Why There Are NO Undertones
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- In this video, I uncover the main reasons why there are no undertones and why it is wrong and unscientific to think of warm, cool, neutral, and olive undertones.
This is a scientific view on the concept of undertones developed decades ago with the little knowledge people had about skin colors/skin tones and was predominantly propagated by the beauty industry for ONE specific purpose.
Discover in this video what to do instead when you want to find your exact skin color and tone and your best colors for clothing, makeup, and more.
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I like your scientific approach to this complex color theory. After watching hundreds of videos and hundreds of different approaches to this topic, I was always left confused. I instinctively felt that there was a lack of a scientific, critical approach to this topic. Your approach is definitely much more serious and I like that it covers multiple scientific disciplines. I really, really appreciate your balanced, objective approach and hard work.
Thank you so much! You are right, I am very serious about the accuracy of that subject matter. Really great to hear that you enjoy my content. 🧡
I just found this video as recommended because I love everything about color, and I have to say I did find the delivery in this video to be just a little rude and aggressively toned, it's a cultural and language issue so I can appreciate it's not something that's intended at all, but I wanted to share what my first impression is. The very blunt dismissal of other analysts at the end that insinuated people who use them are somehow not wanting to be healthy was very concerning, regardless of language.
Aside from that, I'm someone who is neutral/olive and I appreciate the way this system pays attention to it a *little* bit better, still not the best because of the needing to use transitional groups that are a bit counterintuitive to the "everyone is a _____" attitude of the three primary groups that have been outlined. The human urge to arrange and classify really is the same conceptual principle of undertone/seasonal analysis. This system seems to be more in line with the systems cosmetics companies use when they use detailed optics research to decide on ranges of foundations to produce. Especially big lines like Fenty which have 3 full color lines plus variations for cool and warm neutrals and olives do a lot of work in this way. I do like the easy to understand scientific explanation of skin types and how everyone is technically a variation of warm based on melanin combinations, but It's also important to remember that in other color analysis systems, specifically the many seasonal based ones, cool and warm don't actually mean skin melanin or even skin color, and undertone doesn't mean a physiological or chemical property. It's only the visual relation of a person's skin to the swatches and samples. A cool undertoned person is just someone who's skin combination apparently works better with the cool swatches than the warm ones, which apparently do not, and those who are closer to being in the middle strictly in terms of hue usually have two seasonal subgroups that are complementery to each other on the seasonal wheel (if we're talking a 12 season). For example, someone who clearly works with soft colors but is in the middle of the color wheel hue wise could be a hybrid summer and autumn soft. It's not about classifying their actual skin tones and I don't think I've met an analyst who said it was. Maybe undertone isn't the best word in a literal sense in this analysis based on observation method, but it's what stuck in the industry. It doesn't mean it doesn't exist, it means a different word would suit it better. In English we use words that are not literal all the time and for people who grew up with more calculated and straightforward languages it's a total nightmare!
What I would love to see is comparisons of different systems' analyses on the same people, and really digging into that and all of the similarities or differences in the reports.
And I'd be doing a HUGE disservice if I didn't say that this system won't get a lot of traction in the English speaking world just for the fact it uses the color words "red" and "yellow" to classify human skin. In terms if the English language, using those terms for skin is colloquially racist, especially in the Americas, where we have an long history of slurs derived from calling non-white people red or yellow skinned, especially towards native americans (including myself who's been on the receiving end of some of those terms) and asians. We still do a lot of work today to remove these racial stereotype phrases from the names of places and institutions, and it's difficult because there are people who fight against it. It took several generations to get the national capital's football team (american football, specifically!) to remove its racist name and hateful parody symbols, and there are still people who want to restore it now. One of the reasons seasonal analysis works so well here is the almost semiotic level of appreciation of the poetic seasonal terms. The fact it uses terminology that can be appreciated pan-culturally and have little to no racial genotype association is what makes it a celebrated part of the fashion and design world. If it's possible for a system like this to try adopting an engaging brand taxonomy strategy like that which effectively prevents the talking about skin color from accidentally going into racialisms, it would be much easier to digest and for people in wider backgrounds to support it.
Thank you 🤎
I believe, the only aspect that really matters are the results of my first science-based color analysis method which will speak for itself (should you decide to hang around to witness it).
It´s funny you should make that prediction in your last paragraph - because most of my clients (both women and men of various ethnicities) are from English speaking countries and I have a waiting list for my services by now.
If you decide to watch more than just one video, all of your assumptions/prejudices and questions will be answered. Remember to follow the community guidelines and remaining respectful in your comments.
Of course people want to look healthy, what a passive aggressive way to conclude the video.
not all people want to look healthy! Some want to look stylish, others want to look young or rich, again others don´t care how they look and pay more attention to how they feel in the colors of choice.
So there is a spectrum of people that all want different things when it comes to their looks.
I am inviting those to my channel who do care about their health and those who don´t care won´t enjoy much of what I have to say and show.
The only aggressive thing here is your comment and maybe you should look inside to find out WHY you have such a strong emotional reaction to my video.
If you find a more respectful tone we can talk about possible questions or aspects of the video where you need more clarity.
I appreciate the amount of work that went into this presentation. 👏
With that being said, I have a different understanding of undertones/ overtones (the terms are just semantincs) than you described.
This is my two cents: I don't think of the physical skin itself as having an undertone. The undertone/ overtone is just a word used to describe colors themselves compared to each other (yellow vs blue etc) and shades of the same color compared to each other (for example, the same color can have shades towards each side of the color spectrum. The color yellow, while "warm" itself, can have a warmer egg-yoke shade that's closer to orange, while a lemon shade is closer to green and therefore on the cooler side of the spectrum. In this context, we would call egg-yoke a warm yellow "undertone/ overtone" and lemon a cool yellow, "undertone/ overtone", all the while, the color yellow itself being in the "warm" part of the spectrum. This is true for all colors.)
