We all have 8 seconds to make a good first impression and it takes 8 hours to change that first impression, if it wasn’t the one we wanted to make.
For a best first and lasting outward impression wear outfits in your best colors because these will make your own features look more vibrant, energetic, and yet relaxed and rested.
Your personal coloring, which is your hair, skin, and eye coloring, is the reference point to determine your best colors to wear.Â
In my online Color Analysis I created a convenient process allowing you to get your analysis from the privacy and convenience of your own home, yet without sacrificing accuracy of the analysis.
You can explore more about the digital colors I deliver to your phone, the ebooks and coaching call included with your analysis all in the link above.
In this article I want to focus on the role and importance of color. Crack your Color Code and you have the first most important element in the Best Look For You.
Dressing for your shape and frame is important, but color is the first observable impression people see, and it’s a lasting impression. That’s why it’s certainly connected to making a good first impression.
Why Is Color So Important to Your Best Look?
The wrong colors can wash you out or dominate you (is the outfit wearing you or are you wearing the outfit?)
Wearing clothes in the ‘right’ colors for you make you look younger, energetic, rested, and generally more vibrant.
Simple Tests For Identifying Your Best Colors
You know you are wearing the wrong colors when the eye goes straight to the outfit. The eye is distracted by the colors in the outfit. The outfit colors are probably overwhelming the personal coloring. We see the color before the person when that happens.
The other simple test is to note if your features look faded with the outfit colors. It’s almost like looking at a picture on your phone in edit mode, and turning the colors down or putting a filter on it that fades all the colors.
Lastly, the ‘blink test’ will reveal that the eye goes to the face with a quick scan head to toe and back to the face where the eyes meet to converse.
With the ‘blink test’ if the eye goes straight to the outfit rather than to our above-the-shoulder area the colors in the outfit are ‘off’.
Example of Bad vs Best Colors
See how this beautiful young lady below looks so washed out on the left? The outfit on the right is perfectly harmonious with her coloring, making her eyes, eyebrows and skin look so much more vibrant. Visual harmony is all about aligning your outfit colors to the characteristics of your personal coloring.
Wearing the right colors has the exact same effect as turning on the ‘vibrant’ color filter in your photo editor, only it’s real life.
I explain this harmony concept with in my color analysis appointment. There are three elements to color harmony with our own personal coloring. You can find out more about my Signature Color Analysis here.
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Why Is Color So Important to a Best First Impression?
When anyone walks into a room, the first thing we see is hair, specifically the color of the hair, then the hairstyle, and then the colors in the outfit.
If your colors wash you out, the first visual perception is, “this person is tired.” That’s what washed out looks like – tired. There is never a time we want to appear tired. To our guests it says “go home so I can get to bed.” To our employer it signals “I’m already at full capacity, don’t give me anything else to do” or “Work is not my priority.” It does not signal to anyone “I am engaged and present.”
That is not the first impression you want to create unless you want sympathy. We want a first impression to be energetic yet rested, vibrant but relaxed and confident. Your best colors play a significant role in creating that perception.
Keep The Eyes Off the Challenge Areas
The goal of dressing is to create a head to toe cohesive, harmonious look. This will keep the eye from getting ‘stuck’ on any areas that you may be self-conscious.
Plus, when there is eye contact, people can process what is being said easier than when the eye is being distracted … by the ‘talking stain’ on your tops, or the colors in your outfit that are dominating your own coloring. (OMWord when was the last time you saw those tide commercials with the talking stains? That’s what it’s like to wear the wrong colors.)
Discovering the right colors for your personal coloring (hair, skin and eyes) is the first step to your best look for making a great first impression. However, a Signature Color Analysis is much more than simply which colors to wear. It’s also about how to wear them together; how to create ensembles that work together for your own personal coloring.
To accomplish the desired harmony, the above the shoulder coloring, hairstyle, accessories, and makeup should be related to the below the shoulder outfit. This is part of continuity that keeps the eyes moving from head to toe back to your face where we communicate.
Change Your Hair Color, Change Your Color Code
Hair color can be the most significant element of your color analysis. Your outfits should be a harmonious complement to your hair color.
If you had your color analysis done as a season (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) it’s likely time for a re-do. They didn’t consider hair color at that time. They had you pull your hair back into a towel.
Your hair is probably a different color by now, and hair color can be the most significant element of your color analysis. The hair colors of today have graduated to a new level of complexity, all impacting color analysis.
If you have changed your hair color – brown to red, added highlights, it’s gone darker on you, or you decided to go el naturale in gray … it’s time for a new color analysis.
It’s Complex, But I Can Simplify and Crack Your Color Code
Think of the number of combinations of hair, skin and eye coloring. The variation of each feature combination is a complexity that adds to individuality and beauty. It also affects the result of a color analysis.
For example, women with soft honeycomb hair color with fair skin and brown eyes, like this client, are most flattered in lighter colors with pops of darker neutrals or colors.
Furthermore, the lighter the blonde, the more amazing they look in both light pastels and also in brighter colors with higher contrasts like black and pale gray. The closer to honey colored hair, she will be flattered with lower contrast.
If blondes wear colors suited for deep coloring, the eye will go straight to the outfit. Deep colors overwhelm the delicate, light coloring of blondes with fair skin and light eyes.
Women with deep coloring (dark brunettes with medium to deep olive skin with dark eyes), look amazing wearing deep jewel tone colors. They must have low value contrast to avoid being washed out by high contrast neutrals.
Yes, blondes can wear black. However, if the overall outfit is too dark, it will dominate her. The ‘blink test’ will reveal that the eye goes straight to the outfit rather than to her above-the-shoulder area.
Color Analysis: Is It Time To Get One?
As we age our skin tone fades and even our eye color softens. ​As stated earlier, if you have changed your hair color it is time for an updated color analysis.
My Signature Color Analysis includes a private, one-on-one coaching call with me for a limited time, your personalized color palette to download to your phone, and an ebook for how to wear your colors together.
Email me at [email protected] with any questions about my color analysis.
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