Icy Hot

I promised to bring us back to the color wheel this week and discuss warm and cool colors and their relationship to your make-up and clothes. You have probably heard people refer to themselves as winters or springs, referring to a method of figuring out which colors look good on them popularized by the book Color Me Beautiful. But what does it really mean? It’s no secret that we all have different skin, hair, and eye colors, and those colors mean something for how good certain colors are going to look on a person. Some colors are going to bring out that glowing bronze skin or sparkling green eyes, and other will just make them look dull. Before you invest in good make-up, you want to make sure the make-up brings out the colors which look best on you. Let’s get started.
Take a look at our color wheel here, which I have borrowed from www.tigercolor.com. This color wheel displays which colors are cool and which are warm. Cool colors range from yellow to red-violet, and warm colors range from blue violet to yellow-green. Our chart below, copied from www.xaraxone.com, shows you in even more detail which colors fall into which categories. These charts should be your consideration when make-up shopping. But how do you determine which colors look best on you?
There are some people who will look good in anything they wear, and we call those lucky few neutral. But most of us will have a tendency to look better in either warm or cool colors. You can determine which you are by some of the tips below.
Warm Colors
¨ Your hair color is black, brown or red.
¨ Your eye color is brown, green or hazel.
¨ Your skin is golden, olive or brown and tans easily.
¨ The veins on the inside of your wrist look greenish.
Cool Colors
¨ Your hair color is blonde or light to medium brown.
¨ Your eye color is blue, gray or hazel.
¨ Your skin is naturally pale or rosy and burns easily.
¨ The veins on the inside or your wrist look bluish.
These are general guidelines to warm and cool colors to help you determine what colors you naturally are. When you look at the guidelines, you may find you fall into both categories. For instance, you may have red hair with blue eyes and fair skin. Since two of your main features fall under the cool colors guidelines, you will most likely look best in cool colors. Or say you have blonde hair with brown eyes and dark skin. You will look best in warm colors. I have included below a few celebrity photos to show you examples of warm and cool toned people. Determining which celebrity you most resemble may help you decide which category you fall under.

Warm Toned Celebrities:

Cool Toned Celebrities:

There are other tests to determine which colors you look best in. Do you look better in gold or silver jewelry? Warm toned people tend to look better in gold jewelry, and cool toned people tend to look better in silver jewelry. How does a plain white shirt look on you? Cool toned people tend to look good in white, whereas warm toned people will look washed out and would be better off in off-white or ivory.
You may be asking why all this matters. Have you ever, on a perfectly normal day, been asked by your husband/friend/co-worker/barista if you are feeling alright? Been told you look tired, upset or just not yourself when you are really feeling fine? That’s why it matters. The wrong color can make you look pale or tired and bring out under eye circles and blemishes. So next time you are purchasing make-up, be sure to take your color wheel along with you.