I was at a social gathering recently where I was put on the spot by the hostess, who asked me to explain colour analysis and my interest in it to a fellow party-goer and it got me thinking, because even now, still, I find colour analysis overwhelming to explain. It’s something, to my mind, that is relevant to everyone and beneficial to everyone. In addition, it sounds too good to be true. Not only does it sound too good to be true, but if the person I’m talking to is open-minded enough to believe what I’m saying there’s still an excellent chance I will be met with defensiveness, which often happens, and I will hastily add now that I completely understand the reasons for this.

In general, people worry about what other people think of them, and no-one relishes the prospect of being wrong, particularly when it comes to our own bodies and appearance. So often, when I explain what colour analysis is (and I’m not met with a look of incredulity) the next oft-cited phrase I might hear is loaded with insecurity and defensiveness. This is frustrating because it stems from a complete lack of understanding as to what a colour analyst does. We’re not the colour police or Trinny & Susannah, we’re not going to tell you off. We want to give you options, we want to make you happy, we want you to feel good in your own skin. Of course you can still go on wearing black / olive / lilac if it isn’t your best colour or even if it makes you look ill. We don’t judge because actually we truly understand that getting dressed, on a bad day, can be a surprisingly complex thing fraught with worry and there are plenty of reasons why you might choose not to wear your most flattering colours, all perfectly valid. We’re in the business we’re in because we want to help ease that angst, not because we’re smug about ‘getting it right’ and want to impose rules on you. And on the subject of insecurity, I think about how so many people, especially women, get sucked into the hype sold by the cosmetics and beauty industry (myself included) and how so little of these people know that by simply wearing the right colours (and by right I mean those that match your own colours in brightness and temperature) they can almost certainly skip the concealer.

As a colour analyst, what I want most is for you to have options. I want you to know your most flattering colours so that you can choose to wear them, or choose not to. Knowledge is power, knowledge is empowerment. Perhaps the opposite of empowerment is insecurity. Insecurity is a funny thing. Fashion and cosmetics companies play on it to sell us things. Insecurity is fundamentally a type of fear. I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t fear judgement from others on some level (whether it be about how they look, or their competence at work, or their personality). They might admit it, they might not. It’s perfectly natural.

Colour analysis allows us to see you, not your hair, make-up or clothes. When the colours are right we see your bone structure, the shape of your lips, the line around your iris, the shape of your nose, I could go on. I understand that for some this might feel uncomfortable at first. Not everyone wants to be noticed for who they are, to be seen so clearly, but it is certainly beautiful to behold.

When I start to explain colour analysis, I hear a lot of the same comebacks. To those that say, “I already know what colours suit me” I want to reply “But don’t you want to know the formula? Don’t you want to know if there are colours out there that look amazing on you that you don’t already know about?”

To those that say, “I don’t want to be told what colours to wear” I would say “But we’re not, surely what you put on your body is entirely up to you? Aren’t you curious to know if there are some colours out there that really can make you look younger and your skin smoother and your eyes brighter?”

To those that say, “It makes no difference what colours people wear” I would say “But would you buy the first frame you found in the right size for a painting you’d bought? Didn’t think so. You’d pick a frame that looked harmonious with the painting.” We’re no different. We need ‘framing’ too.

To those that say, “I don’t want to be told I’m doing it all wrong” I would say “I understand. Please, don’t worry. It doesn’t matter. No-one, least of all me, is going to judge you for what you turn up in.” Instead of fearing judgement or getting caught up in whether or not you’re ‘doing it wrong’ I just wish that people would relax, and breathe, and know that people are often so caught up in worrying about what others think of them that they’re not really looking at you at all. So often when someone turns up for an analysis they are fretting about their outfit and I often think how funny it is that they are so busy worrying about their own outfit that they’re not looking at mine and judging whether I’m practising what I preach and whether, based on my appearance, I’m worth the money they’re giving me.

When I’m asked to explain colour analysis and why it’s great, everything I’ve mentioned here runs through my head. It’s overwhelming. I feel a sense of great responsibility to impart what I know about it and why I think it could help someone and I often feel I fail to convey what I wanted to get across. I want to tell them how it changed my life. I want to tell them that now, every day, getting dressed is easy. Buying make-up is easy. I can put as much or as little effort into my outfit as I want and I’ll consistently feel comfortable leaving the house in it. I want to tell them that it wasn’t always this way. I want to tell them about the days when I’d leave the house hoping I wouldn’t bump into anyone I knew. I want to tell them how ugly I felt some days, the shame, the frustration of having a wardrobe full of clothes but nothing I felt I could put on and leave the house in. I want them to know that when I started wearing my colours I started to feel good about looking in the mirror, not anxious or shy. When someone asks me to explain what colour analysis is, perhaps I’ll just point them to this article instead 🙂