One thing I try never to do is question someone else’s season or type designation unless it appears that something is really off, or they think they’re testing a certain type but it’s really another. Almost everyone in our little style and color community abides by this rule. This journey is a personal one, and even if people are in the wrong type or season, they usually discover it on their own eventually, and the information they get by discovering this themselves is usually very valuable.
But there is a certain clique that seems hell bent on questioning everyone’s seasonal designations and telling other people how wrong they are. Even if someone has been draped and has been living in a season successfully and happily, still they will consistently bring up their own point of view on someone’s season, a point of view they arrived at solely from snapshots and from arbitrary rules from a non-Sci\ART system. The trained analyst in another system was totally wrong, and the only true way is their own.
I had an experience with this over the weekend, and it really stuck in my craw. I dared to post a quick, taken-during-a-thunderstorm-on-my-iPhone snapshot of me in this lipstick for comparison purposes. On me, this lipstick does not look like a “warm, rusty brown” at all. It turns into a medium-deep red with some rose tones to it. It is my favorite red. Actual reds look clownish on me. Another person had posted a picture of themselves in this same lipstick, and on them it looked straight-up dark brown, so I just thought it was interesting that the same lipstick could look so different on different people.
But since the other person was a member of this clique, it brought out of the woodwork what can only be described as trolls. And all of these trolls felt the need to tell me that, although I was not seeking feedback on my season, that the fact that I turn dark lipsticks with brown in them less brown and lighter that I must be a summer.
I am sure that any actual summer who is reading this clicked on the link above and imagined themselves wearing that lipstick and shuddered.
Anyway, what we struck me is the sheer rudeness of it all. It takes a lot of nerve and a lot of, well, jerkiness to think that you can definitively contradict a stranger’s seasonal designation from a hastily snapped iPhone shot in poor lighting, and that arbitrary rules like “Dark Autumn lipsticks should be applied with at least three passes of the bullet” are real things that should apply to everyone in a season.
I understand that in systems in which Dark Autumn=dark person, I wouldn’t be a DA. I am a Dark Autumn in the way I understand the season, which is that the colors and makeup just seem to work for me and work better than all the other seasons I’ve tried. And it’s faintly ridiculous to tell someone who can wear a dark lipstick like Emotional and not look like they just walked out of a Hot Topic that they must be a summer because this dark lipstick looks too LIGHT on them. Yes, that’s just what I need, lighter makeup so it can look chalky or clownish on me.
Anyway, I fully believe that this journey is a deeply personal one, and that’s why this is the one behavior I can’t tolerate. Even though I understand that the leaps these people were making were not only in a different system, but illogical, it still planted that little seed of doubt in my mind. And that’s just annoying.
So yeah, this is one of those behaviors that will cause me to ban someone from a group or get into fights in the comments or ban someone from commenting on this blog. Unless someone asks for help, let them get there on their own.
Dianne
June 30, 2015 at 3:44 amAmen!
stylesyntax
June 30, 2015 at 5:08 pm🙂
Heather
June 30, 2015 at 6:42 amIt’s a shame that seasonal color, something that is intended to enhance a person’s natural, *individual* beauty, can bring out these kind of controlling and cliquey impulses in some people. It’s strange, too, since Sci\ART, at least, seems to emphasize that any kind of coloring can be possible for any season. Likewise, people can and do wear their season’s colors differently — Cate Linden’s perspective on being an atypical DA is especially inspiring and refreshing to me.
stylesyntax
June 30, 2015 at 5:08 pmYes, Sci\ART/12 Blueprints emphasizes this. 16-season systems don’t. Lora Alexander, for one, says that the idea that anyone can be anything is a myth and that seasons have certain parameters. That is what the women who went after me believe. In their point of view, there is no way that Cate Linden would be a DA.
But I think this is a bit silly because each palette has a wide range. Perhaps it’s because my experience has been DIY, but I can even find my body colors on the DA palette. The colors do look to be in harmony with me. I’ve held up the DA palette to my face and had people thought it was a spring palette. There is no way one to be a DA or a LSp or any other season.
Heather
July 1, 2015 at 1:49 amLike Dianne said, “Amen!” 🙂
PMP
June 30, 2015 at 8:42 amFrom what I understand, this kind of effect is exactly the goal of PCA: the lipstick that by itself is quite dark and rusty, on your lips looks natural and attractive. This is not a argument against DA. If anything, it’s an argument *for* DA.
We’re not supposed to think “oh, you’re using dark brown lipstick today, quite dramatic”, but “wow, you look good!”.
I’m SSu and if I wore this lipstick I would look like a small girl that borrowed her mother’s cosmetics and tried to look grown-up. But when I wear my mauve lipsticks that to others look “bleh”… well, on me they’re not bleh anymore. And that’s the beauty of PCA.
stylesyntax
June 30, 2015 at 4:47 pmExactly 🙂 It’s about what you need in your makeup to look balanced, not that Dark seasons need to look like they’re starring in a remake of The Craft.
