As a lifestyle writer, I often end up guinea pigging myself for a variety of weird and wonderful experiences. Last week I had a reader contact me to say that she was participating in Imogen Lamport’s colour consultency workshops and that they needed models to practice on. A free personal colour consultation? Um… yes please!
If you’re anything like me you’ll have tried dozens of times to figure out what colours suit you. I’ve studied the veins in my arms trying to figure out whether or not I have blue or yellow undertones. Am I warm? Am I cool? Am I a summer? Am I fair skinned or is it just mid-winter whitening? It’s so freaking confusing. Enter Imogen and her colour consulting.
Firstly the consultant will ask you to remove all your make-up. You then get covered with a white bib and a terribly attractive head scarf. See the seriously look on my face? I was stifling a rendition of ‘Nobody Solves a Problem Like Maria’ from The Sound of Music.
The consultant (using all kinds of stylish sorcery) will determine whether or not you are warm or cool. Just FYI, I’m cool. Then you get ‘draped’ in swatches of fabric and the consultant will flip over colours and swipe them under your chin, trying to determine which colours brighten your face. It was decided that my colour palette is Dramatic. So jewel toned brights, darker colours and dirtier versions of lighter colours suit me. I was also delighted to discover that my palette is one of the few ones that suits black. Major win for Melbourne. Also I’m to steer clear of primary brights. Thank freaking god because I forking hate them. There’s a variety of different other profiles they do as well like your contrast percentage (whether you should wear high or low contrast outfits), face shape and a ratio of how much of your signature colours you should wear.
These are the brightest of my suitable colours and are a bit deeper in real life. The point of your signature colours is that they are supposed to draw the eye to my face. Does it work do you think?
This is the fabulous Imogen Lamport herself. She runs workshops for women who want to learn to be colour consultants and stylists. You can also book in to have your own colours done by Imogen herself.
Admittedly, I’m pretty good at picking what colours suit me so I wasn’t overly surprised when presented with my colours. However it was fantastic to understand the science behind it and to learn other skills like working within my contrast ratios.
Have you ever had your colours done? Or would you consider having it done?
Disclaimer: This experience was offered to me via a reader (thank you Theresa! xxx) who is a student of Imogen’s. This post is not sponsored by Imogen and I was not offered this experience for editorial consideration. It was just a cool thing I did.