You aren't a season. You are the whole year.

• Posted on 21 October 2021
• By Elea Wright
• Posted in Color Analysis
• 0

You may be happy with your seasonal space, and if you are then this article isn’t for you. This article is for everyone who has been analyzed as different seasons, analyzed as one season but doesn’t like their colors, or find their palettes/makeup looks to be wholly unrepresentative of what they enjoy/look good in.

I’ve already talked about orange and how everyone has an orange. This is also my first reason why seasonal systems don’t work for people because our skin tones aren’t represented in them. To me that makes absolutely no sense because your skin is you. It is your hue, and it is the thing that should be dictating ALL your best colors.

Read all about why you have been 'lied' to about your skin tone.

Next let’s talk about seasons and how UNREPRESENTATIVE they are.

First off, I was considered a True Summer. I am fair (but with very yellow undertones skin/orange). My eyes are kind of blue, but mostly change a great deal depending on what I am wearing and I have brown hair. Essentially I am the poster child for True Summer. Many of those colors suit me and look good. So everything should be fine right? Except I hate them. I mean not ALL of them, but they just don’t suit me. I don’t want to wear grey eyeshadow or soft pink lips all the time. Sometimes I like that. Sometimes I don’t. I like wearing bold colors that are rich and deep. My bedroom is a deep indigo and my blanket is a rich turmeric orange that matches my skin undertone. I love color explosions. I love cooler coral. I love rich ruby red. I love dying my hair a deep burgundy that many mistake for black and think is my natural color. I look excellent in these colors. I look so good in them that I receive so many more compliments in them than I do the true summer traditional palette and recommendations. Does that mean I’m not a true summer? I mean, yes, because true summer is an arbitrary color grouping and while many of the colors DO look good they are far from wholly representative. Worse than that, they entirely exclude people that would look excellent in those colors. People who aren’t white or have lighter brown hair. People who are gingers or who have lovely melanin rich skin.

Why is that?

Because color and saturation are two totally different things, and when it comes down to it, if I had to be right about one thing I would want to be right about the color vs saturation. If you know your undertones, you can adjust your clothes, makeup, hair, etc based on your current tan, whether your hair is going grey, or how you are feeling that day. Saturation is a changeable factor, but undertone is not. Once you have hit puberty your undertones are with you for life. Even if you get really sick, and perhaps you are prescribed a medication that alters your blood coloring, once you are back to feeling better your undertones will still be the best undertones for you.

Your skin undertone never changes.

It doesn’t change if your hair is brown. It doesn’t change if your hair is grey. It doesn’t change if you are going through menopause, and it doesn’t change if you have no hair at all. Who you are is hue you are and that is excellent. That is easy, and best of all, that is flexible.

Many seasonal systems primarily rely upon saturation. I know this because when we classified colors in ebhues the undertones changed significantly. A color that was considered blue based in a seasonal system is actually an orange based undertone color in ebhues. This makes sense because if you have ever worn a khaki or ‘nude’ color and thought, “wow I look terrible in this, it is totally different than my skin” you have seen the difference undertone makes. There are so many articles out there that start out by saying, “oh you can’t look at a person and guess their seasonal space”, yet when they show makeup examples it is only one type of person they are showing. Going by those classification systems I can see a photo and guess what a person would be typed as in seasonal systems. When it comes to ebhues I don’t even know where to start unless I’m testing our test zones on their skin or by their skin.

I have shared the same red with someone in the ultra deep skin tone and the same orange as that person, while having other undertones like yellow or green that are different. While this may not at first make sense to you, try to think of DNA. We inherit half of our DNA from each parent, yet some children share most of their colors with one parent vs another. Why is that? I don’t know, but I share almost all of my colors with my mom except Indigo and Teal. Yet, she is able to wear different versions of these same shared undertones of us because she has much more saturation in her skin and grey hair.

When you consider that we share 85% of our DNA with a mouse, you can see that even very minor changes in our genetics make BIG differences when it comes to color. Yet for so long we have been using a color system that tries to lump together colors by some arbitrary observations of seasons in certain areas of the world.

If it sounds like I’m being harsh, its just because I’m tired of people wasting money on systems that aren’t skin proven. When I say skin proven I mean when we drape a person we know that based on the way the boards look, the makeup is going to look good. When you have to fight with your makeup to look good, its a good indicator that isn’t a good fit for you. I will say there is definitely a difference in personal preference vs what objectively looks good and that not everyone is going to be talented with makeup… That being said, that is why it is SO important for people, for example, Bright Winter in older systems to be able to wear soft colors that are easy and natural looking on them for makeup.

Knowing your best colors should make your life easier and be able to be adapted to your style and life. Individuality and authenticity in your comfort zone is important to any color system because you are the one who has to live in your colors for life. So stop trying to force yourself into muted colors if you are a bold personality or vice versa. Find your best UNDERTONES and let the rest click into place.

We’ve got your color! Find your own colors here, or learn how to visit us and get draped.