Color Me Beautiful

Friends, in my search for new ways to put off doing my biostatistics homework, I stumbled upon the book "Color Me Beautiful" by Carole Jackson. It was apparently very popular in the 80s. This book does what is called "seasonal color anlysis." It breaks down people's complexions into a variety of seasons (four in the original, twelve in the updated version) and gives color palettes for each type that are supposed to enhance your appearance.

Cover of "Color Me Beautiful" by Carole Jackson.

Here is the basic method of figuring this out:

1) Do you look better in gold or silver? If you look better in gold your skin has warm undertones. If you look better in silver your skin has cool undertones.

2) Is your natural hair color dark or light for your ethnicity? Note the "for your ethnicity" part. One of the things people have said is that this system is for white people. Not so. You are not comparing your coloring to everyone - only to your own ethnic or racial group. So I'm comparing myself to other white folks (or other half Italian half French people if I meet any of them) and you should compare yourself to other people who are black, asian, latin@, or whatever ethnicity or race you are.

Using these two things, you've now got your season. I'm a summer, but I realize that determining this may be more difficult for some of you so I've added Disney princesses to help:

Cartoon of all of the Disney princesses posed together.

Winter - dark, cool. Snow White, Mulan, or Megara.
Spring - light, warm. Princess Jasmine, Belle, or Ariel.
Fall - dark, warm. Esmerelda or Pocahontas.
Summer - light, cool. Aurora, Cinderella, or Tiana.

Now, there are six secondary factors added in the updated version. Pick the one that is most dominant for your overall coloring. Here's the part where I can't decide. The secondary factors are:

Light - Your hair color and skin tone are both light for your ethnicity and your eyes are light blue, green, or grey. Summer or spring.

Dark - You have dark hair (black or very dark brown) and light to medium brown, green, or hazel eyes. Winter or fall.

Warm - Your overall coloring has an obvious warm undertone to it. Your hair is either strawberry blonde to auburn or golden blonde to brown and your eyes are deep brown, green, topaz, or hazel. Spring or fall.

Cool - Just the opposite of warm, your coloring has an underlying cool quality to it. Winter or summer.

Clear - Your overall coloring is high in contrast. Your hair is either very light or very dark and your eyes are bright blue or green, turquoise, amber, or topaz. Spring or winter.

Soft - Your overall coloring is low in contrast and close to neutral. Your skin and hair are similarly colored and your eyes are green, hazel, greyish blue, or brown. Summer or fall.

To complete your seasonal color analysis, you're supposed to combine your season with your secondary trait. I ganked this chart to help us visualize what we're working with:

Season wheel with the secondary traits mapped onto it.

At this point you are probably still lost. Or at least, I am still lost. So I looked up a bunch of celebrity examples. Most of these are white women.  Sorry! I tried :(

Cool Winter - Sasha Luss, Olivia Wild, Brooke Shields, Mila Kunis, Katherine Zeta Jones, Kristen Stewart

Deep Winter - Salma Hayek, Lucy Liu, Halle Berry, Michelle Obama, Naomi Campbell, Penelope Cruz, Michelle Williams, Johnny Depp, the Jonas brothers

Clear Winter - Courteney Cox, Zooey Deschanel, Katy Perry, Demi Moore, Liv Tyler, Vanessa Williams, Lupita Nyong'o, Zhang Ziyi, Kevin Brown, Romany Malco

Clear Spring - Emma Stone, Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, Heather Graham, Drew Barrymore, Britney Spears

Light Spring - Cameron Diaz, Kylie Minogue, Blake Lively, Renee Zellweger, Kate Hudson, Taylor Swift, Selita Ebanks, Kerry Washington, Owen Wilson, Alan Jackson

Warm Spring - Heidi Klum, Michelle Williams, Scarlett Johansson, Christina Hendricks, Ivanka Trump, Amy Adams, Conan O'Brien

Warm Fall - Lindsey Lohan, Julia Roberts, Beyonce, Olivia Palermo, Isla Fisher, Tilda Swinton

Deep Fall - Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Alba, Eva Mendez, Victoria Beckham, Sandra Bullock, Karina Smirnoff, Denzel Washington

Soft Fall - Nicole Richie, Gisele Bundchen, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Rachel Zoe, the Olsen twins, Mariah Carey, Rihanna, David Beckham, Justin Timberlake

Soft Summer -  Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kate Moss, Katie Holmes, Ashlee Simpson, Leona Lewis, Danielle Leonel, Adriana Lima, Jude Law

Light Summer - Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Amy Poehler, Heather Locklear, Grace Kelly, Leonardo Di Caprio

Cool Summer - Milla Jovovich, Elizabeth Hurley, Miranda Lambert, Ruth Wilson, Christy Brinkley, Kimberly Williams

As I said, I initially had trouble deciding between the three summer types for myself. I finally determined that soft summers are more monochromatic than I am - most of those celebrities have hair and skin tones that are very similar to one another. They are also supposed to look good in cocoa brown, which makes my skin look flat and dull. The cool summers are more um… cool? Their coloring is sharper than mine. And they are supposed to look good in mint green, which turns my skin zombie-colored. Light summers are supposed to be flattered by light pinky coral, which is a color I rarely wear because it's so feminine but that always garners complements. So after all of this extensive research, I've decided I'm a light summer. Looks like I'm in good - and mostly blonde - company.

For reference, here's me:

Me on an overcast day.

Me on a sunny day.

Still lost? Use the colors here to go rule out some seasons.

If you're a person of color and want exta help figuring this out, try the link here.

What do you think? Were you able to figure out your color palette? Does it seem accurate?