I'm with Rachylou. I pick colors that I like, and that make me happy. I like hte colors and don't pay attention to whether they like me. Most of the time I'm looking down at my clothes, so don't see them against my face. I don't look in the mirror that often (don't have a full length mirror). And lighting makes such a difference, we all probably look different in colors in the outdoors vs office lighting vs home lighting...

Yes, but it's definitely more of an intuitive thing. I'm probably technically a Deep Autumn, but in general refuse to wear muddy colors as a style decision. My skin is some kind of neutral-bordering-warm, so I can truly wear tons of different colors; with the high contrast skin/hair, deep and clear colors are best for me although I can wear some muted shades. I tend to stick to pure saturated shades or those mixed with white; I avoid shades mixed with browns, and very very occasionally will wear some mixed with grays. While I do tend to stick to flattering colors, my options are wide so it's not at all hard for me to wear the colors near my face. In fact, I prefer them close to my face! Most good colors are very "alive" looking on me. But I don't limit that, and will sometimes wear JFE colors too. As long as I can bring enough other elements in to perk a color up, it's all good.

I'm another one for whom color is really more an emotional thing, then a physical thing. I just have some colors that I don't like, I like them on others, I've been told they look good on me, but I just don't care for them. And I wear black, even thought its not the most flattering, because I like it, it suits the inner me, if not the outer me.

I know some colors that I look awful in: the wrong tan, beige, or oranges or yellows make my skin look very orange or yellow. Like someone ambushed me with a bad spray-tan. Denim or dusty blues, greens, purples, and heathered anything, all make me look blue- or green-skinned - or bruised, like I just crawled out of a crypt.

On a recent visit to Goodwill, I tried on a peachy-pink/copper tweed jacket and it really shocked me - it made my cheeks glow, and my eyes clear, and my hair blaze. Usually those shades give me 'bad spray-tan'. This was somehow perfect. This palette is on my radar now. But the style was a little fussy and overprecious, so I put it back. But the colors are haunting me - I may go back, take another look, see if I can't Tom Ford/YSL 2005 it up a little - or maybe see if it can't be put with something to look a little edgier and more urban.

Dang it, now I am thinking about that jacket! Guess I will go back this weekend and see if it is still there.

I find my skin looks healthy and my eyes look clear in clear hues: blacks, whites, ivories, blushes and hybrid colors: violet-blue, turquoises, aquas, corals. Things that are more than one color. I don't really even know how to describe 'clear', it's something to do with the color looking like there is sunlight hitting it.

oh ladies. There is no possible way I can respond to each of you and keep my day job--so let me say this--it makes for fascinating reading this relationship you each have with colour and with yourselves. Thank you so much for sharing it with me--and each other.

Alana, I think what makes you so remarkable, is not merely that you are able to identify and choose colors for yourself that are flattering, but that in every photo, my eye is drawn directly to your face and hair - and what I see is that your skin looks flawless and glowing, and your hair color just shines.

I cannot speak for the others here, but for my part, that kind of color-identification skill is something that does not come easily or naturally to me. When I find a color like that, it has always been a random accident.

No need to reply - just bask in the glow of knowing you have a highly-developed and, to my thinking, quite unusual talent! And I, for one, envy you this talent!

What La Belle said: your photos show you really have something going with color.

Me, I make a lot of mistakes with color. No big deal though -- I wear neutrals and pretty much limit color to tees, scarves, and play clothes. I know which parts of the red to orange spectrum and green to blue spectrum look good on me, but I am often seduced by shades that are of the moment. Currently pursuing a mad affaire with magenta; we'll see how long that lasts.