Love this! So exciting to find something that actually puts a word on the kind of red head I am.
It's interesting to try and figure out what sort of redhead I am. I'm totally a high contrast redhead, with some of the muted aspects. Blue eyes, goldeny-pale, auburn spectrum of the red hair color. I tend to drift toward the jewel tones of the colors, black, and rich chocolate brown in clothing. Anything beigey- or pastely washes me out. Look terrible in pink and anything resembling a pastel, and I hate most oranges. Give me a nice deep bluey-red though anyday.

I always wanted to be a Gossamer redhead, if I were to be really honest. There's something fairy-like, and more, I don't know, "Irish" about them. I have come to embrace the fact that I'm less "Irish fairy" and more, "English Bar Wench."

I never was teased about being a redhead, and often looked down on strawberry blondes for not being true redheads. I was a bit of a redhead snob as a kid. Then again, my mother, my twin sister and my kid brother were also redheads, my kid sister and my dad being the brunette/brunet.

These types are so enlightening! I have medium auburn hair, very dark brown eyes, brown/black eyebrows and lashes, very pale pinky skin, and freckles. I've always thought that either my eyes should be lighter or my hair should be darker, but now I know I'm a High Contrast Redhead

I recently got a sample of 1 Pink foundation and I'm amazed that it works so well! I think I might actually need 2P, so I ordered a sample of that today.

Lilith and Circe are favorite eyeshadows, Pinafore lips, Dolly rouge... I'm excited to see that lipsticks will be available again soon too!

Thanks for such an informative post.

Hello!
I've read this thread with much interest, but can't determine, to save my life, which redhead I am. Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

I'm in need of a wardrobe update and some new make-up, so I'd really like to get things that work for me. Thank you guys!!!

Make-up on Christmas:


No make-up on the farm:

I, personally, can't help you with the redhead types, but that second picture is SOOOOO cute!

Bridget is the redhead master I'm sure she'll be along to answer your question.

Welcome, by the way

Oh my goodness! You are BEAUTIFUL! So is your little guy (guessing from the airplane on the robe - hope I'm guessing right! Gorgeous child!)

Hmm - in your pics here is what I see:

lower contrast between hair and skin. In a black and white photo (or in the second photo on a slightly overcast day) hair and skin are fairly similar in value - within a couple of shades.

Blue eyes or blue grey eyes

skintone seems peachy golden to me - very fair peachy golden!

So I would say you liely are either Muted or Peache and Cream. These aren't distinct categories, but rather points along a spectrum, so you could easily pull colors from either grouping and look awesome - some will just look MORE awesome than others.

If you want to figure out which way you lean *more*, then try a lipstick test. Do this with either no other makeup or with minimal makeup. Might look "funny" to see yourself in full lipstick and nothing else, but the best colors will become very obvious this way.

Muteds will look lovely in a terracotta or copper lipstick - a "typical autumn" type shade. In Aromaleigh, try the new Gossamer or Coquette shades, as these are more muted. You could also head to a dept store and look at any shade that has the word copper or terracotta in it. Even if you don't LOVE this sort of lipstick color on yourself, if you are a classic full Muted, it will be beautiful against your skintone.

A Peaches and Cream girl benefits from more clarity in her colors, while preserving the relative warmth of the muted palette. So in Aromaleigh lippies, swipe on Nuance. It's clearer than Coquette, but similar in depth and in warmth (to my eyes, anyway). In a department store, the color try on a clear very peachy lipstick (stay away from pinked peaches, which could well be gorgeous, but for the purpose of testing, you want a clear basic color.)

You will easily see if your eyes look brighter, cheeks look rosier and skin looks smoother in the muted tone or the clear tone.

From there choosing colors is easy. You already know you have predominantly warm tones in your skin and hair. You also already know you are lower contrast. And after the lippie test you'll know HOW muted or HOW clear a color you prefer best on you.

And I'll always say this, too - no matter what category you are, always choose colors that YOU like, that make YOU happy, that communicate what you want to communicate, and that elicit the desired response from your message receivers. Same goes for style. Don't let anyone else dictate to you. (Especially not me!!). And if you love what you are doing, even if someone else says it is "wrong", then keep doing it. Only consider change if you either aren't fully happy with the resulting appearance, or aren't receiving the treatment, respect, promotions, welcoming, whatever, that you want and deserve. It's all about the outside matching the inside for a consistent message that people can consistently and appropriately respond to. Or about PURPOSEFULLY creating a schism between outside and inside to keep people wary, keep them guessing, and keep them on their toes. The second is fun, but can take quite a bit of energy. The first way makes social interactions much simpler. Either way, YOU are in the drivers seat!

-b.

