Colour Analysis: How to Find Your Perfect Colour Palette

Unlock the Secrets of Colour Theory to Enhance Your Style and Boost Your Confidence with the Expert Tips and Practical Steps

Here at Bamboo Body, we LOVE colours! As a slow fashion brand, we usually launch only two seasonal collections a year – our Autumn/Winter and Spring/Summer collections. Each collection brings back our beloved styles in fresh, new seasonal colour palettes. Our design team carefully selects these colors to ensure that everyone finds their perfect shades within each new collection.

We understand that choosing the right colour can be a bit tricky – let's face it, colour analysis is truly a science! Many of our customers are curious about colours and how to select them. To make sure we got it right, we teamed up with an expert – Silvia from Colour Me Coach. She graciously shared her expertise to help us understand the theory behind colour analysis and even did a personal colour analysis for our team. Now, we can confidently help you choose the best colors for your next Bamboo Body purchase!

By understanding your personal colour palette, you can enhance your appearance and build a sustainable wardrobe that you love. So, let's dive into the world of colour analysis and discover the best colours for you!

What is Colour Analysis?

Armocromia, or the Italian art of colour analysis, is all about finding the shades that make you look and feel amazing by categorising individuals into different "seasons" based on the natural colouring of their skin tone, eyes, and hair. Traditionally, this involves four primary seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Each season has a specific colour palette that harmonises with the natural tones of those who belong to that season.

But let's be real – most of us don't fit neatly into one of these four categories because this model didn't quite consider the diversity of people's colouring. That's where the 12 seasons colour analysis comes in. This refined approach offers a more nuanced way to find your perfect colours by considering variations in temperature, saturation and depth.

How Understanding Your Personal Colour Palette Can Transform Your Style

Discovering your personal colour palette can simplify many aspects of your life and make fashion fun and effortless:

Wardrobe Choices: Shopping becomes a breeze when you know which colours suit you best. Focus on hues that flatter your natural tones, resulting in a cohesive and stunning wardrobe.

Makeup Selection: Say goodbye to guesswork! Knowing your palette helps you choose the perfect shades of lipstick, foundation, and blush, enhancing your natural features beautifully.

Confidence Boost: Wearing colours that complement your skin tone can make you look fresh and vibrant, boosting your confidence and making you feel fabulous.

The 12 Seasons Colour Analysis

The twelve seasons colour analysis takes the traditional four seasons approach and adds a modern twist by considering three key dimensions of colour: temperature (cool or warm), saturation (muted or bright) and depth (light or deep). This refined method offers a more personalised and accurate way to find your perfect colour palette. It’s like having a tailor-made guide for your wardrobe and makeup choices, helping you to always look your best effortlessly.

Below, you can see how this translates into the seasons. We still have the familiar Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn, but each has three unique characteristics.

In other words, if we break down the characteristics of each season, this is what we get:

Winter: Cool, Bright, & Deep
Summer: Cool, Soft, & Light
Spring: Warm, Bright, & Light
Autumn: Warm, Soft, & Deep

Seasonal Colour Palettes

Each season in this model has 3 unique colour palettes designed to enhanse your natural features. By identifying your season, you can choose colours that make you look vibrant and feel confident. Let's explore the seasonal colour palettes. Check out Silvia's online store for full colour palettes for every season.

Spring Colour Palettes

Spring colours are warm, bright, and light. Look for sunny yellows, fresh greens, and clear corals. These shades bring a sense of freshness and energy, perfect for a lively and cheerful wardrobe.

Warm Spring: Warm and bright hues that enhance warmth in your complexion. This is an example of the warmest colours among the spring hues.

Bright Spring: Bright and warm colours that bring energy and vibrancy. This is the most saturated spring palette.

Light Spring: Light and warm shades that provide a fresh, delicate look. The lightest of the spring palettes.

Summer Colour Palettes

Summer palettes feature cool, soft, and light shades. Pastel blues, soft pinks, and muted purples dominate this palette, creating a calm and elegant appearance. These colours are ideal for a soft and sophisticated look.

Cool Summer: Cool and muted tones that create a calm and elegant appearance. The cooles summer palette.

Soft Summer: Soft and cool shades that offer a gentle, understated look. The most muted of the 3 summer palettes.

Light Summer: Light and cool colours that give a soft, airy, watercolour feel. The lightest summer palette.

Autumn Colour Palettes

Autumn is all about warm, muted, and deep tones. Think rich browns, earthy oranges, and olive greens. These colours are perfect for those who prefer a cozy, grounded, and natural look.

Warm Autumn: Warm and muted hues that reflect the coziness of autumn. This is the warmest autumn palette.

Soft Autumn: Muted and warm colours that harmonise with earthy tones. The most muted autumn palette.

Deep Autumn: Deep and warm shades that add intensity and warmth. The darkest Autumn pallete.

