Nat Laurel

I put this personal colors shopping fan together for a lady whose complexion looks warm at  first sight but has very strong pink undertones.  Many women with such complexion run into a problem of not finding colors that work for them.  She is a  Renaissance,  S-type beauty, who has some Paleo,  Z-type presence and wants to play it up.

The challenge  is to build a neutral palette, that is based on blue-undertones but still  supports the effervescent warmth of the skin tone and brings out that  magnificent  feline eye color.  To maintain the fragile balance, try to think of the dusk painted in watercolor. I find the  hues names to be  very descriptive. From left to right.

Rose Dust….

Oriental Midnight Bronze….

Rose-Brown Madder…..

Wood Violet, Grayed Aubergine…

A couple of dark hues that stand in for your basic black.  Despite its  commercial success, black overwhelms many people’s complexion and facial bone structure  by its harsh, graphic appeal.  A lot of us would benefit from the softer  versions of the dark neutral.

Transatlantic Blue…..

Bronze Smoke, Black Tea…

Dove, Flint, Antler, Raven….

At a distance these softer dark neutrals will look black. This is exactly  the idea, to get you the softer version of your ‘black’.

One of the biggest challenges for women with strong pink undertone is finding their metallics. Neither gold nor silver work for such complexion and we  scan  through tons of metal “Must-Haves”  hoping to come across a shoe, a party dress or a necklace in Rose Gold and Rose Copper.

Between the Rose Copper and  the  Dried Sage Green sticks rests a  prints and patterns stick. I took some liberties here, borrowing  it from a much warmer, toasted palette. I looked for ways to play up the watercolor warmness of the skin tone and the  slight oriental appeal  of the European face.

For assembling personal color palettes  I use Seasonal System developed by a California stylist, Susan Caygill (1911-1994).  This fan is based on two palettes:  Dusk and Iridescent Summer. I also made a couple of “steals” from the Autumn palette.  Find our more about my work  here.