Current:Home > ScamsIs 'color analysis' real? I put the viral TikTok phenomenon to the test − and was shocked.-InfoLens
Is 'color analysis' real? I put the viral TikTok phenomenon to the test − and was shocked.
View Date:2024-12-23 16:08:11
LOS ANGELES − "Do you see the difference?"
I'm sitting in a chair looking at myself in a mirror. Over my gray apron, Brenda Cooper − a stylist, author and professional color analyst − drapes two different cloths of orange under my chin. One looks bright and strong; the other soft, muted. One, she says, harmonizes with my face. The other, not so much. In other words, one is my orange.
At this point in our color analysis, I'm squinting to see a difference. Cooper, however, warned me at the start of our session that would likely be the case. She says she couldn't see a big difference when she first had her colors done many years ago. Now, she says, it stands out to her clear as day − and people subconsciously gravitate more toward her when she's wearing her colors.
Color analysis, or the process by which you find your most complementary palette, is nothing new, emerging as a practice among stylists around the 1970s and '80s − but it's having a moment on TikTok right now, thanks to Gen Z, who are just discovering it.
Young people on TikTok go about color analysis in different ways. Some use filters and computer simulators. Others pay hundreds for appointments with professionals. Some even go so far as to travel to South Korea, where they insist the best color analysis happens.
Some of the color analysis videos are striking, showing people's complexions brighten and skin tones even just by changing the color held under their chins. Some of them rack up millions of views − but also plenty of skepticism from commenters, questioning if editing or filters are at play. Others have conflicting feedback in the comments over which shade is actually best.
Cooper says wearing the right colors makes all the difference.
"It's something that is very much overlooked, because people look at color, and they purchase or wear the colors they like to look at," she says. "Wearing a color is a completely different thing. I often say that people fall in love with colors that aren't in love with them."
More:These jeans that make you look like you wet yourself cost $800 – and sold out. Why?
How does color analysis work?
Color analysis involves finding the palette of color that makes your face look the best, based on your undertones, veins and other subtle features. If your skin is "warm," you're either an autumn or a spring; if it's "cool," you're either a summer or a winter. These seasons break down into further subtypes, such as dark autumn, bright winter and soft summer.
Mariana Marques, founder of The Outfit Curator, which offers in-person color analysis for just under $300, says awareness of color analysis has exploded in recent years.
"Two years ago, most people didn't even know that that's a thing that existed and that you could really do it," she says, adding most of her color analysis clients are young female professionals.
Cooper says color analysis is indeed legitimate, but the effects turn up most profoundly in-person rather than online. Color has played a profound role in her work, she says. Cooper won an Emmy for costume designing the hit sitcom "The Nanny," and she offers thorough, in-person color analysis in Los Angeles for over $800. Her clientele, she says, includes celebrities, surgeons and public speakers. (Fran Drescher, by the way, is a dark autumn, as is her other A-list client William Shatner, she says.)
Cooper, however, takes issue with the ways many young people go about color analysis online. She says a reliable color analysis requires a careful process of elimination, conducted in-person and under natural light.
Not everyone, she says, is initially happy when she tells them their best colors; however, she says it's her job to deliver accurate information, and they can do with that knowledge what they wish.
Recapping NYFW 2024:We went to more than 20 New York Fashion Week shows, events
Why does color matter?
The effect of color on how one is perceived is often overlooked but can be profound, color analysts say. Some colors drain you; some dominate you. Some colors harmonize with your natural beauty.
"Everybody's skin tone can't handle a certain color," says Rayne Parvis, a style coach who has been doing color analysis for 14 years and charges nearly $1,000 for an in-person session. "I like to think of it as, if your soul wanted you to wear a certain outfit, this is how it would look."
It's also not as simple as red looks good, but green doesn't. Everyone looks good in every color, but not in every tone of color. Think the difference between the yellow of a banana and the yellow of mustard. Or between black and charcoal.
