Which Colours Suit Me?
You probably have a favourite colour to wear – you can’t quite put your finger on why, but you always feel good in it, you know you’ll get a compliment or two, and it just feels right. You’ve also probably discovered a terrible colour or two in your time; the shade that just makes you look and feel tired, drained, and less like the version of you you’d like to see in the mirror.
You might have looked into having a colour analysis – finding out the full palette of colours that makes you look and feel as good as that one favourite, and discovering which are your absolute no-nos, or perhaps you’ve never gone further than googling ‘why does black make me look washed out?’. Wherever you are on your colour journey, this guide will help you start to recognise the colours that make you look and feel your best.
We’re not going to tell you that you ‘can’t’ or ‘must’ wear something; this is about equipping you with the tools to help you choose clothes more easily, feel confident when you experiment with new shades, and understand how to get to know your best colours.
What does it actually mean when a colour ‘suits’ you?
Before we get into finding your best colours, let’s first understand what we mean by a colour suiting you. A flattering colour works in harmony with your natural colouring – primarily the undertone of your skin, but also your hair and eye colour.
This harmonising effect smoothes out imperfections in your skin, making it appear smoother, clearer and more even; your eyes look brighter, and you are noticeable before the clothes you are wearing.
Your best colours will be the ones that work in harmony with the natural undertone, depth and intensity of your colouring. When viewed as a group, the set of colours that suits you will form your seasonal colour palette.
The three things that determine which colours suit you
Every colour is made up of three characteristics, each of which will match an element of your own colouring. These characteristics come in pairs:
- Warm or Cool
- Light or Deep
- Clear or Soft
Your best colours, and therefore your seasonal colour palette, will have one characteristic from each of these pairs. Remember, of course, that colour is relative, so a Light palette won’t have zero deep colours; they just won’t get as deep and dark as those colours in a Deep palette.
Any experimentation with colour should be looking to establish the answer to three questions. A professional colour analyst will cover all three of these during an analysis session.
Are you warm or cool? Understanding undertone
Shop the look: Cable Cashmerino Sweater, Tapered Pull On Ponte Trousers, Silky Roll Neck, Jeans
The first pairing is the one you may be the most familiar with, as we come across it when buying makeup, paint, and jewellery.
In seasonal colour terms, a warm colour (or skin tone) is one with a yellow undertone, whilst a cool colour (or skin tone) is one with a blue undertone. So golden-toned hues like amber, chocolate, orange and lime all have warm undertones, while silver and blue hues like smoke grey, sapphire and indigo all have cool undertones.
And remember, colour is relative, not absolute, so this means that not every yellow is warm and not every blue is cool. A yellow that has barely any golden warmth can sit in a cool palette, and a blue with a hint of yellow added can sit in a warm palette.
An interesting point about skin tone is that the surface colour of the skin doesn’t necessarily dictate the undertone – plenty of people with a cool blue undertone actually have a golden glow to their skin and tan easily, while there are those with warm undertones who are pale with rose pink cheeks.
There are some tricks to identify if you have a warm or cool undertone, but nothing beats a professional analyst holding precision-dyed colours to your face to be really confident in the process. If you want to get started though, try:
- Looking at your veins. Are they predominantly green, indicating a warm undertone, or bluish-purple, indicating a cool undertone? A mixture may mean you sit closer to the border between warm and cool.
- Do you look better in gold or silver jewellery? Not which you prefer or which is more on trend, but which generally lifts and brightens your complexion.
- Do you suit tomato red and coral pink lipstick, indicating a warm undertone, or are you better in burgundy reds and rosy pinks, indicating cool?
Discover the colours that make you look and feel amazing. Take our Colour Quiz today!
Do you suit light or deep colours? Understanding depth
Shop the look: Puff Sleeve Henley, Double Layer V Neck Top, Darla Denim Midi Skirt, Darla Denim Jeans
Now we get a little more advanced. Depth, or value, simply describes how light or dark a colour is. Whether you suit deeper or lighter colours may not be immediately apparent from looking at your skin tone – those with light skin for their ethnicity don’t necessarily suit the palest colours, while a darker tone for your ethnicity doesn’t necessarily dictate darker colours.
