Colour is a passion of mine, and helping people find the colours that truly make them shine is something I’ve been doing for the past 14 years (or so) and I know just how much wearing colours that harmonise with your natural colouring really makes a massive difference to how you look and feel. The…
Hi, Imogen, I think you introduced for me a fundamental change in thinking when you talked about being primarily light medium or dark value. That was rather an aha moment. I always knew that I was summer and then cool muted and light but I was for example than trying to make that palette fit…
What’s ideal value and how to figure out your ideal value? This is a concept is one that I’ve come to realise as really valuable the longer I’ve been doing personal colour analysis (right now that’s over 14 years, so just a little experienced!). Whatever palette you have (from whatever system it comes from), there…
Have you thought about the colours you prefer to wear? Whether or not you’ve had a personal colour analysis and have a palette of colours or not, you are likely to find that you are drawn more to some colours than others, even within your palette if you know which is the one that flatters…
Violet (technical name for purple) is a colour like teal that can be worn by both warm and cool undertone colouring. The difference is that cool undertones can wear all violets, and warm undertones can only successfully wear the warmer end of the violet spectrum. So which is which? Consider the Colour Wheel As violet…
Browns can have a warmer or cooler undertone as with most colours. So how to choose the warm from the cool? Warm Undertone Browns These have a yellow base (and as you know, yellow warms up the temperature of a colour). Cool Undertone Browns There are a couple of ways to cool down a…
All colours (apart from the orange spectrum) have a warm and cool undertone version so a colour that we may call “red”, “burgundy” or “maroon” could be either warm or cool. Red is a colour that has many permutations, from baby pink to coral, magenta and burgundy. Unlike blue or green, that when we add…
One question that comes up with my clients and also on my 7 Steps to Style program forums is that of hair colouring and what works best. Skin Undertone and Hair Colour First consideration is always your skin. You want to find a hair colour that flatters your complexion. In fact hair, as…
Contrast is a hot topic amongst my 7 Steps to Style and Evolve Your Style program members, because once you see its impact, you can’t go back to ignoring it. It’s an important part of any personal colour analysis – discovering how to wear your ideal colours (not just what they are). Colour contrast =…
Recently I’ve been having fun playing with my scarf collection. Tying them in different ways (check out these 32 ways to tie your scarves), and using them as outfit colour scheme inspiration. Creating Colour Schemes Here I’m using a scarf (that was my grandmother’s) and have used the colours in it to create my outfit…
Prints and patterns can add variety and interest to your outfit and wardrobe. Ideally choose a print that relates to your own value contrast. But should you wish to wear a print that is outside of your natural value contrast then here is the easy way of choosing one to flatter. I think of value…
Colour has such a profound impact on our appearance. It really does. Because of this impact I’m passionate about colour and you will see me wearing colour more of the time than less. It can make you look: younger or older brighter or duller more vibrant or more tired I don’t know about you…
I’ve spent the past week intensely immersed in our Academy of Professional Image Certified Personal Colour Analysis Training. It’s a full on full time course, and we teach our students just so much about colour and how to discover their client’s personal best colours, how to wear their colours plus so much more. Students…
Back in 1981 Colour Me Beautiful was published and really brought the idea of personal colour analysis to the masses. It was a huge hit and I remember going through the book and figuring out that I was a winter and being fascinated all that time ago about the concept of personal colour analysis. Now…
One of the things I’ve discovered tends to confuse people is that they think that they can only wear colours that are the same value as them, so if they are overall lighter in value they can only wear light colours, and if they are deep/dark, they have to wear dark colours only. Ideally we…
Your eyes are one of the features that I think is important to highlight every time you get dressed. They are at the centre of your communication centre (that’s a fancy term for your face). If people are drawn to looking at your eyes, they don’t notice much else about your body, and are certainly…
12345678910111 1. High Value Contrast, Low Colour Contrast Brown eyes, brown hair, neutral but fair skin, you are most likely to fall into this category. So what should Michelle wear? You want to put together a high value contrast – so light and dark colours together, then a low colour contrast – so either all…
Colour is a subject that fascinates many of you. And I know I’ve written some posts on it before such as this one on understanding colour properties, but here is a picture I’ve put together to help try and explain the basics of tint, tone and shade. Colour Terminology Basics The value…
Following on from my post on undertones, here are some more examples of the differences between warm and cool undertones of colours. When picking undertones, you want to look at what the colour is made of, as if you were painting it, and think about what colours you’d mix together to create it. If…
I have often heard that freckles are only found on warm people, not cool, but I’m here to bust that myth. In fact there are many cool people who have freckling and today I’m going to share with you a photo of a recent client who has cool colouring who is definitely freckled. Now…
How to Pick the Undertone of Grey Grey is either made from mixing pure black and white, or more commonly, from mixing all colours together. This muddled up mix of colours is the reason it can be so hard to mix shades of grey together, as depending on how it’s made, it may be a…