So when one does seasonal color analysis, one focuses on finding and matching the warmth/ coolness within one's skin and the colors, as well as shades of colors.
A lot of people can be flattered by the color green for example, especially if the "undertone/ overtone" of the shades they wear match the "undertone/ overtone" of their own overall coloring. A pine green has a different temperature quality than chartreuse green, olive, and mint.
(Of course temperature is only one color quality, the depth/ dark-light axis, and hue, chroma or Intensity/ bright-muted axis being other qualities we use to pinpoint color on the 3D Munsell color space, so the warm- cool color temperature is not the end-all, be-all the Internet has made it to be).
Some people are flattered by very light icy colors and cool shades, because their appearance displays a "cool" quality to the human eye. For someone like that, a warm shade of burnt orange (a combination of two warm colors: yellow and red in the RYB system) is going to be dissonant to their overall appearance, producing a different visual result.
So while the physical skin itself does not have a layer where an "undertone/ overtone" would live, and while semantically, the literal sense of the words "undertone/ overtone" are not accurately describing shades of colors, there are "cooler" and "warmer" qualities to various shades of a color, in addition to the overall qualities of the colors themselves. Perhaps cool/ warm "quality" or "tendency" or "placement" would be more semantically appropriate terms to describe the comparison of shades of the same color on the color spectrum, rather than the erroneous term "undertone/ overtone".
As a side note, I'd love to learn more about the RYB "root colors", as well as the logic behind the Triadic combinations as I'm unclear about the connection between the Blue root color and the Black, Brown, Red, Yellow melanin pigments found in skin. I also missed to understand how these particular Triadic combinations were selected, as opposed to other Triadic combinations. Thank you so much for your time.
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
Blue is the complimetary color for orange - one of the possible skin colors in the skin color spectrum. Orange is created by Red and yellow pigments (roughly 50:50 mix) or the brown pigment which is based in an orange spectrum.
Does that answer your question?
If you want to know more about the details of my system (like the Triadic Analysis) there is an upcoming course where I will teach everything, all parts of my system.
Yes! I don't think this is only "your two cents" but this is how what the concept is meant to be about, nothing physical but to describe colors in relation to each other.
I guess it was based on observations and relatively arbitrary, I do find it works to an extend for many people but also seems to leaves questions.
you’re truly amazing girl! you’ve been helping so many of us that have been confused & struggling for years! i respect the effort you put into your videos & thank you for sharing your knowledge 💛
That's beautiful to hear! We're in it together. Most welcome 🌺
Im ao glad I stumbled onto this channel! I had been looking into seasons for years, and than I found thw older concept of blue based/yellow based which helped but still left something incomplete to me, your additional understanding and development of the root systems finally puts the pieces together.
That´s great to hear, Shauna! My goal is to continuously develop my system to perfection for the most accurate results.
Absolutely fascinating and i have spent years trying to decide if my undertones were warm or cool!!! No wonder i could never figure me out lol!!!! Also i have never found a foundation that ever looked good on me, don't need it anyway but i sure have spent alot of $ trying to find one over the years! Your videos are superb!! I learn so much. I can't wait for your eye video!
This is great to hear! I am excited to share the eye color video soon.
If you were to use my Root Skin Color system could you see either color in your skin (Red, Blue/Orange, Yellow)?
@ellaraystyle this is where I struggle and have been trying to figure out with your system but can't! I'm hoping the eye video will give me more clues. A warmer medium violet looks fab, which means I would fall into yellow root correct? But true red/watermelon/geranium red also does wonders so I honestly don't know! In the HOC system I was categorized as a "blue spring". I find your system fascinating, makes so much sense to me.
Does your skin have a yellow or golden glow or does it lack warmth altogether and rather has a rosy or pinkish tone, or orange/brown tone? What´s your eye color?
@ellaraystyle I have some warmth (not overly warm though) and definitely tan golden. My skin is light to light medium. My eyes are warmer blue and greens with a darker outside rim. I also have almost cinnamon colored tiny flecks in them. Purple and red (warm red) really pops them, really brings out the blue-green.
sounds very beautiful your coloring!
This is a fascinating approach to understanding light and color, similar to how the sky appears blue due to scattered light wavelengths.
I’m not able to assess my own skintone because it’s cool-bluish-pink is some places (protected from sun) and neutral-orange-beige in others (exposed to sun) and with some grey mixed in to it all. I attributed this patchwork to a mixed European ancestry (Irish/UK + Würtemburg/Swiss + Southern Italian).
Colors that make me sick: chartreuse, rust, warm browns, black. Colors that make me look very yellow: magenta, warm purples. Colors that make me look bright red/flushed: mid greens. Colors that work best: mid or muted blues, turquoise, aquamarine.
Using the 12 seasons, I think I’m a summer, but none of the subtypes fits perfectly.
Thank you! The Rayleigh Scattering is a similar aspect of physics and the light spectrum yet living matter behaves a bit differently when coming in contact with light.
The Seasonal Color Analysis was developed to create a generic overview of possible Caucasian color types. It was never made to fit perfectly for every person as the main idea was to sell generic marketable mass products to a specific audience.
I was about to sincerely clap until you classified latino as an ethnicity. It' s a socio-linguistic historical-cultural reality that can include absolutely all the ethnicities mixed in endless combinations and percentages. Valentina Zenere, Evo Morales and Celia Cruz belong to the same ethnicity?
🤦🏻♀️
I am well aware of the diversity of Latin American ethnicities and if I was to name all of them the video would have been 30 minutes longer. I can go in more detail about various ethnicities and color types in Latin America in a separate video if you want.