The right depth of colour will bring your complexion to life, and your eyes will sparkle even more brightly. Again, there is absolutely no substitute for a professional draping when it comes to establishing depth, but you can try this simple test to start to explore what works for you:
- Select clothes or other fabric (or even a large sheet of paper!) in three varying shades of a very similar colour – eg sky, royal and navy blue, or silver, steel and charcoal grey. If you use something like red, ensure that each version of the colour has a similar level of warmth or coolness.
- Hold each up against your face, in natural light, and see which one brings your eyes to life and makes you look brighter and more awake.
- If you find it hard to tell, ask a friend – it’s almost impossible for us to remain impartial about our own faces, which is why a professional analysis is so useful.
Do you suit clear or soft colours? Understanding intensity
Shop the look: Darla Denim Jeans, Silky Crew Neck Top Blue Jewel, Silky Crew Neck Top Grey Sky
Every colour has something called chroma, which essentially describes how saturated it is. A colour with low chroma is very greyed off or softened, while a high chroma colour is at full saturation. If you imagine mixing colours with paint, imagine mixing grey paint into red paint. The less red there is, and the more grey, the lower the chroma of your colour, and the less vibrant it appears.
Some people need strong, vibrant, fully saturated colours to bring them to life, and make them really shine. Others are completely overwhelmed by strong colours, and need softer, more nuanced shades to look and feel their best.
This is perhaps the trickiest test to do yourself, and is best done with precision-dyed drapes, but you can experiment with varying shades of a colour, for instance emerald and sage green, or smokey soft pinks vs more intense shades. However, it can be tricky as it becomes harder to judge whether a colour is warm or cool as the chroma changes. The best thing is often to examine your own wardrobe or shopping habits – do you gravitate towards stronger shades (even if you lack the confidence to actually wear them), or do you feel overwhelmed by strong shades?
Turning colour characteristics into seasons
Each of the four seasonal colour palettes is made up of three colour characteristics, and they sit in the following groupings:
This means that establishing your three characteristics will naturally identify your palette. But don’t be surprised if you find one of the questions above easier to answer than the others – most of us have what is called a dominant characteristic – we are either very warm-toned, or very soft, or very deep, but it’s unlikely that many of us could confidently state that we are all three; two of the characteristics will likely take a little more digging. The great thing is that even if you don’t have a full colour analysis, understanding even just one dominant trait can eliminate hundreds of incorrect colours.
How can you tell if a colour suits you?
Even without a full understanding of colour theory and characteristics, it’s possible to start to look at whether colours suit you.
To get started, here are a few simple tips:
- Find a spot with natural daylight, near a window but not in direct sunlight, and set up a mirror. Remove any makeup.
- Gather as many colours as you can, particularly those which explore the pairings described above. If you have gold and silver jewellery, this can also help.
- Always look at colours in pairs, and decide which you prefer. You should always be comparing, never considering colours in isolation. The warm or the cool? The strong or the soft?
- Remember, look at your face, not the colour. It doesn’t matter if you like the colour or not – you are simply gathering evidence about whether it works for you.
- Key points to look at are under the eyes (do dark circles appear reduced or worse?), around the jawline (is it lifted, or does it look heavier?), and the cheeks (is redness smoothed or highlighted?), and overall skin tone (does it look clear and bright or dull and tired?). If you find this tricky though, try simply staring at your nose and getting a feel for the overall picture of your face – is it, quite simply, better or worse?
- If you struggle, ask someone to take photos and come back to them in a few hours – this reduces some of the bias we have when looking at specific colours and our own face in the mirror.
Can you find your best colours without knowing your colour season?
The short answer is yes; you may identify through experimentation a few colours that you know work for you, and some which definitely don’t, or perhaps find a dominant colour characteristic.
However, one of the biggest benefits of understanding your colours is having a full seasonal palette to work with, as you can begin to build a wardrobe which harmonises and mixes and matches endlessly, rather than a selection of disparate pieces. This is very tricky with only a small handful of great colours, and becomes much easier with a full seasonal palette and a full understanding of your best brights, neutrals, and accent colours.
