Color Analysis for Women in Midlife

Discover Your Best Colors (Not Your Best Season)

Jen Vax - Founder of Your Color Style

Hi! I'm Jen Vax and I'm thrilled you're here! I'm going to assume that you've come to this blog because you want to discover your color palette. The color palette that has all the colors that flatter you and make you shine.

Right?

You may have found this blog by searching for a season from the seasonal color palettes. That's what a lot of people do. In fact, 8 years ago, this blog used to be all about seasonal color analysis. But I've refined my color analysis technique into a unique color system that is WAY easier and less confusing than seasonal color analysis.

Discovering your best colors should have nothing to do with what season you belong to. There are so many variations now within each season, it's no longer an easy guide to determine what colors will ultimately look good on you. I've also noticed that seasonal color analysis leaves some people behind. Women with gray hair, brown skin, red hair with cool undertones and all of the unique combinations. Plus, you're left with a color palette and no idea why THOSE colors and not these other colors. So, I've simplified and designed a new and better way to find the colors that flatter your natural coloring and tones, no matter your skin color, hair color or ethnicity.

On this page:

Introducing... Your Color Style™

Your Color Style™ is an easy 3-step color analysis methodology to help you find your most flattering color palette... using one of two original color wheels created specifically for this color system. The Your Color Style™ color system is SIMPLE, different and it works for ALL skin tones and hair color.

There are 12 color types in your color style. When you following the 3 steps, detailed below, you will discover your color type and therefore your color palette.

The color types are as follows:

What is my color palette in Your Color Style?

There are 3 steps in the Your Color Style methodology. You can do your own color analysis by following these steps. You can also take the color analysis quiz that will walk you through these steps with lots of photo examples.

The Color Theory Behind the Your Color Style Color Analysis

Your Color Style is based on color theory. Color has 4 characteristics.

  • Hue: the color (ex. red, blue, green)
  • Value: how light or dark a color is (ex. dark red, light blue)
  • Chroma: how saturated a color is
  • Temperature: how warm or cool a color is

These same characteristics are applied to your natural coloring and tones. The goal is to find a set of colors that harmonize with your value, chroma and temperature.

So, let's go through the 3 steps to discover your color palette!

Step 1: Are you light, medium or deep?

Just like color has tints and shades of itself, so do you. You have various shade from light to dark. Your range of depth will dictate the range of light to dark colors you can wear. For example, if you are very fair, with light hair eyes and skin, then your range of colors will be light pastels to a light-medium shade. 

Light

Do you have light hair, eyes and skin? All 3 must be light. If you have medium dark eyes or hair, then you would be medium. Dark blonde or light brown would be considered light. 

Medium

Do you have medium dark hair, eyes or skin? Only one needs to be medium dark. For example, you could have light skin and eyes with medium-dark brown hair. If you have very dark hair or eyes, then you would be deep.

Deep

Do you have very dark hair, eyes or skin? Only one needs to be very dark. For example, if you have black hair with light skin and eyes, you are considered deep. You could have very dark skin, with medium dark eyes and hair. You could have white hair with almost black eyes and medium skin.

Watch this video to help you understand if you are light, medium or deep.

If you don't see a video below, please allow a few moments for the video to load. Thank you for your patience.

Step 2: Do you have cool or warm undertones or neutral tones?

The next step in the YCS color analysis methodology is deciding if you have warm or cool undertones. If you believe you have neutral undertones, you will still lean towards cool or warm. Being neutral means that you appear neutral without any feature being obviously cool or warm. It does not mean that you can wear all the colors.

Going back to color theory, just like color has a temperature, so do you. You may not be dominantly warm or cool, but you will ultimately fit into a cool or warm color palette.

Once you've determined your undertones, you will have narrowed down your color type to one of the following:

Cool and Light, Medium or Deep

Warm and Light, Medium or Deep

Here are some characteristics of warm undertones:
  • Obvious golden tone to skin
  • Golden or golden brown tone to skin
  • Warm eyes - golden, gold flecks, earthy, warm blue-green, warm brown
  • Golden blonde or brown hair
  • Auburn, strawberry or red hair

You may enjoy: Warm Colors Explained - What colors look good on warm undertones?

Here are some characteristics of cool undertones:
  • Obvious cool pink tone to skin
  • Cool eyes - grey, blue, cool brown, cool blue-green
  • Blue brown skin
  • Magenta brown skin
  • Blue-black hair
  • Ashy brown or blonde hair
  • It's possible for a dark red head or light strawberry blonde to have cool undertones

You may enjoy: Cool Colors Explained - What colors look good on cool undertones?

Olive Skin Tone

Olive skin tone is a blend of cool and warm undertones. This may give the skin tone a dominant green or yellow hue. Olive skin tone is handled in color analysis a little differently. If you have olive skin tone, you may enjoy the post Olive Skin Tone Explained.

Pink Skin Tone

Pink skin tone doesn't always mean you have cool undertones. The color pink ranges from cool pink to neutral pink to warm pink. If you have pink skin and are confused as to your undertones, watch Pink Skin - Warm or Cool Undertones

If you're needing to see photo examples and have more explanations of steps 1 and 2, I highly recommend you take the Color Analysis Quiz. 

