Question for Jean (Greenglove) - YouLookFab Forum

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Question for Jean (Greenglove)

tarzy

Veteran

Since you are so amazing with color - what is a "dusky" color? Does it have to do with the amount of brown or grey (or some other color) in it?

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25 replies

Latest reply was from tarzy

greenglove

(website)

Veteran

Hi Tara,
I think what is meant by a "dusky" color is a muted color. That is a color that is not in its pure, right out of the tube form, which is usually made by adding a complementary color to it. An example would be blue mixed with orange. That would produce a muted blue or orange or a right in between grey. That is how artists get warm or cool grey or taupe, by mixing complements. With clothing many earth tones are considered murky. Dusky could also be referring to time of day maybe darker earthy tones. I love color questions, I could talk about it all day!!

tarzy

Veteran

Thanks! I ask because I recently went through a color analysis to find the colors that best suit me. This particular system in based on the Munsell theories of color. To my great surprise, it turns out that I'm "warm," not cool as I thought, and the colors that were recommended to me are "dusky warm deep."

It's interesting to learn that I am actually a "warm." Apparently I have warm undertones, but lots of red/cool overtones in my complexion (face), which is why I assumed I was cool. Makeup people also have a hard time figuring me out - half the time they have said cool, half warm, so it's not a total shock to me. Also, I have hazel eyes with gold flecks, and I can wear gold jewelry, olives and browns. When I had my natural hair color (many years ago!) I had red highlights in the sun.

I know I am not the same type of warm you are - but there are seven different "warms" in this particular color system, so I feel comfortable with the idea that there are warm colors that suit me that are different from the warm colors that suit you.

I agree with the "deep" part. As for the dusky part, "Dusky warm deep colors" are described as such:

"Late autumn evening ... some of the most unusual hues with the color spectrum ... Shades of Teal, Olive, Navy Taupe, Rust,Brick Red, Gunmetal green, Sage and every color that has a suggestion of Brown."

I agree with all those colors except maybe rust. But if the rust is not too orange, it might work. Also, of course, I don't HAVE to wear any colors I don't like! There are some "brights" included in the swatches, and I don't like brights, so I wont be wearing those.

I have a set of swatches that are suggested colors for me, and I think I can see what "dusky" means, but it's going to take some time for my eye to really be able to know.

I'm thinking about putting a little warmth back into my hair - nothing drastic, just a reddish brown - and I'm actually very excited about trying a new direction. Anything that gets me out of my black rut has to be good, no? I can't wait to go shopping and start looking for "dusky" colors!

shiny

Veteran

Tara - I *thought* that was you! I get Of a Certain Age on RSS feed.

Everything you describe about yourself, I have also heard about me. My eyes are also hazel (although more and more green as I age) and I have a lot of red undertones in my face, and my natural haircolor has always had a lot of red undertones. Except you are a brunette and I am not - for halloween in the past, I've worn brunette wigs and brown hair just looks horrible, awful, terrible on me. I could be a redhead easily, but never a brunette.

Makeup: I definitely look better in mauve lipstick - there's no question about that. Anything with orange looks horrible. But foundation? I use the CG stuff that comes in various cool, warm and neutral shades, and through trial-and-error learned that the neutral shades are best. Which fits in with what my hairdressers say: I look best in neutral highlights - golden (warm) and ashy (cool) highlights look absolutely dreadful.

I will be following and watching what you discover! Can't wait to see what new colors you purchased ...

Anonymous

This is pretty exciting for you Tara. Have fun learning and being the new you, or real you, or something like that. It is amazing how many people have both warm and cool undertones. I have been told at the makeup counter that I have yellow and pink in my skin. It is very confusing to me. When I had my colors done in the Color Me Beautiful way I was told to wear greyed down colors. Knowing these things does make it easier to put things together. I no longer wonder if I should be wearing gold or silver jewelry now. I know that the gold is too warm for me.

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

Interesting!
I'm another hazel eyed person with some red overtones in my complexion. I was doing some searching online, and I found a color theory that placed me as fall leaning toward spring, and that seemed to fit. I thought I might be cool, until I held both silver and gold up to my face. I always wore silver jewelery, untuil i realized how well I look in gold, and how little silver does for me.

tarzy

Veteran

Shiny - I can't believe she put that photo up. Ugh. Definitely not ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille. But I accepted how I look a long time ago, and I'm not going to let my ego get in the way of self-improvement!