"A lot of people think it's going to be limiting, but I think it's the opposite," Marques says. "It's not that you're not going to have any shades of green in your palette. You just need to know the best green for you."
My color analysis experience
Color analysis can have a profound emotional impact on people.
"Color is an electromagnetic energy, so we not only see it, but we feel it," Cooper says. "When it's done accurately, and a person sees themselves, even if they're not classically beautiful, but sees themselves in their most attractive form, it can touch someone very emotionally. I've had many people with tears that just roll down their cheeks because they're moved by it."
At a different point in our session, Cooper asks if I see a difference between two shades of white under my face. I'm shocked that I do. One white − a stark white, the white of snow − washes me out. I see stubble more profoundly on my chin. Some red marks on my left cheekbone become visible. Even my lips look ever so slightly blue − "dead," as Cooper says.
The white that's a slight creme, however, is a different story. Dark circles under my eyes are less noticeable. My skin looks more even. Acne and red marks seem to fade. Is this real? Or is my mind, desperate to see something, playing tricks on me?
Cooper tells me I'm a true autumn, meaning my skin harmonizes with warm, fall colors. Brown loves me as does navy, she says. Black not so much, but charcoal is a different story. Guess I have to buy a new suit.
I'm curious to see how wearing these colors may or may not affect my life. Will I become more attractive? More magnetic? Or will just feeling like I am these things make the real difference?
"It's not a superficial act at all. It's your most public form of self-expression," Cooper says of color. "The work that I do on the outside with people has a profound effect on their inner life in elevating their confidence and their self-acceptance so that they can go out into the world and take risks and do things that they wouldn't normally do."
At the end of the day, maybe that confidence is what matters most. And if a bright, autumn orange helps me achieve that, then let's put it on.
veryGood! (2)
Related
- New York eyes reviving congestion pricing toll before Trump takes office
- Former New Mexico attorney general and lawmaker David Norvell dies at 88
- AP PHOTOS: Spanish tapestry factory, once home to Goya, is still weaving 300 years after it opened
- Cummins pickup truck engines systematically tricked air pollution controls, feds say
- DWTS' Sasha Farber Claps Back at Diss From Jenn Tran's Ex Devin Strader
- Comedian Jo Koy to host the Golden Globe Awards
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto is a Dodger: How phenom's deal affects Yankees, Mets and rest of MLB
- Lions win division for first time in 30 years, claiming franchise's first NFC North title
- Golden Bachelorette: Joan Vassos Gets Engaged During Season Finale
- And These Are Ryan Seacrest and Aubrey Paige's Cutest Pics
Ranking
- Caitlin Clark shanks tee shot, nearly hits fans at LPGA's The Annika pro-am
- As conflicts rage abroad, a fractured Congress tries to rally support for historic global challenges
- Buy less, donate more — how American families can increase charitable giving during the holiday season
- Former New Mexico attorney general and lawmaker David Norvell dies at 88
- Texas’ 90,000 DACA recipients can sign up for Affordable Care Act coverage — for now
- What restaurants are open Christmas Day 2023? Details on McDonald's, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A
- Colorado releases additional 5 gray wolves as part of reintroduction effort
- Second suspect arrested in theft of Banksy stop sign artwork featuring military drones
Recommendation
-
Controversial comedian Shane Gillis announces his 'biggest tour yet'
-
USA Fencing suspends board chair Ivan Lee, who subsequently resigns from position
-
Yankees' Alex Verdugo ripped by Jonathan Papelbon after taking parting shots at Red Sox
-
Decaying Pillsbury mill in Illinois that once churned flour into opportunity is now getting new life
-
Disney Store's Black Friday Sale Just Started: Save an Extra 20% When You Shop Early
-
Tunisians vote in local elections on Sunday to fill a new chamber as economy flatlines
-
Alex Batty, British teen found in France after missing for 6 years, breaks his silence: I've been lying
-
Mike Nussbaum, prolific Chicago stage actor with film roles including ‘Field of Dreams,’ dies at 99