Update 2021-Dusty Soft Summer

I wanted to give an update! House of color post was probably about 4 years ago!

I had Heather Noakes make me a custom fan. She also had draped me as soft summer maybe something like 8 years ago? She’s seen my coloring a lot on social media and I trusted she would make me a fan that was spot on.

I also identified myself as cooling down a bit. Whatever warmer colors I could pull off in my 20’s was just not happening any more. I actually think Laura Alexander’s Dusty soft summer is pretty spot on for me. Previously I had thought Sunlit soft summer or some type of darker summer. But I just can’t stand anything too warm. Backtrack 10 years ago I would have told you I couldn’t stand anything too cool!

Look at the difference between the palette I wore in my mid 20’s verse now mid 30’s.

I’m always fighting the warmth in my hair. Cooler is always better on me. I do have some brassy dye in my hair, so the warmth isn’t natural…

And staying away from yellow, which has become harsher and harsher of a hair color the older I get.

The yellow was never good. It’s just that now my skin can’t tolerate it at all, because it’s so aging.

Here my hair is the coolness I like, for my wedding last summer.

here are some color matches to my fan I love!

Here I am without any sun influence.

I really like the cooler softer colors now. I would have never said that 10 years ago. I’ve changed a lot in how I see myself and what I find harmonious. I love the soft summer colors and the cooler browns in the palette. You won’t catch me in orange anytime soon. I adore tropical spring colors but just not on me anymore.

till my next update, thanks for following!

House of Colour: Our Color Analysis Journey in Pittsburgh

My Experience with House of Colour in Pittsburgh with Julie Shields

Intro

My Mom’s Color Analysis

My Color Analysis

Final Reflection 

Intro: 

I live in the DC area and traveled with my mom and partner to Pittsburgh which took a not-so-bad 3 1/2 hours.

We enjoyed the city! The trip was a fun mini vacation and learning session about color analysis in the House of Colour world. Of course, as many of you know, I am obsessed with color analysis and have been analyzed in many different systems  that use drapes including Sci-art, 12 blueprints, Color Alliance, Color Breeze, Kim Bolsovar, and now HOC (House of Colour).

I have been analyzed using drapes as a Soft Summer in sci-art/12 blueprints and a summer in Color Alliance. I was analyzed as a Spring or Light Summer in a few online analysis. Nothing has ever really felt 100% right which I theorized came down to the drapes themselves being used, the limitations of the system at hand. I know this is true because I own the Color Breeze drapes and analyzed myself as a Soft Summer (light) with exception of loving the navy drape from Deep Summer Soft but not caring for the other drapes. I wanted to try something different like House of Colour, and who knew…maybe I would end up a unique season, or the drapes would show something different about me and why nothing seemed to put my color season puzzle together.

We started with a House of Colour educational session about the different seasons and yellow and blue based colors.

My Mom’s Color Analysis:

My mom went first! Julie noticed that she had brightness right away and tested for Winter and Spring. Julie knew it was unlikely my mom was a Winter but tested to be sure. The winter blue and white is cutting her off down the middle which is undesirable.

Here is spring white and brown and looks much better.

Since my mom is warm we checked Autumn, but it was so heavy and blah on her. Summer was not great either and washed my mom’s warm complexion out.

Makeup time for my mom! This got her out of her comfort zone because she does not like to wear a lot of makeup and does not like bright makeup. It was a tough adjustment for her after the makeup was put on. I have draped my mom before as a Light Spring in the Color Breeze system. My mom is fair and feel like a little goes a long way and prefers the natural look.

She is all made up with makeup! and ready to see the drapes from her season! We gave her a lot of positive talk about how the makeup looked good. Makeup can be purchased at : https://www.houseofcolour.co.uk/shop 

Here Julie talked about how you can combining colors in outfits by showing the drapes paired together beautifully.

Colors can be used in color pops like a scarf.

We loved the coral pink on her with her spring pink lipstick.

I am floored every time I see my mom in this apple green drape and the fact that she can pull that color off! She looked beautiful in the apple Color Breeze drape too when I had analyzed her in the Color Breeze system.

Julie really loved this Geranium colored drape on my mom. I would never imagine my mom wearing this color but after contemplating about it, I could definitely see it worn as a dress and perhaps farther from her face with a scoop neck for a special occasion.

The light yellow was amazing on my mom and it brought out her natural highlights. Julie loved her hair and said the hair color added warmth around her face which helped keep my mom looking bright and warm.

A really pretty aqua color from Spring palette.

….and drum roll……My mom is a Paint Box Spring!

Find out more about the Kettlewell Spring seasons here. Since my mom could wear many of the colors in a wide colorful variety, almost like all the colors in the Crayola crayon box, my mom was announced a Paintbox Spring. Julie said she thought my mom might have been her first Paintbox spring.

Reflection on my Mom’s Analysis

I was definitely surprised my mom didn’t get the Pastel Spring, she did look fabulous in all of the Light Spring pastels. For sure if she was analyzed in 12 blueprints, I’d bet she would come out a Light Spring. I do again think that this comes down to preference and the Color Analyst is using their own artistic eyes and preferences.

