Color Theory

I’ve been sort of awol the past week and a bit. Short holiday plus getting tooth extracted in anticipation of braces on lower teeth next month. I discovered I don’t really do bounce-back as quickly as I used to.

Anyway, away we go. And I completely understand if this post isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, way too long, and not what you were expecting.

Color Theory is an actual theory and I expect some of us had it used by consultants at various times to figure out makeup and clothing that work best on our skin tones, and hair and eye colours.

Wiki’s explanation of it is as follows:

“Color theory, or more specifically traditional color theory, is a historical body of knowledge describing the behavior of colors, namely in color mixing, color contrast effects, color harmony, color schemes and color symbolism.”

Goethe’s color wheel from his 1810 Theory of Colours

The factor I’m most interested in regarding the Wiki explanation is the ‘behavior of colours’ on us as humans and how they make us feel. That translates to how we perceive colour being good or bad looking on us, how we interact with colours emotionally, and how/why/maybe things happen when those interactions/perceptions change. I hope that makes sense.

I wore loads of black for years and felt both incredibly chic and safe – because the ‘uniform’ worked to give me emotional structure and oomph in the world, particularly the work world and when going out fancy. But about 10 years ago (so, early 50s), I realised that no longer worked well: black didn’t sit as well on my complexion and with my hair colour, and it had started to feel, well, stark and draining. Weirdly exhausting.

I have very dark brown hair which used to have non-chemical auburn highlights, what I used to perceive as light to medium toned skin (I tanned when we still did that rather than burning), and dark brown eyes with almost black eyebrows and eye lashes. My lips are quite pigmented and that pigment is red rather than pink or mauve.

My hair has darkened over time and now has patches/stripes of grey and has lost the auburn highlights. It’s gone flatter, more matte, in tone (according to various hairdressers, this happens). It seems to absorb light rather than reflecting it. I no longer colour it. However, the little grey ‘patches’ veer pale blue and break up the unremitting dark matte.

I’ve worn high SPF sunscreen from when we all discovered this was important for health. And when I stopped tanning at all I noticed that I was actually quite light-skinned. Not dead pale but nowhere near beige. With red undertones and my veins come up between blue and green on my wrists. Everyone else in my family has/had darker skin tones and more olive undertones.

My emotional reaction to not being able to wear head to toe black was … a bit of sadness and frustration – it can be such a good look – as well as initially confusion: ‘ok, but what do I do now?’

It took some mess-making with regard to clothes and makeup to work out both what now worked on me but also what I liked wearing — what new colours/tones actually made me feel comfortable and put together.

I still own loads of black trousers in different fabrics and cuts plus a few skirts. So, what to do with tops…

• petrol blue (and the colour of the sky at gloaming). navy is ok, but it ends up feeling almost as flat and matte on me as black, so I don’t use it much, and it needs good accessories;
• red is ok in prints, but the prints have to be muted and the red has to be blue-based – tomato reds make me look ill (sigh: my wedding dress in my mid-20s was a tomato red Betsey Johnson) – and it makes a big difference what the base colour is (white is good with blue-based red, but the print then needs a bit of blue or green);
• grey is a no-no – it makes me feel … grey, no matter the depth or tone, because it completely drains colour from my face, or accentuates the red undertones — even if I’ve mostly cancelled them out with makeup — and I look like I drink too much;
• white is ok but it needs texture, so linen or slubbed cotton;
• brown … brown is hard – I like the idea, but it needs breaking up for it to make me feel good – brown with white polka dots actually makes my brain fizz in the best sort of way (think Julia Roberts’ dress at the polo match in Pretty Woman);
• finally, green … well, green is a conundrum – I have a beautiful majority green silk paisley shirt and that gets a big happy reaction in my brain and works on my skin, but I think that’s only because it includes purple and a deep blue; olive green, which I love in theory, doesn’t work in clothes as it’s one of those tones that just drains the skin but leaves the red, again sort of making me look like I drink too much (when I don’t drink at all).

Briefly on makeup. Black around my eyes (bar mascara) has become a no-no. In my 20s, I wore black eye shadow with gold bits – to work – and it looked awesome. Thank you, Shiseido. Now, it’s brown eyeliner with shimmer and no eyeshadow  ‘cause the lids are too crepey. Strangely, muted red blush works best – but most of the skin redness has to be cancelled out by light linen coloured foundation. Lipstick. Now, that’s a good place. After years of mauve (a lot of the time because it was easy) things have opened up to include some reds and oddly (due to the clothing thing) brown-based pinks that skew more brown. It feels very ‘80s but updated – and reminds me of all the great clothes I wore in the ‘80s.

All in, it’s been an interesting ride – which has taken a good long while to parse, like almost 10 years to realise that things had really changed and to find the next chapter.

Does this jibe with any of your experiences? If yes, how have things ended up changing?

Pics: Wiki, Pexels