Your Color Style

What does chroma have to do with color analysis? Bright vs Soft

February 08, 2019 Jen Thoden Season 1 Episode 1
Your Color Style
What does chroma have to do with color analysis? Bright vs Soft
Show Notes Transcript

One of the most common misunderstandings in determining what colors look best on you is the chroma of a color. In this episode, I break down the first step in the Your Color Style methodology so that you can understand, right away, what types of colors will look best on you. We focus on chroma of a color and your personal chroma. Then we dive into what it means to be "Bright" in Your Color Style. What you learn in this episode may surprise you and hopefully, steer you in the right direction for choosing your most flattering colors.
Please visit Your Color Style to discover more info and products on learning your best colors. And please email support@yourcolorstyle.com with any comments or questions you may have.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the your color style podcast, where we believe the more you know about color, the more you'll know what color is flatter you best. I'm your host Jen Thornton. So I'm changing up the format, a little bit of the podcast. If you've been a listener at any point, you probably figured out that most of the, if not all of the episodes have been pretty much the audio version of the videos out on YouTube. So I'm changing that up because I want this to be more personal and to actually have a conversation with you. So you're gonna start noticing a difference and I hope you like it. If you want to send me feedback on what you're hearing and if you have questions for me that I can answer on the podcast, please send those to support@yourcolorstyle.com. I would absolutely love to hear from you and to hear what your questions are so that can start answering those on a future podcast episode. Okay, great. So I want to start out this new format by creating a series that's going to break down the key concepts of the your color style methodology. You know, I use a lot of different words. A lot of it comes from color analysis as a standard and some of it is kind of unique to your color style. But I really believe that the more that you understand about the, the words that I'm using and the different kind of characteristics of color, the better you're going to be able to to identify what colors really flatter you best. And that's the whole point here. So we're going to break that down. So we're going to be learning a lot over the next few episodes. Could it be like stepping inside my brain and learning how I personally color analyze people except the information will be so that you can do your own self color analysis. Right? And besides that, I mean it won't be all my brain. It's pretty noisy in there. So we don't want to listen to all of it. Just the color stuff. So, so we're going to start out talking about chroma. The first two episodes in this series, this one on the next one are going to be focused on chroma because that's how important it is to determining what colors flatter you best. Okay. So let me back up a little bit and explain to you the three different characteristics of color. Now, you may have heard of this before, but I feel like it's important to refresh so you could understand why we're talking specifically about chroma. So color has three different characteristics. It has hue, which is actually the color, and I'll explain it a little bit more about that in a minute. Chroma, which is really the clarity of the color, how, how bright and clear or soft and muted it is. And then the value, which is how light or dark color is. So a color has an infinite amount of variation. And so do you. And so the idea here is to figure the combination of those characteristics of a color that are going to be in harmony with your combinations of characteristics and color. Okay. So a lot of people don't really realize this, right? When you go into, you take these quizzes or you, you get called analyze and you're told what type you are or what season you are, and then they kind of leave you with that information. But what you don't get is what does that mean? W how does that, why does that work for you? Why are those your colors and can you wear other colors? And how would you know? Right. So that's the point here. We're going to dive a little deep now and, and really understand the, those, those unique variations of color so that you can look at yourself in the same light and figure out what's going to be in harmony with you. So when I use the word color, um, is really a kind of, in a way, equivalent to hue. And this is easily misunderstood. So someone might say, well, you said that I don't look good in, in, in, and red, but I look really good in dark red. So that's a different color, but it's not, that's the hue. The hue is red. And whether it's dark red or light red or bright red or anything in between, it's still red. Okay. And all the other things that you see about that color is, is the value and chroma, okay? So you have a full spectrum. If you can just imagine a typical color wheel, the w, the perfectly bright colors, each one of those colors is a hue, but you can, you can change the value and you can change the chroma of that color and still have that same hue. Okay, so we're going to talk specifically about chroma. So everything we talk about will be how to see a color and understand it. The variation of that color is right for you. Okay? So chroma, that's what we're talking about in the next two episodes. A color's chroma is how clear and bright or dull and muted a color is. Our goal is to find colors that are in perfect harmony with us. You may want to enhance a natural brightness that you already have, or maybe the goal is to harmonize with some of your softer qualities. And every person is very unique. You may have lots of bright qualities or lots of softer