January 2017 archive

Kibbe Soft Dramatic Essence Guide

After something like a year and a half of having it sit unfinished in my drafts folder, I finally finished the guide to the Soft Dramatic Image Identity. I think it took me so long because while of course I know all about these stars, I actually hadn’t seen many of their movies.

But I did it, and I hope to complete one of these a week, going in the order of the book. So the next guide will be to Romantics.

Enjoy!

P.S.: I also finally got an Instagram, so you can follow me there in addition to Facebook.

TCI vs. 12 Blueprints

Note: I have since spoken with a TCI-trained analyst who says that she does see more unusual coloring/season combinations, such as DAs with blonde hair and blue eyes like myself, in her practice. I wish Amelia’s website made it more clear that the unusual is not impossible in the way she teaches Sci\ART.

Since True Colour brought its color analysis training to the United States, the color analysis community on Facebook has been rocked by the changes this new perspective on Sci\ART has brought. Analysts that were formerly under the 12 Blueprints banner were retrained, some of them even draping into different seasons themselves.

At first, I was excited about the prospect of a new voice in color analysis in the US. I had had my doubts about the 12Blueprints way of doing things for a while. Many people feel that 12Blueprints produces too many Bright seasons. I’ve seen people say things like Bright Winter was the only way they were visible under the heavy lights used during the draping, or that Bright Winter ended up as kind of a default because it was the closest to providing what they needed. To me, it seemed strange that a season as strong as BW was being used as any kind of default or “well, there’s nothing better, so…” season!

What happened, however, was more disappointing to me than a parade of Brights. It was Soft Party USA.

Here’s a quote from the TCI Facebook page:

“I came into training thinking harmony cleaned things up on a person, or gave them a ‘zing’ or ‘wow’ factor. But I walked out thinking it maintained a person exactly as they were, that harmony looked different for every season, but it would never distort or change what you saw about their face against the neutral gray. And that might incidentally produce a zing, or be cleaner than something less harmonious, but that was not the primary goal.”
Heather Whitely
Fort Worth 2016

Now, here’s the thing. I don’t think looking disharmonious is desirable. I don’t think needing lipstick to show up in your season is a good thing. But I want to look my best.

From TCI’s blog:

I originally became a color analyst in search of harmony, however I started on a path that used Sci\ART terminology but sought and celebrated other things—intensity of eyes, definition of bone structure, the appearance of a slimmer or younger face, removal of redness, and cultural interpretations of beauty that pushed people to a point far more intense than their natural beauty could accommodate. There was heavy reliance on makeup to make the picture work, and an obsession with finding the exact perfect shade of lipstick since so many of them were far too much for the client. “Unusual” coloring became highly usual – “light” darks, “soft” brights, cool-toned people with warm “overtones,” blonde and redheaded winters… So many people walked away surprised by their assigned color space. And these were not just my clients – many more were the clients of my colleagues, practicing with the same philosophy and methodology.

Now, obviously, as a blonde in Dark Autumn, I’m naturally going to bristle at this a little. Dark Autumn just… works. When it comes to lipstick, for instance, this is the first time in my life when I’m finding it easy to find lipstick that works on my face. I never wore lipstick before because the direction I’d been pointed in as a blonde looked odd and unnatural on me, and I had no idea how to go about finding what my correct boundaries were. Same thing with clothes–I basically only wore black and gray. With Dark Autumn, even the colors that many people view as “ugly”–pea green, brownish yellow–look great, and I have confidence that if I have a Dark Autumn color on, I’ll look great.

Anyway, what the vast majority of the redrapings seem to be is putting someone into one of the two Soft seasons. Amelia admits that she sees these two seasons the most often.

When see I Soft after Soft, however, I don’t feel “wowed” the way I often do when someone has been properly analyzed. Soft seasons can look beautiful–this is a great example. Often, though, person is just… there.

But me? I want to look my best. I’m fairly certain I would end up a Soft if I went to a TCI-trained analyst:

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Soft top, Dark bottom. Drape images from PrismX11.

I’ve never really tried Soft Autumn, but I remember when I tried the Soft Autumn draping cards–basically, nothing happens. Maybe that’s harmony, I don’t know. But I do know that I prefer how I look and feel in Dark Autumn.

Some people do prefer the TCI approach and results. That’s fine! To me, no matter how much it’s advertised as a “science”–I think it’s actually pretty subjective. What do you want to look like? Which aesthetic do you prefer? My advice is–when you’re thinking about getting an analysis, look at the analyst’s client portfolio. Do you like how the people look in their season? Does your aesthetic match the analyst’s? Don’t just go to whomever happens to be closest. Getting draped is a major investment.

PrismX11 Dark Autumn Palette Review, Part 2: Palette Comparisons

There is now another brand of Sci\ART palettes at a similar price point to the standard True Colour International and Invent Your Image palettes. They are by PrismX11, and have been developed with a Munsell color scientist. Each color on the palettes has been measured using a spectrophotometer. I go into the specifics of this palette in the first part of the review.

Today, I’m going to talk about the differences in the colors on the palette.

TCI (left) and PrismX11 (right)

TCI (left) and PrismX11 (right)

The general first impression is that the PrismX11 is significantly darker. Part of this is because the dark colors are at the top of the palette. The Invent Your Image palette similarly seems darker, even though the colors are actually more or less the same as the TCI’s. But the PrismX11 does not have the brightest colors on the TCI palette, the saturated colors along the top.

