colours, can't even work out of I'm warm or cool...

[hettie]

So I've tried to get a vague idea of my colours. But I get stumped, in not even sure if I'm warm or cool... Let alone the idea of chroma (or whatever). How the hell do you figure it out of you can't afford a colour consultant

It's hard... (for some of us!). Do you look healthier/fresher in white or cream?

Mme, white I think (and I prefer silver jewelry)

Me too. I suit neither cream nor white.

Of the two choices I'd penalty er on cool... But what then...

Have you ever worn something and had lots of people comment on how nice you look or ask if you've been on holiday? What colour was it?

www.bustle.com/articles/36375-warm-or-cool-skin-tone-5-questions-to-help-you-determine-your-undertones-so-you-can

This article gives you ways of working out your skin tone.
Pinterest is also good to help find colours that will suit either warm or cool tones.

That quiz makes me cool toned, but I am warm.

This quiz is helpful. www.thechicfashionista.com/seasonal-color-analysis-2.html

In the 12 season systems that are used now more than the early four season systems, there are eight neutral seasons that lean either warm or cool. So more people are neutral, or sharing some warm and cool characteristics, than are "true" seasons.

Trying to identify vein color is, IME, so difficult as to be pretty much useless.

I will post some more links. I used to be part of an online discussion group devoted to the subject of color analysis.

Please excuse American spelling on my part as that is ingrained.

Good explanation, examples and quiz.
www.truth-is-beauty.com/

Exhaustive. Also big on the idea that personal coloring and style are related.
www.12blueprints.com

Another good explanation.
www.leavemetomyprojects.com/seasonal-color-analysis/

It can be helpful to go on Pinterest and search for terms like "soft autumn" or "light summer," and so on. Some systems use the names "deep" deep autumn, deep winter while others use dark autumn, dark winter. It's the same idea so maybe try both as search terms. The other differences can be clear winter/ bright winter and clear spring/ bright spring, and sometimes true spring/ warm spring and true autumn/ warm autumn.

It's tricky to figure out, and it's also possible to be mis-draped, although I think HoC are very reliable. HoC lady got me right at a glance (autumn) when another system had had me down as a spring.

The "lip drape" test www.truth-is-beauty.com/blog/newly-updated-lipstick-drape-list is quite possibly the most accurate way to find your season (or at least ballpark it!) on your own.

Hettie - if you're cool, you'll be winter or summer in the House of Colour system. Then have a look at examples online and see which one you have most in common with. I couldn't get myself right though. (Hoc got me 'wrong' once and 'right once - CMB got be 'right' twice.)

i saw something on the dm yesterday in an article about dying your hair grey, if you flip tour wrist over and your veins are blue or purple then you are cool tones and if your veins are green or yellow you are warm tones (i may have got that the wrong way around).

might help tho.

The best comparison for me in HoC was when she held up a cream and brown drape - as if you're wearing a cream shirt and brown jacket - and contrasted it with white and navy. I looked far better in white and navy which is cool.

It's not so simple for everyone. I am fairly neutral, cool/neutral pink-toned skin, cooler pink and blue red lipsticks look better, but I have warm olive green eyes with rusty brown flecks. Veins both blue and yellow. I wear silver a lot but my hair is pale golden so gold accessories look equally good. I lost my belief in color analysis because the warm/cool split simply does not define me well. In the cream + brown vs white + navy example I would pick cream + navy - browns are generally difficult colors for me, navy is one of my staples, but creams and soft whites look very flattering against my skin tone. I had my colors done many years ago but felt that the results were a bit llimiting. I have figured on my own a palette that is based on my natural colors and feels more 'me'.

Frugal-I'm the same.

Right am going to follow some of the links and may get back with questions ..

Right will follow links and may well be back with questions

frugal... Light Summer? cardiganempire.com/2012/08/color-analysis-3-degrees-of-cool_6.html

Frugal - navy and cream best for me too. Am a 'clear spring' - not a winter as one hoc person put me as...

So I 'can' wear gold and silver jewellery. Apparently... Think it's all a bit too prescriptive for me though.

Something Light Summer is my 'official' diagnosis but I think it's overly restrictive. My eyes are a warm green (from the autumn palette?) that clashes with the bluish green in summer palettes and I get much more compliments when I wear warm green, black velvet or coral/watermelon red than faded light summer pastels. I can wear many Light Spring colors really well and Soft Summer colors work too.

