Color me Beautiful – Color/Colour Analysis

April 7, 2013 by Book Reviewers Online 5 Comments

A long time ago I discovered Carole Jackson’s wonderful book “Color me Beautiful”.   The book is available from the Internet Archives.  Here is a description about it.

Finding your colors will be the nicest thing you can do for yourself. Without dieting, expense or effort, color can make you beautiful TODAY!

In Color Me Beautiful, Carole Jackson, a leading professional color consultant, tells you how.

The secret is simple: she uses the four seasons to describe people and their best colors. For just as nature is divided into four distinct seasons, each with its own harmonious colors, you have a unique skin tone, hair and eye coloring in tune with one of them.

Since Carole’s book, the 4 “seasons” have been each divided into 3 types, e.g.  Deep, Clear and Cool, and this excellent page  HERE   gives color samples for these 12 “seasons”.

 

Above is a copy of the Book that I once had.  Note the spelling of “colour“.   In 2006 a revised edition came out, titled “Color Me Beautiful“.

WINTER

SUMMER

AUTUMN

SPRING

Carole Jackson tells you how to discover your season and how to use the 30 sensational colors in your seasonal palette to make your wardrobe, hair color, makeup and accessories just right for you.

Your 30 correct colors will smooth and clarify your complexion and bring healthy color to your face.

You will learn how to unclutter your closet, dress for your figure, discover your clothing personality, design your personal wardrobe and make it workable for all occasions, learn to use accessories successfully from scarves to stockings, and shop sanely.

Carole Jackson, a leading professional color consultant, founded Color Me Beautiful (first called Personal Design) in 1974.

Carole’s color concepts grew out of her art and psychology studies at Stanford University, from which she graduated magna cum laude.  She went on to study color theory and fashion at the Fashion Academy in California. She also has completed the course work for a masters degree in education at the State University of New York; and has been an actress and model.

SUMMER
Shimmers in the soft, cool pastels of the summer rainbow

AUTUMN
Radiates in the rich, warm earth tones of fall

WINTER
Sparkles in the clear, primary and icy colors of winter

SPRING
Blossoms in the clear, warm colors of new growth

You will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to download and read the book.  If you don’t have the Reader, you can get it from this page  HERE.   If your computer does not run on the Windows XP operating system, you have to click on “Do you have a different language or operating system”.  Also, I recommend you un-tick ”  Yes, install McAffee Security Scan Plus – optional ”  if your computer already has a Virus protection programme installed on it.

The book can be read online.   Alternatively, it can be downloaded/saved to your computer as an un-alterable PDF document (PDF file format means Portable Data Format).  I saved the “PDF with Text” version.    A tip with using Acrobat Reader is to hover your mouse over the icons in the toolbar at the top and click on “Fit to Window Width and enable Scrolling”.

The Read Online option is good (if you can get it to work) as you can type in 25 in the Go field then hover your mouse over the 2nd yellow “tear drop” at the bottom (where it says the Seasonal Palettes 25) and click.  It will take you to the chapter where the swatches appear, and you can zoom in on the palette by clicking on the Magnifying Glass with the Plus + sign.   Then the tricky part is to move the page around by firmly left-mouse clicking somewhere on the page and dragging the page while you have the left mouse button depressed.  I moved the zooned in palette for Winter into view by clicking in the middle of the page and dragging the right-hand page with the palette into centre view, then I had to left-mouse click in the right-hand margin of the book to move the page up and down.

READ OR DOWNLOAD  “COLOR ME BEAUTIFUL”   AT THIS LINK BELOW

http://archive.org/details/ColorMeBeautiful

Try clicking on the link again later if it doesn’t work at first  ( the site may be “busy” )

Color me Beautiful 12 Seasons color analysis chart

I am a Winter and I bought the Winter swatches which come in a nice blue “wallet”.  Winters can wear true black and white and look good in them.  I also went to a Colors organisation and bought a make-up kit for my “coloring”.  Carole’s book also includes the actual colour palettes, for example the palette for “Winters” is on page 29.  The Seasonal Palettes start on page 25 and you can get an idea of the swatch colours.

The color analysis really comes in handy when buying clothes, for example, Forever New has had a sale on recently.  I love their Jacquard Bodycon dress and the Caitlin Pleated Dress  – see below – however the Bodycon dress has gold on it, and according to Carole Jackson (see page 68 ) Winters & Summers don’t look the best in gold.

Also, raspberry red is for Summer people (see page 68 ) not for Winters.   True Red or Blue-red are the Reds suitable for Winters.  Gold is apparently for Autumns and Springs.   I know myself, from experience, that raspberry red/pink does not suit me as well as true red, but hot pink does suit me well.

This website page  HERE  also gives good information about colour choices for different versions of the Seasons, e.g. Clear Winters can wear Raspberry, but not Deep Winters (which I am).

Renee Jacquard Bodycon Dress

Caitlin Box Pleat Dress raspberry red – front

Caitlin Box Pleat Dress raspberry red – back

I opted instead for a crimson red “Seamed Ponte Dress” in size 6.   I have bought beautiful dresses in my size in store from Forever New, and from their online store in Australia.  The postage is free and delivery is quick.  You can buy a wallet of color swatches for your Season from Carol Thompson  HERE.

Crimson red is a clear true red, as this interesting page about   “Shades and Tones of Red”   describes well.

Eventually the 4 Season Color theory was later refined and developed into supposedly the more complete and more accurate 12 Season Color Theory.  As far as I am concerned, because colors (or colours if you live in Australia like I do) are a product of our eyes interacting with different wave-lengths of light, there is, in reality, an infinite number of hues of colours.  However, I am very happy with Carole’s initial 4 Colour Analysis!

To read about the 12 Season Color Analysis, please go to the page below.   Note there are 6 characteristics – deep, light, soft, clear, warm or cool.

http://www.prettyyourworld.com/colortheory.html

I also bought this “Sweet Sorbet” clutch from Forever New as I wanted a clutch purse in a light colour.