Thursday 4 October 2018

End of my colour journey?

Over the six years since I started writing this blog, I have taken various colour analyses, both online and in person, with varying results. Putting it into "seasonal" terms I have been both a Jewel Winter and a Spring. When it comes to "tonal analysis", I have been classified as: warm and soft; soft, warm and medium; or (in what I felt was a very detailed analysis using 7 Steps to Style) as warm, smoky and deep aka Enigmatic. Warm and soft would appear to be a common theme - apart from my Jewel Winter result, that is!

The one thing that I've found consistent in my search for my most flattering colours is that there have been colours in each system (whether seasonal or tonal) that really don't suit me! How can that be? I think that may be the reason why I have continued with the search to discover my best colours. Recently I came across Pamela Graham of Style Yourself Confident, who uses both seasonal and tonal analysis, depending on which system suits the individual best.

I have to say that I like Pamela's approach and have been very impressed with the results.  I was happy to be told that I'm an Autumn, as it's a season that I really love. Pamela sent me loads of photos and explained how she came to her decision as well as giving me comprehensive booklets full of helpful advice.

Going back to the question of whether I am warm (which did seem the most frequent response) or cool, here are the two colour palettes with me in the centre.

In case this isn't that obvious, the next two examples show me surrounded by Winter and Autumn colours. I think it's a lot clearer which set of colours suit me best.

Although I had liked many of my Winter colours, the icy ones did me no favours at all, so it was a relief to see the Autumn colours, many of which already feature in my wardrobe, and to feel confident that I would be happy to wear them all.


 Pamela is very down to earth and realises that we can't afford to throw away all the clothes in our wardrobes that are in the "wrong" colours so she has given me lots of practical advice. The important thing is to wear the most flattering colours near my face. Luckily I already have brown, camel, olive green and some navy in my wardrobe, which are all good Autumn neutrals to form the basis of my Autumn wardrobe. I can then build on this with some of the lovely accent colours in my palette: turquoise, teal blue, jade green, salmon and dark tomato red all appeal to me.  I'm looking forward to developing my new Autumn wardrobe and will share my findings with you in future blog posts.

10 comments:

  1. I am so happy for you, Sue. A year or so back when I found Pamela Graham of Style Yourself Confident and read about the tonal concept and discovered I am overall light, everything else fell into place. I bought the light digital color palette. It helped me understand my confusion because I have always worn some warm spring shades and some cool summer shades... all of them in a light tone. How do these autumn colors compare to your enigmatic palette?

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    1. What I like about Pamela's system Carole is that she considers both the seasonal and tonal systems to find out which works best for the individual. My Enigmatic palette has more colours than my autumn ones, but many are similar, especially the greens and blues.

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  2. Glad you have found what suits you. I do think what she says is very similar to Imogen's advice. Imogen says to fan out your whole color deck, not to look at particular colors. But sometimes, a new voice speaks in a way that makes the most sense. And I am glad you have found one that resonates with you. I always enjoy seeing how you are interpreting colors and style options.

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    1. Thanks Robin. Out of all the previous colour and style options that I have looked at, Imogen's was by far the best. I also liked the way we were encouraged to look at our Signature colours to discover which of the many colours in our palette were the most flattering.

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  3. Thank you so much Sue for this lovely post. I'm delighted you feel comfortable with the Autumn palette - because that's exactly what it's about - helping you to feel your best! If any of your blog visitors are interested in Color Analysis at any time, tell them to mention your name and I'll make sure there's an extra free gift tagged onto the service.

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    1. Thanks Pamela. There's a link to Style Yourself Confident above, so if anyone is interested please click on it - and don't forget to mention my name!

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  4. Sue, it is wonderful that you are sharing your color journey with us. Great that you seem to be consistent in finding warm & soft/smokey colors (with a bit of depth) suit you. I realized a few years ago that I am warm, soft and light which none of the traditional seasonal/tonal systems seem to be able to cope with as none of their palettes have all those attributes. I think that systems like Imogen's palettes have a niche for me. Thank you again for sharing. Carol S

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