As a person who likes to neutral colors, this question often haunted me in the past: which colour clothes actually suit me best? The answer can make a huge difference in how you present yourself, but it can be hard to know where to start.
How does a color analysis work?
Color analysis dominate the feed and for you-pages on social media and the results of these are all beautiful. But how does this actually work? It mainly has to do with the undertone of your skin. After all, the right color can make your face light up and your eyes stand out a lot, while the ‘wrong’ color can make your skin look dull.
Once you’ve mastered that trick, a bad purchase is a lot further away than before. Even if you’re not so keen on colour wears, you can introduce those colors in the form of accessories such as a nice bag or a cool pair of shoes.
But what exactly is such a color analysis? It is actually best to assume two things; you skin tone and you overall coloring. When looking at your skin tone, you look at your undertonewhether you are warm or cool, and your overall coloring has everything to do with how dark or light your skin and hair are.
Warm or cool skin tone
Whether you are a warm or cool skin tone is easy to determine. A handy trick is to look at the veins in your forearm. If you have a pink or rosy undertone and blue-tinted veins, you have a cool skin tone. If you have a golden or apricot undertone and green-tinted veins, you have a warm skin tone. If you’re still not sure, you can also look at the difference between golden and silver jewellery. Does gold suit you better? Then you have a warm undertone. Does silver make your skin glow? Then you lean more towards the cool side.
Now that you have established this, the next question of course is what colors then match your skin tone perfectly. With a pink or rosy undertone, clothes with blue undertones often the best. Think dark green or deep purple tones and pink and blue also look very good with this skin tone. If you have a golden, olive or apricot undertone, colors based on yellow often the best. Brown, warm earth tones, red or orange, gold and peach really make you shine.
Overall coloring
However, if you want to know even more precisely which colors suit you bestit is good to look at your overall coloring. In that viral color analysis they often talk about spring, summer, autumn or winter types. What this means in concrete terms is that if your skin tone is warm, you have a spring or fall coloration. And if your undertone is a bit cooler, then you belong to the summer or winter family.
Summer coloring
People with a cool undertone, naturally ash blonde or light to medium brown hair and pale blue, green or gray eyes, are a summer type.
If you are a summer type, soft pastel colors with blue undertones you best. Think of light blue, pink, yellow, blue and gray tones. Colors with a yellow undertone generally look less good on this type, just like pure white. Do you want to wear white? Go for a nice off white colour.
Winter coloring
If you have a cool skin tone, ash brown to dark brown or black hair without red or gold highlights, and deep blue, green or brown eyes, then you belong to the winter family.
If you are a winter type, icy, cool and bright primary colors you very well. But also colors like fuchsia, emerald green, deep purple, charcoal, pure white and black look beautiful on this type. For this type it is recommended to avoid pastel colors, yellow or orange tones.
Spring coloring
If you have a warm skin tone and golden blonde or light-medium dark brown hair with golden highlights, you have a spring coloring.
If you are a spring type, warm and soft tones of yellow undertones you best. Soft pink, light green, brick red, coral, light gray and bright blue are very flattering for this color type, but orange and deep purple tones can also work well.
Autumn colouring
If you have a warm skin tone and red, chestnut, dark brown or black hair with red, gold or chestnut highlights, then you belong to the autumn types. And if you have pale skin, you probably have freckles.
If you are an autumn type, rich autumn colours immediately warm or golden undertone the best. Think red, bronze, deep browns and of course gold. Also colours like olive and dark green, terracotta red and burnt orange are very flattering.
Hopefully, these tips and tricks will make it a little easier to make the right clothing choices and you can shop a lot smarter. For example, during ELLE Smart Shopping Day. Good luck!
