Color Analysis

All people are unique. No two people are exactly alike and there are always exceptions to every rule of color analysis. When talking with your customers, say "usually" or "probably" when discussing color.

Everyone has both warm and cool pigments in their coloring. Most people will fall into a neutral range. Look at the chart below-most people will fall in the area between the parentheses. Others will be "dominantly warm" or "dominantly cool".

WARM NEUTRAL COOL UNDERTONES
The following "signs" are what you should look for when determining Warm, Neutral or Cool. If her hair is natural, look for visible signs of gold or red. This USUALLY indicates warm. If there are no visible signs, then she’s PROBABLY cool. If she has natural red or gold hair, this ALWAYS indicates warm to neutral/warm.

If she’s enhancing her hair, ask if she ever had gold/red natural highlights in her natural hair color. If she says it was silvery or ashy, then that generally indicates cool.

If she describes her hair as "mousy", she’s probably cool. "Shiny" hair generally indicates warm. Examples of warm hair are natural red hair, auburn and golden blonde. Examples of neutral hair are "brown" hair without many highlights, lots of brunettes and natural blonde. Examples of cool hair are ash toned blonde, brown or black.

Indicates warm Look closely at her eyes. Visible warm tones such as yellow-green or golden brown . Warm eyes can also be teal, blue or brown. Blue eyes with yellow fibers indicate warm. Hazel eyes, or brown, steel blue, green blue eyes are very common in neutral people. They can have a slight warm tone, such as blue eyes with yellowish fibers. People with hazel eyes are ALMOST always warm. indicate cool Cool eyes have no visible red or gold in them. Blue, blue-green and brown-black and Grey eyes are common.

Skin tone will help indicate warm and cool. If the customer has visible peach she’s warm; visible pink, she’s cool. Don’t mistake a "flushed" look for pink tones…often a warm toned person will have that high flushed look. Many people with rosacea are warm.

Ivory, golden beige and golden brown skin are examples of warm toned people. If you struggle to see the undertones, assume that she’s PROBABLY neutral. Natural beige and "olive" toned skin are neutral. Soft pink undertones indicate cool. In ethnic skin you often see a blue or grey undertone.

Other questions to ask:
Ask if she prefers gold or silver jewelry. Gold is warm, silver is cool. If she wears both, then she’s probably neutral.

Ask if she prefers white or cream for her blouse or sweater. White=cool, cream=warm
Ask what kind of makeup she has in her makeup bags.
often a neutral person has and uses all makeup colors
Ask what her favorite color is to wear-what’s her best color??

Another important thing to learn when doing color analysis is "intensity". Intensity is the contrast between hair, eyes and skin, with the skin and the eyes being most important. Very fair skinned, has light hair and eyes, then she’s a light intensity customer.

Very fair skin, very dark hair and light eyes, she’s still a light intensity because the most important things to consider are skin and eyes.

Intensity is important when you help choose colors. First you need to know if your customer is warm or cool (or somewhere in-between!) and then her intensity to help her decide between lighter and darker shades of makeup.