Even though analyzed as a Paintbox Spring my mom can still wear many of the colors from the overall Spring palette. Her sub-season was determined by the 2 star ** colors that Julie said my mom could wear from Head to Toe (100%). However my mom received many other double stars in her 75% range (coat, suite, dress) and 50% range (top, sweater, pant, jacket, skirt that were the lighter pastels of Spring.

It did seem like some of the bolder colors really are very nice on my mom so I do like Julie’s eye for my mom to wear some of the bolder and warmer color mixes from the palette and not to just stick to the pastels.

My Color Analysis

Here my hair is pretty warm and brassed after many Coconut oil treatments to help heal my hair and of course me being neutral I am pulling this off a tad more then what one would think I should. Julie asked me if my hair was natural and she said it looked good. I told her it was dyed and went a little warm and by a little sort of a lot! My partner shouted out that my hair isn’t this orange color naturally, haha so now there was no question.

My hair is pulled back, and I am excited. Trying to keep in my expressions or my opinions because I have become very opinionated about colors over the years on me from studying color.

 

 

So here, I looked pretty okay in both the warm and cool drapes. There is no “high spectrum lighting” on me which in my opinion washes and cools out subtle warmth like mine immediately. I was tricky at first. Julie said that I am not as bright as my mom but still had some brightness and definite brightness in my eyes. I personally also think my skin has an unusual “soft” brightness.

Here is my eye color and my natural hair color. You can see my eyes have some clarity and my hair can look darker when it has no sun influence, but give my hair some sunlight and my hair is a much lighter and warms up with less visible ash.

We looked at ivory verse a blue based white and really it wasn’t obvious at first for Spring or Summer.

The apple green looks surprisingly okay on me from side view but was creating some blotchy skin from front view. I don’t seem to look as great in it as my mom did.

So many decisions to make here!

Oh the yellow! For sure, yellow is not my best color, even in my own season it’s not great and it certainly was not great in Spring.

Again the Spring blue is a bit much and blotchy on my face, but I didn’t think it was terrible just not really harmonizing.

Finally in a cooler, darker and brighter color my face started to clear and look good.

Autumn was the worst on me in my opinion. I was so surprised how bad it was!

In Color Alliance my best two were Summer and Autumn and it was right between the two seasons. I don’t remember my worst. I was a newbie to color analysis.

In Sci-art, Summer was best but we looked at Deep winter, there was something about it good on me but then I just couldn’t fully pull of the saturation. My analyst suggested the 12 tone corporate fan and to avoid the dusty colors on the end.

In 12 blueprints, Spring/Winter was my worst and I did like a soft autumn brown on me but other then that summer was clearly better. We gravitated towards the lighter side of the Soft Summer palette this time as a final result with the 12 blueprint luxury drapes, and I went home with the 12 tone classic fan.

In HOC, Autumn seemed to put a dull dirty blanket over my face and clash with my coloring the most! Spring was okay but not great. and we’ll find out about winter in just a bit!!!! ……

Summer blue was great on me and even though much like my color analysis with sci-art (Heather Noakes) we decided Winter wasn’t best even though I had a tad more clarity but again not a light clarity (light Summer) and not a winter clarity (Deep Winter) but a darker clarity still.

 

 

Summer V. Winter blues. Here we are testing Winter since I just seemed to have this darker brightness to me but not a Summer lightness aka Light Summer.

 

 

Summer V. Winter Magentas

Winter just too much and too much the main focus. Although the colors are exciting for sure.

Winter cut a line down me with the white and Navy and SUMMER it was!

What is my Summer Sub-Season?

Applying my Summer makeup.

Here I am seeing a combination of colors I could use, colors of 3 will always look interesting on me. I love this idea because I am not too big into monochromatic. The 3 colors included clothes and accessories.

I loved this color and immediately wanted to know where I could buy a top in this color!

My skin is peaceful and like porcelain here!

I did like some of the lighter colors, wow they looked so cool! I can imagine this is a button up shirt under a blazer. It looked really cool with my eyes and changed my eyes to this color!!!

Blues were so good on me, they were just phenomenal. When I was younger, teenage years at least, I knew that Navy and Black has a darkness that clears my face. Now I know black isn’t my best and a bit harsh and I should opt for charcoal but I innately went for these darker cool colors, until well, someone told me I dressed in too many bruised colors! Which I took too seriously, and started to try to wear other colors for better or for worse.

Another really pretty light color that just was so amazing with my eyes!

A combination of blues!

This drape was a bit much! And I was like “wow” okay! too much and not great lol.

I also love my purples, they are so pretty!

Very pretty but I can see why this one is not 100%.

Oh the blues! So good and 100% 2 stars **.

I love the sea-green.

Okay, so this whole time, in all these drapes I feel like I’m wearing color and I feel vibrant! Even in the pictures I posted, the drapes on me look like I’m wearing color and not neutrals. I felt like I was wearing neutrals all the time with my 12 tone soft summer fan purchases and some of the 12 blueprint drapes. There were drapes I did love in 12 blueprints like the rose coral and blues and plum, and brighter pastels but some I just wasn’t crazy about and just couldn’t see how the 12 tone classic fan was my best palette overall.

