Color me Correct! - Wearing Colors that Make you Look your Best

Image Courtesy: The Financial Express

I’ve struggled with my image and complexion my entire life. In high school,  I had icy blond hair with dirty blonde roots, I recall never really feeling like my skin looked bright and alive. I found myself googling expensive glow moisturizers and bad-for-the-environment face scrubs. No matter what I tried, I always felt like my skin was dull, drab, and dreary. Naturally, I’m a redhead. I bleached my hair constantly trying to pull off an awkward blonde which didn’t suit me. I missed my strawberry blonde curls, and I wanted to go back to my natural color. After I made the jump to red, I went on a deep dive to figure out why I looked so beautiful and happy. I almost couldn’t believe the difference. I’ve never looked back, and I’ve never felt more alive or radiant.

After grueling hours of deep-layered reddit question streams- I had finally figured it out. I had found a color pallet which complimented my skin tone, and don’t worry, I’ll tell you how to find yours. These tests opened my eyes to pandora's box of secret life hacks to a perfect wardrobe. I have an almost neutral skin tone, leaning more towards warm due to my hair and eye color. My skin undertones are peach, cream, and golden colors. Springs tend to have strawberry red or straw like golden hair and rosy cheeks. Typically, springs have blue or green eyes, but I have light brown, almost dirty golden eyes, so they flow pretty well together. Of course, seasons have deeper layers, but typically they can be narrowed down to four basic categories. Cool color seasons are summer and winter, summer being the light hair cools and the winter being dark. Warm color seasons are spring and autumn, spring being light hair (typically redheads, or golden straw colored hair) and autumn being dark hair.

To find your complementary colors on a surface level, there are a few tests you can do. Think about the jewelry you prefer. Is it gold?  If so, you’re probably in a warm season. If it’s silver, you’re probably in a cool season. If that doesn’t work or you look good in both, you’re probably a neutral. As a neutral, it’s harder to figure out what truly compliments you. I recommend my method, and going back to your natural hair color until you figure it out. The next test is a vein test. Look at your veins, most prominent on the inside of your wrist or the tops of your clenched fists. Are you seeing blue veins? Purple? If so, you’re probably in a cool toned season. If you see only green veins, you are in a warmer season. I personally don't find this test as effective, and it’s one of the main reasons I couldn't figure my correct pallet out at first. It threw me off that I had all three colors under the skin. What actually saved me was the paper test. The paper test is best done outside, possibly with a mirror. Take a piece of paper and hold it up against your chest and neck area. DO NOT complete this test only using your face. Due to sun exposure, you may get different results. How does your chest appear next to the true stark white of the printer paper? Red? Pink? Blue? If so, you have a cool complexion, and if you see green, yellow, or golden, you have a warm complexion. You may also need to check your eye color, warm leaning towards the browns, hazels and golden colors, while cool leans more towards green and blue eyes. Hair color also plays a factor, bright blonde, ashier grays, blacks and browns fall under the cool category, and reds, oranges, coppery browns and blondes fall under the warm category. Again, make sure you’re considering your natural hair color.

Image Courtesy: The Concept Wardrobe

I started to consciously lean more towards spring colors, like berry, green, orange, pink, neutral browns, muted blue/greens, and neutral browns, grays, and whites. I try to avoid sharp or dark colors, because they seem to wash me out.

Summers look amazing in periwinkle, medium and light shades of blue, whites, grays and browns,as well as light and medium yellows. Darker colors may not flatter you the most, considering your lighter features!

Since winters have obvious differences in their skin tone and hair color, typically stark hair and light skin, winters tend to stick to more medium blues, dark blues, dark purples, cool green, pinks, and dark forest green. Whites, blacks, and navy blues of any variety look amazing on winters.

If I were an autumn, I'd wear warm, deep colors like coffee, caramel, or deep red. Autumn complexion people look amazing in dark colors which make them stand out. There are four colors that typically look good on all people. A handful of colors tend to look good on everyone, which are bright red, pale pink, dark purple, and teal.

Image Courtesy: Adobe Stock

Once I began to integrate these colors into my wardrobe, I noticed that I rarely complained that I had nothing to wear- and I rarely complained that I was too pale to wear my own clothes. It was a monumental moment for me, and although I swear by my own color palette, I still wear colors that aren’t for my skin tone, and that’s okay. Our dress is representative of who we are as people. It’s a way for us to persuade those who perceive us, to perceive us how we want them to. Just because you have a cool skin tone, doesn’t mean you can't wear a certain color. The most important way to feel is comfortable, confident, and creative.

Strike Out,

Writer: Payton Raine Muscato

Editor: Breanna Tang

Graphic Designer:

Tallahassee