Most of us are familiar with color consultations in relation to makeup and hair color, but did you know there are fashion color consultations, too? Teaching you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about which shades will make your complexion shine and which ones will wash you out, council in this field can dramatically change the way you see fashion and the way you shop. Even if you and your BFF share everything including a skin tone, you’ll find there are differences in the way your skin behaves depending on the rest of your features. But when the service can cost over $300 depending on the consultant, it's important to understand just what you're getting yourself into and why it could be of value future fashion endeavors.
Learn all about what a color consultation is and what you can expect from one:
It is a great way to have an expert show and tell you which colors, or more specifically, which shades of every color work best for your skin tone. Your expert will essentially put your skin, hair and eye color, along with your unique features and style into a hypothetical blender, and whizz up the perfect concoction of suggestions for you to look the very best you can. If you’ve ever wondered why copying someone else’s look often doesn’t feel quite right on you, a color consultation might help you to understand why. Imagine you’ve always dreamt of having dark locks like Penelope Cruz. Your hairstylist has managed to emulate her cut exactly, and you’ve got a chic pantsuit to finish off the look, but it's still not working for you – even though you've affected a slight Spanish accent to compliment the new 'do. When you know your colors, you will understand that some things are simply not for you.
You should arrive to your consultation completely makeup-free. The less makeup you can stomach, the better the results: your consultant needs to see your natural skin and, more importantly, imperfections like dark shadows. Each expert will have a different take on the next part of the journey, but essentially it should involve some in-depth, multiple-choice questions. Your answers are crucial. You’ll feel like your consultant is looking into your soul, re-telling to you all your deepest, darkest fashion thoughts. There’s no point in trying to calculate your answers, just be as truthful as possible and they’ll tell you exactly why you buy the kind of clothes you do. Spookily accurate, these consultants even know why you wear the styles you do, even if you don’t!
The last part is the really fun part – time to pull out the fabrics. Your consultant will have you sitting in natural light, in front of a large mirror. Your sartorial Mystic Meg will proceed to drape swatches around your neck, and each piece of fabric will be printed in multiple colors of the same hue and will create different effects on your face. As you observe the range of colors, swapping out the fabrics one after another, you'll notice the bags under your eyes becoming more or less prominent, your skin looking reddish, and then greenish, and then just right. When you suddenly appear to have had some magical, real-life SnapChat filter applied, and you skin is gleaming, that's when you know you've found your colors.
If you've always loved a particular burnt orange sweater, burgundy shirt or hot pink dress but have learnt that they don't technically suit you – don't stress. You’re not obliged to follow absolutely everything your consultant suggests, but it will certainly make you more mindful of which shades of you choose in the future. If your questionnaire revealed that you like your fashion to have function – that it’s not enough for it to just be trending – don’t fight it. Skyscraper high heels are awesome but for most of us, impractical, so if you prefer to wear a lower heel, just own it. More of a hands-free kind of person but cross body bags aren’t on-trend? Do it anyway. You’ll be happier in the long run instead of battling a handheld handbag you know isn’t practical but is the It-bag of the moment.