I have always felt light reflecting off my very fair, translucent, and thin skin plays a significant factor, but isn’t usually addressed in traditional color analysis. Am on thinking on the right track!?!? I’ve been in person draped professionally with wildly varied results!
Your skin interacts with the visible light spectrum, meaning light frequency and energy.
This influences how your skin appears in color, chroma, depth, and contrast, and determines your Root Skin Color.
The latter is a symbiosis between biology and physics (your melanin pigments interact with light getting specific energy levels from the light.)
If you have been getting wildly varied results it is due to the fact that there is no scientific standard in the seasonal color analysis (unlike my analysis method that is based on physics/quantum physics, and nature´s rules of color harmony).
So far, you seem to me to be the only person with credibility who is seriously dealing with this complex topic.
Thank you, I appreciate your feedback!
How did you come up with this method? I'm a makeup artist and have been confused about undertones. This method seems to make sense.
I developed this method 10 years ago when I was already researching and studying many areas of biology, physics, and quantum physics since I was around 12 (as my dad is an Astrophysicist).
Being born in Asia, I also knew of Asian principles of color harmony and natural healing/Chinese medicine and as an artist and designer, I knew about color theories and practical implementation of color mixing and Western concepts of color harmony.
All this knowledge combined brought me to my color analysis method that I share on my channel which includes the concept of Root Skin Colors.
I also include Chroma, Depth, Contrast, and Triadic Color Energy to get absolutely perfect colors that are aligned with someone´s True Color Type.
It allows me to find colors for clothing, makeup, hair colors, home decor, and more for any ethnicity in this world.
@ellaraystyle Thank you! I am hoping to learn as much as possible.
I am happy to help you in every way I can. How long have you been a makeup artist?
I'm glad I found your channel and I've been binging your videos. The seasonal analysis don't really make sense to me because I'm supposed to be olive skinned fair-medium of indian ethnicity, and there's still debate whether there can be warm or cool olive. The "deep winter" colour palette is suggested to me, but I find all the colours very dark and overpowering. Hoping that I can afford your colour palettes at some point!
Just a question, you said you don't use colour picker to identify skin colour, which I agree with because I have a lot of freckles and blemishes and it wouldn't work for me anyway. In that case how do you figure out someone's root skin colour?
This is great to hear! I have developed a Skin Color Chart to find someone's skin tone and thus know what Root Skin Color the person has. This has been the most reliable tool so far, and I keep improving all my tools and charts to perfection based on my research.
A skin that has too much orange in it can look bad in the color orange, because i look so much better in blue than orange, and my skin is a orange red hue
there is no "too much" when it comes to skin tones unless it is a health condition of the skin. There are Orange Root Skin Colors that can wear certain oranges really well while others should avoid it. Root Skin Color is just one aspect of my color analysis that determines someone´s best colors. Chroma, Depth, Contrast, and the right Triadic set also plays a major role.
I have come here from the 4-colour system and I am writing down all this making notes to help me absorb all the information. At least this may save me money on getting a season colour analysis. I did ask myself the question where is the undertone and wondered why it isn't mentioned in the scientific community, only the beauty and marketing arena. The analysts themselves say that it is the light reflecting off the orange cloth onto the face of the cool-toned person that causes the yellowy cast.
Undertones are non-existant in the scientific perspective, only Root Skin Colors exist.
Your clothing color influences your skin tone as well (but has nothing to do with undertones or your innate skin tone) which is why for the analysis, I ask my clients to wear a white shirt (white reflects all the light and thus doesn´t interfer with your natural skin tone).
Your skin tone is a result of light interacting with the melanin pigments in your skin (among other tissue).
Some frequencies are absorbed and some are reflected (others are scattered).
The reflected frequencies are those you see as your skin color.
Your skin tone is also a spectrum and not just one frequency which might be the reason for people back then to come up with undertones as your skin will reflect multiple frequencies.
Undertones are a very poor invention (or marketing strategy) to explain something they didn´t have a scientific explanation for (back then there was not much knowledge about the skin in terms of how biology is intertwined with physics - another obsession of the western world to seperate things (like biology from physics) that innately belong together!
All skin tones are warm as they are only red, orange, or yellow - all warm colors!
Creating a distinction between cool and warm skin tones is another poor way of explaning something stylists observed visually, not scientifically and thus error and dissonance are the result that leaves so many clients disappointed.
@@ellaraystyle thank you for the detailed and scientific explanation, this is interesting, I am noting it down and appreciate the scientific value of this, there is much to learn, I am glad I did not waste my money on something that may or may not have resulted in an error
most welcome!
Can you do a video about olive skin tones?
Yes, that would be not olive skin tones but Yellow Root Skin Colors. I can do that. Subscribe and activate the notification to not miss it.
It's all semantics; you just word it differently, but you are doing the same thing. :) I agree with you and I agree with other systems equally, same thing, different ways of explaining the same thing. :)
the interpretation is what counts. While the seasonal analysis thinks in warm vs cool my system is not based on that outdated and flawed assumption because all color types are warm (red to yellow Root Skin Colors are all warm) and they can wear both cool and warm colors of specific frequencies within the rules of natures color harmony.
The principles of color harmony that I am using are also very different which as a consequence means that you will get different and the most accurate colors on the market - so far.
Another major difference is that my colors are developed to regain and maintain health on the outside and inside of your body so it goes way beyond just aligned or beautiful colors (because colors are energy based on frequencies when you look at it from a scientific perspective - physics and quantum physics & biology and thus have an influence on your health on multiple levels).
