THE SUBTLE BUT POWERFUL IMPACT OF

COLOUR

Anne Noonan Personal Stylist/Private Shopper

Just type the word ‘colour’ into any search engine and you’ll find thousands of sites dedicated to this one major influence in our life.      It’s all around us, we can’t escape it and its effect on us.    Search further and you’ll find any number of consultants, psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, authors, stylists, wellness practitioners and alternative therapy specialists who will tell you why and how it will influence your day to day mood, temperament and the impact it has on those around us.

The psychology of colour is absolutely powerful.     Every colour has a meaning and an impact.    Call it what you will, just be aware that it does and will affect us one way or another and the people we deal with personally and in business from day to day.       From the treatment of depressive patients to psychotic prisoners to children affected with ADHD, there will be any number of reports from therapists as to how colour was used to affect their rehabilitation.

Understanding Personal Colour:

Personal colour is the colour we wear on our body, in our wardrobe, our makeup, accessories and our hair colour.     It can also be the colour palette we surround ourselves with in our home.    90% of the time, the colours we’re drawn to the most are the ones that work for us personally and are the most flattering.   They’re also usually the family of colour we choose for our walls, our bed linen and our basic furniture pieces and the cushions and throws we choose for our home.   

There are the odd times however when we’re personally drawn to a colour that just doesn’t work for us.    We’ve all been in that situation where we’ve gone shopping, seen a fabulous dress in the window, fell in love with the colour, tried it on and couldn’t quite understand why it just didn’t look as good on us as it did on the mannequin in the window.      I’m drawn to hot pink – just love a vivid fushia pink but do you think I can wear it?     I look hideous in it.    This can happen and it’s hard for us to understand why a colour we love personally is just not great on us as well.

So for this chapter, let’s just concentrate on the personal colour palette you’d choose in your wardrobe of clothing, accessories, makeup and hair.

The impact of Personal Colour on me and those around me:

Many will ask me how do I figure it out for myself without having to have a colour analysis done with a professional?     And why do some colours make us feel the way they do?    And why do some look more flattering than others?

OK – the best way to take a good look at yourself and the natural colour that’s coming from you is take a good look at the skin on your arms, face and torso.       Is it golden olive, warm with freckles with a yellowish undertone or is it fair, pinkish, prone to burning easily?   
Now many of us colour our hair, but let’s go back to the time when you can remember it was never coloured.      Was it dark natural brown, auburn, mousy brown or maybe strawberry blond?

If your personal colouring in your skin glows a soft gold especially with a freckle present, and if your hair as a kid had a natural gold, ginger, strawberry or auburn look to it, you’re highly likely to look more flattered in the gold undertones i.e. the warmer colours.    Warm colours are simply defined as yellow undertoned i.e. tomato rather than a cherry red, olive green rather than a sea green.

If your skin is a fair soft pink, or maybe a gentle olive and if you had a dark mop of hair or maybe just a basic mousy brown then you’re likely to be more flattered in the cooler colours.    Cool colours have a blue undertone i.e. fushia pink rather than salmon, and turquoise green rather than a Kermit green.

Ok – I’ve got it but why is it important?

So far you understand that we all emanate some kind of undertone of colour i.e. cool or warm to put it very basically.      When a natural undertone comes from us and we put a colour choice on our body what happens is, whatever we’ve chosen reflects back up to our face and out to those around us.      To put it simply, if you’re a typically warm undertoned woman and you have cool colours on, the reflection of the cool of our shirt reflects back up to our face and out.     If our colours (i.e. what’s on the body compared to what’s naturally coming from our body) are clashing, it can actually put a reflection back up onto our face that deepens the circles under eyes and places shadows on our face that in effect will make us look sallow, tired, ill and listless even though we feel fine.   It’s simply one colour spectrum clashing up against it’s opposite.

You know what it’s like when someone says you don’t look well and you can’t understand why.   Well, that might have something to do with it.   We’ve all experienced putting a colour on and thinking ‘oh my lord, I look awful!’ That’ll be because we’ve chosen the wrong undertone.    That will be the garment that sits in the wardrobe and is never worn.    We’ve ALL got one – at least!

Every client who’s ever come to me has said there’s a dress or shirt or whatever in her wardrobe that’s the perfect colour for her.    Every time she’s in it she gets compliments.    We’ve all got an item like that.      When it’s the perfect colour for us, it really does make you look younger, happier, energized, healthy and downright gorgeous.

The seasons!!

We all know someone who’s had her ‘colours done’!!     I used to think it was a load of guff back in the 80’s but it really is a system that works and its been perfected over the years as our knowledge has expanded.      

Every woman can wear every colour of the spectrum.     There are just certain undertones of all of those colours that work better for us than others.      

Summer and Winter are your typically cool tones.     Summers are softer, usually mousy brown or grey haired can also be soft blonds who look gorgeous typically in denim, pink, ice blue, turquoise, electric blue, greys and gentle pastels etc.      Whereas the winter, also cool, can go a whole heap deeper into the dark fushias, purples, French navy, charcoals, arctic white and the icier pastels.        Similar colours in their makeup wardrobe are your plums and pinks in lipsticks with greys, charcoals and cool browns on the eyes.