qualities. And the goal here is to find the colors that are in harmony with that and enhance and in harmonize with your natural coloring and tones. Okay? So that's our goal. And your color style, you hear me say bright or soft a lot. Bright means that if I say to you that you are a bright and your color style, what that means is that you will look best in the colors from the bright color palette. Okay? Now in that bright color palette, you're going to see a V, a whole range of colors that range from light to dark, but they happen to be brighter and clear in quality and in clarity, okay? Or if I say to you, you're soft in your color style, that means that you likely will look better in colors that are softer and muted. There they look a little grade and there's a soft color palette for that. And so you likely will pull colors from the soft color palette and look best. Typically, if I say your bright, softer, muted, softer, muted colors tend to kind of, uh, w a little bit maybe, maybe just thought flatter you as much as, I mean you can't wear them, it just means that they won't be as flattering as a pride or color. And if I say to you that your soft, brighter colors probably just feel really uncomfortable, they probably just feel a little bit too intense for your qualities, for your softer qualities. Okay? So that's what I mean when I say that. It's when you hear me say those words. That's what I mean. So for this episode, we're going to focus on bright. Alright, so we're going to get back to talking about chroma and what the has to do with your best colors in just a moment. If you're struggling to figure out what colors look best on you, take the quiz@yourcolorstyle.com it's absolutely free and it will walk you through each step to help you learn your best colors. Okay? So if you wanted that quiz, visit your color style.com/quiz so what does the brightness of a color have to do with your best colors? And that's the question that we are going to answer. If you have brightness about you, then you will likely look better and brighter colors. The brighter you are, the brighter the colors you can wear. So let me give you some examples of different characteristics that likely translate into bright, bright, sparkly eyes. These are eyes that you can help but notice because they just have this brightness about them. So if you can imagine if you have a camera and you have it focused on an object and it's just slightly out of focus and then you take the focus and you tighten it and tweak it until it becomes very, very sharp and clear. That's how I think about bright, sparkly eyes. So if you see someone with bright, sparkly blue eyes, for example, that is likely someone who has a bright quality and is going to be able to wear brighter colors very well. Again looking for that harmony. You don't want to put a great color on someone that has such bright features. It's going to just not work. I want you to think about for just a second, um, a room that is decorated in bright colors. Um, it could be a good little girls room that's in bright pinks and yellows and greens, just bright, friendly colors. And then if you threw in, um, a soft muted blue gray pillow, it, it just doesn't go. You, you would, you would instinctively want to add in brighter colors and maybe even some whites and some blacks to go with those bright colors. That's the same way that you should be thinking about how you are going to wear colors that flatter you best depending on what your level of brightnesses or softness depends on the colors that you're going to wear. That's going to be in harmony with you. Okay. So you can also think about a, a room that's decorated in grays and soft tones. And then if you threw in a bright red pillow, it just wouldn't go. You'd take it out. Right. And then, so I'm talking in terms of, uh, of home decorating here for just a second. But I want to give you an analogy so you can take you away from it for just one moment. And think about in other practical terms. So as a Decker, there is a decorating tip for you, right? Okay. So what we're really working on that harmony, so bright, sparkly eyes and bright eyes, but then will not be blue. They can be bright green, bright violet, really, really bright, uh, extremes. So someone who has black hair, uh, super black or dark, dark Brown, almost black looking eyes, um, with that high contrast. So for example, someone who has black shiny hair and almost fair white skin has that high contrast and is going to look best in bright colors. Okay? So think of like a snow white, for example, as a cartoon character that very white skin would, that very, very dark hair and bright blue eyes. That's going to be someone that is going to be wearing bright colors very well and shouldn't wear anything but brighter colors. Okay? Someone who has really, really dark hair, really, really dark eyes and very fair skin also has that level of high contrast. And so, although you may not necessarily read them as bright as I described, those blue eyes, they also still have that high contrast quality and should be wearing brighter colors. Okay? And again, it's that extreme. So another extreme, you have very, very dark skin. So let's not, let's not forget women of color. This is, this is all applies to all skin tones and all colors. So if you have very, very dark skin, dark hair, but, and the brightness and whiteness of the eyes and teeth, that's also considered high contrast and bright colors are going to look beautiful on you. Anything muted just won't suit you. You're gonna want those bright colors, right? Another extreme to consider white hair, right? Not gray hair, but white hair. That's also a level brightness that you're definitely going to need that, those bright colors. Okay? So those are just some good, uh, guidelines to consider. Now, you may not fit into any of those categories. You're going to be, those are just the obvious