This is why we always recommend identifying your full seasonal palette…
How do I find my full colour season palette?
There are three really clear routes you can take here:
- Experiment yourself! Armed with the knowledge in this and other posts, as well as our Shop by Colour page, you can begin to explore the colours that work and begin to link them to seasonal palettes. Treat it as a colour adventure rather than a single analysis session, and get to know your best colours over time. You may find it easier to identify a dominant characteristic rather than a palette, and you can use our Tonal Directions filters to shop colours that sit in your dominant characteristic.
- Take the Kettlewell Colour Quiz: Unlock a full palette through our quick quiz, which will identify your preferences and features and use it to find your seasonal palette. You can then use the seasonal palette filters on the website to explore your season further and shop your colours.
- Have a professional colour analysis: The gold standard solution! If you’ve struggled to analyse yourself or lost confidence in your appearance, this is the absolute best way to unlock and feel fully confident in your best and boldest colours, as well as the essential neutrals to help you feel your best. You can find your nearest stylist in our directory.
Find your best colours today
Whether you choose to book a full analysis, or simply start noticing what works for you each day when you get dressed, there is nothing like beginning to notice and appreciate the impact colour can have on your mood, your confidence, and how you approach each day. We have seen for over 20 years the impact that colour can have on women’s confidence, and we hope you’ll feel the same way once you begin to explore our colourful world.
A Complete Guide to Finding Your Best Colours
Which Colours Suit Me?
You probably have a favourite colour to wear – you can’t quite put your finger on why, but you always feel good in it, you know you’ll get a compliment or two, and it just feels right. You’ve also probably discovered a terrible colour or two in your time; the shade that just makes you look and feel tired, drained, and less like the version of you you’d like to see in the mirror.
You might have looked into having a colour analysis – finding out the full palette of colours that makes you look and feel as good as that one favourite, and discovering which are your absolute no-nos, or perhaps you’ve never gone further than googling ‘why does black make me look washed out?’. Wherever you are on your colour journey, this guide will help you start to recognise the colours that make you look and feel your best.
We’re not going to tell you that you ‘can’t’ or ‘must’ wear something; this is about equipping you with the tools to help you choose clothes more easily, feel confident when you experiment with new shades, and understand how to get to know your best colours.
What does it actually mean when a colour ‘suits’ you?
Before we get into finding your best colours, let’s first understand what we mean by a colour suiting you. A flattering colour works in harmony with your natural colouring – primarily the undertone of your skin, but also your hair and eye colour.
This harmonising effect smoothes out imperfections in your skin, making it appear smoother, clearer and more even; your eyes look brighter, and you are noticeable before the clothes you are wearing.
Your best colours will be the ones that work in harmony with the natural undertone, depth and intensity of your colouring. When viewed as a group, the set of colours that suits you will form your seasonal colour palette.
The three things that determine which colours suit you
Every colour is made up of three characteristics, each of which will match an element of your own colouring. These characteristics come in pairs:
Your best colours, and therefore your seasonal colour palette, will have one characteristic from each of these pairs. Remember, of course, that colour is relative, so a Light palette won’t have zero deep colours; they just won’t get as deep and dark as those colours in a Deep palette.
Any experimentation with colour should be looking to establish the answer to three questions. A professional colour analyst will cover all three of these during an analysis session.
Are you warm or cool? Understanding undertone
Shop the look: Cable Cashmerino Sweater, Tapered Pull On Ponte Trousers, Silky Roll Neck, Jeans
The first pairing is the one you may be the most familiar with, as we come across it when buying makeup, paint, and jewellery.
In seasonal colour terms, a warm colour (or skin tone) is one with a yellow undertone, whilst a cool colour (or skin tone) is one with a blue undertone. So golden-toned hues like amber, chocolate, orange and lime all have warm undertones, while silver and blue hues like smoke grey, sapphire and indigo all have cool undertones.
And remember, colour is relative, not absolute, so this means that not every yellow is warm and not every blue is cool. A yellow that has barely any golden warmth can sit in a cool palette, and a blue with a hint of yellow added can sit in a warm palette.