@@ellaraystyle The last paragraph you wrote here, explains why I am drawn to warm colours for my home, specifically the kitchen where I eat, why I have made changes to the garden fence colour, and planted more greenery, and why I change the colour of my bedroom every so many years when I am passing through phases in my emotional life
What color did you choose for your garden fence? And which ones for the kitchen?
Changing colors in specific rooms (to specific colors in comparison to your True Color Type) can also mean that you were going through certain trauma/negative experiences and you are trying to heal yourself; or it means that you are trying to find yourself again after feeling lost or having lost yourself (in a relationship of any sort).
@@ellaraystyle yes I was, both trying to heal and find myself. I chose emerald green for the garden fence. For the kitchen I have always had orange-yellow and do not want to change it. I have changed my bedroom to white again as I had done ten years ago before it was pink
Do you love cooking? The orange-yellow would suggest that at least.
Can´t wait to go more into color psychology in my videos...another exciting area of color.
Regardless of light reflecting off skin, if I wear the wrong shade of any colour, I can look off. Red is where all colour starts and on the spectrum we have blue, which is cooler on one end, and yellow on the other, which is warmer. So we can call it 'root skin colour' or 'undertones', it's just wording. We still need to know where we fall on the colour spectrum, warmer, cooler or more neutral. Yes, we can all wear colours but that's when we look at hue, chroma and value to determine where in the colour seasons we fit and choose from these because I for one cannot wear canary yellow but I can wear a very pale lemon.
You will look off if the wrong spectrum of the visible light is reflected on your skin which creates dissonance.
My system doesn´t operate in warm, cool, and neutral because it is simply wrong.
All skin colors are warm without exception.
There is also no neutral in a color spectrum.
All skin colors are based in a very specific frequency/hue which determines what colors flatter you and which one´s don´t.
Using the warm, cool, neutral system you will get to completely different results that will disappoint you everytime.
I go further with my system to find not only colors that make you look incredible but also nourish your body, feed your cells, heal your body and help you maintain health.
@@ellaraystyle I agree that it is light reflected off our skin, or any object for that matter, that enables our brains to see a particular colour. 'Neutral' is used by colour analysts to describe that which is neither at one end (cool) of the colour spectrum, or the other (warm), perhaps as a way to simplify it for the consumer. You look at chroma and depth, which is why we can all wear any colour but need the correct chroma and depth of the colour for it to harmonise with our colouring. I understand how colour can create better mental health and it's great you've tapped into this as part of your service. Most personal colour analysts don't use the scientific language you use, they drape their clients and see what makes the client look healthy. This doesn't mean they can't analyse properly, they just don't use the same language you do to explain it. Choosing the right depth and chroma of any colour opens up a whole new way of choosing colours for the individual and this is great news! (but I'll still avoid yellow/orange clothes because finding the right depth and chroma of these colours is next to impossible for me) 😃
My system is completely different, it´s not just different language. It is based in science and Asian principles of harmony and healing which is completely different from what the seasonal analysis is based on (visual subjective perception and dividing people into 4 seasons - which is racist, or to put it mildly: exclusive).
Nobody can wear ALL colors.
Everyone will have a selected set of colors that they can wear well - meaning colors that their bodies need as a source of energy/healing.
This again is different from the seasonal analysis which only looks at colors that may look good on you based on the subjective visual perception of the analyst - which is one reason why you will always get different results from every analyst - because it is subjective which is highly frustrating for clients.
It means that seasonal analysts may use the rules of that analysis method well but it doesn´t serve the client and this is the ultimate result I focus on.
It is not about bashing seasonal analysts. It is about showing that the seasonal system is flawed and that people need to wake up to the truth if they want accurate results.
And it also means that some analysts are not trained enough to analyse anyone properly which also doesn´t mean that they are bad people - it just means they need more training to get excellent results.
I love your detailed and fact-based approach! I'm curious about how cool olive skin colors fit into this? My skin has a lot of blue and some yellow. It's definitely not orange, orange foundations always look off on me. I usually have to buy a neutral foundation and add blue to it and most of the colors that suit me are "cool" colors does that mean my skin is yellow? but then if I'm adding blue doesn't it bring me back to green?
Thank you!
From what you are describing it is very possible that you are a transition type - between blue and yellow.
This explains why you have to buy neutral foundation and add blue.
As a blue Root Skin Color you will lean more toward cool colors.
Skin interacts with light so you have to think in additive AND subtractive color mixing as well as reflection vs absorption/scattering of visible light to get to the colors of your skin.
My system doesn´t think in cool or warm (olive) because it is only confusing and not true.
You could be an olive skin (Yellow Root Skin Color) but I doubt it based on your experience with foundation.
However, it might also come down to the type of foundation you are using as there is really no standard for the pigment mix. Each brand has its own mix and sometimes even names - which is more confusing.
It also depends on how you see colors that might influence your perception especially if you have been surrounded by "wrong" colors for a long time. It changes your color perception.
Without a proper analysis I can only assume what your Root Skin Color is so keep that in mind when you read this.
@@ellaraystyle thank you so much for your thoughtful reply! I use various kinds of foundation and usually need to add some blue.
I'm very color sensitive and spend a lot of time analyzing colors for design and fashion purposes so I don't think I've been surrounded by the wrong colors but I'm also not sure I totally understood what you meant there so... maybe? When I was younger I thought I had "warm" skin-tone because I was under the wrong impression that my ethnicity meant I must be but I was always disappointed when I tried to wear orange. It took a lot of trial and error to figure out that cool colors are much easier (meaning I don't need to make as many adjustments too look good in them) for me to wear in terms of clothing and makeup.
I've just found your channel so I'm feeling excited to delve deeper and see if it alters/clarifies my understanding! I have always thought that the SCA system was a bit generic and sort of a blunt tool that gets you close but not exact match with your best colors.
