What Is Your Color Palette? Figuring it Out Will Change the Way You Dress

Nothing is stopping you from wearing whatever color you want, so why should you use color analysis, and how can it help you, specifically in fashion?

This is actually a concept that professionals in the industry use a lot! They take into account not just the color of the clothing on a model but also their hair, eye, and skin color in order to choose something that brings out their natural features more.

Of course, trying to remember a list of colors that suit you isn’t always easy. To break things down a bit, you’ll often see the colors broken into groups named after the seasons.

You can thank early Impressionist painters for this system! It’s pretty simple too — the colors you associate with that season fit there. For instance, spring is the place for natural, floral colors, while winter is associated with cooler tones. If you find this overwhelming, start by finding out if cooler or warmer tones suit your features better.

Now that you’ve determined what “season” you are, you might be wondering what to do with that information. What does it all mean when you put it together?

We’ll start with spring. If you find this suits you, you’ll want to try out different shades of green, pink, orange, red, cream, and even gold. In general, you’ll want colors that are bright but have a bit of warmth to them too!

Moving on, what colors do we associate with summer if you find you fit here? You still want bright colors, but these tones should have less warmth than spring tones.

So, what constitutes a cool tone that’s also bright? Well, looking for light or pastel colors that rely on a silver, blue, or purple undertone — rather than yellow or gold ones — often suit these color palettes better.

Autumn is one of the easier color palettes to wrap your head around because we often already associate the season with the warm colors the world around us turns.

This palette takes a step away from cool pastels or bright tones. Instead, you’ll want to look towards warm tones like golds, yellows, oranges, red, and even brown. However, darker purples can come into play if you want to add something cooler to your closet.

Finally, we have the winter type. This is a rather cool set of colors, and it leans away from the warmth that spring and autumn colors often rely on.

That means you’ll want to step away from your orange and gold. Instead, light blues, navy blue, black, purple, and silver are some of the coolest tones and the biggest bulk of this color palette. For a little warmth, though, this palette includes deep reds like cherry.

Now that you know what different color palettes are, it’s important to consider why it’s important to know these things. What use is this to you, really? It’s a great way to get an idea of what colors are the most flattering on you.

This can help offer some much-needed direction when you’re in a store or online looking at an overwhelming number of options. Plus, it can help you know where to start with color when you want to try a new style to see if it’s a great fit for you!

If you want to make things as simple as possible, buying a color swatch might be the way to go. After all, seasonal color palettes are so well-known that they’re readily available.

These are usually broken down quite simply. They typically come in the form of a piece of paper or even a multi-color swatch of fabric that you can easily hold up to yourself and compare color palettes directly.

At this point, there are all sorts of apps that promise you that they can do just what we just explained those swatches are made for.

So, why not just opt for one of those? Well, as great as technology is, there’s still some variance in how a color might show up on different phones or how the lighting for the photo or the quality of your camera can interfere with the results.

As we mentioned earlier, one of the ways that professionals determine a model’s color palette is by thinking about what would look good with their eye color.

This is a trick that you can use at home, too! If you have brown eyes or even hazel eyes, you’ll find that your eyes do well with warmer tones. On the other hand, cool tones pair well with gray, blue, and bright or light green eyes.

Your hair color is another feature that people see immediately when they meet you. As this is more likely to change over time, you can reassess this point as you need or want to! So, when it comes to hair colors, what leans toward warm and cool?

As you’d expect, deep browns, auburn, and red hair are all considered warm while pale browns, gray, and black are considered cool tones. For blonde hair, consider the undertones. Strawberry blonde hair leans towards the warmer spectrum while a platinum or ash blonde would present cooler.

While you can technically change various things about your appearance, based on what we’ve talked about, your hair color is likely to change the most often! So, what does that mean for your color palette?

It means you can use this change to your advantage and help your hair color lend to the color palette you’re most interested in. On top of that, you can use learning about your own color palette to decide the next hair dye color you want to try!

When it comes to the colors that are on the border between warm and cool tones, like blonde and brown — which might rely on undertones — this is when that seasonal breakdown would come into play by offering more detail.

“Spring” and “Autumn” work as great in-between terms if you fall somewhere in the middle. What if your hair leans towards a warm tone like reddish-blonde, but you have blue eyes? Well, that would put you in the spring category. Yet, if your hair is a pale copper and you have hazel eyes, autumn colors might suit you!

When you’re choosing colors that will bring out your natural features, you’ll want to make sure that you choose something that makes your skin tone pop as well.

One way to test whether cool or warm tones suit you best is to grab a couple of pieces of fabric (or paper!) in silver and gold. Holding them to your skin, you should be able to tell which one makes your skin pop and look even.

If you’re used to finding foundation, you know that you can’t just test it anywhere and expect it to match the skin tone on your face perfectly.

There’s some natural variation in skin tone depending on the part of your body you’re looking at; it’s completely natural. So, when you test for your color palette, where should you test? Much like makeup, most people recommend starting by comparing colors to your skin tone on the inside of your wrist.