An interesting point about skin tone is that the surface colour of the skin doesn’t necessarily dictate the undertone – plenty of people with a cool blue undertone actually have a golden glow to their skin and tan easily, while there are those with warm undertones who are pale with rose pink cheeks.
There are some tricks to identify if you have a warm or cool undertone, but nothing beats a professional analyst holding precision-dyed colours to your face to be really confident in the process. If you want to get started though, try:
Discover the colours that make you look and feel amazing. Take our Colour Quiz today!
Do you suit light or deep colours? Understanding depth
Shop the look: Puff Sleeve Henley, Double Layer V Neck Top, Darla Denim Midi Skirt, Darla Denim Jeans
Now we get a little more advanced. Depth, or value, simply describes how light or dark a colour is. Whether you suit deeper or lighter colours may not be immediately apparent from looking at your skin tone – those with light skin for their ethnicity don’t necessarily suit the palest colours, while a darker tone for your ethnicity doesn’t necessarily dictate darker colours.
The right depth of colour will bring your complexion to life, and your eyes will sparkle even more brightly. Again, there is absolutely no substitute for a professional draping when it comes to establishing depth, but you can try this simple test to start to explore what works for you:
Do you suit clear or soft colours? Understanding intensity
Shop the look: Darla Denim Jeans, Silky Crew Neck Top Blue Jewel, Silky Crew Neck Top Grey Sky
Every colour has something called chroma, which essentially describes how saturated it is. A colour with low chroma is very greyed off or softened, while a high chroma colour is at full saturation. If you imagine mixing colours with paint, imagine mixing grey paint into red paint. The less red there is, and the more grey, the lower the chroma of your colour, and the less vibrant it appears.
Some people need strong, vibrant, fully saturated colours to bring them to life, and make them really shine. Others are completely overwhelmed by strong colours, and need softer, more nuanced shades to look and feel their best.
This is perhaps the trickiest test to do yourself, and is best done with precision-dyed drapes, but you can experiment with varying shades of a colour, for instance emerald and sage green, or smokey soft pinks vs more intense shades. However, it can be tricky as it becomes harder to judge whether a colour is warm or cool as the chroma changes. The best thing is often to examine your own wardrobe or shopping habits – do you gravitate towards stronger shades (even if you lack the confidence to actually wear them), or do you feel overwhelmed by strong shades?
Turning colour characteristics into seasons
Each of the four seasonal colour palettes is made up of three colour characteristics, and they sit in the following groupings:
This means that establishing your three characteristics will naturally identify your palette. But don’t be surprised if you find one of the questions above easier to answer than the others – most of us have what is called a dominant characteristic – we are either very warm-toned, or very soft, or very deep, but it’s unlikely that many of us could confidently state that we are all three; two of the characteristics will likely take a little more digging. The great thing is that even if you don’t have a full colour analysis, understanding even just one dominant trait can eliminate hundreds of incorrect colours.
How can you tell if a colour suits you?
Even without a full understanding of colour theory and characteristics, it’s possible to start to look at whether colours suit you.
To get started, here are a few simple tips:
Can you find your best colours without knowing your colour season?
The short answer is yes; you may identify through experimentation a few colours that you know work for you, and some which definitely don’t, or perhaps find a dominant colour characteristic.
However, one of the biggest benefits of understanding your colours is having a full seasonal palette to work with, as you can begin to build a wardrobe which harmonises and mixes and matches endlessly, rather than a selection of disparate pieces. This is very tricky with only a small handful of great colours, and becomes much easier with a full seasonal palette and a full understanding of your best brights, neutrals, and accent colours.
This is why we always recommend identifying your full seasonal palette…
How do I find my full colour season palette?
There are three really clear routes you can take here:
Find your best colours today
Whether you choose to book a full analysis, or simply start noticing what works for you each day when you get dressed, there is nothing like beginning to notice and appreciate the impact colour can have on your mood, your confidence, and how you approach each day. We have seen for over 20 years the impact that colour can have on women’s confidence, and we hope you’ll feel the same way once you begin to explore our colourful world.