Excited to have you! I do hope my videos will clarify and you find the answers you are looking for!
Good to hear that you have found you are leaning more toward cool colors.
Makes sense, that the colors I shine in are turquoise, teal, petrol -ish, when my root skin colour mixes oranges and reds. Also, now i understand "why" i will never ever tan deeply, i don't have the necessary "eumelanim".
Most caucasians have more pheomelanin in their skin. Tanning is an interesting phenomenon that correlates to my system as well.
True Red Root Skin Colors don't tan or turn red first.
The only one's that tan easily are Blue and some yellow Root Skin Colors. It also depends on other factors whether you can tan or not.
Those cool colors you mentioned are on the border for you if you have true blue eyes.
The eye color plays a huge role for finding your perfect colors aside from skin color and hair color, and your energetic need (Triadic color set).
Thank you for stating the correct skin root colour, based on explaining the types of melanin and their relation to tanning. That really shows how much I didn't know! Red skin root colour is therefore correct, without further in-depth inspection. But I am intrigued to do one! I like your nuanced approach and the colour recommendations in your videos. There is a lot, especially about the triadic systems and energy levels that is still beyond me being able to see. I have had misperceptions about flattering colors for many years. I wore colours i liked, or which were recommended for summers in earlier systems, without really seeing if they were flattering or not. Then it finally dawned on me that they are mostly off! I might still do this when it comes to my much loved teals/petrols. Especially because "softed" versions are hard to find. I also love it, when I finally understand why and am also able to actually see how best colours vs others work.
Do I get it right, that softs are always "blends" of root skin colours? Or is that a wrong assumption, and one concept doesn't have to do anything with the other?
I am asking, because you wrote about true blue eyes which I don't have. My colouring is soft by definition of your other videos. My hair and eyes always show plural facettes, even my skin could be called 'neutral'.
most welcome! Good to hear that my system makes sense to you and you perceive it as more nuanced.
Very true that soft colors are hard to find. Which is why I am on a personal mission to change that because I am a medium chroma type (soft).
Soft Chroma can be found in all Root Skin Colors.
True blue is a hue and can be bright, medium, or soft in chroma.
Soft chroma is a wide spectrum and you could fall between medium-soft and very soft chroma which will determine the colors you can wear.
If your Root Skin Color is Red it can´t be neutral or as I call it Transition type. This slight difference will make a huge difference in the colors you can wear and should avoid.
Did I answer your questions?
Btw, if you want to check out the various color palettes I am offering: www.ellaray.com/colorpalette and let me know if you have any questions.
have you ever heaard of the expanded seasonal method? we use it here in Brazil, cause we're all super mixed, and it works wonders.
it is too generic and flawed for me. I prefer to be more precise and use my method to find colors that are a source of health and energy. The SCA does not provide that and btw is quite racist.
@@ellaraystyle how is it racist? it works really well with the vast varieties of skin tones we have here in Brazil because it can adapt to any color... it has 12 palettes guided by contrast, how deep or how light the colors are, how intense and how soft the colors are, besides temperature.
I will make a video about it in the future explaining why I believe it is racist. This is not to attack the seasonal analysis because it has served so many people for a very long time! My #1 goal is to achieve the highest accuracy in color analysis not to start a war between the seasonal analysis - or analysists - and myself. But by following the path of accuracy I will ultimately ruffle some feathers. Some will want to improve and some will refuse to grow.
@@ellaraystyle I can't wait for the video! Yeah, I don't want to start a war either, I just got curious about your point of view... I know most methods of color analysis were made to perform on caucasian and white people, but most professionals I know in the field working with the expanded method are very successful when applying it to the many skin colors we have here in Brazil!
btw, my request list is pretty long by now (several months into the future) and if you want this video to release sooner - within 1 week - you can join the channel membership with more perks: ruclips.net/channel/UCR9Ry0KlR8ulyq-dEzJ33DAjoin
Let me know if you have any questions.
Ella, hava your heard about the suzanne caygill color method, she says that the colors that harmonizes with people are colors that they already have in them, what you think about it? Because i can asure that i have colors in me that don't look good as color clothes, and also would be cool a video talking about who can wear orange perfectly
It is quite generic to say that you should just wear the colors that are already in you. I don´t recommend thinking in those terms. You could make massive mistakes by following that advice. For example, if you have red hair and you decide to wear the exact color like your hair it will look unflattering in most cases. The hue, chroma, depth, and contrast play a huge role whether or not a color makes you look incredible or dissonant.
My system goes further than just finding colors that look good on you and are aligned with your True Color Type.
My approach provides colors that energize you, give you life, nourish your body.
For that, I have to go much deeper than just uncovering your natural coloring - which is one part of my color analysis.
It is about finding the exact level of energy of each color so that you not only look healthy but also are healthy on the inside.
Color are not just a decoration or something you should play around with.
Colors are food - energy that feeds the body.
You can either choose fast food colors or you can choose healthy colors and the results will be very different!
I am fair olive and warm colours look very very bad on me. I absolutely sure I am olive by the way
what makes you sure?
@giselajimenez9056 yup, same here: fair olive skin, looks decidedly greenish, and warm colors are not my best
for your color type, it will be crucial to find the RIGHT warm colors as every color type can wear both warm and cool colors (in a scientific sense, not how the seasonal analysis defines it).
I was classified as a deep winter once. I have olive skin.
The seasonal classifications are very generic and not based on science, thus not accurate.
Analysts rely on visual observations which include so many variables like light in the room, time of day, current skin conditions of the client, the analysts eye health and vision type, surrounding objects and colors, etc.
These factors make the system flawed on several levels.
My system requires science and calculations to come to most accurate results.
You are classified as winter because you have dark hair and appear bright/cool in the seasonal system, and you get a generic and limited color palette like every other winter.
