“How to Find Your Color Palette No Matter Ethnicity”

The seasonal color analysis can be a frustrating thing, right? I mean, like whenever you take a seasonal color analysis, you get “trapped” in either Winter or Autumn, and you just know it isn’t right.

The seasonal color analysis can be frustrating when your coloring doesn’t seem to match with any of the typical colorings presented in this color system. If you have a softer and/or lighter coloring then the Deep Winter and Deep Autumn color palettes may look harsh on your complexion.

So where do you belong? I mean, women of color can’t possibly fall within Deep Winter and Deep Autumn, only. Despite the general notion that there is a lack of coloring variations among women of color, that is not always the case with ethnic women with lighter characteristics.

Carole Jackson has admitted that the Color Me Beautiful-system isn’t perfect and that women of color may have problems identifying their real color season. And because of this issue, she decided to revise her book – with a new refined seasonal color system, dividing each season into 3 groups depending on the intensity of your coloring. Which goes like this: light – dark, clear – muted, warm – cool. This is explained in the color theory section of this site.

Analyze Yourself in Relation to Your Ethnicity

So if you’re a woman of color and struggle to find your color palette then you should base your search on the quality of your hair, skin and eyes, relative to your ethnicity, and not the typical Caucasian coloring.

That’s because a light African-American will typically appear darker than the Caucasian with the same color palette even though they share a similar intensity in their coloring.

For example, if you have lighter eyes, skin or hair color than what’s typical in your ethnicity then you can actually be a Summer or Spring, and not just Autumn or Winter.

Light: Rashida Jones has sparkly green eyes, light olive skin and light brown hair, which are all characteristics of a Soft Summer or Soft Autumn – which basically means she’s neither light or dark.

I have yet to find ethnic celebrities with blonde hair and blue eyes 🙂 People with an albino skin disease would most likely be a light. This means that some of the lightest ethnic women fall on Clear or Soft, not Light. However, if you are ethnic with a Soft coloring, you can dye your hair blonde and wear the Light color palette.

Medium: Beyonce has a light caramel skin tone, sparkly brown eyes and a lighter shade of brown hair – which make her a Warm Spring or Warm Autumn.

In some cases, Warm Spring/Autumn women who dye their hair lighter can wear some of the Clear colors.

Deep: Dark brown eyes and black to dark brown hair are strong indicators that you’re a Deep. Skin tone can be anywhere from the fairest white to deep ebony. And supermodel Alek Wek has clearly a very deep coloring with the Deep characteristics.

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Now let’s take a closer look at examples of how it’s possible to not be a Deep Autumn or Deep Winter despite being a woman of color:

Beyoncés Coloring

Many image consultants have diagnosed her as Deep Autumn. I’m not too sure about that though…

Here is a comparison of her wearing a typical deep Autumn green and a typical bright Spring green:

I like how the bright green enhanced her sparkly brown eyes, compared to the forest green which makes her look a bit muddy. My conclusion is that she is a Warm Spring, but she may flow into Warm Autumn as well.

To be honest, I haven’t completely honed her color palette – because she seems to look good in some Clear colors because of her sparkly honey brown eyes. But I would say that Warm is her dominant characteristic.

Warm and Clear Spring, not Deep AutumnI’ve received emails from African-Americans who have the same coloring as Beyoncé – clear, warm and peachy. They took the seasonal color analysis and automatically ended up as a Deep Autumn but the colors looked a bit too dark on their complexion despite their dark hair and brown eyes. They sent me their picture wearing different Deep Autumn colors which confirmed this. I analyzed them and saw a definite clear characteristic in their coloring – eyes were medium brown but sparkly, skin was clear and peachy and hair medium brown with natural golden highlights. I directed them to the Clear Spring palette and they were in total agreement of how the colors looked fabulous on them.

Here’s another example of her wearing a ‘bad’ color. See how Beyoncé appears slightly drab in black, while her sister who is darker (dark brown eyes, darker hair and skin – Deep Autumn flowing into Deep Winter) looks divine in it? The clear red lipstick saved Beyoncé there 🙂

Credit to WENN
Here’s an example of her wearing black – which is a Deep Autumn’s and Winter gals *power* color:

Courtesy of Celebutopia
Beyoncé is looking pale in black and this is an indicators that she’s a lighter Autumn or a Spring, as Deep Autumns usually look great in black.

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Rihanna

Rihanna has light green-hazel eyes, caramel skin tone and ashy dark brown hair – which makes her a mix of light and dark, cool and warm.

Courtesy of Celebutopia
She’s a Soft. I’m still not quite sure whether she’s a dominant Summer or Autumn, because she looks equally good in both color palettes. She could also be a Soft only. She seems to pull off both cool and warm colors – a typical tell-tale that she’s a Soft-Muted because of her coloring’s neutrality.

Grays, raspberry and pinks look amazing on her and bring out the sparkle in her light hazel eyes. Greens blend well with her warm skin tone. Deep Autumn/Winter colors, on the other hand, like bright yellow and royal blue, look way off on her.

Here are some examples:

Courtesy of Celebutopia
She’s gorgeous but black isn’t really her best color despite her dark complexion at first glance. I hate to say this, but dying her her black wasn’t her smartest move.

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Color Revival

For more real-life photo examples of how analyzing your coloring works and how the seasonal color analysis works for everyone no matter race or ethnicity, I recommend you to check out Lora Alexander’s book on the seasonal color analysis.

Read my review on ‘Color Revival’ and get a copy.