I love the bright blue greens!

Sky Blue! It was good on me! I was suprised!

Smoked Grape was also one of my best 2 star ** colors.

 

 

3 drapes that really were not my best. They just seemed too disconnected with my natural coloring.

The red was a lot. So I wasn’t really a fan of it.

This was better then the red! It was 75% 2 star.

I wanted to like the coral a lot more then what I did on me. Too bright and Light but it is a fun color!

A lighter softer pink was better then the coral or red. But really didn’t do too much for me. This is much how I feel when I see the Soft Summer  12 tone classic fan, doesn’t seem to do much, but this color seems more exciting then some of those dusty pastels from the 12 tone classic fan in contrast.

All my 2 star ** drapes for 100% of my outfit head to toe.

So without further wait, my sub-season is ………………..

Dark Summer! But wait what is Dark Summer?!

Because the darkest brightest end of the Summer palette looked the best on me, my season is the Dark or Deep Summer!

Check out more here at Kettlewell about Dark Summer or other summer sub-seasons. 

I was pondering that I would end up a Brown Summer, but I didn’t. Some of the colors were good but they just were not bold and dark enough to be my 100% 2 stars ** . Mushroom, Taupe, and Plum ended up being my only 1 star * at 100%. My 2 Stars ** at 100% were French Navy, Air-force Blue, Sea-green, Smoked Grape, and Burgundy. We added some of my one star 100% drapes since I only had 5 100% 2 star colors for the final draping picture.

Now you might be thinking I look to “fair” to be a Deep or Dark Summer but you’d be wrong to stereotype because I have a brightness to my skin and eyes and an ability to handle dark colors with skin perfection. My complexion doesn’t lie when the darker and more vibrant summer colors are put near my face.

Here is some detail about the Soft Brown Summer below which I did not drape as. But I can wear a variety of colors from it’s palette along with the Pastel Summer:

I will admit I did doctor this photo up with my photoshop skills, and took the red out of my hair and messed around with my eye makeup to make it more dramatic. But this is a good representation of the drapes! Unfortunately, the Plum drape did not make it on me but it should have been there.

Below is the color rating book for summer and my results

Julie also wrote down the makeup that I used. I really liked the Plum lipstick!! and the Lagoon Eye liner pencil.

I do feel much happier with this color result! and I even noticed my colors harmonized somewhat with the Color Breeze Toasted Soft Summer fan. In this collage my hair was dyed a bit darker to a closer to natural shade and you can see how much my face glows when my hair color is good next to my face!

Which fan to use for Dark Summer?

I asked Julie about the color palettes, and she was not a fan of the Soft Summer Prism Xll palette for me, she said it did run too warm and in my opinion it is too soft for me however it is a gorgeous looking palette.

She also wasn’t a fan of the 12 tone Soft Summer fan for me, she didn’t like the grays for me or the yellows which I thought was so spot on! I told her when I used the 12 tone classic palette to shop and purchase clothing, it just seemed to buy me results that were too dusty on me.

Julie thought the 12 tone Soft Summer corporate palette was okay, just that I need to be aware of the yellows/grays. My thoughts were that I needed to avoid the dusty colors at the tips of the fan just like Heather Noakes pointed out in my first sci-art analysis with her.

I decided to make my own fan, even though I could just use the HOC Summer color wallet that correlates with many of my colors from my Rating Booklet and with the online Kettlewell shop. The wallet was included in the price of the color analysis. I decided to make my own color fan and took apart 3 Color Breeze color fans to do so. I didn’t want to just be a “toasted soft summer”. I wanted my own unique color fan custom made by me and only my best colors!

I took apart the fans and compared to my Colour Ratings Summer book and my HOC color wallet. I used the star rating scale to match or at least harmonize my best colors.

Harmonizing here!

Writing down important information on the back of the swatches.

Here I am organizing the loo% at the front of the fan, the 75% next, then 50%,  then added some more neutrals, and some of the brighter colors for color pops in my outfits to use as the 25% of my outfit.

And here it is! Still a work in progress, because I would like to add more darker blues and blue variations. But you can see this is more vibrant than the typical 12 tone classic soft summer fan, and no wonder I always felt dressed in neutrals when I fan matched to it. But now I suspect and hope I find colors with the right level of saturation with my new custom fan.

My new custom fan harmonizes nice with the drapes! and I left out the yellows, which never looked good on me, even in small patches. So I didn’t want to include them at this point in time.

Comparison of 12 tone corporate Soft Summer fan and my custom palette based on HOC Dark Summer: 

It is nice to have the custom fan so I can avoid colors from the 12 tone fan: the too dusty colors and also avoid the yellows and some of those grays.

I do give a lot of credit now to Heather Noakes for seeing me as a darker soft summer first. I couldn’t really understand it at the time, but I now realize she did a great job for what season limitations their are in the sci-art system.  In the Color Breeze season this is considered Soft Summer Deep but I’d never get analyzed as a Deep in that system.

