How to determine your skin tone?

On what skin tone do you fall? Are you warm, cool or neutral? You do not know? You aren't sure? You aren't familiar? I know some would ask why. Do you know that determining your skin tone can bring out the best in your appearance? Believe me, it is that important.

This is relative to my previous post "Fashion 101: Identify The Colors". If you understand the colors, you can apply that knowledge to your everyday routine in applying make-up and selecting clothes to wear would be easy. I admit, I always spend a lot of time in selecting tops to match my bottoms (or vice versa)  but when I understand the color wheel; thinking of clothes to wear is now as easy as counting 1, 2, 3. In fact, my closet is now partially organized (think of a mess!) because I started piling and grouping my tops and bottoms that match and look good together basing on color theory or the color wheel. It would be less time and effort for thinking of pieces that looks good together. I even printed a copy of the color wheel and pasted it at the door closet for quicker reference because I am so forgetful and I haven't memorized yet the color consecution of the color wheel. 

As I was organizing my closet, I realized I have tons of grays, browns, blacks and whites. I thought of Neutrals as safest to wear in the office before. This is the result of working in a corporate world. I used to be an office girl before and I settled for how many years wearing neutral colors. In short, I endured being colorless for so long until I quit the corporate world. I wish I could have known the fashion basics before. At least I could have put colors and life on all my office outfits. Okay, enough for this. 

Anyway, determining your skin tone is very important because there are certain colors that make us look great while other colors make us look ashen and tired. Not only when buying clothes but also when buying make-ups such as foundation, blush, and lipstick. If you know your skin tone you are at peace that your purchases will be worth it and won't go to waste. Now, it's time to determine what tone you fall. Here's a simple guide to help you with that:

Cool toned

o You burn easily instead of tanning.

o You look good in blue, pink or purple.

o You have pink undertones (rosy).

o Silver jewelry, white clothes look good on you.

o Look at the back of your hand (in natural light), your vein would be visibly bluish.

Warm toned

o You tanned easily instead of burning.

o You look good in brown, yellow and green.

o You have yellow undertones.

o Gold jewelry and cream clothes look good on you.

o Look at the back of your hand (in natural light), your vein would be visibly greenish.

Neutral toned

You will have mix of the guides stated above of both warm and cool. For example:
o You have greenish veins but you have pink undertones (rosy look).
o Or you have yellow undertones but you have bluish veins.
o All colours will look good on you.

As I've mentioned from my previous post, Neutral can go with anything. You may look better wearing a cool color but you may look best in wearing warm colors.

Now that you already determined your skin tone, it is time to identify which is a warm, cool and neutral colors. Identifying the color will be your key to bring out the sparkle of your appearance. Neutral colors are Black, White, Gray, Beige, Cream, Khaki and Navy (Denim).

                                                  

                                                  

                                                  

                                                  

                                                  

                                                  

Warm               Cool

Warm colors are vivid or bold in nature. It implies a friendly, inviting and relaxing atmosphere. These colors can be overwhelming. These colors are in relevance to heat, sunshine, dry, and candle light.

Cool colors are calm or soothing in nature. It implies freshness, open, and coolness, hence, it named as Cool. These colors are not overpowering. These colors are in relevance to water, air, rain, and mint. 

Neutral colors are lacking hue (colors). It implies classic, harmless, natural and timeless. These colors play more on a safe side - quiet, pale, light and modest.

I fall on Warm tone. I did a test to determine my tone a few years back by only looking at the back of my hand. I have greenish veins. That's the simple way I did after reading a post from a beauty blogger about 3 years ago and I noticed I don't get burn when we go to beach but I just easily get tanned. I may add this, my skin does not return to its normal tone that fast but it takes 6 months to 1 year. Yes, my skin was that slow to recover from tanning. I actually still have bikini tan lines on my bottom part until now from our last Boracay trip. Even before I did a test, I am fond of wearing reds, mustard, and light greens. I do not know if I can connect that relation but even before I really do not fond wearing blues, fuchsias, and violets; anything that is very dark because it makes me darker except Black. Though I had some of those cool colors in pastel but mostly you'll see me wearing warm colors. 

I hope you find this post helpful.

XX,

I am J...

Fashion 101: Identify The Colors

Nowadays, I often do blog-hopping to fashion blogs during my free times. Some I have it bookmarked and some I followed. I wondered why these girls look at their best all the time. No matter what colors (loud or pale) they wear; they always look great.

Yes, like every girl does; I do love shopping. I am impulsive in buying, too. Mostly, the shoes and clothes I buy are end up sitting in my closet and just gathering dusts. I am fond of buying clothes that aren't basic. I buy clothes that later I'll realized it needs a perfect timing and proper occasion to get it wore. I often got to wear most of the stuffs after months, a year or two or worst, if it's a shoes (high heels); sometimes it got outworn due to non-wearing because the skin flakes and get crispy. Well, who doesn't love to shop especially if there's a Sale? Who doesn't want to look good? Who doesn't want to get trendy and stylish? Who doesn't want to be "in"? I looove clothes but I found out I'm a fashion victim until I read Camille's post a few days back.  

Camille posted Orange and Blue which looks very amazing on her as always. Well, she looks good in all her outfit posts anyway and I think I'm having girl crush on her. She's such a doll and amazing. She mentioned that in fashion basic design, the first thing you need to study is the color wheel. That was the great tip ever - the color wheel. I have no idea so I goggled for it. And there, the moment I've seen and figured-out how to use the color wheel made me realized the mistakes I used to believe was right. But I didn't fret because it's not too late. 