This doesn't make any sense.
Now, for Asians, the seasonal analysis has even more flaws than for Caucasians, and for Black people, I don't even want to start.
The separation between warm vs. cool color types is as untrue as it can be. From a scientific perspective, all color types are warm and can wear both warm and cool colors but based on rules of color harmony that their body dictates. Color harmony is not the same for everyone.
@@ellaraystyle That is a sad news for all those color analysts here on youtube. I thought I understood it till I found your videos. I would like to understand those calculations. I am impressed. Probably a special software application is needed. hmmm I just would like to understand.
yes, sad news and a chance to upgrade the system to create a more beautiful and healthy world.
The calculations are done manually by me but I do intend to build an application to automate those calculations and speed up the process. There is a color analysis course planned in the future that will contain the system of the calculations.
I watch lots of videos on kibbe types and color typing. They say that the structure of your body, your lines will affect also the color that suits you. For example a romantic type would need brighter colors, a dramatic type darker colors. The structure of your bones interacts with color too. I dont know my kibbe body type yet. I could be a soft natural or a soft gamine I dont know.
It is true that bone structure, character, and personality play a role in which color will suit the person.
Kibbe types are useful as an overview. I have developed style types that are more accurate and go more in-depth. Will make videos about it soon.
@@ellaraystyle but it is always important to know what colors are in harmony with your skin color, just like in nature, colors harmonise with each other in animals patterns and landscapes.
nature has the most interesting rules for color harmony! The study of it helped me understand the color harmony for humans.
Great video
Thank you!
I would love to get your analysis as a pale ass ginger who people fight over if I'm warm or cool (I am really not sure) who freckles only very lightly, had ehlers danlos syndrome so quite see-through skin and yet too much bet carotene so a yellowish overtone 🤣 maybe one day I'll afford it.
As you were describing your color type, I could vividly imagine your beautiful coloring!
If the color palettes are out of reach for you right now you can join the Raystudio Membership, there are 3 levels to choose from and guarantees that you will find your True Color Type and your best colors in no time.
Feel free to check out:
www.ellaray.com/raystudiomembership
Let me know if any questions arise.
Interesting, and you make a good case. I do wonder if there's such a thing as a blend of the yellow and red skin root colour or is that impossible because yellow isn't adjacent to red?
Thank you! It is not possible to have a transition type/blend of yellow and red, as you suspected, because it is not possible on the color spectrum.
@@ellaraystyle I would say that there is from a physiological and artistic POV. I don't know if you've ever seen this one art image going around showing the "color zones" of the face and how there's various yellows, reds, and blue/greens on different parts of the face. These are caused by 5 things that have nothing to do with specific colors - how much fat is in that area, how thin or thick the skin is, how much melanin is in that area, and how many veins are in that area and how close they are to the surface. And it is these 5 factors that impact how light is absorbed, scattered, or reflected. I think the issue lies in that people want to put the same color foundation across their whole face, rather than taking a more nuanced approach. (Although I do occasionally see people using the "coloring correcting" method which does take into consideration the various colors on the face.) Then there are external factors like other colors' proximity. For example, your skin might look a certain color/way if your hair is dark or light, or whatever color the hair is due to the contrast of the hair and skin, as well as any color reflection. Kinda how that one image of two gray squares that look like a different color when they're surrounded by a green versus a red border or a lighter gray versus a darker gray border, but it turns out it's the same exact middle gray square color in both instances.
Edit to add that, upon further thought, I think your system is good and would work if we were strictly talking solely about the skin in and of itself, but skin is translucent and sits upon many things such as our bones, fat, veins, etc. I also think the system would work better in regards to the color spectrum if it was talking about an inorganic material, such as a prism but not human flesh.
Also, regarding olive skintones, I really liked Style Me Jenn's video, "Warm vs Cool Olive Skin - What's the Difference?" that does a great job of color theory explaining olive skintones.
There are various factors at play when we speak about skin color and how it is produced and changed by internal and external factors. Your color type is always a spectrum of specific frequencies that all go back to the 3 possible Root Skin Colors.
All those factors, I do take into account during my analysis which is the most accurate method on the market currently also because it is highly personalized and colors developed are in full alignment with your True Color Type because I don´t rely on generic or flawed concepts or stiff ideas but rather science, the uniqueness of each persons coloring, and nature´s rules of color harmony.
Olive skin color is really Yellow Root Skin Color and this is a much easier concept to understand and avoid mistakes in analysis as I see constantly done by stylists. The concept of Olive Skin has even morphed into something that has nothing to do with skin color anymore and is thrown around almost like a trophy without a full understanding of the science behind it.
@@ellaraystyleit has definitely become a trophy. It's partly natural because it was so under presented for so long and because people love to be unicorns. I love how inclusive your system is.
Thank you, inclusivity is quiet important to me.
Those black skin tones that are so but so dark that appear blue are actually a very dark orange?
Very likely that they have orange-based skin (a lot of eumelanin) that reflects/absorbs/scatters certain frequencies of the blue light spectrum.
What type of in-between skin root color does the palette at 19:32 correspond to? In-between red and blue?
It is a random mix of colors not corresponding to a specific Transition type.
I think I am cool-toned. How do we decide on hair color? Hairdressers always want to add "warmth" which I think makes me look dull. I have naturally black/brown hair.
All skin colors are warm.
This doesn't mean that you need a "warm" hair color because that also depends on what your exact Root Skin Color is.
Btw, all natural hair colors are also warm.
I will release a video about hair colors soon and who can wear which hair colors best.
Subscribe and activate notifications to not miss it.
Do you live in Germany?
I have lived in Germany for over 20 years (after immigrating from Asia). Now, I am a digital nomad traveling the world for 3 years. How about you?