Direct Comparisons

prismx11-dark-autumn-palette-strip1

The first strip has grays. The darkest gray and black seem warmer; the lighter shades seem cooler. The TCI lighter grays I would describe more as stones or taupes; the PrismX11’s are true grays.

prismx11-dark-autumn-palette-strip2

The second strip has some deep, neuutral olive greens and a nice avocado/pistachio color. This strip of olives is less yellow than the TCI versions, and there are no real midtones. The light color is more complex than the one found on the icies strip. It was hard to get the colors to render correctly in Photoshop, but I did the best I could. The photo of the palette as a whole is probably a better representation of what this strip looks like.

prismx11-dark-autumn-strip3-1

Strip three is pale oranges/creams and some browns. The TCI versions have a pinker cast to them. Even the lighter brown is more yellow on the PrismX11 palette. Note the dark brown, for which there is no TCI equivalent–this palette has a LOT more browns. If you are looking for a palette with more neutrals, this is a good option.

prismx11-dark-autumn-strip4

Strip four is more browns and a yellow. This yellow falls between the two shades on the TCI palette. The closest shades on the TCI palette to the bottom two are the olives, but unlike the first olives we saw, these are less green than the TCI olives.

prism-x11-dark-autumn-palette-strip5

Strip five is more browns and oranges, and the darkest browns are redder than any of the ones of the TCI palette. The shades that are similar have more depth and more yellow in the TCI version. The pale color basically looks like a medium-warm skin tone.

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Strip six has blood reds. I think this would be a great strip to have when you go lipstick shopping. Many of our lipsticks are in the category, and the TCI palette doesn’t have great equivalents. The colors I have here are much cooler, kind of plummy. As far as the light shades go, the lighter shade from the TCI palette is a light warm coral/pink, and the TCI color is basically a band-aid color.

prismx11-dark-autumn-palette-strip7

Strip seven is full of great lipstick colors! The biggest difference is probably the color at the bottom. Its closest TCI equivalent is the bright coral shade, and I think the more muted and deeper version in PrismX11 will probably be considered more wearable by most DAs. Otherwise, the colors are a little richer/less clear, apart from the pretty rosy brown that is missing altogether.

prismx11-dark-autumn-palette-strip8

Strip eight has purples, and I think the fact that the TCI palette has only orchid or very dark purples is one of the most confusing things about it. Here we have some true purple and red-violet shades, which I’m sure will be welcome. The bottom two shades would also function nicely as bold wintry lipstick choices. It’s a little less red than its TCI equivalent. And the darkest purple here is slightly lighter and cooler than the TCI version.

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Strip nine has even more purples and we start to move into the blues. The light purple here is kind of unexpected for DA, but I’m into it. And again the darker purple is cooler. It’s a very classic darkish purple, no real strong plummy tones. The one blue I did find that works with this strip of blues from the TCI palette fits nicely, but it’s that odd lone blue found on the strip of olives. Here this blue is taken darker as well.

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Strip ten’s blues are pretty similar to ones found on the TCI palette, but you can see the brightness level never gets quite as high as it does on TCI.

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The blue-greens of strip 11 are a similar story. There is just an increased complexity that is hard to describe. The brightest blue-green on TCI is one you could easily mistake for a spring color. The brightest/lightest green on the PrismX11 palette is one I could perhaps imagine on the walls of a stately country home.

prismx11-dark-autumn-palette-strip12

Strip 12 is green with no additional descriptors needed–it’s not jade or teal or pea or olive. It’s just plain old shades of green. Grass, maybe? I like these kinds of colors on myself, so I’m glad to have this added branch of the green family.

prismx11-dark-autumn-palette-strip13

Strip 13 is the pea greens, mainly, but oddly enough, I couldn’t find much in common with the TCI pea greens. They are much more in your face, I guess. These feel more like a yellower version of Strip 12.

prismx11-dark-autumn-palette-strip14

And last is strip 14. There are similar colors on the TCI palette, but the PrismX11 are almost-blacks, and I had to hold them up to the light to see what they really were.

My Thoughts
The PrismX11 Dark Autumn palette has a certain sophistication. It’s darker all over, the colors are complex, and it has a much better range of neutrals. If I were going shopping for makeup, this is definitely the palette I’d take with me, no question. If I were putting together a Level Two wardrobe, I’d also probably take this palette.

As a lighter Dark Autumn, though, I find that the brighter colors that are missing are important to me, especially as a Flamboyant Gamine–I need to use color in fun and bold ways. I would miss that bright marigold yellow! I am really glad to have options for purple and green beyond orchid and pea, though.

So which should you get? I would consider how you like to use color, or really just which appeals to you more. I think darker DAs will likely prefer the PrismX11, because I have heard from some that they struggle with the bright colors, whereas DAs who appear more spring-like might like the TCI one better. I think that if you already have the TCI palette, the PrismX11 is a better buy than the TCI Corporate palette, since for DA, the difference between the two TCI palette versions seem minimal. The PrismX11 will give you a far greater range of neutrals.

Which do you like better? Have you compared the PrismX11 in your season to its TCI equivalent?