Colour Analysis: A Guide for Winters

Have you recently had a colour analysis and been told you suit the winter palette? Perhaps you knew all along those were your best colours, or maybe it's come as a complete surprise, perhaps even a bit overwhelming?  In this months blog, we will explore the Winter palette and help you make the most out of your beautiful Winter colouring.

Colour analysis:  A brief introduction

Let’s start from the beginning incase you are not familiar with colour analysis or you haven’t had a consultation yourself yet. Colour analysis is when a trained colour stylist works with you to find a palette of colours that complements the natural colouring you have in your skin, hair and eyes. When we wear colour that is in harmony with our own naturally occurring colours, the overall look is more cohesive, and the colour enhances the best of our colouring rather than fighting against it. If you’ve ever tried on a colour in a changing room and instantly felt washed out, then you’ll know what it means to have a colour fight against you. The best colours for you to wear are based on finding harmonious tones that complement and enhance your natural colouring.

In seasonal colour analysis, we do this by using a base of four possible colour palettes that are named after the four seasons. Each palette has different tonal properties that are designed to work beautifully together, meaning they are great foundations on which to build your wardrobe, and your outfits. In this blog, we’re looking at just one of the four palettes: the Winter.

Understanding the Winter Palette

If you’ve had a colour consultation and been told you are a winter, then we can assume that your natural colouring has an element of coolness rather than warmth, that you suit deeper colours rather than lights and that there may be something about the intensity of a colour that means that brighter or highly contrasting colours suit you better than soft or muted colours. Your winter palette might look something like this:

These colours are reflective of the tones of winter; bright icy colours in high contrast. These colours have a clear crisp quality to them, think of the contrast of snow against a blue sky and red berries.

Drama, Artistry and Contrast: Key Elements in Your Wardrobe

When it comes to your wardrobe, think about using your clothes to create elements of the dramatic. You can use your bright winter colours against a backdrop of neutrals to create a stunning look. Your neutral colours include black, grey, navy and crisp white. These neutrals are readily available and work hard to set off your bolder tones. 

In your colour analysis session, your stylist should have shown you which colours are your neutrals and how to wear them with your other colours, but they may also have shown you your very best colours - those absolute wow combinations that really enhance your eye colour and make an incredible first impression. There may also be a few colours in the palette that don't work so well for you and your stylist may have explained these or given you an outfit percentage of how much you should use in an outfit or print.

Make-up Colours: Enhancing Your Natural Beauty

Your makeup colours should complement your Winter colouring. Here are a few suggestions:

Use a Pink toned lipstick or gloss, like this one from PHB.

Hair Colour and Jewellery to Complement Your Winter Palette

Your hair colour and jewellery can also play a huge role in enhancing your Winter palette. For hair colour, you might have black, ash brown or brunette hair, or you might have a wonderful silver grey hue.  If you love to dye your hair, plum tones can work really well.  Blonde is a rare hair colour for winters, but if you are blonde it is most likely a bright or platinum blonde.  

Your jewellery is where you can make a bold individual statement, and many winters are drawn to bright, shiny or colourful jewels. Think diamonds, emeralds and sapphires in silver or platinum settings.

Getting started with your colour palette

Once you’ve had a colour analysis it can sometimes be easy to feel very excited and overdose on the colours, only to find it’s then hard to put them together. Start by seeing what you already own in the wardrobe in your colours and experiment with how you can combine those to make an outfit. As you come to replace things, build your neutral items and then add a smattering of your wow colours either as scarves or a top and go from there. It’s also a good idea to start looking for brands that really embrace the winter palette: take a look at Hobbs, Whistles, and Phase Eight to get started. Even if you’re like us and prefer to buy clothes preloved, being able to search by some of your best brands is a great way to find preloved bargains online.

This Hobbs Dress is in Winter Colours

Style overlay

In colour analysis very often I find that there are commonalities beyond colour. Certain personality traits, home styling preferences, hobbies, activities and style preferences can be similar within a group of people who share the same colour palette.

With winters very often there is an air of the artistic or dramatic in their styling.  Often winters prefer to look well put together, right from hair and make up down to shoes.  Footwear and shoes are really important, and many winters have an impressive shoe collection!  Sparkles, colour, sumptuous fabrics, and a sharp, crisp look can all play a part in the wardrobe of a winter. 

Some take the artistic side even further with a love of real artisan or hand made individual pieces.  Others might prefer the cutting edge of fashion, while some love nothing more than a designer bargain, winters seem to have an innate understanding of their own natural style and often this is coupled with a flair for design and originality.

Further Colour Inspiration and Resources

If you're in search of additional colour inspiration and resources, check out https://www.kettlewellcolours.co.uk/find-your-colours/colour-combinations

where you can use their colour inspiration page for combination ideas.

We also organise preloved clothing on our website by colour season, so you can get a feel for the clothes we’d consider “winter friendly” here: https://frankieandruby.co.uk/collections/winter

For more tips on how to get started with your palette to create outfits, check out our blog post at:

https://www.frankieandruby.co.uk/post/2018/04/06/help-ive-had-my-colours-done-now-what

Next Steps: Making the Most Out of Your Winter Palette

If you're interested in diving deeper into your colour analysis, consider these next steps:

For more details on these offerings, email victoria@frankieandruby.co.uk.

Wrapping Up

Understanding your Winter palette can be a game-changer in enhancing your personal style and confidence. We hope this guide has provided you with a solid foundation, and we're always here to answer any questions you may have. Feel free to reach out at victoria@frankieandruby.co.uk

Thank you for reading, and if this guide has been helpful, we'd love to hear from you! Feel free to leave your comments below about your own colour analysis experience.