Autumn and Spring are your very warmer undertoned seasons.       Springs typically are your freckly redheads and bright eyed blonds who wear the citrus colours really well.      Amazingly they look great in Kermit green, and bright orange tones.      Autumns look awesome in burnt colours such as deep orange, rust, olive and the earthy tones.    Their makeup palette is olives and bronzes right up to apricots on the eyes and corals and bronzes with gold gloss for the lips.

Can’t I wear whatever I like?      These ‘seasons’ are all too much pressure!

Of course you can wear what you like.   There’s no hard and fast rules.       Just remember if you feel awful in something, you’ll know why.      If you get compliments when in you’re in a certain garment, you’ll also know why.     You can still wear colours from other ‘seasons’ and still look great.     Sometimes it comes down to personal style and how you carry it off.     But be warned, wearing colours from another palette that’s not your best takes skill and confidence.

But what about black?      I LOVE my black!    Don’t tell me I can’t wear it!

I’m a sucker for black too.     It’s so safe!.   Most women have wardrobes full of black, navy or brown – all safe, neutral colours.    Every woman can wear black, but there’s times it’s going to be just too much for us up against our face.       There will be times it will drain you of energy and your face will reflect it.     Know your best colour palette and accent your black when you wear it with the right lipstick or a jewellery piece, jacket, scarf or something that will lift your face.  

To make it a little easier for you to get a basic picture in your mind, I’ll show you a list of celebrities, both Australian and overseas, whom we all know that fit into these basic seasonal palettes.    

Winters

Typically dark hair, deep eyes or very bright eyes, suit rich colours, either deep olive or very fair skin clear of freckles and blemishes, stunning high contrasts to their looks (e.g. dark hair, light skin, dark eye)

Salma Hayek Kristin Davis Fran Drescher	Anne Hathaway Selma Blair   Catherine Zeta Jones	Penelope Cruz Heather Foord Demi Moore
	COOL TONES Rich dark colours Pinks Purples Navy Charcoal Green White Icy pastels

   Summers

Typically softer colouring, blond, graying or mousy brown hair, blue or soft brown eye, pink undertone to skin, can be very fair and favourite colours usually blue or pink.    Look gorgeous in bright blues and greens and soft white.

Blythe Danner Uma Thurman	Princess Diana Charlize Theron	Kerri Anne Kennerley Reese Witherspoon
	COOL TONES Blue Pink Greens Soft white

Autumns

Soft deep colouring, often naturally tanned, always stick to gold auburn hair tones.    When they go grey, it’s usually a wheaty straw colour.     Look awesome in deep golds, rusts and beautiful forest greens
                 
 

Cindy Crawford Hilary Swank Beyonce	Teri Hatcher     Keira Knightley  Susan Sarandon	Debra Messing Jennifer Lopez Elle McPherson
	WARM TONES Gold Rust Greens Browns

                                      Springs                                                      
                                                               

These are the ones who look wonderful when in their right colours in body, hair and makeup.     Citrus colours, corals, bright blues and greens are dynamic.

Julieanne Moore   Renee Zellweger  Ita Buttrose	Nicole Kidman   Cate Blanchett  Danny Bonaduce	Cynthia Nixon Lindsay Lohan
	WARM TONES Citrus Coral Bright blues Green

OK – and now the final question.     

 Can my seasonal colours change if I colour my hair differently???

Good question!     One rule to remember – we soften as we age, but we still keep the same undertone. The best example of this is to use the stars.      People we all know that we can relate to.    If there’s anyone who’s gone from one extreme to the other with hair colour, it's some of our best known celebrities.

Let’s look at a typical winter – Elizabeth Taylor.      Remember that amazing dark hair, violet and penetrating eyes??   She’s a deep winter.      She always looked amazing in bright white, deep purples, midnight blue.     Well, her hair is white as snow now.     But she still looks awesome in the same colours she wore way back then.

A typical spring with vivid blue eyes and who looks incredible in the bright citrus colours is Cameron Diaz.      She’s a beautiful strawberry blond but there’s some shots of her out there sporting very dark brown/black hair.      Those eyes are still the same, and so’s the skin – she STILL looks awesome in the same spring colours.   

The same goes for Lindsay Lohan.     Nothing will change the fact that she has blue eyes and freckly skin and as a kid, she was a redhead.       She’s gone from red to blonde to dark deep brown and back again.      She still looks the most flattering in her true wardrobe colours.

On a final note:

For a full personalised colour analysis, it’s well worth investing the time and money.      Knowing what really works for you saves you so much expense and stress.     I wished I’d learned all this when I started working and when I started spending money on clothes.      The volume of gear I’ve donated over the years to charities because of poor colour and style choice could fill a warehouse.      If you don’t want to make fashion mistakes from here on in – call Anne now!!

Click here to find out the cost of a Personalised Colour Analysis!

Click here to contact Anne for more information or a booking!