Chroma Brown

There are a great many different shades of Blue and sometimes it is difficult to know which shade of blue makes you look your very best! Blues range from soft powdery blues right through to deep navy blues. Every shade can look better or worse on different people according to their hair and eye colour and their skin tone. It sounds complicated but once you get to grips with the Munsell System of Colour Analysis, its not so difficult to grasp.

The Munsell system is used by just about anybody who is involved with colour: paint manufacturers, hairdressers, Colour Me Beautiful Image Consultants. The Munsell system identifies colour according to three characteristics, hue (undertone, either blue or yellow), value (depth of colour from very pale through to very dark) and chroma (clarity, from very clear and bright to very dull and muted). A colour analysis will put most women and men into one of six "dominant" groups. These groups are "light", "deep", "warm", "cool", "clear" and "soft". Sometimes it isn't always obvious which group an individual fits into but broadly speaking the characteristics for each dominant group are as follows:

Light: Blonde or light hair, pale blue, grey or green eyes, pale eyebrows, delicate skin. Claudia Schiffer is a perfect example. The best blue for this group would be a pale or light blue, nothing too dark or bright.

Deep: Dark brown or black hair, dark eyes, dark eyebrows, porcelain to black skin. Catherine Zita-Jones a good example. The best blue for this group is dark strong and rich - a dark navy for example.

Warm: Red-toned hair, green, brown or blue eyes, warm toned eyebrows, golden skin. The Duchess of York is a lovely example of a warm. The best blue for this group is an yellow-blue such as turquoise.

Cool: Ash blond or grey hair, grey, blue, green or brown eyes, eyebrows from blond to dark, pink or blue undertones to the skin. Judi Dench is a perfect Cool. The best blue for this group is a purple blue or icy blue.

Clear: Dark hair, strikingly blue or topaz eyes, dark eyebrows and pale to dark skin tone. Courtney Cox is an excellent example of a clear. The best blue for this group is a clear bright blue such as royal blue.

Soft: Dark blonde or brown hair, soft coloured eyes in blue, green or brown, light to dark eyebrows and little contrast between hair eye and skin colour. Kylie Minogue is a stunning example of a soft. The best blue for this group is a soft muted blue like a faded denim or soft sky blue.

To summarise you mirror you looks with the shades of colour you wear. I have just been talking about blue but of course this applies to all colours too. Wearing the right shade of blue can make the difference to a person's appearance. Getting it right can make you look younger, healthier and more attractive. If you have a good self image, you will feel more confident in everything you do.