How to do color analysis on yourself

Color Analysis For Beginners: A Comprehensive Guide

The whole "color analysis" thing can sound super complicated (undertones? seasonal palettes? What even?!). But, it doesn’t have to be.

With this guide, you won’t have to pay $360 for a color analysis service! I’m guessing that’s why you’re here. You want to do this yourself. You certainly can!

In fact, it’s even better because no one would know your colors better than you. Whatever works for you depends on what makes you confident. With just a few simple steps, you can learn how to find your best colors and build a wardrobe that makes you shine.

That’s where I come in. PS. I won’t make your head hurt. This is the simplest guide you’ll ever need to start finding your seasonal color palette.

Article Guide:

1. What Is Color Analysis
2. How Colors Can Change Your Appearance
3. The Basics Of Color Theory
4. How To Do Color Analysis On Yourself
5. The Four Seasons
6. Identify Your Color Season: 4-Season Color Analysis
7. Identify Your Color Season: 12-Season Color Analysis
8. Find Out Your Results
9. Confirm Your Season With A Color Draping Test
10. Your Color Journey Starts Here

What is Color Analysis

Have you ever lost a crayon in middle school?

For example, you needed to color an orange but you lost your orange crayon. You then start to mix red and yellow to get that orange.

Well, this mixing of color applies to us humans too. Think of yourself as an intricate painting. You are made of colors.

Your hair is not brunette or blonde, your skin is not just brown, black, or white. We have different undertones.

Your undertone is the subtle color underneath your skin tone (that’s why it’s called UNDER tone). It’s like a hidden layer of paint.

So, for example, if you have tanned skin, your skin is not just brown. It could also have a hint of yellow underneath it. Your undertone could either be warm, cool or neutral.

And it’s not just your skin! The overall color of your hair, eyes and skin could also be warm or cool or neutral. Now, don’t press a finger on your head yet. I promise (again), I won’t give you a headache with this tutorial.

So, the whole point of color analysis is:

1. To figure out your personal colors (the colors that makeup your skin, hair, and eyes and their totality).
2. To find the corresponding colors that work in harmony with your personal color.

Therefore, we want to find our personal colors first before we can find out our seasonal color. Once we find our seasonal color, we can then incorporate them in our clothes. But why do you have to do this? You don’t have to.

But if you decide to, here’s how it can benefit you.

How colors can change your appearance

Have you ever worn something and got this compliment: “This color looks so good on you!”?

That’s probably because you were wearing the color that suits your personal coloring. Or in short, it was your color season.

Take a look at these photos of Courtney Cox (Monica) from the sitcom, Friends:

Have you noticed something? She looks great in these photos, but she stands out differently in the ones where she was wearing red.

In fact, if you search for Friends’ Monica's best outfits, these red outfits are always top of the results. Why?

Simply because red is one of the colors that match her personal coloring. Her skin glows, her blue eyes pop, and her dark hair looks more vibrant in her red dress and top.

There are three types of colors you can wear:

1. Colors that don’t work
2. These colors don’t harmonize with your natural beauty. They dull your skin, or highlight your imperfections.
3. Colors that are just okay
4. These are the colors that look fine but don’t do anything to make your appearance shine. They’re okay but lack that “wow” factor when you wear them.
5. Colors that make you shine
6. These are the colors that harmonize well with your personal coloring.

When you wear these shades, your skin glows, your eyes sparkle, and you might not even need makeup to enhance your beauty because your clothes do them for you!

The basics of color theory

Now, we’re getting closer to how you can color analyze yourself. But before that, it’s important that you first understand these terms related to color theory.

I. Hue and Temperature

Hue is the actual color itself. It can be blue, green, purple, orange, etc. A certain hue has a specific temperature.

Temperature is the warmness and coolness of a color. Colors that are more blue-based are cooler, while those that are yellow-based are warmer. If a color contains both, or it’s simply imperceptible, it is neutral. In summary:

1. Warm: yellow, orange and red
2. Cool: purple, blue, and green
3. Neutral: combination of the two

II. Value

Value pertains to how light or dark a color is.

You can also think of it as the "quantity of darkness from 0-10".

1. Light colors have had white added to them.
2. Dark colors have had black added to them.

III. Chroma

Chroma refers to how clear or muted a color is.

When we talk about how muted a color is, you can think of it as "how much grey is added to a color".

1. Bright (High Chroma) - the color is closer to its original color, more saturated
2. Muted (Low Chroma) - more grey and muted

Summary of The Color Theory

1. Temperature
2. Warm: yellow, orange and red
3. Cool: purple, blue, and green
4. Neutral: combination of the two
5. Value
6. Light colors: more white
7. Dark colors: more black
8. Chroma
9. High chroma: more saturated
10. Low chroma: more grey and muted

How to do color analysis on yourself

Step 1: Determine Your Skin’s Undertone

There are several ways you can determine your undertone. You simply have to find which characteristic best describes you.