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Color Wheel

1.) Identify the colors in the Color Wheel.

The first thing you will do is to identify the colors. I learned that the color wheel consists of Primary Colors, Secondary Colors, and Tertiary Colors. 

Primary Colors: Red, Yellow, and Blue.

                                                 

Primary colors are the 3 pigment colors that cannot be created or formed through any combination of other colors. All other colors are derived from these 3 hues.

Secondary Colors: Green, Violet, and Orange, 

                                                 

These are the colors formed by mixing the primary colors. For example, if you blend:

Yellow + Blue = Green

Blue + Red = Purple

Red + Yellow = Orange

Tertiary Colors: Yellow-Orange, Red-Orange, Red-Violet, Blue-Violet, Blue-Green, and Yellow-Green.

                                                                                                   

These are the colors formed by mixing one primary and one secondary color. It's as easy as 1+1=2. Hence, the color is named two words. For example, if you blend:

 Blue + Violet = Blue-Violet

Blue + Green = Blue-Green

Yellow + Green = Yellow-Green

Yellow + Orange = Yellow-Orange

Red + Orange = Red-Orange

Red + Violet = Red-Violet

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2.) Identify the Neutral Colors.

Neutral Colors: Black, White, Gray, Brown, Beige, Cream, Khaki, and Navy (Denim).

                                                                  

Black, White, Gray, Brown

                                                                  

Beige, Cream, Khaki, Navy (Denim)

The main neutral colors are Black and White. Neutral colors don't show up on the color wheel. It usually means without color and it can go with anything. These colors can match many different colors from the color wheel. They are sometimes called "earth tones". The Gray, Brown, Beige, Khaki, and Navy are formed as neutral if you blend Primary and Secondary Colors. For example, if you blend:

Black + White = Gray

Brown + White = Beige/ Cream

Blue + Black = Navy (Denim)

Red + Green = Brown; or

Blue + Red + Yellow = Brown

Yellow + Green + Red + Blue =  Khaki

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3.) Harmonize the colors.

Now that you already understand the color wheel, you can now start learning how to harmonize the colors. I realized, it is not just about the design, style and random color of pieces you take from the rack but it is also about certain colors that look well together or else you will end up buying piece by piece every time and do  "one-never-suit-the-other-one" mantra. You might already have a color scheme in mind that you've tried and you looked okay but referring to a theory based on the color wheel is best as to which colors will make you look not just okay but settle for something that is totally pleasing and look best when pull-off together. 

Color Scheme

Complementary color scheme

                                                                

[Yellow & Violet], [Blue & Orange], [Red & Green], etc.

Complementary has 2 colors and are opposite one another on the color wheel. You will create a high contrast and vivid color. In short, you're making something to stand-out.

Split-Complementary color scheme

                                                                            

[Red-Violet, Red-Orange & Green], [Blue-Green, Blue-Violet & Orange], [Yellow-Green, Yellow-Orange & Violet], etc.

Split-Complementary has 2 colors on side of the Complementary or 2 Tertiary Colors plus 1 Secondary Color. This color scheme has the same high contrast and vivid color as result but has less tension. For beginners, this is a good choice. In short, this is safe for experimenting.

Analogous color scheme

                                                                                      

[Yellow, Yellow-Orange & Orange], [Red-Orange, Red & Red-Violet], [Yellow-Green, Green & Blue], etc.

Analogous has 3 colors and are located next or adjacent to each other on the color wheel. They share a common color hence matches well and pleasing to the eyes. When choosing Analogous, choose one color to dominate and a second color that is lighter. The third color shouldn't be a similar color because you will use it as accent. 

Rectangle (tetradic) color scheme

                                                                          

[Green, Red, Blue, & Orange], [Yellow-Green, Red-Violet, Yellow-Orange, & Blue Violet], etc.

Rectangle or tetradic has 4 colors or also called as double-complementary color scheme. It consists of 2 pairs of Complementary colors. You can create tetradic colors by making a rectangle in the color wheel. It works best if only one color dominates.

Triad color scheme

                                                                                     

[Green, Orange & Blue], [Yellow, Red &; Blue], [Yellow-Orange, Blue-Green & Red Violet], etc.

Triadic has 3 colors spaced evenly around the color wheel. You will create vibrant colors even if you use pale or unsaturated colors by using equilateral triangle. Equilateral means a triangle with all three sides of equal lengths. Colors should be carefully balanced when using Triadic. Let one color be dominant and used the other two colors for an accent. 

Square color scheme

                                                                                  

[Violet, Yellow, Blue-Green & Red-Orange], [Red-Violet, Yellow-Green, Blue & Blue), etc.

Square has 4 colors and is similar to Rectangle (tetradic), but the colors are spaced evenly. Notice that these colors consist of Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Colors. Note that only one color should dominate and use the other colors for an accent.

So, there you go. I hope this post helps and give idea to those who have fashion mistakes and have less idea in pulling colors together for mix and matching of their clothes like me. Hehe. I am going back to basics, thus the title post "Fashion 101". It's not too late to make it right. What make me glad about realizing this is that I can settle for looking best than just looking okay. Your choice! Watch out for my next post in related to this.

XX,