Colour Inspiration and Guidance…

How are you with colour? Do you know what shades suit you, can you colour clash with confidence or do you stay firmly in the dark? As most of you know I’m not a huge one for colour and patterns personally but I do understand the joy of colour, the difference it can make, the impact it can have on one’s mood and the mood of others.

Women I know who have had their “colours done” fall into two camps: those who have found it a revelation and have never worn black since; and those, who found it rather constricting sticking to exact shades whether they liked them or not! If you are still unsure about colour, here is a quick colour guide lesson. For those who are clear on what colours suit them, skip straight to the end, and see my colour inspiration. I hope this Style Post inspires you to find your favourite colours with confidence. Enjoy!

Find your skin under-tone

Hold a piece of pure white paper next to your unmade-up face and look in the mirror.

Does your skin look pink, rosy, or blue? You have a cool skin tone.

Does it look more yellow, green, or light brown? You have a warm skin tone.

Does it look grey or ashen? You have a neutral skin tone.

If it’s still unclear to you:

Cool tones tend not to tan easily, warm tones do, neutral could go either way.

Cool tones suit silver jewellery, warm tones suit gold and neutral tones can wear either.

Check out the veins on the inside of your arm. If they appear blue/purple you’re cool; if they appear green, you are warm, if you cannot decide you are neutral (or just indecisive!)

Final quick test - can you wear black? If you can wear black with no make-up, you’re a cool who suits cold, bright shades. If you look tired in black and need to wear make-up, you’re a neutral who suits mid-tones. If black drains you no matter what make-up you wear, you’re warm and suit autumnal colours.

Find shades that suit you

Cool: look for blues, blue greens, purples, magentas, and blue-based reds. When it comes to neutrals, opt for black, bright white, navy, and cool greys.

Warm: look for yellows, oranges, browns, yellow-greens, orange based reds and softer neutrals such as cream, taupes and gentle greys.

Neutral: Many neutrals look great in all colours, others tend to look better in shades that don’t overwhelm such as dusky pink, soft blue and neutrals that include off-whites, mid-range greys, coffee and black.

If in doubt - go with your instinct

Generally, if you hold a colour up to you, you can tell very quickly if it makes you feel good and brightens your face. However, if you don’t like a particular colour, don’t wear it. Despite the fact it suits you, you will never feel good in it which means you will never wear it well.

OK, colour lesson over, now onto inspirational colours. Here are one or two of my favourite combinations this season – some are bold, some more subtle – all are beautiful. Enjoy finding new tones and shades that work for you, and if you need some help, just shout! It would be a pleasure to help you.

You're very welcome

Have a great week-end and feel free to share this post.