San - I was told to use foundation that matches my OVERTONES (in my case cool/pink) not my undertones (warm).
http://insideoutstyle.blogspot.....akeup.html

I also want to add that all of this is totally tempered by personality and personal preference. I could, if I want, merrily go along wearing whatever colors made me happy. I'm just at a point where I'm NOT happy, and I'm ready for some changes, ready to lighten up a bit, to have a bit more fun with my style. I'm the type that needs charts and guides and a plan. This gives me a starting point, a direction to go in. No one's going to throw me into fashion jail if I wear a color that's not within my suggested colors. I just think I might look better if I start finding colors that DO work on me.

HannahC

Tara, I guessed it was you in the picture on Karen's blog! You look stunning there, with your right colors right next to your face! It really brings the color of your eyes! So, what are you going to do with all your black clothes now?

So it is much more subtle than just winter-spring-summer-autumn then, huh? I suspected this for quite a while, it is nice to see my suspicions reaffirmed. I THINK I am still in the cool color family, though - I have very fair skin, dark hair, and dark brown eyes (definitely not a hint of green in my eyes or red in my hair). However, winters are not all born equal either. For instance, I am pretty sure that Maya and Asha are both winters as well, but definitely we cannot wear the same colors. The best example is, probably, yellow, which they both rock and in which I would look like a death warmed over. Another example is black, which ages me (didn't do that when I was younger, but I guess when you are 25 nothing can really age you). Maya and Asha look stunning in black.

Maybe Imogen will come to Israel to do a workshop here ... (I know, just a wishful thinking).

marianne

Tara, you look great on that picture - I can't believe your ego isn't happy.
What I don't quite understand, and maybe someone can explain - I don't see the colors draped on you as warm. They are definitely "dusky" but they look cool to me. What am I missing?
I sort of gave up on the season color theory long time ago - I am a "winter" but I don't look good in black, unless it's layered, and I can do certain pastels, like lime green.

greenglove

(website)

Veteran

How exciting for you Tara, color is fascinating and unpredictable. The thing that I love is that you are trying new shades. some of the more unusual neutrals are so elegant and when used in the right way can take color in fashion to a new level. I always love to go into the Armani store in Boston. Sometimes the greys amd browns are so unique. I think people are actually more afraid of looking dull than wearing bright color. I think adding some warmth to your wardrobe is a great idea!! You probably do not like wearing bright colors for a reason, I do believe we all gravitate towards what feels right even if we think we have no knowledge. I would love to see olive green on you! I do think that contrast is still a consideration for your coloring, did the color person mention that?

tarzy

Veteran

Hannah - yes, there are a lot of variations - in this particular method (and I know there are many other methods too) there are seven in the "cool" colors and seven in the "warm" colors. Since I am bad with color, I couldn't begin to describe the differences.

Marianne - since I'm bad with color I also have a hard time differentiating warm from cool. I sometimes know if I see them next to each other. I'm going to have to rely on my swatches for a while while I educate my eye. Some of the colors, like deep olive are easy for me, but there are also "brights" in my palette, and I have a hard time with those - I always think they're cool. I'm going to have to take this very slowly!

I'm doing a little experiment. I've taken almost all of my black, white and grey tops (practically my whole wardrobe!) and I've put them into a bag. I'm not giving them away - just putting them aside for now. So what's left hanging is any color I happen to have and whatever deep browns and off-whites I have. Obviously I can't afford to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe, but I am going to buy a few v-neck t-shirts in a few of my suggested colors at Nordstrom's. I'm going to force myself to start dressing in color and see how it feels!

Jean - I actually love olive green! It really makes my eye color pop. I'm excited about olive green - that's the first color I'm going to look for at Nordstrom's!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I think you look fab in that picture too, Tara. You have pretty eyes and superbly trimmed brows

I’m with Marianne, those colours look wonderful draped against your skin, but I don’t see them as warm either. To me, they are cool. Interesting.

I’m very much impressed that you have started your colour journey – going as far as bagging your black. I nearly fell off my chair when I read that! Keep us in the loop.

greenglove

(website)

Veteran

Where are the pictures of you Tarzy? Did I miss something?

Laura

(website)

Veteran

Yes, I want to see the photo too, but where is the link??

