Five reasons you can't figure out your Palette

1) Undertone

Figuring out your undertone- sounds simple enough, but then you look online and ooh- not that simple. Undertone is different to overtone and the two of them can differ in cool or warm temperatures also. Some people say look at your veins- but are those veins green-blue blue-green- who knows! So much conflicting information online, but hopefully I can put your mind at ease. Looking at your veins on your wrist will be no help to you. There, I said it. even if you had green veins on your wrist the skin composition from your wrist to your face differs and its your face that matters! We want to (positively) draw attention to your face, the whole of you- not to your wrists and the truth is most peoples wrists differ dramatically to the skin on your face- so its not you- its just bad advice. Then there's silver / gold draping- but you're not trained in colour theory or analysis to know how varied silver and gold can be...most people for example hold grey items of clothing up to their face- but is it a warm grey or a cool grey? Is it deep in value or light?- these things matter- and that brings us to reason number two!

2) So much more than undertone matters

There's so many processes that matter when being accurately typed in to your correct palette. There's numerous questions that all colour analysts need to know and be thinking about when analysing a client- for example what your overall depth, what is the numerical value of your value contrast, what is your ideal value contrast, what is your colour contrast, are you colour contrast or value contrast dominant, this is to accurately type as well as have measurements in place which can help us check our work and make sure no mistakes have been made on the way- this knowledge is complex and takes a lot of training and practical experience- its not the type of thing a google search can help with unfortunately - which brings me to reason number three!

3 Celebrity Pictures and Typings will confuse not help you!

Were we just talking about Jennifer anniston before- ahhh the wonderful world of colour analysis for celebrities ...what a circus it is! Jennifer Anniston, Dakota Johnston, Catherine Middleton (Princess Catherine of Wales), Angelina Jolie- some of the most hotly debated celebrities out there- with professional colour analysts typing them in completely different pallets - sometimes so vastly different it cn leave your average colour enthusiast scratching their heads. So why the differing opinions? Well firstly it depends on the analyst and what system they use- is it an outdated seasonal system for example? Then we have to ask- how many photos did it take to do that analysis- because a true online analysis should be conducted in natural light with no makeup on without the photo being edited in any way...I don't think there would be many photos online of such high profile celebrities that we could say met those standards of ideal photographs by which we could type without question...then we have to ask exactly how many photographs did the colour analyst study?- because outside of those photography requirements a huge host of photos would be needed to accurately type a celebrity figure- which brings me to reason number four of why its so difficult to type yourself!

4) We are not the same

I swear I have similar colouring to Dakota Johnston - right, but also to Angelina Jolie, but also I can see similarities between myself and Katy Perry as per our colouring...the problem with comparison is that we do, in fact have similarities however our colour compositions will still likely be different to the celebrities we compare ourselves to and ultimately even if your had similarities it still doesn't mean you're in the same palette as the celebrity you see yourself in and the same colours (and how we ideally should compose our outfits with those colours) differs between people whom even sit within the same palettes anyway! But wait there's more...

5) The Seasonal System is dated and limited in scope

Gosh did I just say the quiet bit out loud? yes I said it! I stand by it. The seasonal system was built on incorrect foundations of only four typings to begin with and once fleshed out had to stick to the same 'inside the bo' thinking- but here's the fact of the matter- not all cool deep persons are bright , not all light warm persons are bright, in fact many are quite muted- and warm light muted colours are OBVIOUSLY different to warm deep muted colours- so for all those about to bang on about- well we have soft autumn - NO...a soft light palette is not the same as soft deep. Don't even get me started on the extremely confusing and fallible 'flow' system theory within the seasonal system - the colours of more muted seasons do not look good on all muted palette- so no, soft summers do not look good in 'soft autumn' colours etc...and deep seasons do not correspond either, deep warm colours are entirely different in tone to deep cool (obviously) and its just not correct advice to people who are doing their best to understand colour theory to base their understanding on a flawed system that was increasingly fleshed out- but still fails to account for every colour colour property combination. The very obvious importance in typing someones palette correctly is to make sure the system being used accounts for all the variations within colour composition of depth, undertone and intensity- without doing this a whole host of people fall through the cracks of a flawed and outdated system like the seasonal system. All colour analysts will be able to tell you where in the seasonal system you most sit but a more fleshed out and practical system like the Absolute Colour System which accounts for all three variations of depth, undertone and intensity is far superior in accurately typing people.