Redhead Mama, you ARE beautiful! and so is your child! love that pic!

welcome to AL. don't you love that you can actually get mu to match your coloring with AL? i have been a frustrated (with dept store mu) redhead until i was 37 and discovered AL.

my coloring is very similar to yours. i am still not sure which catagory i fit into. maybe i am peaches and cream or english rose, but i really like the look of high contrast the best, so that is what i strive for frequently in mu application. for example, i love red lipstick. when i darken my brows (which are invisible) and put on some eye mu and red lipstick, i can acheive more of a high contrast look. i notice that you looked very good in that berry-red lippie in the 1st photo, too. it's really fun to try to figure out what catagory you fit into, but like bridget says, choose the colors you like best!

have fun!

Hey, you! ACMS, you totally brought up something I meant to mention and forgot. You can always "push" your look into another category if you want. Sometimes it's just a matter of deepening eyebrows more (I keep a blonde and a brunette eye pencil on hand for this reason), or adding a toning gloss to your hair to amplify a particular quality. The categories are only useful if they help you streamline shopping and color choice and application because that is what YOU want.

All in all, I really think the hardest quality for a redhead to manipulate is the warm-cool one. Contrast level and degree of clarity can be stretched more easily, in my experience.

And in all honesty, I've seen brunettes and blondes have more luck shifting from warm to cool and back, but they tend to find the contrast level more difficult to play with.

Anyway, just things to think about!

-b.

Redheadmama, You are sooooo pretty and your little one is adoreable! Welcome!

Very pretty! Your boy is cute too! Funny, my son is always trying to go outside with his undies & his rubber boots! (dinosaurs) I really don't care, but I make him put some clothes on anyway, we won't always be living in the country...lol!

Thank you guys so much. Yes, that's my son...he's a devilish little kid.

I've always been a big fan of terracotta lipstick, just like you mentioned. I'll go try out the comparisons and see what happens. I really appreciate all the advice. It's an enormous help!! I can't wait to end up looking "my best."

Thanks!!!! Off to check out the make-up here.

Thanks so much Bridget. After reading your descriptions I realized I am a High Contrast Redhead. The colors that you say a high contrast can wear are perfect for me. Before henna, I guess I was a high contrast brunette, lol. Redheadmama you are so pretty and sweet looking and your little boy is a doll.

Hello Ladies (And the fantastic Bridget),

You probably don't get many things from guys on this forum but I need your help. My entire life I have been told I always wear the wrong colors or I get carazy responses like "You look good in this green but that green makes you look toady. But this green looks good and don't wear that green or this one or this one.. Heck, just don't wear green."

Help.
haha.

I just want to know a rough color palette that I can work with so I can start wearing nice clothes that work for me.

I'm like a skin chameleon.. One minute golden.. the next pink golden.. and then I get ruddy in my cheeks.. Or I'm a combo of all three. High contrast?

I have warm brown eyes that people have described as amber or chocolate-like. They have a bit of olive green around the edge. I have pink but maybe yellow skin tone (I try to ask people what color they would describe my skin tone as and I get five million responses - Can someone finally tell me what I am?). I can tan to a golden brown color and I have tiny light brown freckles on my arms and cheekies. My natural haircolor is reddish chestnut but I lighten it to auburn/copper. I feel it warms me up when the darker tends to make me look washed out and blahhh.

I feel I look best in Earth tones but sometimes they make me feel lifeless. I love green and golden yellow.

I provided two pictures. I'm a dork so don't judge me!



I could really use some expertise for once when all I have is brunettes and blondes trying to dress me in pink (YUCK) and blues of pastel-ness and clear-like which I feel lifeless in.

Thanks,
Jason

P.S.
I fixed the problem with this post and hopefully it loads correctly!

Ohhh...yay!!! A guy on the forum (for the exception of Steven...who doesn't count )!!

Welcome Bridget will be able to help. She's a color goddess!

quote:

Originally posted by momof2angels:
Ohhh...yay!!! A guy on the forum (for the exception of Steven...who doesn't count )!!

Welcome Bridget can help. She's a color goddess!

Lol, thanks for the greeting. I've seen her advice on others and I'm pretty sure she can help me out.

Welcome, Jason - You are no dork! The only dork around is me...for sure!

You do look fairly high contrast, but mostly what I see in your pic (the one on the right is squeezed and I'm only seeing a snippet of the top of your head, along with a cool striped shirt) is an overall impression of light bright peachiness. Mostly clear, only slightly muted, fairly high contrast.

I have a funny book at home called Uniquely You, written in maybe the early 80s or so. It's one of the "color by season" tomes and is full of useful color theory information, along with a bunch of dated nonsense about style, and a fair amount of Scripture, actually. But the color info is right on, to me. The author was one of the first to break down the 4 Season thought into 12 seasons. So there are 3 types of Autumns, for example - classic Autumn (all those muted earth tones we're familiar with, being redheads and all), some cooler muted tones, closer to a Summer palette but not as cool and blue based, and the "September" palette, which is the one I think matches me (and maybe you, too!), and which I'd really call Late Autumn rather than September or Bright Autumn, since it ups the clarity and saturation of the palette and pulls some from the traditional Winter color grouping.