Final Reflections:

-I loved the technique that House of Colour uses to determine warm and cool

-I love the open mindedness of being able to wear the colors from your broad season

-I love the fact that HOC uses natural lighting for the analysis.

-I also love the rating scale and finding your best colors in your season based on how they individually look on you as the unique individual.

-The Color Rating Scale Reference Book, Color Wallet, Kettlewell website for purchasing clothing  (that matches your colors), the HOC online makeup store, and the Kettlewell blog are all great tools.

Shop at Kettlewell 

The House of Color analysis gives the client way more tools to be successful after they leave the color analysis. I also really loved the quality of the  drapes and how they looked on me. I finally felt that “wow” feeling that other’s feel when getting draped for the first time that I hadn’t experienced entirely, with colors that felt vibrant on me.

These darker and more vibrant Summer colors look great. I really do believe now I have a color home and it feels amazing to finally have found it. I finally feel like I am wearing colors that pop on me, instead of colors that feel like dusty neutrals. A huge thanks to Julie Shields and House of Colour for finally figuring out my best colors!

~Heather

NaturalColorMosaic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upcoming appointment with House of Colour!

I just want to point out how fascinating this is! Unless I misunderstood this, it is a bit different than Kim Bolsovar’s analysis on my eye pattern/color however similar result in CMAS…It does appear the bottom eye has the pattern for Soft Summer and this makes a lot of sense to me that this pattern would be connected to Soft Summer, and the color reminds me of the Soft Autumn secondary. The top picture is more blue and less warm of a color. It also resembles the patterns of Light Summer with Spring Secondary. I have two different patterns and colors and this explains why I feel so torn between my seasons. I do love soft summer but then it’s like I need a little bit of something else. Something less languid and blended, I need more crisp and colors pops.

I need the darker muted quality from Soft Summer, however I need to borrow some brightness/saturation from Light Summer. Could these two fans have a love child? Really?! But what is semi the closest thing? Oh yes, that is my Zyla palette.

Some of my Zyla colors are like the Light Summer fan but they are a bit more muted but not too much more muted. This is the Soft Summer and Light Summer love child I am talking about. You can see this is the Light Summer Prism XII palette, my Zyla palette, and the Toned Spring fan form PYW. My Zyla palette sort of sits between the Light Summer and Toned Spring region but has the influence of Soft Summer greying it down. I wish I didn’t lose my romantic colors because I’d love to compare them here.

Another shot of the XLL Light Summer fan and some makeup matches.  I was very drawn to these colors and when I ordered the makeup from Ella Blake they said they were universal summer and they turn out to be mostly sided with Light Summer.

Here is a collage I made of my Zyla Floral Spring palette. I really like the tropical colors. Zyla said they were like vitamins for me. Which brings up another whole line of thought, it is not just colors to match your skin perfectly 100% but colors that make you happy to wear them and within a bounds of reason of what could actually look good. What I mean is, if the colors I needed were Bright Spring, I’d be in trouble because there is no way I can wear bright spring without fading away behind the colored fabrics.

I made a collage using eye pattern and color with CMAS since it correlates so nicely with eye pattern and season. I found that my left eye has the Indian Summer pattern, my right eye has the Sunshine summer pattern, my eye color goes warmer and matches the gentle autumn color but not the pattern, my skin tone matches the orange peach tone of Indian summer but has the brightness of skin-tone as of the sunshine summer. My hair color also looks somewhere between the Sunshine and Indian Summer, fwiw my hair can swatch pretty warm but it isn’t really brown-red but it does have rose gold highlights. Rose gold is my favorite metal especially in the summer time.

My favorite colors are periwinkle purple, peach, aqua, and various blues including Navy and french blue. My favorite palette is my Zyla palette but I’d love to find a connection between the colors David picked out and a standard draping. That’s why I am going to do a HOC, House of Color consultation. I’d love to see some of the colors I like in the mix as a good color for me during the draping. However, I am aware that this might not happen. It’s very possible the Zyla world won’t connect with the draping work but I have a hunch that Light Summer wasn’t so bad on me in the last draping with some of the colors and just finding some of those colors to be good will make me satisfied.

You might be aware that I just draped myself a Sunlit Soft Summer again in the Color Breeze system but those drapes I feel are designed to push you out of a season completely and they are the extreme drapes from the season, so I never got to try on the any flattering colors I think could work from Toned Spring or Light Summer.

I am drawn to House of Color because the vast opportunity of having your top star colors within one of the four sub seasons (winter, spring, summer, autumn), and then more opportunity for great colors that are personalized as your best from the season. I am feeling that the 12 season system is limiting me in that I am only Soft. I agree I am soft but I also think I have a light brightness and again that is why I keep searching and searching for more answers. Because I know my best colors are really a tad brighter then the Soft summer fan but a tad more muted then the Light summer fan. I would just love an analysis that were to recognize this or understand that this is possible, just like HOC allows for season cross over colors and they also allow you to wear other colors from your broad season and give you a percent ranking of how much you can wear other colors from your broad season.

