Thursday, July 15, 2010

Does colour analysis work?

My love for complex systems does affect my fashion, style and make-up choices. Not directly, but I tend to look for patterns and rules. Maybe this is a result of being an INTP (for further reference, look for MBTI), whose dominant brain function is Ti - introverted thinking, which is all about logic.

Let's change the topic. Are you familiar with a book called "Color Me Beautiful", published in the 80's? I must admit I haven't read it - but the most important thing is that it introduces a (kind of) famous four seasons analysis. The system is based on Munsell color system. I'm not an artist and I know way less about it than I'd like to. However, according to Munsell, a colour can be EITHER dark, cool and clear OR dark, warm and soft OR light, cool and soft OR light, warm and clear. If it doesn't make sense... daffodil yellow is light, warm and clear, yes? If we darken it, we'll get some kind of brownish olive, which is dark, but not clear. And if we lighten ultramarine, we'll get some kind of pastel blue, which is light and soft. I must give the credit for the original explanation to Lora Alexander. Visit her website, it's great.
I'm not 100% sure about it, but I guess that the reason for the system is that we perceive dark colours as cooler and light colours as warmer, or the other way around (check Purkinje effect and Abney effect).

Sorry for my digressions.

As you may know, the original colour analysis works in two dimensions. First, you determine if your colouring is warm or cool. Then, you determine if it's dark or light - and voila, that's it. There are some hardcoded rules, though - for example, the two Winters. Winters are cool and dark, but there are two types: a Snow White with porcelain complexion and dark hair, and a southern Winter with dark complexion (which is, in my opinion, not really helpful, since it assumes that all non-Caucasian people are Winters). The major drawback for me, and for many other people, was that I can't realate to any of the four seasons. My skin is neither pink nor yellow. In fact, it looks neutral - very pale, but neutral nonetheless. I have freckles, which are supposedly an Autumn attribute. My hair is dark brown and cool, but my eyes are not really cool. Dark blue outer edges of my irises, grey background with bright green spots, flecks and lines. Sometimes they look grey, sometimes blue and sometimes green. Confusing. I was once told that my eyes are typical for an Autumn.



...or are they?

And there is a neat little theory about different eye patterns. The idea is not mine, I found it HERE.

Spring - round sunburst:


Summer - cracked glass:


Autumn - Aztec sun with flecks:


Winter - spokes of a wheel:


I don't know about you, but I have a feeling that it's not as reliable as it may look. My eye pattern looks quite similar to the Autumn Aztec sun, with some traces of Winter spokes. However, I'm definitely not an Autumn (I'll explain it later). And honestly, I don't agree with many statements from the site and some of them are even contradictory.

Nevertheless, I found another picture that resembled my iris pattern (BTW, Christine Scaman is another person whom I'd love to recommend. Visit her blog). This is a photo from her fb account
- A Winter Eye.

Why is this a Winter eye? Because the lines begin right at the pupil, and there are petal-shaped geometric formations. But there's Autumn here, because of the brown smudges.


Hmm... petal shapes? Check. Lines beginning right at the pupil? Check. I don't have any brown in my eyes, though.

Lora has a section about eyes as well. This is a bit confusing, because I don't know if my eyes are more "clear & bright" or "soft & muddy". The picture of a soft eye is blurry and the picture of a clear eye has boosted contrast, which doesn't help.

You have probably noticed that both Christine and Lora don't use the 4 seasons system. They both have 12 seasons, although they work with different guidelines. When I discovered it, it was a relief.

Keep in mind that I haven't been analyzed by a professional. Everything written here is a piece of my own thoughts (unless stated otherwise). Besides, I think that a self-discovery process is fun!

Before I started analyzing my natural colours, I'd known one thing: I'd believed that I'd been an Autumn. Now I know that I'm not. Why? Because warm, earthy Autumn tones were definitely my worst. That much was obvious and gave me a clue. I have tried many hair colours (and wigs); from what I've discovered, the worst colours were golden blonde and orange - while burgundy and black looked better. The two former are warm, while the two latter are cool. Last but not least, I don't really like gold. I think that silver and platinum jewellery looks better on me.

What did it tell me? I have cool undetones. It is very visible when I have something yellow and something blue near my face. EVERYONE I asked agreed that cool colours worked better.

That left me with two (or actually six) options: Summers and Winters. I prefer saturated colours, but I tried hard to be unbiased.

