Christmas. Today someone told me I am referred to as the glamorous one in the playground! It's made a huge difference

Hopefully can I ask what HoC would do with someone with a neutral skintone? We do exist but very few colour consultant programmes seem to acknowledge us! 12seasons is one of the only ones.

I'm a bright winter and luckily have always been drawn to my colours (I have classic winter colouring and naturally like bright colours), but I'm wondering how someone else would do if they had a neutral skin tone but had to be put in a cool or warm category with no in-between.

Little I have what would probably be called a 'neutral' skintone, as it happens (I am a complete PITA to analyse). Basically we work on the basis that even the most neutral skin tone has a slight bias one way or the other, even if it is just the tiniest little one (as I believe 12 blueprints/seasons system does - it still makes you a spring/summer/autumn/winter, just a particular type of one, which is basically what we do too).

If you are found to have a much less extreme warm/cool colouring the chances are you will have lots of * ratings at one end of your palette, and none at the other (the ratings are what we give to help place someone within their season, so we can actually narrow it down as much as a 12 season system, but while also providing a larger palette that can be more useful in real life, iykwim). For instance, I'm what's called a Blue Autumn (i.e. right up against the cool/blue end of a warm/yellow season). I wear my colours more like a Winter than an Autumn (high contrast, blocks of colour) and I look really good in the least warm autumn colours (grey, marine navy, forest green, aubergine, kingfisher blue, royal purple) but have to accept that the warmest autumn colours aren't much better on me than the coolest winter colours. They are useful to have to add some interest to my look. There are also one or two colours that more or less slip into the Winter palette that I can wear. Basically your consultant is trained to talk you through it if you are one of those season types.

That's probably not a very clear explanation, but I hope it helps!

Hopefully that's really interesting. I was diagnosed as a Blue Spring, Ll my ** colours are the blues, aquamarines, purples, greys, navies with just a red included. Next best colours are some of the deeper greens. All the tans, yellows are very low rated. So I can understand, from your clear description of your Blue Autumn, that I too must be jutting up next to a cool season but would that be more likely to be winter or summer do you think? My consultant didn't really talk me through it, or about how much contrast, as unlike my style day which I did alone,there were three other people on my colour day & we were all different seasons so I suppose time was a bit short.

Hi TNB - I had my colours done (HoC Golden Spring) 7 years ago and have to say it really has changed my self confidence.

It's really a gradual process - starting off with ensuring you only buy clothes in your colours (or in my case avoiding black!) then as you replace big items making sure they are suitable. Before my analysis i wore pretty much black, grey and dark colours which are totally not in my palette - now I wear tans, light greys, bright greens/yellows/corals.

I had never had a stranger complement me on my clothes or looks before and it has happened on the odd occasion since.

I'd say go for it.

I've never taken the further step to get my style analysis as I've never had the spare cash but also I'm pretty confident in my style and I don't feel it would add as much as the colours did.

HTH (and Hi Aque!)

Hopefully that's interesting and helpful, thanks. So as a Bright Winter I find I can get away with tomato red and apple green as long as they are really bright, but that's about it and I definitely lean towards the cool side of neutral. Best colours are royal/cobalt blue, bright true red, navy, magenta purple, emerald green, black, pure white, cool lemon yellow, fuchsia.