You could call this a confirmation wish. And I wouldn’t say that was wrong. I want the stars to align. I want that aha moment and for me to not be the only one who sees or gets that but it’s shared experience, and the evidence that we all don’t fit in the perfect neat boxes. I have a high standard for what should look good on me, and I don’t want to settle as I had said probably a thousand times through all my blogs, and I still think the same!

I see peoples seasons or coloring as in a graph format of various points. I don’t see it the way it is represented in most systems. And that’s why I am in the process of creating my own palette and color analysis system. But I love to learn and I am excited to learn as much as I can as well from the House of Colour analysis. What a great experience it will be!

Until then!

~Heather

naturalcolormosaic.com

Light Summer or a Mix Between?

Revlon “Wink for Pink” is a Light Summer rec. I thought I’d try it. I was recently analyzed again by Kim Bolsovar who gave me Light Summer. She said that I would generally fit the bill as a Soft Summer in the 12 season system however that my eyes were unusual. I will get to that later. Also she took into account my personality which is a “yellow” Spring personality with a “Blue” summer secondary.

Here I am wearing the “Wink for Pink” LS rec. I thought after I have been told so many times that LS was too bright for me in my sci-art drapings that this color should be bright. But I didn’t feel that way at all wearing it, it seemed normal to me. It is a color I would have picked before I knew anything about color analysis and before I was drawn to certain color palettes like Toned Spring were I developed a wanting to be warmer and avoid cool colors.

Kim recommended to me to explore more purples, blues, and aquas. Many of these colors in the collage I made are in my Zyla palette. Although a major difference would be that my Zyla palette goes pretty warm with my version of red which is definitely Toned Spring. But here I find myself really liking this raspberry Light Summer color (on right of collage). These are some of my favorite colors for sure.

This is a similar look I wore years ago with this raspberry hoodie and the water color hand painted scarf. My lipstick here is Cairns “Coral Tulip” which is a bit of a L. spring and L. summer crossover color. I feel like I have cooled down a tad since a few years ago. I still like Cairns “Coral Tulip” but do think it might be a tad orange and think that the L.Spring cooler color of “wink for pink” is a bit more natural, and again just a different look.

 

 

Kim took an eye color and pattern course a while ago. And she said that my left eye is spring color, pattern and clarity but my right eye is for sure summer and cooler. I thought how interesting! This exactly describes my frustrations with colors being too bright and too muted and too cool and too warm. I kind of look good with cool and warm colors paired together to balance this out and maybe even softer and brighter colors paired together to balance this out.

                                                

(Soft Summer left, Light Summer right)

This is also were I can ask myself, is the balance better?  When I look at the Soft Summer drape I see muted color underneath and when I see the Light Summer color I see more of a balance of my skin brightness and the color. To me the Soft Summer color looks more like a neutral even though it’s a color, and I think that is due to the muted quality. And alas that is always how I feel in Soft Summer, like I’m always wearing neutrals.

In my opinion, this is my best color. It’s a purple periwinkle and it also is my Zyla dramatic color. I think it’s Light Summer, don’t currently have a fan to compare because I sold all my LS fans a long while ago but I did just order one but yet to come in the mail.

 

 

Here yet another example of the Soft Summer a tad muted on me on the left and the Light summer brighter and more level with my brightness. Zyla also said I need crisp colors and L.summer would be closer to the description of crisp then Soft Summer.

The drapes I did like from my Soft Summer draping were the ones with the shine. I like shine and sparkle, and of course the right levels of it. I notice a lot of the Soft Summer’s I talk to do not really like shine or sparkle and I do.

This is an older picture and not great lighting but here is a great teal and aqua color on me with the scarf and the scarf has a shimmery glittery fabric. I do like sparkle and I also wear sparkle on my eyes.

 

You can see that the eye shadow color I like is a shimmery orchid color, Stila “Cloud”. I also notice how some of the colors are similar that I custom picked out for myself on my blazers without looking or comparing to any color palette. It does have resemblance to L. summer fan.

I have another custom palette I have made I am interested to share this as well to see how it compares.

Perhaps the L.S. scarf it light and candy on me, Zyla also never liked pink on me as he said “candy” and that’s why he chose the warmer peaches, peachy-pinks, and corals. However I do say even if candy I do have a liking to this scarf and to the orchid color.

Until my next post where I share my custom palette and have a Light Summer fan in hand to test some of my favorite colors out!

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Story of a Sunlit Soft Summer @naturalcolormosaic.com

If you haven’t already heard I have a new website!!!

Please check out my new blog post/website here and please follow!

To get full blog post and story please visit blog @ naturalcolormosaic.com

 

Thank you!!

~softmosaic

New Website:NaturalColorMosaic.com

Hi Soft Mosaic followers!

I’ve created a new website called: naturalcolormosaic.com

~I will be posting on my new website a lot!

Please watch my video! It is about Sunlit Soft Summer from Color Breeze System.

Here is for Sunlit Soft Summer fan! I have really had some great luck using this fan for shopping and makeup.