1. Vein Test

1. Warm: Greenish or yellowish veins
2. Cool: Bluish or purplish veins
3. Neutral: A mix of green and blue veins

2. Reaction to Sunlight

1. Warm: You tan easily but burn occasionally
2. Cool: You burn easily and rarely tan
3. Neutral: You tan gradually with minimal burning

3. Skin Against White Fabric

1. Warm: Your skin looks yellowish, golden, or peachy tone against white fabric
2. Cool: Your skin looks pink, blue, or reddish tone against white fabric
3. Neutral: Your skin looks equally good with pure white and off-white fabric

4. Eye Color

1. Cool: You have gray, vibrant green, blue, or violet eyes
2. Warm: You have hazel, brown, or amber eyes
3. Neutral: You have a mix of warm and cool tones in the eyes (e.g., green with both gold and blue flecks)

5. Hair Color

1. Cool: Black, gray, ash brown, or whitish/ash blonde hair
2. Warm: Chestnut, caramel, rich brown, red, auburn, yellow, or strawberry blonde hair
3. Neutral: A mix of cool and warm tones (e.g., brown with both ash and golden highlights)

6. Jewelry Test

1. Warm: Gold jewelry looks better
2. Cool: Silver jewelry looks better
3. Neutral: Both silver and gold jewelry look equally flattering

If you answered mostly Warm: You have a Warm Undertone.

If you answered mostly Cool: You have a Cool Undertone.

If you answered a mix of Warm and Cool: You have a Neutral Undertone.

What is your undertone? List it on your paper.

Step 2: Determine your value and contrast level

Earlier, we learned that value pertains to how light or dark a color is. Value pertains to how dark or light your features (hair, eyes, skin) are overall. And value and contrast are always intertwined.

Here’s how to determine your value and contrast levels: 

1. Light: Your hair, eyes, and eyebrows are almost the same shade.
2. Ex. Blonde/light brown hair, pale skin, light-colored eyes.

If your value level is Light, you automatically have low contrast between your features because they are all equally light. 

1. Dark: You have darker features as compared to your skin tone. 
2. Ex. Black/dark brown hair, dark eyes over fair skin

If your value level is Dark, you have high contrast because your features stand out against your skin tone. 

Spoiler: Value helps determine if you’re a "Light," "Deep," or "True" version of a season.

Step 3: Determine your chroma

From our short color theory discussion above, do you remember what chroma is? All we are doing right now is just using those color theories to analyze our personal colors. 

Chroma refers to how clear or muted a color is.

If a chroma is clear, it means that color is in its original, saturated color. This is also called High Chroma. 

If a chroma is muted, there are more greys added to a color, making its shade softer. This is called Low Chroma.

In this section, we will use the terms Bright and Muted.

1. Bright (High Chroma) - Your features (eyes, hair, and skin) look crisp, vibrant, and high-contrast.
2. Your eye color is striking and well-defined. 
3. Ex. bright blue, emerald green, rich brown, or jewel-toned hazel.
4. Your hair is rich and clear in tone.
5. Ex. deep black, golden blonde, intense auburn, or vibrant brown (without ashy or faded tones).
6. Your skin has a lively, high-contrast quality, meaning it looks fresh and clear rather than muted or toned down.
7. You look great in saturated, vivid colors.
8. Muted (Low Chroma) - Your features blend gently together, with a toned-down, soft look. 
9. Your eye color is soft or slightly faded.
10. Ex. grayish blue, hazel, soft brown, or muted green—not bright or intense).
11. Your hair has ashy, neutral, or muted tones.
12. Ex. ashy blonde, soft brown, or medium brown with no strong warmth).
13. Your skin has a gentle, toned-down look, not overly golden, pink, or deep.
14. You look best in dusty, muted, or earthy colors. 

The Four Seasons

You're closer to finding out your color season. But if you need more information about each, or what characteristics describe them, here are some examples:

Winter

Winters often have striking features—dark hair with cool undertones or fair skin with a rosy tint. If you’re a Winter, your colors are cool, deep, and bright. Think icy blues, jewel tones like emerald green, and crisp whites. 

Celebrities that are Winter Season: 

Spring

Springs are all about warm, light, and clear colors. Picture sunny yellows, coral pinks, and fresh mint greens. Springs usually have golden or peachy skin tones with light hair or eyes. 

Celebrities that are Spring Season:

Summer

Summers shine in cool, soft, and light shades like pastel pinks, lavender, and powder blue. Their features are more muted—think soft brown or ash-blonde hair with cool-toned skin. 

Celebrities that are Summer Season:

Autumn

Autumns rock warm, rich, and muted tones like burnt orange, olive green, and chocolate brown. They often have golden undertones with darker or red-toned hair. 

Celebrities that are Autumn Season: Celebs like Julia Roberts (warm autumn), Drew Barrymore (soft autumn), and Sandra Bullock (dark autumn) are classic examples. 

