I vote wear colours that make you happy, even when they aren’t suited to your complexion. There are ways to manipulate colour integration to make them more flattering. Here are four styling strategies that do just that.
1. Wear the Colour As An Accent
Decreasing the surface area of the colour is a great place to start. For example, if cool-toned colours look best with your complexion, but you fancy the idea of wearing sour brights like coral and citron: wear them away from your face in the form of footwear, a bag, a belt, or as an accent in a patterned scarf or patterned clothing item.
2. Wear the Colour on the Bottom
Wear the colour on the bottom half of your body so that it’s away from your face. Think skirts, trousers, shorts, belts, footwear and socks.
3. Wear the Colour With Your Best Colours
Remember that you should not see a colour in isolation because it will look different depending on the colours around it. This means that wearing a so-called “bad colour” alongside one of your so-called “best colours” might make it a whole lot more flattering against your complexion. For example, I love blush pink, but it tends to wash me out unless I wear it alongside a neutral — like white or black. It also springs to life when I wear it with some of my best colours, like citron or tomato red.
4. Adjust Your Make-Up
This is my least favourite option, but it can be effective. You can use make-up to adjust your complexion in the direction that is more suited to the colour you want to wear. Or use contrast to draw attention away from your complexion and towards your facial features. A stronger brow line, richer mascara, darker lipstick, bronzer and blush can work wonders.
Of course, you can simply wear the colours that you know look good and leave it at that. Or you can disregard these tips and challenge the accepted norms around combining colours and complementing your complexion. Just like you can wear every trend, you can also wear every colour. It’s a matter of finding the way of doing so that works best for you.