Here are color combinations that are awesome for the sunlit soft summer: Rosy Sable/Stone and Raspberry purse. I love this look, especially for Autumn/Fall!

Makeup and nail polish matches!

Neutral-Cool Grayish Browns below

~SoftMosaic

Peachy Soft Summer: Why Neutral-Cool?

This is a pretty cool view of my Soft Summer eye. Summer pattern with the film webbing overlay, and a soft neutral-cool blue. Obvious hints of autumn neighbor with the warmer flecks.

This picture if of my right eye which often appears slightly more muted and slightly warmer with a more hint of “golden blue” another sign of Soft Autumn being my neighboring season. Also notice this eye has a different pattern, one with more texture. I notice when I wear a soft autumn olive top this eye actually glows but my left cooler eye does not relate to the color.

Here I am with the soft summer palette, 12 tone classic fan.

Here is the 12 tone corporate fan.

You can definitely describe my skin as peachy. The importance is finding makeup that is a cooler peach.

Peachy Complexion Soft Summer Recommendations, Foundation: Avon “Shell” and/or Clinique “Cream Chamios”. A cooler peach is key, Concealer is Mineral Fusion “Cool” and/or Mary Kay “Ivory 2”. Avon “Lavender Gray” eye pencil and Almay “Plum” mascara, Lancome 311 “You got the Look” eyeshadow, Bare Mineral “Beauty” blush or Mary Kay “Cherry Blossom” Blush, and Lips are Lancome “Vintage Rose”, “Curtain Call”, and Mary Kay “Pink Satin”. Another eye-shadow I highly recommend is Laura Mercier “Water Color Mist Eye and Check Palette”. This palette is very soft and gives the feeling of “warm” with still being Soft Summer.

Here I am wearing some shades from the “water color mist” eye palette.

For the person that feels that Soft Summer mauve is hard to adjust too, then try this lipstick Mary Kay “Pink Satin”. Matches the corporate Ssu fan.

Here with the brass and yellow toned out of my hair my complexion is less grey and uneven and more present and peachy.

The difference in hair color is not astronomical but the yellow is greying and yellowing my face and so is the white and blue striped blazer. Sometimes you can’t tell until you compare it side by side. Peachy skin on left and yellow-grey skin on right. So very unlikely dying my hair yellow will put me into a warmer season.

The middle picture has the taupe hair (cooler hair and also no makeup) and the outer two pictures have a lot of yellow in the hair. The left picture I am wearing warmer colors and warmer makeup and the right picture cooler colors are being worn with cooler makeup. You can see how the peachy soft summer can kind of pull off other seasons except, not exactly. The orange colored shirt on the right is a bit off looking. Since it belongs to the autumns, it looks somewhat familiar on me just not completely natural. It’s more subtle on a neutral cool person then orange on a true cool person however it’s not right, the facial features go a little flat.

Here is another example. So the left picture my face is turning the color of the shirt, my face is turning orange. Also these colors are too shiny (springy) and they are lacking depth. Soft Summer has more depth then light spring. The right picture is better because the fan has a matte finish however, there is that slightly clownish look, it’s too warm and light and bright.

Here is a perfect example, on the left the palette colors sit on my skin (seam separate) and I really cannot find these colors in my natural coloring. On the right, it seems to be a great match, very present colors in harmony that blend.

Depth

I’ve been dressing in so many pastels I actually miss wearing some of the deeper colors. Living in Light Spring Soft for a while, I forgot what it was like to wear colors that actually matched my light to darkness levels. Often the eye is a great indication. See picture below:

The rim of my eye is darker however it is not black but can handle more darkness for sure. When you look at my eye, you can see medium contrast. See how in this picture the drape matches the rim of my iris? Closer look below:

I can wear a navy a bit darker then this but this picture illustrates my point so well.

Now makeup being too light aside, these are some gorgeous draping pictures. The peachy soft summer needs foundation a shade that keeps the “peachy” glow visible without washing it out.

Blue, a summer’s power color.

Some purples from the fan.

Here are some colors that I’d love to find that are for sure missing from my wardrobe.

Even with attempts to match my natural hair color, it just can’t come out that desaturated silvery mauve taupe hued color below:

Natural hair color pictures showing range of light and dark in hair.

See how the depth of my eye all matches with the light to darkness level of my natural hair color.

Dying hair can be a hard maintenance because often if hair needs to be more ash, over time it will warm and brass up by simply washing hair over time, chemicals in products, and sun exposure. Also dying hair can change the balance of depth, so making my hair an unnatural overall lighter blonde doesn’t give me a full dimensional look. Naturally my hair ranges from an off-white to a light smokey brown so its so variable in light to darkness that it could never be captured with a hair dye bottle.

 

Being peachy doesn’t automatically mean spring season. I think with more recognition on peachy soft summers we can finally feel at home in a season and not just drifters that can easily be thrown into other seasons unless of course that is what was personally wanted.

