Becky writes:
Rebecca, several of your posts on dressing in colors that are present in your personal coloring have puzzled me. For example, I have very fair that is somewhat yellowish (also dark blonde/light brown hair) and I look horrible in colors that contain too much yellow. It seems to me that I look best in cool colors that balance out the yellow of my skin.
Nobody looks good in yellow outside of Texas, do they? 😉
But seriously, Becky, you bring up a good question. Your experience corresponds with the advice to Choose the Opposite Color that I blogged about awhile back. (I also notice that most of the commenters said the same thing you did, “horrible in yellow”.)
Here’s how eternalvoyageur answered:
Hmmm… I think that we have to pick what we want to highlight in our colouring (either by using these colours or contrasts) and what we prefer to conceal or balance out. read the rest of her answer …
I agree. Don’t emphasize anything you don’t want noticed (undereye circles, acne, birthmarks, etc) by matching it in color.
In one of my very first posts, on selecting jacket colors, I gave the following advice on wearing a color similar to your skin tone next to the face:
- Separate the garment from your face with a swath of contrasting fabric.
- Choose as an accent color: your eye color, white, black, or your lipstick color.
There is, of course, the danger of being washed out by not using enough contrast in your color scheme. To combat that possibility:
- use a darker or lighter version of the eye or hemoglobin color
- use the complementary color
- add a small amount of white, black, or a shiny metallic
Finally, finding flattering colors to wear next to the face can be as simple as identifying your hemoglobin and melanin colors, by-passing the overall skin tint. Hemoglobin is the oranges, reds, and purples present in, for example, the tips of your fingers. By melanin I mean the color of your freckles, that is, the browns in your skin.
In the end, I decided against the monochromatic “safari suit” for this evening’s semi-casual banquet, opting instead for a variation with greater contrast.
I think I look okay in yellow–at least in some shades, like brighter lemon and gold–but there is nothing at all yellow about my coloring. In general, it seems to me that yellow and yellowish green are tough colors for blondes to wear close to the face. They’re pretty accent colors, though . . . maybe a hat ribbon or a bright tote for summer?
II have to disagree. I wear bright yellow and citron close to my face very well and I’m blonde AND pale. My acidic green eyes and pink skin tone down the yellow appropriately. It’s beige that’s really hard to wear and most women should refrain from wearing this close to their face unless they are dark skinned or are able to create a strong contrast with red or black. But iridescent beiges can work because they are 3 dimensional. I hope that this reasoning makes sense!
Matching my outfit to my acne… lol !
I love angie’s comment about the dimensionality of iridescent beige! I think texture – whether a color comes in matte, sheen, velvet – makes a big difference to whether you can wear something. And, yes, I wear yellow and I look fine in it. I once dated a painter who said, “That’s your color.” It was a yellow sometimes called buttermilk, a pale creamy yellow. But I wear a lightened version of taxicab yellow, too. And I love the orangey yellows like goldenrod. I can wear what they call sunshine yellow, a pretty standard yellow. I have less success with an acid lemon yellow but love this and can wear it with something else added in, though I haven’t experimented beyond matte texture.
Ugh, this is why I don’t wear lavender or dusky blue shades — it brings out the circles around my eyes!