Help? Color Analysis Part 1

Crystal wearing her uniform of jeans and black

About 6 months ago I had a color analysis, trying to get my best colors to wear so I would quit wearing black and making mistakes in buying clothes. It seems I would buy something and wear it once, and never wear it again (which was nice for the clothing charities I give to, but terrible for my budget, my morale and my wardrobe.) I just don't want to waste any more time and money, plus, I'd like not to look dumpy.

I won't tell you what I was analyzed as, because I'd like to get some input from those of you who might be able to be objective, who like color and looking your best and are my friends. I've worn these colors all summer and some are nice. I don't think I gave enough input in my analysis, and am thinking some of my palette I've been using is too light and powdery. Some of the colors do not fit into this palette are colors I'm going back to, but I get frustrated and most of my wardrobe is still black.  I have felt "washed out" and like I have my hair color too light now, too. I need to head back to my hair color of my youth, I think, so I had to dig up some photos from the past just to see my coloring.

Here's the book I used which I really like. I'm leaning toward a couple palettes and probably need to be draped. On Lora Alexander's web site she gives a lot of examples and she has a really nice Facebook page, too. I can't seem to get a good hair-off-the-face photo, so I haven't been able to try the Taaz.com Try It On site that she sometimes uses to analyze you.

By Lora Alexander

  

Let's start with photos from my youth. I was born blonde, but always seemed to have a tinge of red gold in my hair. My cousin Mary Beth could wear pink really well and I wanted to wear it, as well, but I looked pretty hideous in pink. My mother would steer me away from pinks, reds and try to get me to wear rust, navy blue and dark green. She was an obvious tall, cool, beautiful blonde--summer, but somehow she was always putting me (her best colors were light powdery blue and powdery pink) in warm colors. I distinctly remember her choosing two dresses that I adored in 6th grade--one was a lime green and the other was an orange plaid. I remember looking good in those dresses! I love wearing lipstick and I'm wearing a lot of browns right now. I don't think red to wear or red for lipstick is good on me. Pink is hideous, I think. (Unless it's a coral pink.)

Here are some photos from my youth:

Crystal as a paper doll (photo about 4th grade and my hair was trimmed off to make a doll)

Crystal, age 13, in my favorite dark green outfit with light green blouse

On the horse in my fav Tennessee Vols tee, age 18 (my best friend Linda is the other gal and we were in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Someone said Linda is a spring.)

I was in 7th grade and this is Thanksgiving in Fairmount (Mom and brother and yummy turkey)

So, you can see somewhat my coloring as a younger person. Now let's move on to my early 20s and 30s. See if you can discern whether I'm warm or cool, light or deep, soft or clear. Keying in on words that describe my coloring will help. 

Age 21 while I was in college. This was my senior photo at Ball State University. The cowl neck is rust and the suit is dark brown.

Early 30s. This is with no makeup and that baby is my youngest son of 4 sons, Max!

Do you have descriptive words for me? 

1. Cool or warm?

2. Deep or light?

3. Soft or clear?

Pick a word from each point and let me know if you think one word is more applicable than the others. 

Tomorrow I'll have photos more current and will put an example from the categories that you've picked here for comparison. 

Thanks for helping out! 

(Here's Lora Alexander's blog link, too.)