Chocolate for Your Closet
If you're anything like Carolyn Martinez, associate editor of Cincy Chic, you avoid chocolate-hued clothing like the plague. Turns out, Martinez is smart to trust her fashion instincts. She has "Winter" coloring, and therefore looks best in intense deep, rich colors accented with jewel tones, or contrasted with bright white or icy pastels.
According to www.flaregamer.com, people with an Autumn coloring can best pull off the chocolate color. Whereas, those with Summer or Winter coloring should not wear earth tones, such as brown. Not sure which color season you are? Click here to take a color season quiz.
People with Autumn coloring have varied coloring – ranging from golden blondes to brunettes and black hair coloring. Red-heads, excluding very fair auburn and strawberry blondes, are usually Autumns. All red-heads are Autumn or Springs. Red-headed Autumns often have porcelain white or very pale skin.
Autumns can also have a ruddy skin with orange tones or swarthy skin. Autumns cover such a large range of colorings, fairer Autumns may look best in the oranges and turquoise, whereas black-haired or dark brunette Autumns may look good in the deeper chocolate browns, olive green and deep orange reds.
Typically people who have the Autumn profile have a lot of depth to their coloring and a spicy, earth tone quality to their hair color, eye color and skin tone. The Autumn complexion will be accented by rich golden, spicy and earthy colors. Autumns can wear both muted and rich, warm colors like the Autumn foliage or exotic spice colors. Autumns should look for a warm golden undertone when choosing a color.
To determine your undertone, wash your face, use no makeup, wear bleached white clothes and take a step outside to look at yourself in natural daylight. You can also try placing a white piece of paper near your face. Warm skin has a golden or yellow undertone, while cool skin has red or blue.
MAC classifies skin undertones into NC and NW. As an example, a cool undertone color profile will be MAC NW25. "NW" stands for "Needs Warmth." The "warmth" will neutralize the "cold." The opposite is "NC" shades, for those with yellow undertones.
Learning which color season you are will help you figure out exactly which colors look best on you. Keep in mind that your season may not be what you expect. For example, many Asians and freckled Red Heads are Autumns. In general, Winters are usually brunettes whose hair contrasts with skin, Summers are naturally blonde and their hair doesn't contrast much with skin, Springs have pale eyes, and Autumns have dark eyes.
