Personal Color Analysis
Identify the key elements of your personal body coloring - hue (warm, cool, or neutral), value (light, medium, or dark), and intensity (bright, medium, or soft) - and how those three dimensions of color combine to create your personal best color palette.
What is Color Analysis?
Ever had someone tell you that you look absolutely incredible in a certain color? Or perhaps you’ve been asked if you were feeling unwell, when you actually weren’t ill at all? This effect is due to the science of color, and how specific colors react with you and your unique features.
Color analysis is the process of evaluating personal body coloring (skin, hair, and eyes) to determine the most harmonious colors to enhance a person’s natural beauty. By determining where you fall within the three dimensions of color (hue, value, and intensity), we match those properties to a precise color palette that feels completely aligned with your personal coloring and enhances your natural beauty. When you dress in colors that work in harmony with you, instead of against you, you look healthier, younger, and more effortlessly confident.
Why the tonal method?
The Ascendant color analysis system is based on the advanced 23-palette tonal method taught by Karen Brunger at International Image Institute, one of the most respected educational bodies in the global image industry. This approach offers exceptional nuance and accuracy, far beyond the traditional 4- or 12-season frameworks.
We believe our color analysis process is one of the most thorough on the market, and it’s deeply personalized to every client. We have combined a variety of tools and methodical approaches to bring a ‘best of breed’ approach to color analysis.
Traditional seasonal color analysis limits your possible results by assuming that you are either warm OR cool, light OR dark. The 4-season system leaves vast gaps for all of those people who fall into the ‘in between,’ which is a large percentage of the population.
Tonal color analysis dives deeper into the nuances of human coloring using three dimensions of color (hue, value, and intensity) accommodating a wider range of varietals.
Hue: Hue measures undertone - the relative warmth or coolness of a color. The warmest colors contain high amounts of yellow in the composition of the color. The coolest colors contain high amounts of blue in the composition of the color. Our range includes true warm, warm-neutral, true neutral, cool-neutral, and true cool palettes.
Value: Value measures the relative lightness or darkness of a color. The lightest colors are tints. Tints contain high amounts of white in the composition of the color. The darkest colors are shades. Shades contain high amounts of black in the composition of the color. Our range includes light, light-medium, medium, medium-dark, and dark palettes.
Intensity: Intensity measures the clarity or softness of a color. The highest intensity colors are clear, pure hues - vivid and high chroma. The lowest intensity colors are muted, blended tones - soft and low chroma. Tones contain high amounts of gray in the composition of the color. Our range includes high, medium-high, medium, medium-low, and low intensity palettes, with each individual palette having it’s own range - some tighter in range, others wider in range.
So, do you need to understand all of this color science to enjoy a personal color analysis?! No way! That’s our job. But you can rest assured that we know our science and use this depth of options to get to a precision-based result.
Our Process:
A peek into how the magic happens!
Intro: We ask you to arrive without any makeup or sunless tanners, and we discuss your natural coloring - childhood, post-puberty, and early adulthood. We may ask for a few historical photos if your hair is artificially colored.
Undertone Evaluation: We compare warm versus cool, determining if one hue family is more harmonious than the other.
Home Season Evaluation: Using your undertone results, we compare appropriate seasons to determine if one seasonal family is more harmonious than others.
Evaluation of Flows: We compare flows within the hue, value, or intensity families that we have previously identified. Some people land within a particular flow within a season. Others are best served by flows that sit between seasons. This nuance allows us to get you the most accurate and precise colors within your personal palette.
Results: Once we determine your personal palette, we drape you with a variety of colors within your palette so that you can see the personal harmony created by your best colors. We also discuss your ideal hair colors and jewelry colors to complement your color palette.
Cosmetics: If applicable and desired, we will review your best makeup colors from our in-house line of Ascendant cosmetics. You can sample a variety of products, and purchase any of the options you love, having the confidence that those colors will work perfectly with your palette.
Resources: You’ll leave the appointment with a set of color swatches that is personalized to represent your best palette. You can use these colors to find harmony within your current closet and while shopping. You’ll also get a photo of you in your best colors, and you can choose whether or not that photo is shared socially.
Support: Your consultant is always available for a refresher session (especially if you decide to change hair colors and want to see the drapes again), a makeup tutorial once you’ve had time to dive deeper into your colors, a closet evaluation to help you categorize what works and what could be improved, and personal shopping if you need assistance in identifying your colors in stores.
Your best colors give your skin a healthier glow, your eyes a brighter sparkle, your hair a richer luster, provide a smoothing effect to fine lines and blemishes, and make your teeth look whiter!
Photos unedited. The only difference in the before and after photos is addition of WOW colors and light makeup application for the ladies.