Have you gotten your personal color palette and followed all the rules, but still feel something’s missing when you go to get dressed? Or maybe you had one color expert tell you you’re an Autumn, only to have another insist you’re a Spring? In this article, I’m pulling back the curtain on why color analysts sometimes disagree—and what that means for discovering your true personal color palette. Read on to learn what might be being overlooked and how to find colors that honor both your natural features AND your unique energy.
If you’ve spent any time exploring the style world, you’ve probably encountered seasonal color analysis: You’re a Winter, Summer, Spring, or Autumn based on your hair, skin, and eyes. But what happens when experts look at the same person and come to completely different conclusions? Today, I’m sharing my own experiences with conflicting color analysis, why this happens more often than you might think, and most importantly, how to move beyond this confusion to discover a personal color palette that truly feels like you.
As your first step to self-discovery, I invite you to download my free guide to Seasonal Energy and Personality Colors.
When I first started exploring the world of technical style, I read alot of books and watched alot of YouTubes, and joined all the Facebook groups and all that. But then I trained with Carla Mathis and went into a long season of developing my own philosophy and understanding of the intersection between personality, colors, and style.
Recently I’ve started exploring again, just to see what new ideas are out there and how they might help me to continue growing in my understanding. And I’ve had some insights into my own experiences with color analysis that I want to share with you.
When Experts See Different Things
I’ve had my colors analyzed multiple times throughout my life, and the results haven’t always aligned. Back in the late 80s, I visited a Color Me Beautiful analyst. At the time, my hair was highlighted with a flattering golden warm tone. The analyst declared me an “Autumn because of the muted,” and I think she was looking primarily at my brown eyes rather than my skin tone.
- She highlighted the brightest colors in the Autumn packet as my best options
- I felt I “disappeared” in most of the recommended colors, except when wearing tomato red or hunter orange
- Looking back, I’m fairly certain she never even tried the Spring drapes on me
Years later, a well-known color and style expert who works internationally told me I was light, warm, and “smoky” (meaning muted) based on photos she’d seen of me online. She seemed to be looking primarily at my hair, not how color interacted with my skin.
Only when I worked with master color designer Carla Mathis did someone notice the truth. When Carla saw a photo of me in a white T-shirt with gold foil pattern next to one in a butter yellow (light, warm, and muted), she immediately asked if someone had told me to wear the butter yellow and pointed out how much better the white looked.
Most people think your best colors are determined solely by your physical features, but a truly authentic personal color palette must honor both your natural coloring and your unique energy.
You can’t always see that just by looking at the pigments present in eyes or hair. And yet, I hear experts teaching on YouTube these very shortcuts.
What Personal Color Palette Shortcuts Miss
If someone relies on shortcuts and visible surface features rather than deeply observing how color performs when you wear it, the analysis has a chance of being wrong. This is part of why different analysts can come to different conclusions about the same person.
Another reason is that different systems are designed to group people differently, emphasizing different aspects of color:
- Temperature: warm vs cool
- Resonance: tinted, muted, toasted, shaded, or saturated
- Value: light vs dark. Some systems even conflate value and contrast, but that should probably be a separate episode
So, if you happen to stumble into a system that you fit neatly into, you will get a palette that works really well for you. That didn’t happen for me until I got into a customized palette, because in these systems with prebuilt palettes your energy, presence, and how you feel in colors is rarely considered.
The Missing Piece: Your Energy
When creating a personal color palette that truly feels authentic, we need to look beyond just matching features. We need to consider how colors resonate with your energy and personality.
- Tinted colors (mixed with white) convey lightheartedness and optimism—traditionally associated with Spring
- Muted colors (softened with gray) evoke calm and sophistication—traditionally associated with Summer
- Toasted colors (mixed with brown) convey warmth and groundedness—traditionally associated with Autumn
- Shaded colors (darkened with black) evoke power and intensity—traditionally associated with Winter
But here’s the fascinating truth: your personality might naturally align with a different energy than your physical coloring suggests. When that happens, following a pre-built palette can feel restrictive and inauthentic—like wearing someone else’s clothes.
That’s where the art of color design comes in. Unlike color analysts who categorize you into a system, color designers work more like artists, harmonizing your inherent colors with your personality colors to create something truly unique.
My Personal Color Palette Design Process
When I create a personal color palette for a client, I identify both their inherent colors and their personality colors, then harmonize them into a one-of-a-kind palette that reflects both what they love and what looks good on them. This approach explains why two talented professionals might evaluate the same person differently—one might be seeing the physical features while another intuitively picks up on the energy.
Prebuilt color palettes can work beautifully when your coloring and personality happen to align with the system. I even sell them. But when they don’t, you’re left feeling disconnected from your recommended colors, unable to articulate why they don’t feel right.
Most people think your best colors are determined solely by your physical features, but a truly authentic personal color palette must honor both your natural coloring and your unique energy.
Here’s something simple you can do this week to integrate these principles into your wardrobe: Pull out three items in colors you’ve been told are “your colors” but that you rarely wear. Try them on and simply notice how you feel—not just how you look. Do they drain you or energize you? Do they feel like “you” or like you’re wearing a costume? Trust your instincts—they’re telling you something important about your personal color energy.