Another key is viewpoint. Soft Summer might have a misty look but that doesn’t mean palette colors couldn’t be brought together to create a sunnier look if that is what is desired. I think you can create a mock spring, autumn, winter look with the soft summer palette if that is what is desired. One just needs to be creative enough to mess around with Soft Summer color combinations. And if you must have that pop of brightness is can still be done, just know where it looks best or how to approach it much like the purple shirt in my picture above.

After all, we haven’t come this far to settle. We have a unique knowledge about our natural coloring that others may or may not have and that should not be downplayed.

~softmosaic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soft Summer.

I’m exploring Soft Summer again during a trip to Europe. I found that I had some disappointments with the Cooler Soft Spring palette, Dusty Soft Spring. It’s still to saturated, bright, warm and I can tell it changed the colors in my face to less flattering hues. Sunlit Soft Summer is definitely the better palette for me. However as much as I liked the PYW fans, I am back to using my sci-art 12 blueprints (12 tone fan). Go figure!

12 tone fan….

Soft green shades, beautiful with purple accessories. With the statue of Liberty (France) this is a mixed Swiss/French inspiration idea.

 

Shades of soft red, purple, and pink. I love this card it has this movement that is interesting and reminds me of the heart pastries with the white and purple jam filled center.

Soft yellow with texture like the cathedral. I usually don’t wear this much texture, however it is fun and yet still soft.

Pinky-Purple greyed brown top with a floral scarf much like the color in the castle’s archway.

Detailing in a French dress…

So what about my beloved Zyla palette? I think it will work great still, and especially in the Fall when all the leaves turn gorgeous colors and I want to play along. I can wear some of those peachy-pink-oranges. Some of those brighter Zyla colors are fun to include in accessories. Some of the palette goes already with my fan or near close but some are not. I really think the 12 tone fan palette is my best. But yet draped twice was not good enough, I had to REALLY see it myself and compare all other options available especially with the new colors systems out there. User error was my main issue with this fan and for me that yellow strip is one of my saving graces when comparing “clean” or “dirty” yellow as being a good indicator when checking fabrics.

~Softmosaic

 

 

Sunlit Summer Sneak Color Palette

As I eagerly await for my Sunlit Soft Summer palette in the mail, I have done some exploring and creating!

I found this palette on Pinterest. It is the warmer colors of Soft Summer photoshopped. However, I will say that where are the purples? They clearly are missing and I’d be supposed when I get the Sunlit Soft Summer fan that it wouldn’t have purple.

I always thought I had a touch of light brown on my skin more so then other Soft Summers but that had me thinking I was a Toned Spring or Soft Autumn which I may find Toned Spring is too bright/warm overall and Soft Autumn is too muted/heavy on me.

My skin is like a peachy-pink with a touch of light brown like the flowers in the collage. So my skin looks bright, tricky because it looks very Spring season. My eyes have a brightness too like a Spring person, but the saturation is lower and the colors a bit cooler blue-green with hints of yellow-taupe like speckles and star shape. My hair is like drift wood  from the beach, in that it is multi-tonal in warmth. It comes in like a mauve silver brown and lightens into a soft golden color in the sun that can get as light as soft yellow. My eyebrows resemble Soft Summer rust color, warm yet still cool. There is no question, when I look at this palette, I see my natural coloring reflected in them.

This model on the right, her hair is coming in ash but warms at the bottom. That is exactly like my hair color. As well, she has very similar colored eyebrows and has a “rosy” quality to her that I have as well in my skin.

This model for Dusty Soft Spring lacks that “rosy” quality that I seem to have. I’m not throwing in the towel yet on Dusty Soft Spring until I see the palette. It after all  would be my “sister season” and one of my best “cheat” seasons if you will that I could pull off in the Color Breeze System. Having more options and changing up a look is fun, it’s more open-minded in a sense. We can color outside the lines and add elements and pops of colors from outside configured color space that could enhance or improve our look/make it unique and interesting.

This collage I posted a while ago in another blog post. I wonder if these women are still considered Toned Spring with the new Color Breeze System? We have similar complexions although if it’s just the quality of the camera, there skin seems much more “saturated” then mine does.But  I do notice a similar rosy cheek color in both models.

Sun and Sky look:

This might be one of my favorite looks I have put together. Mixing warm and cool.

 

I feel very at home in these colors. Hopefully the palette I ordered is of my standard or expectation, hopefully it exceeds it.

Before I started this blog, on a previous blog: Lightmarigoldspring, I knew Soft Summer palette on the 12 tone fan is hard to use and it is not individual enough for my taste. I think that’s why custom palettes are superior in that sense however it doesn’t mean custom palettes are exactly correct either, it’s more an art vision. What is correct is what is correct to you as the individual. But I think we can get closer and need to listen to our instincts. I felt some colors to chilly, too drab, too heavy in many cases on my 12 tone fan. I think that a more specific palette would help the consumer stay away from those choices. Why are the luxury drapes so awesome at a draping yet the fan can’t seem to get results anywhere close. It’s  user error, it’s the fan, it’s where your looking to buy clothes, etc.

~Softmosaic

 

Why There Are More Soft Seasons

Photo credit to Lora Alexander from Pretty Your World.