I can’t even imagine wearing a mauve lipstick. It would definitely look “bleh” on me. Soft colors don’t look soft on Soft people; dark colors don’t look dark on Dark people.
tordis
June 30, 2015 at 5:13 pmThose poor Brights that don’t know about that and wonder why the edgy neon orange lipstick just doesn’t look edgy on them 😀
tordis
June 30, 2015 at 8:54 amYes.
I’m still fascinated by this thing called context over and over again. How the same dress, the same colour can look totally different on different persons.
A few years ago, when I helped girls with their colours via a beauty board, I think I had a more CMB way of paradigm in my head, even when I u derstood the concept of Sci/Art and had it in mind when giving tips. But since I really UNDERSTOOD, by seeing actual examples of… Blonde DWs and strawberry blonde summers and rehaired winters, I even don’t dare really helping again… At least not with looking at pictures with drapes beneath and determining their season. I learned that it’s way more complex and that it’s not about obvious color harmony, but making dark circles and any imperfections magically vanish (and such), getting the maximum healthy glow.
I understand, that there are many paradigms about colour and the biggest difference seems to be between the “colour harmony” and the “skin clearance” paradigm. Both are valid, and everyone has to choose by themselves which paradigm or which effect they prefer.
But when it comes to style, colour, Kibbe, I always value naysayers. It’s a feedback, nothing more and I can choose to consider it – or not. Many critical comments actually were very valuable to me. Like just at the moment, when someone from the community (and I even haven’t returned to FB!) questioned me being TR and seems to be right! There are clues that I’m rather SG! Oo I’ll return soon to the community and will explore this very thoroughly. So, thanlks to the naysayer 😀
stylesyntax
June 30, 2015 at 4:44 pmWell, with naysayers, it depends. If it is a trusted friend from the color/style community who has been following my journey for a long time, I’d absolutely want their honest feedback. But if it’s someone who has no idea how I look in other seasons and is just going off a poorly-lit iPhone photo, then it’s just an annoying buzzing in my ear. Especially when people just get draped and they post their photos and people start commenting that the analysis is wrong–it can be very demoralizing for a person who was just a moment ago very excited about being draped.
tordis
June 30, 2015 at 5:11 pmYes you are right, it totally depends. It wasn’t my intention to diminish your annoyance, just my general opinions of naysayers. It might even be that, being no English native, I wasn’t aware of the whole extent of the word naysayer. Maybe I should rephrase it: I’m glad that people are critical.
People that annoy me a lot online just get to talk to the ignore button 😀 (I’m sure there’s one on FB too)
lux
June 30, 2015 at 11:00 pm“I turn dark lipsticks with brown in them less brown and lighter that I must be a summer.” LOL XD
I’m a Summer, Zyla’s Jeweltone. I turn Estee Emotional lipstick orange and my face turns yellow. It looks horrible on me. Yes, I shuddered…
Is it not characteristic for warm seasons that they turn orange tones more red? And cool seasons do the same with pink tones? I think it is. Estee Lauder Exotic Orchid http://www.wiseshe.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/estee-lauder-orchid-shimmer.jpg – it looks light RED on me. XD
It’s so annoying when people expresses their opinions on someone else’s appearance even though no one has asked about it.They think they are helpful, I think they are just rude.
stylesyntax
July 1, 2015 at 12:02 amYes, I think so. If you’re in the right season and you’re wearing a purple or brown or orange lipstick, it shouldn’t really read or stand out as one of those colors, I think. What I think happens with me and brown lipsticks and you and that cool mauvish pink is that the inherent warmth or coolness in our lips is canceling out the warmth and coolness in the lipstick, making it looks “normal.”
I love the JTS palettes I’ve seen. They’re so rich!
Froan
July 1, 2015 at 9:59 amThat’s why I removed myself from the color groups. Except for the type I ended up being.
stylesyntax
July 1, 2015 at 6:58 pmYou’re lucky–your season’s group is quick to ban people for this sort of behavior. In Autumn, we must suffer.
deb
July 2, 2015 at 11:07 pmOK, I am a dork. I posted this in the wrong comments section but hey, I will say it for both.
You go girl!!!
stylesyntax
July 4, 2015 at 1:45 amhaha thanks 😀
Viridian
July 2, 2015 at 11:18 pmI can’t agree with this post more! Indeed, it was for very similar reasons that I left the various color groups, as well. I couldn’t stand to be told that I’m “too dark looking” to ever be a Soft Summer so I HAD to be Dark something.
stylesyntax
July 4, 2015 at 1:45 amThat’s a shame! I would contact the admins and let them know there’s an issue.
Shawna
August 25, 2015 at 12:31 amSome people don’t see colour very well but don’t know that they don’t. Or they have biases they don’t realise. I am a soft summer deep. There is an overlap with deep winter soft so I can dip into that but I’ve had some people tell me they prefer me in bright winter colours. Those colours aren’t awful on me because they are cool and I am definitely cool but they aren’t the best on me. They tend to overwhelm me. People who like those colours on me tend to just like really bright colours and that bias is coming out. It’s frustrating sometimes but I just ignore it, knowing they probably find my look bland and not caring if they do.