Yes! There’s absolutely no reason not to use the color analysis information to your advantage, even when it comes to your makeup routine.

Especially when we’re talking about making your eyes and skin tone pop, makeup can really change how you look if you want it to. With that in mind, though, you might wonder exactly how you balance it all out. After all, doing your makeup in all one color can be hard to pull off.

One method you can use to find your favorite pairings is to take a moment to consider what kind of look you want to go for. To start, we’ll talk about a bold look.

A dramatic or glamorous look is popular enough now that it’s not reserved for movies and the red carpet anymore. For a bold look, you can pair something neutral in your palette with something bold. For example, if you’re a winter palette, you can opt for a smoky eye and bring in a pop of color with a deep red lipstick.

If you prefer a more natural or neutral look when you do your makeup, you can lean towards the more neutral tones in each palette.

For instance, if you have a spring palette, you could always go for a pale pink lipstick. On the other hand, a nude lipstick that brings a touch of warmth to your lips or a deep brown eye shadow can suit an autumn palette rather well!

When it comes to concepts like contrast or neutrals or even something bright but monochromatic, you aren’t limited in your choices.

Each of the color palettes we’ve looked at today have a range of colors that you can use in your wardrobe or to choose the perfect new lipstick color to try out. However, you can play around quite a bit with how they pair together.

Expanding on our last point, what are some ways that you can use the colors within one palette to make a range of style options?

Well, if you find you like a little contrast and you have a winter tone, a pair of black pants and a light blue top can create a simple contrast. On the other hand, someone who’s more of a summer and prefers a brighter look might find that a gold romper suits them well!

Thinking about these theories with solid-colored outfits can seem much simpler to wrap your head around than applying them with patterns.

Even then, though, you can break patterns down into their basic color schemes to try and narrow down your options. The best way to make a pattern shine is to let it serve as the focal point of your outfit and keep everything else simple.

Of course, no outfit is truly complete without the right accessories to pull it off. So, how do you use color theory to choose the right items?

Well, statement pieces like earrings or necklaces can easily feature the colors from your palette. On top of that, you can use the silver versus gold test that we discussed earlier to find which of these popular jewelry metals pop more against your skin.

When it comes to finding the fashion or makeup that works best at bringing out your features, you might find that you don’t just read about it, but that it clicks right away.

It’s a great thing to experiment with, and don’t be afraid to play around with it again if you do something like change your hair color! On top of that, remember that these colors are really useful, but you can change up the ways you use them and other aspects of your personal style to make sure your personality shines through, too.

Much like rules that you might see in grammar, there are exceptions. After all, even the “I before E” rule has a list of words that don’t use that rule.

What we mean to say is that there are going to be moments when you find an outfit or even just a color scheme that you love that might not match your seasonal palette perfectly, and that’s okay! Fashion can be all about pushing barriers and playing with the rules — this is just a great place to get you started.

It’s no secret that we aren’t always the most unbiased judges of ourselves. Some people look in the mirror and still feel unsure if they look good in a top that flatters them perfectly.

If you’re having trouble deciding which colors suit you best, make shopping a group outing with a partner, family member, or your friends. Sometimes, a second set of eyes can help you out in finding what looks good on you.

Once you’re ready to start using this information and decide that you want to start shifting your wardrobe a bit, where do you start?

After all, it can be daunting switching from one style or color palette to another. We suggest starting with the basics and starting with neutral tones you want to add to your wardrobe. This way, you can easily work those pieces into your style as you replace pieces over time.

As we’ve talked about these colors that we associate with seasons thanks to how Impressionists started to paint them, it’s important to note that you might have realized something.

The seasons these colors belong in are the colors you see on the shelves a lot at that time. Autumn usually comes with sales on warm-toned sweaters — while a pale, bright bikini is sold as summer gets closer. Timing your shopping trips can help you find when you have more options for sale around you.

As we’ve said, things like your hair can change your color palette up slightly. However, you aren’t going to change your skin tone or your eye color.

So, that means that you can expect the bulk of your color palette to serve you well throughout your life. With that, it’s a good idea to take a moment and consider what you might wear again and again as you build up your wardrobe or choose pieces that you know will last you years to come.

We mentioned it a few times throughout this, but it’s really important to remember that the key to finding your perfect style is letting personal preference and personality shine through.

Knowing what colors might flatter you the most is only the start of your style journey. Maybe you want to play with the style of clothes you wear, beyond they’re color. Even playing within that range of color is helpful. Never put self-expression on the back burner here!

We’ve talked about exceptions, but there’s a part of this that comes down to remembering that color matching and finding your color palette are things that are there to help you.

That being said, there are no laws in fashion. If you find that yellow is really complementary to your body, but it doesn’t mesh with how you want to dress or the color you’re comfortable wearing, there’s no reason not to strike it from your personal color palette.