Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog. In this post I want to talk about; How to understand what's your power color?. Understanding and choosing your power color always makes you look more put-together and radiates your skin, eyes and lips. To do so, you need to understand color theory. In color theory and its analysis, factors such as undertone, hair color, eye color and contrast are taken into consideration. But in this post, I shall keep things very general and shall discuss below topics.
1. The Difference between Neutrals and Colors.
2. Difference between skin tone and undertone.
3. Methods to determine your undertone that help to design a color palette personalized for you.
4. Some tips to create ideal color palette.
Understanding your power color helps you to easily create a cohesive color palette for your wardrobe.
NEUTRALS/ BASICS VS ACCENT COLORS
Before understanding how to create a cohesive color palette, let’s talk about your existing wardrobe. When it comes to understanding the cohesive color palette, you can think of your wardrobe in two broad color categories such as neutrals and Accents colors.
NEUTRALS
Neutrals also known as base colors, are the colors that lack pop and tend to be Black, White, Camel, Earth Brown, Grey, Ivory, Denim and Navy. Also, blush pink is considered as neutral, but with some debate around it. These tend to make the majority of your wardrobe and look flattering on anyone. Through common observation, you can notice that majority of your bottoms would be neutrals.
ACCENT COLORS
These change according to the season and preferences. Colors other than neutrals fall under this category. They are vibrant pop of color which you can play with, to define your personal style.
Note: A cohesive color palette would ideally be mix and match of neutrals and accents or palette created from the shades of similar color family.
WARM VS COOL COLORS
Colors other than true black and true white are categorized into two: Warm and Cool. Warm colors have more of Yellow/Orange in them, while cool colors have Green/Blue shade. When you think of warm colors, you can consider Sun- which is warm and can be associated with Orange/Yellow shades. Similarly, you can think of Cool colors as Lush Green Garden or Seas/ Oceans which tend to shine Blue, give an idea of Cool color palette.
At a given point, a cohesive color palette would have either all warm or all cool colors but rarely has got combination of both. This anyways is a general idea and a simple rule. To explain the logic behind, warm goes well with warm and cool goes well with color. For an instance, it wouldn’t be so great if you pair Orange with Ice Blue and similarly Warm Red might not go great with Cool Green. The picture below shows the color wheel, which has both warm and cool colors.
Note: Colors to the left of divider in the image are Warm and to the right are Cool.
CREATING A COHESIVE COLOR PALETTE THAT FITS YOUR UNDERTONE
Now the million-dollar question is, how to understand what colors work the best for you? You can consider two basic methods to do that.
1. Pick Universal colors
2. Understand your undertone
1. UNIVERSAL COLORS
Colors that have right blend of Warm (yellow/orange) and Cool (blue) are considered as universal colors. As these colors have both tones, they look harmonious on every individual, despite their undertone. Colors such as True White, True Black, True Red, Blush Pink (with some debate around), Taupe, and Teal fall under Universal Colors.
2. UNDERSTAND YOUR UNDERTONE - WARM, COOL, NEUTRAL
Before telling you the methods to determine it, let me tell you the difference between skin tone and undertone.
Skin tone is the top layer color of your skin, and its color changes with exposure to sun, pollution and sensitivity. Undertone is beneath the outer layer skin and color of this doesn’t change throughout your lifetime.
Generally highlighting, undertones are divided into three basic categories
1. Warm – Leans more towards yellow, gold, orange or peachy.
2. Cool – Skin highlights more of Red or Pink colors.
3. Neutral: You could have combination of some warm and cool colors.
Now that you got to know the difference, lets jump into how to determine your undertone. There are few basic methods that can be tested at home. I suggest try out these tests in broad day light, for effective results.
HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR UNDERTONE ?
Method 1: Vein test
As the name suggests, look at the color of the veins that run under your wrist. If the color tends to be blue, then you are a cool undertone. If its green, then you are a warm undertone.
