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What’s your Colour Palette? Winter, Summer, Spring or Autumn?

I have personally lived by my colour palette for 25 plus years. Most of us have a dominant colour followed closely by a secondary colour palette. My dominant is Winter followed by Summer; both are cool tones.Colour analysis applies to your hair, make-up, clothes, accessories, shoes and if you live by it your wardrobe will always flow and you will always be able to mix and match items with ease.

Making 4 season colour analysis work for you

Vicki V for Hair and Beauty
Vicki wearing her colour palette predominantly Winter/Summer, if you wear glasses these are a great way to accessorise your colour palette.

So how do I determine what my colour palette is, you may ask? I will show you some easy ways to decipher whether you are a COOL or a WARM colour palette.

Here we go.Basically, it involves looking beyond your skin colour to discover the undertone that gives definition to your looks. Skin undertone is determined by three elements: haemoglobin, carotene, and melanin. While skin overtone can change based upon factors such as sun exposure, illness, or blood pressure, your undertone is defined by genetics and will never change.

Determine your undertone usingone of the following three tests:

Foundation Test

Foundation Test

The easiest and most accurate method involves putting dab of pink based cream foundation on one cheek, and a dab of yellow on the other. Then spread the foundation evenly on each cheek until they form a very thin layer. Finally, look at which one blends in vs. which looks painted on. The one that blends is your match. Pink means COOL, yellow means WARM. It’s as easy as that.Gold/Silver TestIf after doing the foundation test you are still not sure you can do a fabric test, and this should also be clearly obvious. Drape both swatches one at time up close to your face. The lady below is clearly warm tones, so her colour palette is Autumn followed by Spring.

Gold/Silver Test

Gold means WARM and Silver equals COOL.There are a couple of things you can do to make the test more accurate. Make sure that you’re in a room with natural light, artificial light can ruin the test. And you will need pieces of fabric that are large enough to cover a good amount of skin.Vein Test

Vein test

This one is straightforward. Simply look at the veins on your inner wrist and determine whether they look bluer or greener. Once again, make sure you conduct the test in natural light. And don’t use this test right after tanning or if you have a deep tan as it makes it more difficult to determine the colour.Green veins mean WARM, blue mean COOL.

Whether you use just one test or try them all, you’re now only one step away from knowing your season. At this point:Cool undertone means that you are a SUMMER or a WINTER colour type.Warm undertone means that you are a SPRING or AUTUMN colour type.

Here is an example we have shown on Georgie our salon manager, you can clearly tell that the picture on the right, the colours are way more flattering, she is cool toning.

Georgie V for Hair & Beauty, Merivale

Georgie is a Summer with her secondary colour palette winter. You can see that the khaki jumper on the left makes her skin look sallow, where as the picture on right she looks radiant.Determine whether you are a LIGHT or DARK type. Define the brightness (light or dark) of your eyes and your natural hair colour.WARM undertone Eyes and hair = DARK –> Autumn   |    Eyes and hair = LIGHT –> SpringCOOL undertone Eyes and hair = DARK –> Winter  |    Eyes and hair = LIGHT –> Summer

Finding your Season

Finding Your Season Is That Easy!

The best part of the 4-season colour analysis is discovering your personal matching colour palette!

Personal matching colour palette

See the season colour palettes below and find out which garment colours should be in your wardrobe from now on. Once you know your colour palette, shopping for clothes, accessories and make-up will be a breeze! I suggest you take a photo of your primary and secondary colour palettes and keep it on your phone so when you are out shopping you will always have your colour palette on hand. The best advice I can give is do not buy something even if on sale, if it’s not in your colour palette as it won’t be flattering, and it will end up one of those pieces that sit in the back of your wardrobe and never worn. Invest in good pieces that are in your colour palette and you will have them for years to come and many, many wears.

Colour type: Winter
Colour type: Summer
Colour type: Spring
Colour type: Autumn

Tips for ALL Types

All colour palettes have soft and bright colours.

Vicki Ogden-O’Fee - V for Hair and Beauty

Vicki wearing a soft cool “Winter palette” pink.• Accessorise within your colour palette to accentuate colours that make you look fabulous.• Black makes you look slimmer but is only recommended for winter types, all the other types, choose other dark colours as black can be draining next to your face.

V for Hair Staff

• To convey authority and power, wear your dark colours: black, dark grey and navy blue. (Why do you think the police and other authorities are wearing navy blue or black uniforms?)• If you want to add in colours that aren’t in your seasonal palette but may be on trend for the season ahead use them away from your face or make sure they have a splash of your colour palette on them.Here is an example of a coat that’s not entirely in my palette, brown is a no go for Winter/Summer palette but this coat is teamed with black and hot pink which definitely are in my colour palette so it is fine, also I have worn black glasses and hot pink lipstick on this day to tie it all together.

Vicki’s Winter 2019 fashion item - Coat by Trelise Cooper from Magpie Style.

• Whites and creams, Winter and Summer palettes go for clear whites, Spring and Autumn are much better in cream especially if next to your face.

Henna Brows

Here I have white close to my face Winter/Summer palette.

Vicki - Cream Dress

Pictured in a cream dress which isn’t in my colour palette, but the secondary colours are in my colour palette and the cream is not next to my face, so this is an ok option.

Vicki - white and green dress

Here in a white dress and this is more flattering to my skin tone and is accentuated by brighter colours which are in my Winter/Summer colour palette.

Vicki and Harrison

Silver is a great neutral for the wardrobe. Men as well should stick to their colour palette. Harrison , my son pictured here is also a Winter/Summer colour palette. Harrison wears a beige suit which isnt in his palette but because he has his primary Winter colour palette in the shirt next to his face and teamed it with a bright blue tie he makes this outfit work.You will find that you will have clothes in your wardrobe that are your “Go too” clothes I bet these are items that you get complimented on wearing, suit your body shape, you feel good in and are in your colour palette. When you live by your colour palette your entire wardrobe flows, you can mix and match items easily to create many different looks and styles with the same clothes.

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