Advice for bland colouring please

[poppym12]

It's official. My colouring is neutral and no one can decide what colour my eyes are.
(they're sandy brown in the middle then green, grey and dark blue).

My hair is lightish brown with some blonde bits and red bits (plus plenty of grey).

My skin undertones are nothing in particular. Not particularly warm or cool.

I had a birthday recently and decided I'd like to treat myself to new clothes in colours that do that 'making you look alive' thing. 4 hours of shopping today and I bought 3 t-shirts. Grey, white and black.

Years ago I went to a colour party and was told I was probably 'a spring'. Pastels make me look like I've come back from the dead and dark jewel colours make me look like a pantomime Dame.

Does anyone have any idea what colours suit neutral folk?

Have you thought about having another colour session done,poppy?
I had a Colour Me Beautiful personal assessment about five years ago, and feel confident about which colours suit me.
I thought it was a good investment, as I don't waste money buying clothes that I end up not liking or wearing.

My colouring is not dissimilar although my eyes have no brown, they are grey but change colour depending on what I wear. I had a HOC colour consultation a few years ago and the consultant struggled a lot with whether I'm warm or cool as I'm pretty neutral. Turns out I'm a paintbox Spring. I suit the stronger Spring colours (the apple green, kingfisher blue, bright navy, poppy red) but what works best on me is contrast. So bright navy with cream or dove grey for work, coral and denim, red and navy. Massive risk of looking like a CBeebies presenter but definately lifts my rather bland colouring.

Do you want your face to have more contrast? Ie makeup? That could help define things a little and make the clothing easier.

travelling to see one is difficult at the moment pippin so i was cheekily hoping that one of our own s & b gurus would maybe have similar colouring and could point me in the direction of where to look.

i think it's a bit of a problem being neutral phyllis as there's either 'wear neutrals' (bland) or 'try everything' (easier said than done). i can't even tell if silver or gold jewellery looks better on me. i prefer silver so i tend to wear that.

i tend to shy away from anything yellow, orange, red or pink as to me, it all looks a bit Rod, Jane and Freddy on me (yes, i am older than Cbeebies ). maybe that's where i'm going wrong?

i need to ask though, what is a paintbox spring

i tried to get some makeup advice today slipper and between several counters in debenhams and boots, it was agreed that my skin undertone is neutral and that my eyes are 'unusual' . i was told to try red, brown, green and purple (hopefully they didn't mean all together as it sounds like an awesome bruise).

i have stuck to various shades of brown and copper for years but someone on here told me to try purple and plum eyeshadow which i have and it looks nice. if i use orangey blusher, i look like a space hopper so i'm trying a pinky shade. as for lipstick........i have excessive amounts of similar pinky/brown shades that in all honesty, i'm bored with. i have thin lips so dark colours make me look like a witch.

after writing these posts, i'm thinking that a hessian sack for the body and a paper bag over the head may well be the way forward

I'm pretty neutral. I can wear most colours, I think for me I like bright colours with neutrals, not too much black. I'm not a fan of pastels myself, but I do enjoy a neon!

Make up wise I can wear pretty much anything. I'm enjoying minimal with red lips, or peach cheeks and orange lips.

Do you tend to go for the more orangy reds than bluer ones felicia?

Have a try of the Bourjois lip crayon in Orange Punch - it scares you when you see the tube as it's very orange but goes on/comes out a lovely coral and although a little sheer it can be built up. I'm bland and don't really 'do' makeup but find this brightens and lifts without being obvious

i'll get an orange one to try too, thank you chish

How about changing your appearance by going for much blonder hair? Lighter hair can really lift your complexion and blondes generally suit neutral coloured clothes (black, white, beige, grey,) If you're pale skinned, a cool, ash or ice blonde would be best.

An less daunting way to add colour is with accessories; a bright bag, shoes, scarf or jewellery.

Both blue based and red based. I own that bourjois Orange punch and it's one of my favourites for a gorgeous peachy flush. But I also wear mac Russian red which is a classic blue based red.