Anonymous

http://karen-ofacertainage.blogspot.com/

What a gorgeous picture of you Tara. You are a natural beauty. Your eyes are like jewels. The only other person I have said that to is my beloved Grand Daughter.

greenglove

(website)

Veteran

Ah, now I see, the olive looks amazing and also the sliver of a dusky gold. Those colors can be warm or cool depending on what you pair them with. You look beautiful!

tarzy

Veteran

You ladies are very kind, but I HATE looking at pictures of my face. All I see are the scars left from years of teen acne! You can hide bad legs, you can cover a birthmark - but scars on your face are always there. But what can you do - we all have our issues.

I used to get compliments on my eyes all the time, but since I've had to wear glasses I really don't anymore. But maybe it's a blessing - less people looking at my face!

Oneirix

(website)

WHOA! Tarzy (Tara? Hi! :P), your eyes are amazing! It's great to hear your success in understanding colors that are good for you. I'm going on a similar journey right now, but I'm having some problems. Do you happen to have any good suggestions for finding your colors? What is the Munsell color theory? And what do you do if you're attracted to colors that don't look good on you?

Sorry to pelt you (or anyone else) with questions. It's very exciting for me to see someone so successful in finding their colors! You look fabulous, and you shouldn't be self conscious about acne scarring. Your skin looks beautiful!

marianne

I agree, you would look lovely in olive. But even olive tones in the draping look cool to me - and I am glad I am not alone. I'll look forward to seeing you in new colors
On another (completely unrelated note) I really like Imogen's outfit on those pix! Looks like the whole event was lots of fun.

Anonymous

Teen acne sucks. My husband had it and healed up great, like you did. I would have never known, so that is the silver lining, that you were a lucky one who healed up so nicely.
Your striking hair and eyes and skin make you look great in these close ups. I would just die if my picture was put on line in a close up. Ack! Scary.

yublocka

(website)

Veteran

You look great in those colours Tara. Better go do some shopping stat!!!

ImogenL

(website)

If you think about warm and cool not as two separate things but a scale that goes from extreme warmth all the way down to extreme coolness, Tara's colouring is on the warm side, but closer to the warm/cool divide - so they don't appear really warm - but if you look at the greens in the picture, they have yellow in them rather than blue as their base.

I'm so glad Tara is loving the greens as they really make her eyes pop!

Dusky is a word that can be used for softened or greyed down colours, you could also call them smokey, soft, or muted - they aren't bright and highly saturated.

Munsell is referring to Albert Munsell (google him) who developed a lot of colour theory that is used in lots of industries from hairdressing to optometry.

ImogenL

(website)

Also, muted/dusky/smokey colours can be either warm or cool, it's just a descriptor for the intensity of the colour.

greenglove

(website)

Veteran

If you put an olive green next to purple the olive will be warm but next to a red orange it will appear cool. Imogen is right about temperature of color and intensity of color being 2 distinct differences. That is why it is so difficult to say: do not wear blue or any other color. There is usually a variation of a color that anyone can wear. Isn't color fun? I never thought I could wear purple but certain shades that are not too bright or cool work really well with red hair and green eyes, Angie pointed that out when I met her!

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

That's right, Imogen and Jean. Colours can be either warmer or colder depending on their “hue”, “value” and “chroma” (I did art at school which is why I’m familiar with the terminology). Everyone can wear a certain shade of a colour once they get those variables right. On top of that, you can’t see colours in isolation – it depends on what you wear them with, AND which you wear close to your face. To make matters more complicated, your complexion and hair colour changes over time – and therefore, so will your so called colours.

That being said, I personally like Tara in colours that are on the cool side. I like warm colours on myself, extremely warm in fact. We both wear olive green well, but my olive green is acidic while Tara’s is alkali. Colours are fun!

tarzy

Veteran

I think the most important thing I have taken out of all of this is - color, any color, is not my enemy. For a long time I have gone into a store, tried a few colors, didn't like anything, and just gave up. For someone like me, who doesn't have any understanding of color, I need a baseline - a place to start. That's what I feel I've got now. Even if I make mistakes, just the fact that I now WANT to wear color is a big step forward for me. I'm sure I'll still struggle to try to figure out what's a warm color, what's a dusky color, and what the heck is an alkili color?! But I have a few basic tools now, and a desire to figure it out.

I think of Angie and Imogen as my beautiful fairy godmothers. They both have guided me into new and wonderful lands. I may never completely "get" it, but it's starting to be really fun. I can't thank them enough!