What is Colour Analysis?

You’ve seen it on your social media feeds, on the morning shows and maybe know someone that has declared themselves a season. Perhaps you have tried to figure out your best colours and feel confused. You hope that a Colour Analysis will help make dressing and shopping easier.

The basis of Colour Analysis is draping colours to see which hues harmonize with your skin tone and make you look your best. In the original 1980s version there were only four seasons. Today, it has become more personalized by sub-categorizing each season and introducing flows for individuals with neutral undertones.

There is a lot of confusion around Colour Analysis as there are consultants trained in different techniques. So be aware that when you head to social media for inspiration, you may find similar names but with different palettes. Some companies still do the four seasons while others have twelve. While I have been trained in a system with 23 (!!!) different categories.

4 main seasons + 12 sub-seasons + 6 flows + 1 universal = 23 Palettes

What are the 4 main seasons?

Just like Mother Nature we start with the four seasons of Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. We can even describe using some similar descriptors!

• Winter – Cool, Icy, Vivid
• Spring – Warm, Clear, Bright
• Summer – Cool, Ashy, Muted
• Autumn – Warm, Muted, Earthy

People who have blue undertones are COOL (Winter or Summer) and those with more red undertones are WARM (Spring or Autumn). This is based on your unique combination of melanin and hemoglobin that shows through your skin.

What are the sub-seasons?

If we just divided ourselves into four groups, many people would still feel like some colours didn’t work. This is why we have sub-seasons to provide more personalized colour suggestions.

• Deep Winter, Cool Winter, True Winter, Bright Winter
• Bright Spring, Warm Spring, True Spring, Light Spring
• Light Summer, Cool Summer, True Summer, Muted Summer
• Muted Autumn, Warm Autumn, True Autumn, Deep Autumn

Think of this like a sliding scale; we find out which part of a season works best for you.

What are the flows?

Remember I said that we are all have unique combinations that make up our undertone?

There are some who definitely have a cool or warm undertone but the colours in one season are too bright and the colours in the other season are too muted. These individuals get an in between flow:

• Cool – intensity between Summer and Winter
• Warm – intensity between Spring and Autumn

There are also people that do not lean Warm or Cool because of neutral undertones. These FLOW palettes sit between the seasons and use colours from both palettes.

• Deep – between Autumn and Winter
• Bright – between Winter and Spring
• Light – between Spring and Summer
• Muted – between Summer and Autumn

But wait … what is the Universal palette?

This is the center. It is not cool or warm nor muted or bright. This is what you use when you need to dress multiple seasons in the same outfit. Think uniforms or bridesmaid dresses. It won’t be everyone’s ‘wow’ colours but they will still look and feel their best.

Ultimately, we will spend time together finding colours that make you feel fabulous. Ready to learn your best palette? Check out my offerings and let’s set up a time dedicated to you.