If people with blue root skin color can look "blue-ish" in blue colors, does that somehow apply to people with yellow or red root skin color too? Or is this a very specific "problem" only for the blue root skin color? What are influencing co-factors of having red or yellow root skin color one should be aware of?
And are there no in transition types between red and yellow because that would equal orange already? So in transition types will have SOME orange, but be primarily either inhibiting some additional and either primary or secondary yellow OR red as a root skin color? So they could all appear "orange", especially when tanned or naturally on the darker side? And will bright (or bright leaning) chroma types rather have a primary set (as the yellow, blue and red one in the triadic set step in the analysis) while medium or soft types will rather have a secondary or tertiary set? And the link between the root skin color and the triadic set is basically the inhibited energy of the root skin color and the best triadic set? E.g. if a specific type of red-orange is my exact root skin color, my set would have either THAT color or its complementary color? And the exact best set is depending on the rest of my overall coloring? Or isn't it as simple as that?
All Root Skin Colors can look blue in specific settings but for Blue and Yellow Root Skin Colors it will be more obvious.
Main factors for your Root Skin Color is always the composition of Melanin and which frequencies your skin absorbs and reflects, as well as scatters.
There are no transition types between red and yellow as this is not possible in the color spectrum.
Transition types will have a certain degree of orange, a specific hue of orange depending on the degree on the spectrum.
Some transition types will not appear orange but more yellow or red depending on the position within the spectrum.
When it comes to triadic set, it is not always the case that bright chroma will have primary set and medium/soft chroma will have a secondary or tertiary set. The diversity in triadic set is interestingly high in my experience.
It would be certainly easy to think that there is a direct link between Root Skin Color and Triadic set however, there is no direct link and there are beautiful variations that make every person so unique.
The best triadic set is dependent on your entire coloring, AND the interaction between all triadic colors - and how they relate to your coloring. It´s a tricky step.
@@ellaraystyle Is there a link between the root skin color and the level of warmth a person needs? E.g. can people with red root skin color wear cooler colors because they already carry so much warmth that they need cooler hues to look healthy? And on the other hand people with yellow root skin color need warmer hues to look healthy? Is there a tendency? (Of course this will be down to the overall coloring too, but if one has red root skin color and very warm hair and eyes for example.)
it is more about the sum of the energy level that results from adding colors to your coloring. This can be achieved with cool and warm colors regardless of your root skin color. Of course, it also depends on what type of effect you want to achieve. If a red root skin color wants to look harmonious and grounded she will look amazing in specific warm colors. If she wants to stand out and create a bigger visual impact she will look incredible in specific cool colors that will equally add up to the same energy level like the warm colors.
In specific settings you can definitely balance between warm frequencies and cool ones to create a specific effect.
If you have a lot of redness in your face (hormonal imbalance or acne, etc.) and have red root skin color wearing red or pink will emphasize the redness. So cooler colors will balance the frequencies and mask the redness.
@@ellaraystyle I am still flashed by how many new things I am learning here. This really breaks through the boredom I have experienced with the overall information I gathered over the past years. It felt like there was noone able or willing to provide something I haven't heard of. (Or I simply didn't know what to look for.) And even though the areas of color theory I've been taught about during my school years are part of your system, they are only a very small part.
What I wondered today, when thinking about foundation shades. My mom's foundations are all pink/red based and seamlessly blend in with her skintone. Even though her skin is a bit darker than mine, her foundations always make me look GREY and pale. Mine all lean more orange. I tried yellow based foundations, but they often just look yellow on me... not fully wrong, but VERY yellow. Orange often times is considered neutral in foundations, whereas those oranges often times are slightly or very muted and that can make me look dull. That's why I personally struggled a lot to find out where my skin color leans to. Also orange-based foundations are often times too dark for my pale skin. I find heaps during summer, but barely any during winter. The orange in my skin gets more intense and of course darker during summer. I used to think it was yellow, but it actually isn't. Can one relate this to root skin colors too? So if one needs a foundation that is yellow based = yellow root skin color; if the foundation needs to be orange-based = blue root skin color; if it needs to be reddish or pinkish = red root skin color? And could my mom's pink leaning skin be the reason why she can wear blues so effortlessly without looking blue? Besides that: If my skin does appear slightly greenish sometimes, is there a possibility that I lean closer to a blend of blue and yellow than anything else? I wondered about that because depending on the lighting, my skin changes from looking blue-ish to looking green-ish. And since I did tend to have to mix yellow based and orange based foundation. Of course it might just be the specific types of light, but I was just wondering about that today. I did think I would lean more towards red, because a red-orange looks so great on me, but maybe that's just because it does take away both the green and the blue tinge from my skin.
I will make a separate video in foundations soon as many are requesting this. I will also make a video about skin color changes in various lighting scenarios.
My list of requests is very long now and goes multiple weeks into the future.
If you want your requests answered faster I recommend going with the channel membership level #2: style insider.
Let me know if you have questions about that.
Ella, what is means when a skin looks grey or very yellow when wearing a certain color, it's good or bad?
It's not bad if there is not an underlying health problem.
Generally, grey appearing skin is soft in chroma.
The grey tone will appear more dominant the darker your skin tone is.
These skin tones are often found in Asian/Indian skin types sometimes in African skin types as well.
If you notice a yellow tint to your skin it can mean that your Root Skin Color is yellow or that you are a transition type between Yellow and Blue Root Skin Color.
Is your skin on the darker side and when does your skin look yellow, which colors are you wearing then?
