When I was a girl in the late eighties, I would pour over a book of my mother’s called Color Me Beautiful. Sitting on her bedroom’s carpeted floor, I imagined myself with softly done makeup and glossy, windblown hair like the models in the photos. Tiny squares of various shades of pink, blue, yellow, and green mesmerized my young mind. The book offered its readers a system of color neatly organized by seasons of the year (Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring), and boy, it did something for me: it was a valuable marriage of beauty and logic that made sense.
The system assessed your natural features and found the “season” or color family that best flattered you. For example, if you were a “Winter,” your complexion could handle a high contrast of fair skin and black hair, and jewel tones suited you best. If you were an “Autumn,” you could pull off the elusive shade of marigold, while olive green made your complexion and eyes shine. I fully accepted this system of color analysis as the gold standard. The only question remaining was the obvious one: what was my season?
Fast forward a few years and witness me high-fiving my fortieth birthday.
I sailed through it with only a minor extensional crisis, which led to some considerable vocational and personal adjustments (what is work-life balance anyway?) After the dust settled from those changes, I needed a compass of some sort: where was I headed in this mid-life season, and more importantly, who was I becoming? Around this time, I noticed that color analysis was making a major comeback, with draping videos going viral on TikTok and Vogue reporting on the rise of the trend. Instagram began serving me reels and posts from a company called Created Colorful, and to be honest, I was smitten from the beginning. The gals at CC have created a streamlined virtual consultation to offer color season analysis, and their social media marketing was beautiful. When they ran a special for Mother’s Day, I couldn’t sign up fast enough.
So it finally happened! I had my “colors done” last year and got my answer after a lifetime of wondering. But before I share my season, I’ll give you a quick behind-the-scenes look at how it all works. The process required me to send CC a ton of photos of my face in natural light, makeup-free, and draped in a rainbow of colors. I also answered an in-depth questionnaire and had a bit of back-and-forth emailing with one of their consultants. After about a month of waiting, I received my results, delivered in an email brimming with the kindest words, resources to get me started, and an invitation to join a private Facebook group for my color season. If you’ve stayed with me this long, I’m guessing you want to know – I am a Soft Summer!
Created Colorful describes the Soft Summer palette this way…
“Soft, Neutral-Cool Tone and Medium Depth
You have a softness to your look. “Soft” refers to the fact that your skin tone and eye color are slightly muted and opaque, like a touch of pale gray has been added to each color. This type of palette is effortlessly romantic, with tranquil rose tones and soothing jades. Think of a painting of the beach on an overcast day; those soft grayish ocean blues and greens look amazing on you!
Your best colors will also be slightly muted, kind of like the look of clothes that have been washed and dried a few times, so the color has faded a little bit. You are jaw-dropping in these soft summer colors. Their tiny bit of fading really shows you off!”
They also included this handy graphic (above) to keep on my phone to help when shopping and pulling outfits together. I took this information and began researching other “soft summer” palettes (Pinterest is a gold mine for this kind of information gathering) to get a broad sense of my color family. Once I felt I understood what “soft, neutral-cool, and medium” colors looked like, I went to Lowes and made myself a DIY color palette using paint chips and an old key ring. Who says I’m not a crafty girl, hmm? (I’m not a crafty girl…except in service of my closet!)
After months of having this information, I’ve come to adopt the mantra of my season being “a tool, not a rule” -especially because I will never totally abandon black, cream, and other neutrals outside of my ideal shades. However, I’m also a big believer in the idea that constraints help us to get more creative, as I’ve explored a bit here. Having the tool of a color season doesn’t limit my creativity…it enhances it! I find myself pairing colors and pieces of clothing that I would have overlooked in the past. And most importantly, it’s fun!
If you are ready to get your “colors done” with Created Colorful, feel free to use my discount code for $15 off any of their offerings: SARABETHLONG.
Or you can jump over here and the discount will be automatically applied. And if you have any questions about the process, don’t hesitate to shoot me a message!
Have you had your “colors done”? If so, how was the process? I’d love to hear! xo
saralongenecker.com 