Identify Your Color Season: 4-Season Color Analysis

In this part, you will find your season out of the 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. However, in Color Analysis, these 4 seasons are further divided. Each season has 3 subcategories. In total, there are 12.

For a more in-depth analysis, there is what we call the 12-Season Analysis. Later in this post, I’ll teach you to find out your more specific season out of the 12. 

To recap, you should have the following information now:

1. Your undertone (Warm, Neutral, Cool)
2. Your value (Light vs. Dark)
3. Your contrast level (High or Low)
4. Your chroma (Bright vs. Muted)
   

Make sure that you listed down your answers according to the order above, so you can easily find your results on the tables below. 

Now, it’s time to find your color season. 

Identify Your Color Season: 12-Season Color Analysis

The main seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter are each divided into 3 sub-seasons.

The expanded system helps people with neutral undertones or a mix of seasonal traits find their best colors. For example, someone who isn’t fully warm or cool but has a mix of characteristics might fit better in a soft summer or soft autumn rather than just "Summer" or "Autumn."

Each of the four seasons is then defined by these characteristics:

1. Spring: Bright, Warm, Light 
2. Summer: Light, Cool, Soft
3. Autumn: Soft, Warm, Dark
4. Winter: Dark, Cool, Bright

To know your color season out of these 12 seasons, we will add an extra step. 

Optional Step: Rank your characteristics

Now, it’s time to rank your characteristics based on what you think is more prominent.

Value 

For example, if you look in the mirror and the most striking thing about you is your dark brows and eyes over your fair skin, or if you can tell that one part of your features stands out more than your skin tone, then your primary characteristic is Value: Dark.

If the first thing you notice are your equally light features—for example, there is low contrast between your hair, skin and eyes; or they are all in the same shade, then your primary characteristic is Value: Light. 

Hue 

If you can tell right away that your undertone is warm, then your primary characteristic is Hue: Warm. 

Subsequently, if you have a noticeably rosy or bluish undertone, then your primary characteristic is Hue: Cool. 

Chroma

If your features blend gently together–for example, your eye, hair, and skin color all have soft and muted tones, then your primary characteristic is Chroma: Soft. 

If your most obvious characteristic is your bright appearance—for example, your skin and eyes are fully saturated and there is high contrast between your features, then your primary characteristic is Chroma: Bright.

How To Rank Your Characteristics

In this part, you need to determine your primary and secondary characteristics.

If your light-colored features are the most evident thing about you, this is your primary characteristic.

Then ask yourself, which is the next most evident characteristic of your features. This will be your secondary characteristic.

Of course, you have choices in ranking. 

PRIMARY

Your primary characteristic can only be hue, value, or chroma. So it’s either any of the following:

1. HUE: WARM OR COOL
2. VALUE: LIGHT OR DARK
3. CHROMA: SOFT OR BRIGHT
   

SECONDARY

Your secondary characteristic can only be hue or chroma. So it’s either any of the following:

1. HUE: WARM OR COOL
2. CHROMA: SOFT OR BRIGHT
   

Note: These characteristics cannot be repeated.

You can’t have chroma + chroma as your result.

Find Out Your Results

By this time, you should have listed your primary and secondary characteristics. 

For example, in my case, my primary characteristic is Value: Dark, and my secondary characteristic (the next thing I notice most about my features) is my Bright Chroma. 

However, there is no Dark + Bright in the table.

In that case, I just used Hue as my secondary characteristic. My Hue is Cool.

So, I had Dark + Cool = Dark Winter. 

Confirm Your Season With A Color Draping Test

Now that you know your color season, the next thing to do is find out which outfit colors suit you best, or which color palettes belong to your season. 

If you want to find out which colors you should wear according to your season, you can read our article about how to dress according to your color season. 

You can also do a color draping test.

The Color Draping Test is the final confirmation of your color season because it shows how colors interact with your actual skin tone in real life.

After all, the best way to know whether you actually belong to a specific color season is seeing if the clothes under their palettes suit you, or if they make you feel more confident. 

If you need a guide on doing a color draping test, you can follow our easy beginner-friendly color draping tutorial.

Your Color Journey Starts Here

I hope that as you read this part you’re already happy because you know your color season.

Which is your color season from the choices below?

1. Spring: Bright, Warm, Light 
2. Summer: Light, Cool, Soft
3. Autumn: Soft, Warm, Dark
4. Winter: Dark, Cool, Bright

And if all of these still feel overwhelming–you can take an easy route. 

You can try on different-colored clothes and see how they complement your personal color with an AI fashion lookbook generator.

With EveryLook, you can put on outfits on an online model of yourself. You get to see which color suits you best, and you can also study and understand your personal color palette better! 

You don’t have to gather different-colored clothes to do a color draping test. You can just try on outfits from different color season’s palettes and see which suit your “online model” best.

So go ahead, find your color season and try a wide range of outfits now!