Winter Colour Palettes

Winter palettes are all about cool, bright, and deep hues. Think vibrant jewel tones like emerald green, sapphire blue, and ruby red. Crisp whites and stark blacks also make the cut, providing a high contrast look that is both striking and elegant.

Cool Winter: Cool and bright hues that bring clarity and brilliance. This is an example of the coolest winter colours.

Deep Winter: Deep and cool colours that truly show the depth of the colour. This is the darkest of the winter colour palettes.

Bright Winter: Bright and cool shades that create a bold, dynamic look. This is the most saturated winter palette.

How to Apply Colour Theory in Practice

So, how do you put all this colour theory into practice? Well, the practical side is a lot of fun! During a personal colour analysis session, there’s a lot of try-ons and tests with swatches to find the right parameters. Silvia analysed four members of the Bamboo Body team to determine their colours, and here are some easy steps you can follow to analyse yourself:

Find the Temperature of Your Skin Undertone: Warm (Autumn and Spring) or Cool (Summer and Winter)? This is the first and most crucial step in colour analysis as it eliminates two seasons right away. Look at your veins, eye colour, and natural hair colour. Try holding a warm colour and a cool colour up to your face – which one makes your skin look more vibrant and alive? That's your undertone.
Determine Your Saturation: Bright (Winter and Spring) or Soft/Muted (Autumn and Summer)? Next, understand your saturation or intensity. Are your features more bright and vivid, or soft and muted? This step will determine your Season!
Assess Your Depth/Contrast: Deep (Winter and Autumn) or Light (Spring and Summer)? Finally, consider the depth and contrast of your features. Do you have a high contrast between your hair, skin, and eyes, or are they more similar in tone? You know your season already. This is the final step, which will determine which of the three seasonal colour palettes is best for you and determine your leading aspect (temperature, saturation, or depth).

Now combine all three aspects – temperature, saturation, and depth – to discover your season!

Applying the Colour Analysis knowledge: Daria's Example

Let's put this into practice with an example of how Silvia analysed Daria, one of our team members.

Skin Undertone

Daria’s undertone is cool. A cool coloured swatch looks more complimentary on her skin. Her eyes are a cool blue colour, and her natural hair is a cool mid-brown. This means she’s one of the cool seasons – either Summer or Winter!

Cool blue colours

Warm orange

Intencity

Trying summer palette

Trying winter palette

Next, let's test Daria's colour intensity, or saturation. Is she bright or muted? While her eyes are quite bright, her other features, like skin and hair, are more soft. So, Winter colours might be too intense for her. This leaves us with the Summer colour palettes! Exciting!

Colour Depth

Light Summer/Soft Summer

Cool Summer palette

Soft Summer palette

What's Daria's colour depth? Summer palettes can only be light, not dark. We try three Summer palettes to find out which one would be the most complimentary to her features. Will she be Soft Summer (most muted), Light Summer (the lightest of all), or Cool Summer?

Her skin and hair are not too light, whereas her eyes are super light in colour. For this combination, Soft Summer colours are too muted because of her bright & light eyes, but Light Summer colours are too light (because her hair and skin are not blond and pale). Silvia determined her leading aspect as temperature (cool), which is most important for her when choosing colours.

By analysing Daria's skin, hair, and eye colour, we determined that her season is Cool Summer. This means that her leading aspect of colour is temperature. Cooler tones make her look fresh and vibrant. Silvia says that Daria can also pull off some colours from the Cool Winter palette because this palette's temperature is also cool.

Applying these steps can help you build a wardrobe that highlights your natural beauty and boosts your confidence.

Discover Your Perfect Colours from the Bamboo Body Collection

Now, let’s find out your perfect colour match from the Bamboo Body collection! Here are the ideal colours for each season:

Winter Colours

Forest green

Dark navy

True red

Storm

Autumn Colours

Burgundy

Olive Green

Spice

Biscuit

Spring Colours

Teal

Cardamom

Apricot

Green

Summer Colours

Pale pink

Silver pine

Limoncello

Blue haze

We hope all this information was helpful and that you were able to determine your colour palette! But remember, even if some colours aren’t technically considered yours, you can still rock any hue you love.

Silvia says:

"You can wear any colour, just make sure to add some complementary colours in your clothes or accessories to make that “not ideal” colour work. Colour analysis is all about education and expanding your repertoire"

We wholeheartedly agree with Silvia and encourage you to be curious and experimental with your colour choices. We know that many of our customers play it safe with familiar black and white. We want to inspire you to think outside the box, venture into new colour territories, and maybe even book a session with Colour Me Coach. It's so much fun, and you'll learn a lot about yourself, boosting your confidence when shopping.

Stay tuned, because we have plenty more colour content coming your way! Embrace the power of colour analysis to enhance your style, simplify your wardrobe choices, and most importantly, have fun with colours.