The How and Why of colour analysis

Ready to discover your own personal colour palette? Colour analysis is the best way to definitively explore all the colours in the world and come home to your own personal colour palette.

Colour analysis has been around for at least 40 years, but the concept of how we interact with certain colour palettes has been around for hundreds of years, ever since portrait painters began to realise the impact of the colours they used for their subjects (if you’d like to learn more, click here to read a full history of colour analysis)

The idea of colour analysis is a simple one: we all have a unique combination of hair, eye and skin colour, but that combination comes together to create a look that is overall warm or cool toned. We also have either a high contrast ‘clear’ look (for an extreme example, think of Snow White, with her pale skin, red lips and black hair) or a lower contrast ‘soft’ look (imagine elegant dark blonde, grey eyes and mid-toned skin - a far lower contrast look). These two factors come together to create four possible combinations, which we assign to each of the four seasonal palettes:

(More seasonal imagery here)

Spring: warm colouring, clear

Autumn: warm colouring, soft

Summer: cool colouring, soft

Winter: cool colouring, clear

Every colour in the world can also be assigned to one of these palettes, depending on its relative level of warmth/coolness and clarity/softness. Using carefully chosen drapes, it’s possible for a colour analyst to assess which of these palettes you belong to. There are slight differences between analysts, but essentially each one will compare warm and cool colours, and then soft and clear colours, to see which ones make your eyes sparkle, your skin glow and, above all, make you feel amazing.

And this is where the real magic of colour happens. Once you know your colour palette, you can begin to shop for colours that make you feel that incredible every single day, enhancing your confidence and presence and, for those who have been lacking in confidence, bring back feeling good in yourself again.

The best way to discover your colour palette is with an in person analysis, and we have a directory of colour analysts around the world who are as passionate as we are about colour and finding the palette that will give you colour confidence. If you’re not quite ready to take the leap yet, our colour quiz will help give an indication of which palette might be best for you, and get you started on the colourful adventure of a lifetime!

* CTA quiz, find a stylist