You may also enjoy the webinar replay 3 Steps To Discovering Your Best Colors

Step 3: Are you bright or soft?

 The third step is to determine if you wear bright clear chroma colors best or muted colors. Clear chroma colors are colors that start out pure (very bright) and then can have white or black added to slightly soften them. This is how I describe the colors in our "bright" color wheel. Muted colors are colors that have been dulled. We often describe them as dusty. They have been gray-ed a bit. Based on your natural coloring and tones, you will either wear clear chroma colors best or muted colors best. 

If you have warm undertones, you will wear clear chroma colors. If the brightest color is too bright for you, then you will wear the soft and warm color palettes. The soft and warm color palettes are still clear chroma. The brightest color, that is in the bright and warm color palettes is slightly softened.

The best way to explain chroma and to help you decide what types of colors flatter you, I've included 3 videos for you below.

 

Warm Color Palettes Explained

Soft and Cool Color Palettes Explained

Bright and Cool Color Palettes Explained

The 12 Color Types in Your Color Style

If you need more information about each color type, select the color type below and you will be brought to a page with more details to help you discover your most flattering colors.

The color types are as follows:

Seasonal Color Analysis vs Your Color Style

Your color style is not seasonal color analysis. If you came here to find your season, you may be disappointed. I hope not! There is no real direct alignment between the 12 YCS color types and the 12 seasons. However, I know that seasons have been around a lot longer than Your Color Style and it's just about impossible not to compare what you've learned about yourself to what you are learning here. So, where I can, I've explained the YCS color palettes to what season they are most similar to.

The 4 Seasons 

In seasonal color analysis, there are 4 seasons. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

Spring Color Palette

Springs are described as bright and clear.

The spring color palette is described as bright, warm and light. This is very likely similar to our Bright, Warm and Light color palette.

Summer Color Palette

Summers are described as soft and muted.

The summer color palette is described as soft, cool and light. This is not the same as our Soft, Cool and Light color palette.  I believe Soft, Cool and Medium may be the closest match.

Autumn Color Palette

Autumns are described as soft and muted.

The Autumn color palette is described as soft, warm and deep. This is very likely similar to our Soft, Warm and Deep color palette. Our warm color palettes are not muted. They are slightly softened with white or black, but not grayed. I believe that when you gray a warm color it begins to have a cool quality to it, which I don't think is flattering on warm undertones.

Winter Color Palette

Winters are described as bright and clear.

The Winter color palette is described as bright, cool and deep. This is very likely similar to our Bright, Cool and Deep color palette.

The 12 Seasons

Things get a bit less aligned when we look at the 12 seasons in seasonal color analysis. In some cases, there is no direct alignment. There are three sub-seasons for each main season.

Spring

True spring and light spring are both color palettes that are bright warm and light with clear chroma colors. This is our Bright, Warm and Light color palette.

Bright spring seems to allow for a higher contrast with medium dark hair. This would be our Bright, Warm and Medium color palette. I also recommend women with bright coppery red hair to wear the bright warm and medium color palette. 

Your Color Style also has Bright Warm and Deep for those that have very dark hair, skin or eyes and still need the brighter clear chroma colors. This is where seasons leave out women with brown skin and dark brown hair. They would be Bright, Warm and Deep in Your Color Style.

Summer

The soft and cool color palettes seem to align the most with the Summer color palettes. True summer seems to be similar to Soft, Cool and Medium. Soft summer seems to be similar to Soft, Cool and Deep. 

Our Soft Cool and Light color palette is mostly clear chroma colors, where I believe Light Summer is a little more muted. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure. They may be more similar than I think.

Autumn

The way that soft autumn is described, it seems to align with our Soft, Warm and Medium. True autumn also seems to be similar to Soft, Warm and Medium. Dark Autumn seems to be similar to Soft, Warm and Deep. 

In Your Color Style, we also have Soft, Warm and Light. This is for women who are very light, likely have gray hair and need their colors slightly softened. However, this color palette is not muted or grayed.

Winter

The 3 winter color types (Dark, True and Bright) are all Bright Cool and Deep. The color palettes are very similar with subtle nuances. That's fine but what about people who need the clear chroma cool colors but do not have deep tones? 

This is where Your Color Style is different and the very reason step one is to determine your overall depth. If you are deep, light colors will likely wash you out. And if you are light, super dark colors will feel heavy on you.

In Your Color Style, we have Bright Cool Light, Bright Cool Medium and Bright Cool Deep.

 

How to do your own color analysis

You can do your own color analysis by following the 3 steps outlined below. You can also take the Color Analysis quiz so that you can see photos and further explanations. Another way to do your own color analysis is to take the DIY Online Color Analysis course. This is where you can insert your photo into different color wheels to determine your best color palette within Your Color Style.

3 Steps To Do Your Own Color Analysis

  1. Are your tones light, medium or deep?
  2. Do you have warm or cool undertones?
  3. Can you wear clear chroma colors or muted colors best?

 

 

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