Right, here is it. One of the most important pieces of style advice anyone will ever give you: Get Your Colours Done. If you're thinking a) reeeally? and b) what the bleep is 'getting your colours done?' read on and prepare to be amazed.
In a nutshell, Colour Analysis is all about establishing which Season you are and the colours you should be wearing to look your absolute best (there are 4 seasons; 30 colours in each). It's about enhancing bright eyes, a clear, even skin tone, a sharp bone structure and an overall I've-slept-10-hours-and-slathered-on-the-touche-eclat glow. Sound too good to be true? Well, let me assure you; it genuinely, hand-on-heart, works.
Ask anyone who's already had it done. Some colours wash us out, others magnify our eye bags and a chosen range makes us look 10 years younger. The beauty industry makes billions out of people wanting to look healthier, less tired, more radiant etc. The simple trick that absolutely all of us should be doing is wearing the right colour palette to enhance our natural beauty.
As a stylist I realised fairly early on in my career that in order to dress my clients to look their absolute best, I needed to know which colours to put them in. Having always chosen colours instinctively, I soon realised that to understand the optimum shades to wear it was all a bit sciencey. It involves looking at your eye and hair colour, the undertones in your skin, the intensity of your features, and going through a draping process to determine which reds make you look jaundiced and which blues make you look reborn. Magic eh?
For the sceptics among you, let us flag an underlying concern. I agree; there's a historic whiff of naffness to 'getting your colours done'. For me it rings a vaguely embarrassing Hyacinth Bouquet-esque, head to toe in fuschia-magenta, memory alarm bell. I vividly remember doing a massive internal eye-roll when my mother suggested to the 15 year old me that I should go and visit her House of Colour lady to find out if I were more of a True Spring or a Clear Winter. I can still recall the mortifying horror of it all and my point blank refusal to do anything so deeply, deeply uncool. Ah, the arrogance of youth with our perfect dewy skin and our chiselled jaw lines.
Like so many things in life, I now realise how utterly spot on my mother was. The skin I have now is not the skin I had at 15. And in another 20 years it will have changed again, unlike our season, which blessedly remains the same throughout our life and amplifies in impact with age (hello perfect coordinated wardrobe of the future). It all just makes a little bit of practical sense. Think about any outfit in your wardrobe that washes you out and requires an abundance of eye-liner or a nail varnish that makes your hands feel grubby. Equally, think about one of your go to dresses that always attract the 'you look amazing / have you been on a spa break?' compliments. It's not an accident; it's all related to the colour you're wearing and impact it has on your face. Plus, once you know what Season you are, you're armed with a fairly revelatory set of style rules that completely change the way you dress and shop.
So, for those of you up for a wardrobe/face epiphany, get your colours done. If nothing else it'll make you think about what you're wearing in a different way and give you the confidence to experiment with hues you would never normally consider. It'll encourage mindful makeup application - should your blusher have coral undertones and your lippy a bluey-pinkness, or would the opposite bring out your inner goddess? So many discoveries to be had. Without a doubt, colour is your secret style ammo.