ColorKit™ Case Study: Soft Summer Harlie
Gorgeous Harlie had been on a mission to DIY her season: the apps, the quizzes, the filters, the AI prompts, but she was getting mixed results. She decided to end the wild goose chase, and the ColorKit™ experience got to the bottom of her true season by working a series of targeted tests and observations.
First, meet Harlie! Jessica is a college student who came to us to learn which colors suit her best, so she can get to know herself better, have more shopping success, and embrace what makes her unique.
I just can’t get over how perfectly her Soft Summer colors suit her! Read on to see every step we took to arrive here.
When we begin every color analysis, our first order of business is to determine whether you have COOL or WARM undertones.
The skin color we can see on the surface is your overtone, not your undertone. This is the layer of your skin that contains the type of melanin that adapts to sun exposure.
The type of melanin that determines undertone lies below the surface, and does not adapt to sun exposure. It is invisible to the naked eye, and remains constant for your entire life.
Your undertone's temperature shows itself in subtle ways only when observed in close proximity to varying colors in quick succession. A single color in a single instance isn't enough to observe undertones, especially when fabric finish and lighting are ignored.
The solution is to create a controlled environment with natural lighting, precise colors in a consistent texture, and targeted comparisons that isolate specific criteria: TEMPERATURE, VALUE, and CHROMA.
In this section of your ColorKit™ results report, we are isolating TEMPERATURE, so that your undertones can makes themselves known.
Let’s see this in action on ColorKit™ client Harlie.
Slide through the images below to view Harlie alternating between wearing warm colors (left) and cool colors (right):
Overall, her undertones are quite cool. Within each isolated comparison, the majority of the cool colors appear more harmonious with her complexion, shadows are diminished, and her areas of natural pink (lips, cheeks) appear refreshed, while the warm colors turn her sallow.
Does that mean that warm-leaning colors cannot work for her, ever? Not at all!
Your season has three main criteria: Temperature (warm or cool), Value (light or deep), and Chroma (soft or bright). For any color to qualify for its season, it must satisfy only two out of the three criteria.
Therefore, even the cool seasons will contain some “warm-ish” colors, as long as they are LIGHT & SOFT (Summer) or BRIGHT & DEEP (Winter).
All colors will look fine! The purpose of this first test in your analysis is to first reveal which temperature of colors are BETTER than fine (warm or cool).
Now that we know Harlie is COOL, we can eliminate two of the four parent seasons for her:
WINTER (cool)
SPRING (warm)
SUMMER (cool)
AUTUMN (warm)
In the next test, we aim to find out if she needs cool AND bright (Winter) or cool AND soft (Autumn). This is how we determine her parent season!
In the images below, we are comparing all COOL colors, varying only the CHROMA (saturation) within each comparison. Does Harlie need lower chroma (soft, Summer) or higher chroma (bright, Winter)?
Slide through to view Jessica alternating between wearing Winter colors (left) and Summer colors (right):
In which season’s colors does she appear to “pop” vs where is the color “popping”? In which season does she appear more in focus, clearer, as though she’s “listening” to you? And which colors appear costume-y or overpowering?
Winter colors have high chroma, and appear “costume-y” on Harlie compared to Summer colors.
Summer colors have a low chroma, and next to Winter colors, there is no contest - she’s a Summer!
These colors are mirroring her natural coloring, creating a balanced image that highlights her features.
In the next section, we will further compare the Summer colors to verify Harlie’s sub-season: LIGHT, COOL, or SOFT.
First, here is Harlie framed in a sampling of each Summer subseason:
This is where I form an initial hypothesis that Harlie is a Soft Summer. That is where I see her most clearly and she is neither overpowered nor does she appear unsupported by the colors around her.
To test this hypothesis, we compare three sub-season-specific Summer shades from each individual color family (e.g. red, blue, green) and see which of the three appears most harmonious on her.
Slide through to view Harlie wearing quintessential Light, Cool, and Soft Summer colors from each color family, and see where your eye is most drawn to her:
Of course she looks beautiful in all three colors in each set — she’s a beautiful woman! Remember, no one is ONLY their sub-season.
My eye rests immediately and comfortably on Harlie in the Soft Summer colors, and a few Cool and Light Summer colors. Harlie is a Summer first and foremost, and a Soft Summer second.
Just take a look at Harlie in her “best of the best” Summer colors and tell me she doesn’t look like a million bucks!
Are you ready to come away with your own results like these? Get 15% off your ColorKit™ service for a very limited time!