ones. But you may be feeling like you're somewhere in between. So either you're soft and you don't fit into this category at all, or you're somewhere in the middle. Okay. So let me describe myself to you just to give you an example of someone who's kind of in the middle. So my hair naturally, it was very blonde when I was younger, but I, you know what, I'm going to just pause that for a second and say this. A lot of times women come to me, um, you know, ages 50 and up and they tell me what they were when they were younger. And although that is really good background information on this person, it's really important to not focus on what coloring you used to be because we change as we age. We, we absolutely are different. And um, and it really depends on where you are in your age as well as to just how your coloring is changing. You may have come prematurely gray, you may be going gray now, you may have had red hair when you're younger and now your hair is white. And so we want to focus on what you're coloring is right now. Now if you've colored your hair then and you know it does throw the color analysis off and it's really important to maybe take into consideration the color that you have your hair right now, especially if you're thinking about keeping that color. Okay? It does impact the colors that you choose to wear. And we'll get into more of that in future episodes. I don't want to, um, drag on that, but I wanted to at least acknowledge that. I want you to focus on the colors you're coloring right now. Okay. So when I was younger, um, I had very, uh, golden blonde hair and a natural like white streaky highlights. People used to ask me if I highlighted my hair, but I just was born with this really pretty blonde hair. Now that I'm older and in my forties, my hair does not naturally look like that. It looks like that because like I highlight it and, and bring the brightness back. But if I didn't, it's a very mousy, dirty blonde, Brown. I mean it kind of reads blonde, but you could also maybe even convinced me that it's not very blonde anymore. But I do highlight up to keep that brightness in my eyes are a mix of green and blue. They're very warm and they read green most of the time. But I wear something blue. You'll do, you might say I have blue eyes when you see me on camera, on YouTube. A lot of people you know, declare that I don't have any warmth than I only have blue eyes, but that's also just the camera and the cool lighting play tricks on you. So I have these green eyes, this warm blonde hair that I highlight and I am pretty, fairly fair. Okay. Um, I mean I, I tan kind of, but I'm, I'm very fair. Uh, and, and so with that, I do know that I look better and brighter colors. I have a, I have enough brightness about me that I know that I would be considered bright and the your color style system, but the brightest color is usually too bright on me. Like maybe for a special occasion wearing a bright, a really bright color with some, some lips. Bright lipstick would be fun. But for the most part I usually need to take the edge off of the super bright because I'm not super bright. I have bright qualities but I'm not super bright. And so again with that idea of harmony, I look better in a color that is just slightly lighter or slightly darker than that. True bright color. Okay. If you have one of my color fans, okay. Um, and you were to look at it, you would know that C on one of the color strips is the brightest color on that strip. And for a lot of people that color, it might just be too bright. So you want to either use B or D on that strip, which is B is slightly darker and D is slightly lighter. And those are kind of the, the, the fan favorites if you will, of the, of the colors to wear because it's the safest colors to wear. Now there, I mean there is a level of depth and contrast that also plays a key role here. But we're going to save that concept for a future episode because we can get really deep and into the weeds on that. All right? So if you need some examples of people that I consider bright, um, take the quiz@yourcollarstyle.com because when you get in there, it shows you lots of photos of people that I consider bright people I consider soft. And so it's a great way for you to get some visuals right away so that quizzes@yourcolororstyle.com slash quiz you can go in there, it's free and you can see those individuals. Okay? If you really want to learn what colors look best on you and to create your signature color palette by the course, discover your color style, visit your color style.com/course and get immediate access to this online course. It will really help you identify your go to colors. These are the colors that are going to truly light you up and make you look and feel amazing. It's kind of like a professional education without the hefty price. So if you really want to learn what colors look on you and to create your signature color palette, go to your color style.com/course get the course and start learning and really just have fun creating that color palette. That's going to be just perfect for you. Next week on the your color style podcasts, we're going to continue the conversation around chroma and talk about soft and help you figure out if you should be wearing colors from other, the bright color palette or the softer, more muted color palette. So we're going to dive deep into learning about soft and then you will be completely in the know with regards to either bright or soft, which are the first two key pieces to the your color style methodology. So please make sure that you subscribe and get the course, discover your color style@yourcolorstyle.com slash course so that you can even go deeper into learning what colors look best on you. Thank you so much for listening to the your color style podcast, where we believe the more you know about color, the more you'll know what color

Speaker 2:

Slattery[inaudible].