Please visit Lora’s website for a full explanation. Below is a snippet:

“Then there are the Soft’s. Soft seasons are not the lightest, the deepest, the warmest or the coolest. They certainly aren’t the clearest. Using our tree example, they are close to the center of the tree. The closer it is to the tree trunk, the more ‘grey’ or desaturated it becomes. The sun doesn’t hit the interior of the tree much. This is where the Soft’s reside. There are lighter and deeper soft seasons. There are softs that are more warm than cool (toasted) or more cool than warm (toned).

It is the discovery of these wide range of soft seasons that ColorBreeze© was born! One cannot just be considered ‘Soft’ now and feel they know their season. Are you the lighter or darker, warmer or cooler Soft? ColorBreeze will find the perfect spot for you on the tree”

-Lora alexander (Color Breeze System)

The Sunlit Soft Summer can think and others can be most convinced that they are a Spring. I felt a huge connection with the description of the sun and lightest of the Softs. A lot of Soft Summer was too heavy and dark on me, not to mention I made swatching mistakes that had me purchasing Dark Winter and Cool Summer which both are pretty harsh on my complexion. It is understandable how Light Spring Soft would be great on me compared to my inaccurate Soft Summer purchases.

When draped again by Rachel of 12 blueprints I really loved the luxury drapes, however there was a soft autumn brown I liked and a Light Summer yellow I fancied. I thought well, why is this?

Now that I see that the Sunlit Soft Summer sits near the top of the tree near the sun I understand why I was so frustrated with Soft Summer before. I can see how one might think that narrowing a palette can cause limits, but If someone perceives themselves a certain way and I saw myself always as “sunny” its very confusing when your wearing clothes that seem too serious, heavy, dark and make you feel waited down. It makes sense that those colors are in the same realm but much farther down the tree towards the trunk. I am not that far down, I am towards the sun. I’m next to Light Summer but not that bright, makes sense why I like some Light Summer colors, and I am neighboring with Dusty Soft Spring which is the cooler soft spring. This makes sense why I have always adored and been able to pull of those colors pretty decently since it would be a neighbor season. Personally I’d prefer a palette/fan like the Sunlit Soft Summer because I am not going to accidentally purchase Dark Winter clothes with them and so on. It’s specifically my best and there is a lot of ranging mixtures of colors in that smaller honed realm.

This picture on the left is too heavy and slightly too saturated as well. Could be Dark Winter or maybe a darker soft summer could wear this. On me it’s not right. Now the second pictures I am wearing grey-green yellow and it’s much better. I am for sure lighter and towards the sunshine. Keep in mind the Left picture I am wearing makeup and the right I am wearing none.

These looks are very sunny. This is why they are so awesome on me.

Another really good example of how Soft Summer really can be split because what’s on the left is so not me.

Another really good example, the left drape is glowing and just looks like something I’d love to wear, the right seems heavy and I feel like someone else, not the me I’ve always known. Another great thing about the drapes on the left is the color combinations. Just 1 color or a neutral looks pretty boring on me, I need at least 2 colors for color contrast. I’d also like to point out these left and right photos all though not taken the same year were both taken in the winter time. This is due to wearing correct makeup and wearing my best colors that the left pictures showcase a glowing and healthy look.

Pictures below from Lora Alexander’s seasonal catalog:

This is a perfect example of why the Soft Seasons can be broken up. My current theory is I am a Sunlit Soft Summer and I am testing it out. This why I love the lighter and brighter colors on me and not the darker side of the palette better for Toasted or Smokey Soft Summer.

These pictures make the same point as the ones above.

 

Here are some great examples from Lora’s website catalogue on Sunlit Soft Summer colors. The are wonderful and they are definitely  that sunny top of the tree colors that I thought I should be.

For the Summers, this photo is exclusive on Lora’s site for Sunlit only. I have a love of this color… and now I know why. I think there are some summers that can wear soft peach shades. This is a shared color with the Dusty Soft Spring, so I see how I keep thinking I could be a Soft Spring especially when some other colors systems don’t allow a peach on a Soft Summer.

Zyla is right, these are excellent shades on me and one that just seems to work so well.

Here  you can see the resemblance of some of the Zyla colors. The Zyla swatches are coming out a bit more saturated then in real life but this is the idea when compared to Sunlit Soft Summer. Some of the bright colors like the top turquoise I prefer as a color pop in jewelry more then a whole garment…

In small doses the brighter colors are awesome and create a unique “personality” style that is more me and possibly works week for the Sunlit Soft Summer considering their place on the tree in near the sun and close to L. Summer and neighboring Dusty Spring.

Here are some Soft Spring shades from Lora’s site including the Dusty Soft Spring. I might be able to pull of some of these but that last one seems way to neon green for me. Zyla didn’t give me yellow although he thought about it. He said stay away from grass greens as well, and non of my colors look as highlighter as that last shirt.

So who would better wear my custom palette? Of course I would wear it best because it’s custom.

I’m very curious what the Sunlit Soft Summer palette will be like once the color fan arrives!

~Softmosaic