New Year. New You. 2012 Guide Part Two

Part One was finding out your bodies shape and seeing which style of clothes are the best fit for you.

Part Two we are taking the next step and finding out what your skin tone is. Your complexion and colouring determines which colours work best on you.

Now it is your chance to get creative, try new things, get out of your comfort zone. There might be a lot of trial and error but the only way to find what suits you and what you feel comfortable in is to to TRY!

Knowing your skin tone will help you find which colours enhance your beauty and which colours are best to avoid these are ones that make you look and feel dull.

This relates to clothes and make up choices.

There are two easy steps:

1. Look in a mirror, take note of your natural hair colour, eye colour and skin tone. To help find the undertone colour of your skin, look at the inside of your arm in natural daylight. 

2. From finding out your skin tone then you can match it up to the season (skin tones are categorised into seasons), once you know the season then you can find out what colours you should be adding to your wardrobe.

Winter: (also known as deep complexions) have blue or pink undertones. Skin can be pale and porcelain white, yellowish-olive, or dark. Winter people are generally brunettes, with deeply coloured eyes.

Those with the winter colour profile have a lot of depth to their colouring and a lot of contrast between their hair colour, eye colour and skin tone. Winters should wear colours that are sharp, stark and clear. White, black, navy blue, red and shocking pink all go well with winter complexions. For lighter colours, wear icy tones rather than pastels. Avoid earthy tones and subdued colours like beige, orange and gold.

Summer: (also known as cool complexions) like winter have blue or pink undertones. Skin is pale and pink. Summers are often natural blondes or brunettes with pale eyes.

Summers have a low level contrast between their hair, eye colour and skin tone. Summers should choose pastels and soft neutrals with rose and blue undertones. Lavender, plum, rose-brown and soft blue suit summers well while black and orange do not. Avoid intense, vivid hues because they will look harsh and drown you out.

If you are trying to discriminate between winter and summer, winters are usually brunette and summer are mostly natural blondes.

Autumn: (also known as warm complexions) have golden undertones. Many redheads and brunettes with golden brown eyes fall into this category.

Autumns you have a lot of depth to your colouring and skin tone. You should select colours with golden undertones, like camel, beige, organge, gold and dark brown which will accentuate your complexion. Stay clear from bright colours and black and white, which will make your look tired and faded. Also avoid colours with blue tones, like navy which will look cold against your complexion and give you a pale appearance.

Spring: (also known as light complexions) have golden undertones and are usually creamy white or peach. Spring people generally have strawberry red hair, freckle, rosy cheeks and blue or green eyes.

Spring can wear pale soft colours like camel, peach, golden yellow and golden brown. Your colours may be particularly hard to find because they can never be too muted or too dark. Avoid black or white which are too contrasting for you. Also avoid dark, dull colours

Knowing what you are looking for is half the battle, now you can branch out and create a great new wardrobe where everything looks fabulous on!