Anyway, I definitely see Bright in your pics - either Bright Autumn or Bright Spring, which is a similar color grouping, but a bit softer - more sorbet type shades than in the Bright Autumn palette.

Not sure if that is making any sense at all.

Colors I'd pick for shirts for you would include a medium to deep slated teal (look at the Carolina Summer eye shadow collection and check out Lagoon, also look at the Mattes collection and check out Wave!), a sharp chartreusy spring green - play with the intensity of this sort of color and sort of dial the mutedness up and down until you find the specific intensity that makes those lovely eyes of yours just HUM with vibrational intensity. Your shade will be clearer than a pea green color, but perhaps a bit more subtle and sophisticated than Rocks! estranged. If you feel like making a statement, a hot coral like prettyvacant, agentorange and velvetgoldmine (slightly more muted and subtle) will look great on you. Clear turquoise and classic peacock blue will be great, too. A yellow slightly more intensely golden orange and saturated than a hen's egg yolk would look good too, but a pastel or buttery one might leave you looking flat. Clear amber, the color of clover honey, would be really great, too - totally would harmonize with your hair and give you a very cohesive look.

For neutrals, I'd be inclined to use warm taupes as a light neutral and a cooler brown, like espresso brown (more red and blue based than straight golden or chocolate brown - more interesting, more sophisticated, higher contrast). Yeah - a "cooler" brown, to keep the higher contrast going. A deep charcoal grey could also be really good for you.

In greens, in addition to the sharp chartreusy green, a clear emerald color - like a traffic signal Go light, would be great. It's similar to Rocks in jigsawfeeling or googoomuck, but sharper. A sort of periwinkle blue - halfway between cobalt and violet, only ever so slightly muted (like the difference between the way a satin finish fabric dyed the very same color as a velvet fabric looks - velvet reflects less light and so looks just a bit muted and a bit softer) would also be great on you.

A clear tomato red, more orangey based than blue based, would also be good on you.

Now, these colors aren't really part of a typical guy's wardrobe palette - and if they don't strike you as fun to wear, then choose colors that YOU feel good in. But consider adding little bits - like if you find a cocoa brown tshirt with a hot orange graphic, that would be more striking with your coloring than the same tshirt with a dull mustard yellow graphic. A clear yellow graphic, though, would be good.

I happen to really like the look of a fellow wearing real, unabashed color. I think my husband is his handsomest in a sweater of his with red, blue, yellow, ochre and mossy green stripes. I like that better than when he wears a black turtleneck with a khaki olive sweater. And I'm getting set to knit him a cabled sweater in a shade of green called Pickle, which is that chartreusy yellow green, just slightly muted, that would look so good on you.

Does that help any? Keep posting with questions - we're a friendly bunch around here!

-b.

Bridget gave some excellent advice (as always!) I just wanted to chime in and say that I think it looks great when guys can find the perfect shade of red for them! My husband wears polos on most days, and he has a few red striped ones that I love him in Hubby has a muted, warm skintone with light brown hair and looks great in slightly muted, slightly orangeish reds Red dress shirts can be very striking for when you need to dress up! Hubby also looks surprisingly good in orange, which is another color I think you can pull off if you find the right shade!

However, my husband still wears various shades of blue about 90% of the time since it's a safe, conservative color that works with his blue eyes (and he does look good in some blues, he just wears them all the time!). Whenever I buy him clothes I try to get him something NOT blue! lol The right shade of brown would probably be a good "safe" color for you with your brown eyes.

Wow! You are all fantastic.

I actually find the colors you've mentioned for guys a lot easier than you would think. I love peacock blue on me or any kind of teal.

I decided to upload one last picture (And most recent aka today) since the other two didn't work out so good. I hope this one helps.



I can see what you mean about muted but more clear colors.
~Jason

Hey, that shirt looks great!! Welcome Jason!

That shirt in the last pic is great! I think Bridget's suggestions are dead on. Your skin coloring looks similar to mine, actually, more toward the "clear" end of the spectrum and peachy neutral. Anything too muted is going to give you that "lifeless" feeling. You can probably get away with any color that's non-pastel and only very slightly muted.

It's so neat to see a guy on the boards. How did you think to check a makeup forum for color advice? I mean it makes sense, but not all guys would think of it.

quote:

Originally posted by Bridget:
Clear amber, the color of clover honey, would be really great, too - totally would harmonize with your hair and give you a very cohesive look.

I second that! It would go so well with your brown eyes. Good to have you here on the forum!