I feel best in neutrals - soft whites, creams, gray blues, denim blues, navy, khaki, olive green. I just think that I'm pretty neutral, cool reds are often better but warm tomato red lipstick looks equally good on me and I tried a sheer orange lippy yesterday and that looked fantastic too. There are colors that do not work at all, bright yellows and mustards and Hermes orange and chartreuses and browns make me look dead. Light grays are ghastly too.

Color theory is not simple. Color temperatures are relative (context-dependent) and there are many ways of building harmonies and contrasts. I also feel a slight tan changes my season. Yes, color analysis rules say that your season stays always the same, but I believe my eyes, I tend to get more golden/warm-toned during summer and ashier/muted in winter. I've also stopped believing in color analysis because so many people have gotten a different seasonal diagnosis if they have gotten seen by a second consultant. It sounds hugely subjective. Why do all systems have different, sometimes conflicting rules and descriptions? And can you really fit all the variability in human skintones in just twelve subclasses? I have a hard time believing this...

One way finding some colors to wear is to pick you eye color (it could be a mixture), or pick the color of your lips and blushed cheeks, or the color of the natural highlights in your hair. I wear whites a lot and I match my tops with my teeth - I get a soft ivory, not stark white, and it's very flattering on me.

OP the blog Into Mind has a few good posts about colors. I think those would best serve as a starting point, not a strict guideline.

So Frugal, you're a Zyla-ist? I agree re the restrictiveness of the seasonal approach and that it doesn't work for everyone. And yes, the seasonal mis-labelings (and after-the-fact money wasted on clothes and makeup that don't really work) don't contribute to the credibility of the idea. The most positive things I can say about colour analysis are that it can help point a person away from wearing colours that are really unflattering, and help her (or him) develop an eye and a framework for thinking about colour, how colours combine and how personal style may partly flow from that.

The secret is to take several different things into the changing room with you, somethings will make you look good, others awful.

As colours come in so many different hues and tones it's hard to say that this or that colour always suits you.

Nah, I'm not Zylaist though I read his book when I realized I had come up with something like his system. I had a bad facial eczema in 2014 and realized that when i had to go barefaced, almost none of my carefully chosen Light Summer clothes worked. Soft whites were the most flattering color for me, and ivory tones looked particularly good. Around the same time, I accidentally bought an olive green coat. I got so many compliments, although it was a color incompatible with many other colors on my palette.

Then I started studying what stylish people with my coloring actually wore on the streets and realized it was almost exclusively neutrals. It's probably not intentional, but having one's colors done tends to veer people towards brights, and this happened to me too. But I live in a conservative city and here only clowns at children's birthday parties wear brights Neutrals look so much better in day-to-day dressing.

Zyla palettes can be a bit odd - he is a really odd looking fellow himself - and really limited too, plus the book was too wacky for me, and he is not strong on contrast. As a pale blonde, all kinds of blues are some of my best colors, but I don't really find them anywhere on my body. Also, really juicy reds (watermelon, tomato, coral, wild rose petal) are stunning on me, but my lips and cheeks are a bit more muted. So I use my personal coloring as a starting pont but take it up or down a notch, and complement with dark grays, blues, and blue-grays. As a result, I think I have found my comfort zone, something that feels totally me...

I'd recommend a color consultant for someone who is totally baffled about color and has a hard time combining colors. But if you follow fashion and like trends, some of the rules just feel limiting and unnecessary. They can make dressing even more complicated! So take it with a big grain of salt.

So agree with everything you say, Frugal. Being given my marching orders to wear brights was so off-putting. Maybe it's because I prefer not to call attention to myself, but in colour-world there's an awful lot of talk about "empowering" women not to follow the fashion industry's dictates... and instead, to follow the dictates of whichever colour system.

OP, I had an idea. Some colour analysts begin with two drapes -- one metallic silver, one metallic gold. It's usually easy-ish to see whether you lean warm or cool from that, so if you can find/ borrow/ try on something silver and something gold so you can compare them directly with each other (hold them right under your chin) that might help. Look at your face and see if you look healthier, more even-toned (lines/ dark circles should fade with the right colour).