Do you really know what colour suits you?

wow absent you obviously don't live in this damp island [ Britain]! My exposed bits are more the colour of well seasoned fungi [that grows on an old log in the damp wood,] and seen to their best advantage in the dark with a light behind them.

I thought I did but now that all exposed parts are verging on the colour of well-seasoned wood – just walking about not lying sunbathing – I'm not so sure. Absentdaughter is my personal advisor and shopper – she'll sort me out.

I just wear colours I feel good and relaxed in; pale turquoise, purple, dark blue, grey and quite a lot of black. I used to wear a lot of white and dark red in my relative youth, but now they make me appear deceased . Obviously over the years as skin tone and hair colour change, so do the colours which suit. I don't feel I need to be told what colour to wear, but just go with how I feel. If it's wrong, then too bad!

I had my colours done a couple of years ago. I am an autumn and look good in browns reds oranges coral turquoise dark green gold and pistachio. Some grey.Cream rather than white navy rather than black which I knew I looked awful in anyway and now only wear for funerals. I did wear pale blue and some pink before but was told they were bad colours for me. I had mine done in London by a firm called Red Leopard. It was a birthday treat organised by my daughters. They also advised you on makeup especially what lipstick shades to wear. I don,t always wear makeup on days I don,t have to go to work but rarely leave the house without a dash of lipstick. I have had many more compliments since I,ve worn the right colours as opposed to before so think there must be something in it. My eldest daughter also had hers done, we are similar but she is a bright autumn and can wear slightly different shades to me. It was great fun and very interesting to do.

thatbags you are right about needing to be near daylight rather than shop lighting [which drains you anyway] but the best you can do sometimes is the nearest mirror test. I have been known to ask shop assistants to let me look at a colour by the door [don't want the alarms going off!]Also a good idea to have a patterned top as you say, which gives a 'softer ' effect than all one colour.Generally speaking, yes, paler shades of the colours that suited you years ago, will suit you now.If you love purple [but it doesn't love you back] buy a skirt or trousers in that colour, it's only the top colour that matters, near your face.

I know what doesn't suit me....Pink makes me look as though I've just been dug up!

Can't do the 'inside of wrist test Bags too veiny so mine has a bluey/greeny tint!
My colour palette is the same as yours Nellie altho I can wear very dark browns. I'm a 'winter' person, despite the fact that I am a sun worshipper and dislike dull grey winter days

PS Fashion is irrelevant in my view. If you wear clothes that suit you, you'll look good, and probably better than a lot of people who are guided only by what's currently fashionable but which, by definition, won't suit everyone.

The trouble with holding a garment up to your face and looking in a mirror in a shop is that the lighting is a far cry from daylight so the colour will not show up properly, and neither will your face's reaction to it.

For the most part I'm better with a mixture of colours than with large swathes of one, and the colours that do suit me now are a softer version of what suited me thirty years ago.

I still think Carol Whatshername's 'seasonal' approach in Colour Me Beautiful is the best guide. As roses mentions in the OP, your skin tone is what's important when choosing what will suit you. The inside of your wrist should tell you if you have a pinkish or a yellowish underlying skin tone. Works for me anyhow.

Having had a mum with little fashion sense I did not have a clue about what to wear until I went with four friends to a "colour consultant."

It really was very good. She hung a white cover over your shoulders and then held the various colour ranges up to your face. This gave a very clear idea how different ranges of colours looked with regard to your individual skin tones. After a couple of us had done we could all see how it was working for the others. The right colour for you, really makes a difference.

I go best with reds on the blue side of the spectrum and not Orangey reds. Bright whites instead of creamy whites. Don't come anywhere near me with yellow, orange, limey greens or browns.

The colours were rated for you by your friends and the consultant, with ideas on what proportions of particular colours you should wear.

All four of in the session had different "colour seasons" as they put it. We all got our monies worth from that.

I will refrain from advertising on here which company it was but we all felt our consultant was very good. Pm me if you want more info.