Warm Undertone
1. Have Green or Olive veins
2. Skin clearly has Gold or Yellow Tinge
Cool Undertone
1. Prominent blue or purple veins
2. Skin clearly has Blue or Pink Tinge
Neutral Undertone
1. These undertone people have combination of Blue and Green Veins
Method 2: White Towel Test
Bring the white towel close to your face or wrap the towel around your face, so you can compare (while doing this test I suggest you pull your hair back or wrap the towel around your face, so you can compare clearly). If you feel that your skin color dominates yellow comparing it against the towel, then you are a warm undertone. If colors such as pink or blue dominate then you are a cool undertone. If you see combination of Green and Blue or Pink and Yellow, then you are Neutral undertone.
Method 3: Blush Test
Apply pink blush on side of your cheek and gold on another. Compare both. If golden blush blends perfect with your skin and doesn’t look patchy, then you have a warm undertone. If pink suits you better, then you have cool undertone. If both colors make you radiate, consider yourself in Neutral undertone category.
Method 4: Jewelry test
If silver jewelry makes you look radiant, then you are cool undertone. If gold suits you better, then you are a warm undertone. Neutral undertone folks are lucky and both the metals look great on them.
Method 5: The way your skin reacts when exposed to Sun
If you are cool undertone, you probably tend to experience burns when exposed to Sun. If you are warm undertone, you get Tanned easily.
Method 6: Try Color Grab App
If you are an Android user, download Color Grab App and face the Camera of your phone towards your wrist and allow a moment for the App, to analyze your skin. Once, you see the tick mark, you can check the results. If you are an iPhone user, type the word 'Kuler' in App Store and download the app that matches the best of your interests.
Tips for Warm Undertone
1. Pick warm colors such as Honey Gold, Orange, yellow, Red and Amber.
2. Some neutrals to try would be: Latte, Winter Wheat, Taupe and Creamy Whites.
3. Colors to avoid: Icy cool shades
4. Celebrity Inspiration: Kim Kadarshian, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Beyonce.
If you are Cool Undertone
1. Choose cool colors such as Ice Blue, Deep Purples, Lavender, Lilac Snow and Amethyst.
2. Neutrals to try: Pristine White, Cool Grey and Navy
3. Colors to avoid: Orange, Yellow and Warm Red
4. Celebrity Inspiration: Nicole Kidman, Emma Stone, model Alek Wek
Neutral undertone
1. Go to Neutrals for Neutral undertone: Grey, Off-whites, Taupes
2. Colors to Avoid: Vibrant colors like Bluish and Yellowish Reds, Yellows and bright Greens.
3. Go to Colors: Dusty Pink, Soft Rose, Peony Pink, Cameo Green and Jade Blue
4. Celebrity Inspiration: Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, Kerry Washington
Some General Fashion Rules and Tips That Helps You to Create Your Power Color
Once you determine your undertone and understand the dominant color in your skin is, you can practice these tips. Considering my case as an example, I shall tell you. I have a very light brown undertone with Orange as dominant color in my skin. So, I should avoid wearing Orange (You can know what color is dominant in your skin, by analyzing results from the app). Pick the color wheel to understand the example better.
Tip 1: Avoid wearing the color that’s dominant in your undertone.
Tips 2: Wear colors that are adjacent to your dominant color. So, in my case colors adjacent to Orange, (Yellow and Red) should be the right choice (Colors adjacent to your dominant tone can be analyzed seeing Color Wheel Image)
Tip 3: Avoiding wearing colors that are opposite to your tone. In my case, when I look at the Color wheel, I clearly can say that, I should avoid wearing Dark Blue.
You Can Break Rules
I love experimenting with different colors and I wear all colors, but certainly there are few colors that make me look more flattering, makes my eyes glow and my skin radiant. The points discussed in this blog are just simple tips and rules and you can always break the rules if you want to. That’s is all fashion about, isn’t it? If you are a warm undertone, and want to wear cool color, yes you can try. Wear it with confidence. To just give my example, I have several cool colors (which I shopped before understanding color theory and before exercising what works the best for me) and I wear them with confidence, whenever I want to wear them. Just to make look everything in place, I highlight my best features while I work with cool colors.
Adding little tweaks and highlighting your best proportions would draw viewers’ attention to those parts. So, you can try to trick their eyes. One simple way could be to add a good bag, nice pair of footwear or jewelry. You can wear top that have details, can highlight your wrist and neckline with fashion jewelry to draw more attention to those parts.
Hope you enjoyed reading this article. Drop your views in the comments below.
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