I'm fairly neutral too and my eyes change color depending on what I wear (they are gray-green-rusty). I can wear almost any eye shadow color. Take a look at soft summer colors, they are my fallback neutrals, but I can also wear lots of light spring colors (coral and watermelon red in particular). I don't do pastels but denim blues, soft white and khaki and olive and mid gray are my best colors. Because I am muted and low contrast, very dark colors don't work on me, and black and white looks terrible on me.

Oh and in lip colors I can wear both warm reds and blue reds but bluish tones are my comfort zone. Often I mix both, bluish red on my lips and a dab of a warm paler tone in he middle of my lower lip. It sounds like you are pretty neutral but slightly on the warm side.

And I have more silver jewellery but pale gold is super flattering on me.

Really couldn't get away it blonde hair lost but I do have assorted scarves I could start wearing.

House of colour consultation will be life changing!

If you go onto the Kettlewell colours website you can display their "palette" by Spring/Summer/Autumn. Doesn't sound like you are a Winter. You can see how there is actually a good choice of bright/muted/neutral colours in each season. It's not just the colours but how you combine them, how much contrast etc.

Also if you click back through the "kettlewell blog" entries there are some really useful ones on all kinds of subjects, they have just done a series on the colour seasons.

I would try some of the less out-there Spring and Summer colours, (maybe a few things from M&S that you can take back) see what you think after a day or two. When I had my consultation she said that Spring and Winter were the most common seasons amongst British women (if you are one, of course!)

I'm very neutral (imo)
v pale with green eyes and mid brown hair that is neither fair enough to reflect the light or dark enough to be all catherine zeta ish, maybe a bit reddish (but not particularly) :-p

I look my best in GREEN which wouldn't be for everybody I know but forest green, lime green, olive green.......
And maybe burgundy too.

"How about changing your appearance by going for much blonder hair?"

I thought this too, but wasn't sure if the OP wanted to change her look, or just find stuff that works with her colouring as it is.

I used to work with a lady who was attractive enough, but I was watching this film with Uma Thurman, and realised she was a dead ringer for my colleague - in the "before" phase.

girlswithglasses.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/006SXG_Uma_Thurman_057.jpg

I always hoped my colleague would go blonde, as she would have looked stunning, but she never did OP, I know you've said you wouldn't suit blonde but you actually sound like the perfect candidate for a bit of lightening - neutral skin tone, and your eyes sound incredible - a colourful (pinky maybe) lip plus the blonde would really make them stand out.

I could be a little overinvested...

Sienna Miller - another celeb whose megawatt face is dimmed without the blonde.

assets.instyle.co.uk/instyle/live/styles/article_landscape_600_wide/s3/legacy/10/06/2007-Oct.jpg?itok=EcXKSOBZ

I've historically never bought into the "everyone must be blonde" thing, but in recent years I've really noticed how much of a difference it can make for some people

Ok I'll stop now x

Thing is though, being a blonde is very fucking expensive. Sorry. That slipped out. And I'm not the OP

Sound similar frugal - denim, khaki, olive, off white and mid grey make up most of my wardrobe. Looking at the soft summer colours, I'm thinking they may look a bit draining but will definitely order some bits to try from asos or somewhere with easy returns. If warm spring is a thing, I'd say I'm probably that.

I tried red lipsticks earlier and I think the orangey one looked better than the bluish one.

Actually slipper, at my last 2 hair appointments I've thought about having some blonde bits put through as well as having my roots done (I'm not ready to embrace the grey). Just subtle bits as I thought it would look ok. Bottled out both times though. Usually in summer, my hair lightens anyway so there are more golden and ginger subtle red bits but I've not experienced much sunshine so far. I think my cheeks are too ruddy for blonde hair. And my eyebrows would look too dark in comparison.

I sound like a multicoloured freak of nature

I had HOC consultation a few years ago and it was so helpful. I'm a blue Spring but I tend to stick to the more neutral colours in my palette as the brighter colours seem just too bright. I wear a lot of navy, silver grey, cream and bright blue with occasional poppy red. It seems to work for me and doesn't make me feel like a CBeebies presenter lol