What are you looking for?

Exactly what does a color analyst look for during your session? How does this lead to a season? Let’s talk about it below!

After a fun (yet short) game of myth busters, I explain to each client what we’re looking for during their consultation. At the crux of it, color analysis comes down to three specific key characteristics for the client. We are looking for their undertone, value & intensity. Each individual has their own personal combination of the three. When we match our colors to our individual characteristics, we achieve color harmony. Let’s break them down.

Undertone

Undertone lies on a spectrum from cool to warm. During a session, I do a series of drapings to determine undertone as our first step. We drape a series of warm colors vs a series of cool colors and evaluate what we see based on the color analysis checks. At the end of the first step we should know if the client has a warm undertone or a cool undertone. It sounds so simple when I type it here. And sometimes it is this simple. Sometimes it isn’t. What I love about my training is that we are taught many backup systems if someone leans more neutral. The makeup industry suggests that around 70% of people fall within a neutral range of undertone. Range being key word. In most (almost all) cases, we can determine which side of that range a client falls on. In the 23 season system, if someone is a true neutral (in regards to undertone), there’s a season for that! We still have to look at other key characteristics!

Value

Value is the second key characteristic that we look at during personal color analysis. Like undertone, it falls within a range (really all 3 characteristics do). Someone can have a light value or a deep value or anywhere in between. A person with light hair, light skin & light eyes will shine most in colors of light value. The opposite if they have deep value, deep skin & deep eyes. When going through our 3 step process, value is considered. The skin is the KEY factor here. Eyes and hair matter but skin is always our primary indicator. If hair is colored, we cover it because personal color analysis is about the client’s unique personal color characteristics so we want to evaluate based on true coloring. At some point, I’ll do a post about hair colors and how people can still color their hair and be in harmony with their palette. Of course, many people can have more of a medium value as well. With 23 seasons, there is a place for everyone!

Intensity (Chroma)

Of the three characteristics, I feel like intensity may be the hardest to explain in words. The intensity (chroma) of a color refers to its saturation as a pure hue (with nothing added). For a person, the same principle applies. Some people have a soft/muted chroma while others have a bright/clear chroma. Again, people can have an in between. Why does it matter? Chroma is important because if someone is soft in intensity and wears a very bright color, the bright color overwhelms them. The eye will be drawn to the color rather than to the face. Colors are “softened” by adding another color. In color analysis the soft palettes often have a bit of gray mixed in to soften the colors (this is called a tone). However, technically a color can be softened with white as well (to make a tint) or black (to make a shade).

When first learning about color analysis, the key is to understand that it is about color harmony. If I am warm (in undertone), light/medium (in value), and medium/bright (in chroma), I need to wear colors that are the same in each regard. Seasonal color analysis is designed to take each of these factors into consideration and have palettes that reflect them. For me, True Spring is the best fit.