Ok roses, enough already, I just spluttered over my toast reading your last comment. I'll lock up the camels, never call any item of clothing I buy Beige again and get ready to walk the dogs again. Every off lead walk currently results in both dogs needing a shower, mud magnets and the north west countryside seems to be slowly morphing into mud fields.

Just don't open that peculiar gate and let them out into the road Iam64 or there may be consequences!

I shall do that roses, as there are sales to have a snoop around. I realise there is no hope for me, because despite agreeing with your description of camels, I do rather admire them. Love watching their superior facial expressions, and their peculiar gate.

Iam64 hee-hee camel it is then [although they have dreadful teeth and spit don't they?]I know just what you mean about those expensive camel coats, I always wanted one too. About 2 years ago I tried one on....... OMG I looked like my Grandma, and not only that, but the colour was hideous near my face, even a scarf wouldn't have redeemed it. Do try one on yourself and see if you like it, but I bet you won't.

I checked my (closet) jumper shelf - dark blue, black, bright purple, grey, red, and 2 beige, one with pearl buttons and the other with a very nice neck line. If I described the 2 light ones as camel, would that be a more positive choice. I have long yearned for one of those expensive camel coats, that seem to see women through years of cold winters. Not beige then, camel

Iam64 consider yourself 'outed' as a closet beige fan!

I don't like the word beige, it sounds so, well beige, but I love pale fawns, light browns - does that mean beige…..

NEVER beige! It's an awful colour on anyone.Patterns are a whole different ball game aren't they? Standing in the shop musing as to which pattern you can get away with?I am obese elf too POGS but as I quite like a patterned bit of clothing now and again usually buy patterned Summer dresses, as I seem to get away with the all over look as opposed to the top or skirt.Awful patterns around though, all the birds animals etc or gigantic flowers like something from Victorian wallpaper.

Me too Pogs

Anyway, surely we are all of an age when we should have graduated to beige.

Actually, I am beige so need to wear something that isn't.

I love black and mauves' heathers' burnt orange suit me well too.

Am I alone in a beautiful flower pattern on me looks like an orchard. I simply cannot take it being an obese elf.

It seems as if a lot of you had your colours 'done'. I haven't but mostly I seem to pick what's right, never black [shudder, even with scarf I look like corpse] never white , but a fairly pale palette of colours on the whole, but red, especially cherry red suits me.I like pale grey, and navy too.Never ever beige that killer of a colour! blues and turquoises mixed together look good too, and happily there has been a lot of those colours around lately.I look yukky in purple, khaki, sludge or any murky colours as I am fair skinned.Find it hard to get clothes I like in Winter, but plenty in Summer.I try and avoid looking at racks of sale stuff as it distracts me and I have never bought anything good from them .Don't have the chutzpah to buy red boots like you Soutra but I do like scarves of all kinds and always have even when I was young and scarves were not in fashion really, didn't have much money and a scarf in that Season's colour could lift an outfit.

I also had my colours done years ago,most of them were what I wore anyway,even black!As I've got older(59),the best tip I've been given is to swap black for French navy,it is less harsh against skin and still looks chic

I had my colours done a few years ago with 'House of Colours'.
As others have said above, I found that I tended to already wear 'my' colours on the whole.
I was told 2 things:
1) Anyone can wear any colour - it's the tone that matters.
2) Almost no-one should wear black or white. Only 'Winter' types can carry it off.
Shame my new job requires an all-black uniform I'm wearing bright necklaces to offset it!
I am a 'Blue Spring' apparently!

Stansgran - "Mywalit"?? Mine were a present from DD for having the boys for the weekend when she and SIL went to Florence for a wedding!! I notice she has bought herself one of their bags (serious ££££ in my book!)

I had my colours done many years ago too. It all made sense at the time and I could instinctively pick out the colours that suited me best. It's all a bit different now though and at 70 I definitely need softer colours.

I still buy a foundation from Colour me Beautiful on line.