Sorry for my constant linking to other websites and quoting various sources, but I'm apparently not arrogant enough to pretend that these thoughts are my own. I can recognize if someone has more knowledge that I have. According to Lora:

Deep...Dark and rich. Think Cher or Kim Kardashian

Light...Light and delicate. Think Gwenyth Paltrow or Heather Locklear

Soft...Soft & muted. Think Sarah Jessica Parker or Jennifer Aniston

Clear...Clear & bright. Think Courteney Cox or a young Liz Taylor

Warm...No cool undertones. Think Reba McIntyre or Sarah Ferguson

Cool...No warm undertones. Think Christy Brinkley or Liz Hurley


I knew that I'm definitely not warm. Not Deep and not Light as well. I thought that I might be cool, but was it my dominant characteristic? Not really. After all, I could find some warmth in my eyes. If I'd been completely cool, I wouldn't have been mistakenly typed as an Autumn.

So what? Soft Summer? Clear Winter? It was surprisingly hard to tell. At that moment, I knew that I was a Cool Season mixed with a warmer one. The question was, was I Soft or Clear? I wasn't as Soft as Sarah Jessica Parker, but not as Clear as Elijah Wood.

This was partially helpful. Partially, because I wasn't 100% sure. I could relate more to Winters, though. And this left me confused: I have a lot of contrast between my dark hair, eyebrows, eyelashes and my fair skin, but I don't really have any saturated colour in my natural tones.


Then I found the 12 Blueprints website. In Sci/ART system, the hair and eye colour is not relevant. It's all about one's perfect colours, which are not really obvious, as far as I can tell. I must admit that I love Christine's way of writing. What's interesting, she writes much about how different Seasons FEEL (and not LOOK). For example, she uses words like "fun", "movement" or "excitement" when writing about Springs.

I stopped looking at my eyes and being kind of desperate. It was completely obvious that my best colours were clear. Really clear. I got many compliments when I wore bright red and dark sapphire, which are probably the most Wintery colours. Being a Winter with a wee bit of Spring made sense. This article was helpful: despite being mostly cool, I have yellowish skin in my eye corners.

I think I am a Clear (Bright) Winter. I'm not a stereotypical example; I don't have light blue eyes like Zooey Deschanel. Nevertheless, these colours tend to look best. I'm washed out in Summer colours, sallow in Autumn colours and sickly yellow in Spring colours. I can handle a little bit of warmth, like strawberry red and champagne (the colours, of course, but strawberries and champagne are tasty nonetheless).

It's quite unbelievable. I didn't think that bright red would suit me and I was afraid of intense colours. I have to admit that I were wrong. It definitely works! Red is a complementary colour to my eyes, while having the same hue as my skin.



You don't have to agree with me, of course. If you have a good source, let me know! I'm open to all ideas.

And now, something less reliable, but interesting. Some people draw a line between colour analysis and personality. I don't really believe that it can be applied to everyone. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

ONE:
Winter is the season of withdrawal. Winter people have a powerful stillness and strength. You can command authority without saying a word. A winter personality is self-assured, your distinctive qualities will make you noticeable in a crowd. Cool and objective: you have confidence in your own abilities, are motivated and ambitious which makes you a great leader, in business, in style and on the stage.


Uh. I'm not really comfortable being an authority or a leader. I prefer being on my own. I'm motivated an ambitious, but not very self-confident. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

TWO:
Bright Winter traits and style (not only about personality, though): "there is a trace of the delicate in these people", "Winter has a still polish. Spring expresses dazzle and movement", "logos are blingy, and can look cheap on anyone but the Bright Winter", "avant-garde, it’s edgy and exaggerated, and it’s cold and shiny. All very Bright Winter", "knock-out glamour".

That's more interesting, because it deals with 12 distinct Seasons (instead of 4). However, there's a big difference between "what I like" and "what I wear". I'm drawn to avant-garde, edgy and glamorous, but I don't have enough courage to look that way. Call me a coward.

THREE:
Positive Winter traits: loyal to friends and family, natural poise, good listener, truthful, sensitive, creative, perfectionist, commited
Negative Winter traits: somewhat self-centered, worries what others think of them, worries about everything, moddy, lacks confidence, neglects friends, pessimistic, expects perfection from all

Eh... how can you neglect friends, while being loyal to them, commited and a good listener at the same time? It gives me an impression that all Winters are emo kids :D About 2/3 of traits are mine. Try harder.


I don't know if I'm right. I might be totally wrong. Or misinformed. Nevertheless, I don't think that I wasted my time.

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