@@ellaraystyle i don't know my root skin color sometimes i look kind orange sometimes kind yellow, i have deep features, but my skin has this greyish appeareance naturally even though i'm warm, in pictures it's hard to see my color naturally, depending on the day time i appear more light brown orange and later in the day i appear kind bluish, specially if i wear the color blue, when i use yellow i look very yellow, when in wear red, i look very red, when i wear green , the color becomes "normal", when i wear bright colors i am overporwered, when i wear soft chroma i look very grey, the colors that i wear canoot be to saturated or too muted
@@ellaraystyle i also realized that i do not fit in the 12 system of color Seasons, the colors of deep autumn and deep winter do not look so good in me, even though i have deep features, but i can't used soft colors either or too light chroma
@@ellaraystyle my skin is in the medium darker side, and when i use white for example i look very yellow, most oranges as well
the best way to see your Root Skin Color is during day time, no direct sunlight. I would have to do an analysis to say for sure what your Root Skin Color is. It sounds like you have both Eumelanin and Pheomelanin in a specific mix which contributes to the effect you are describing when wearing various colors.
Portuguese language actually has the same definition of skin tone as the english language.
You mean a word for skin color and a word for skin tone? What are the words for it?
Thank you for your video. Im curious about the concept that there are warm and cool olive skin tones. Is it just that some individuals have a higher percentage of blue to their olive toned skin, while warmer appearing olives have a greater amount of yellow? Or are( All )olive skin tones yellow based? Im curios because, some olive skin people look terrible in warm tones, while others look great.
Olive skin can only be Yellow Root Skin Color. It will depend on the exact hue that will determine what exact colors will look good on them.
Their chroma will also determine whether they will look better in full warm or cooler tones.
If you have a specific person in mind that looks not good in warm colors being an olive skin let me know and I can check. Maybe the person isn't olive at all. Something I also noticed - people are being called olive even though they are not.
@@ellaraystyleThank you for your response. The French/American actress AudreyTautou, I believe would be a good example of a cool olive.
After studying pictures of her, I detect brown eumelanin (orange-based), and red and yellow eumelanin in her skin. When she has lighter skin the yellow melanin comes through in certain lighting. When she tans she has more of the brown eumelanin in her skin which means she is not an olive. Based on my system, I would consider her Blue Root Skin Color (close to a transition type to an olive). Her other features are diverse, so she is not monochromatic which makes her color type so intesting and unique - and very beautiful!
@@ellaraystyle Thank you 😊
@@ellaraystyle Interesting, I think my skin color is similar to hers and I've been typed and thought that I was cool olive. But why do many cool-tone foundations look too orange on me? I just left another comment about this. Basically, I find that my skin looks kind of grey which I attribute to being blue-based cool olive, having a mix of blue and yellow but more blue. I've thought this for years and helped me make sense of why my skin sometimes looks bluish, purplish,greyish, sometimes slightly golden and why "cool" tone colors look best on me and most warm tone colors make me look sallow and drained. Why am I confused here?
How about gray hair, can you make analysis on those?
Do you mean what type of grey hair is connected to which Root Skin Color? This video is planned. Subscribe and actvate the notification to not miss it.
Let me know what questions you would have so I can incorporate them in the video.
hmmm. I work as a beauty consultant, thus am learning foundation matching with Estee Lauder. I'm trying to translate your system to makeup, particularly with dark-deeper skin complexions while training my eyes to see.
I have heard from black/bipoc stylist many darker and deeper-colored skin colors are often cool (or neutral) undertoned, meaning according to your system, they'd have a blue-root skin color. Therefore have a orange or orange-reddish in their skin. Am I understanding you correctly?
Warm = red or yellow root skin color
Cool = blue/orange root skin color (skin appears blue in some lighting, clothing.)
Neutral = blue/orange root skin color (skin appears ?? - looks dusty or grey to me)
Olive = yellow root skin color (green skin tint in some lighting)
All skin types (dark skin, too) can be all three Root Skin Colors.
All Root Skin Colors are warm.
But through interaction with visible light spectrum certain Root Skin Colors also depending on their mixture of Melanin will either reflect or absorb Blue frequencies and can appear blue in certain settings or clothing which does not mean they are cool.
They are still warm but need a specific set of colors to achieve a harmonious and healthy look.
There are no neutral undertones - if anything they would fall under transition types and there is a range of possible Root Skin colors they could have.
When it comes to foundation, unfortunately, the beauty industry is selling the concept of warm, cool, etc. as their products are based on that.
And it´s not like you will find a perfect foundation (you never do because they base it on this flawed system).
If you think you found the perfect match it only appears that way because you are most probably viewing it in artificial lighting. In natural light no foundation looks natural or 100% matching to your skin (unless you use a light-weight liquid one that is so thin that you might as well go without it).
ok - Last night at work (the beauty counter) I tried to look at people through the lens of colour vs. undertone. Like, just seeing the colours as pigments. TBH, both are difficult. Getting the "best" match is off, even though folks have a certain "look" they prefer over the other. I hear what you're saying about it's impossible to look totally natural in foundation - yet, that's what folks want! I believe a lot of this is ppl are soaking in TV/HD and seeing normal human skin up close. So there's a conflict of wanting to conceal, yet "look natural" which is unrealistic as something as been added. I usually tell folks to do a very light application after spot concealing.
On the flip side, this video opened my eyes to seeing why a certain shirt I have is beige, but not - it's a green-tinted beige. So yay, lol. I'm starting to understand your system - it's intricate, but with practice I plan to at least utilize it the best I can. I see what you're saying now about every unique person has unique colors....Could you do a video on color matching with foundation using your system? @@ellaraystyle
It will require some training. I am planning to have a course ready for beauty professionals like yourself soon to help you master color types and color matching.
You are right, there is always this conflict between what people want and what they need!
I will put your request on my list to do a video about foundation and color matching based on my system.
yay!! :D @@ellaraystyle