Exploring Colour Psychology | AD

From our first meeting, Annalise Lewis knew she had a sceptic to convince….

Annalise is a fully qualified colour psychologist and, as I said to her at the time, I had no idea what that was, and, being entirely honest, it all sounded a bit wooly and I was completely unconvinced. On our first meeting, Annalise explained to me a bit more about Colour Psychology and what she does, in an attempt to convince me that it was an actual thing and that it works. Remaining sceptical, but intrigued, I agreed to a session to see what she would determine about me – I was sceptical but fascinated, and she was so lovely, it couldn’t hurt to try it out!

The full session takes around 4 hours so I turned up the next day filled with trepidation as to what I was getting myself into.
We started the session with a cup of tea, which, as I’m sure you will know if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram, is one very easy way to get into my good books!
We basically just had a good girly gossip for 45 minutes – about life, boys, friends, travel, plans and everything else – Annalise did add in a couple of specific questions but we were basically just having a chat, which was lovely.
We then went onto colour testing. She started by looking really closely at my eyes, which I always thought were green but apparently when you look close up are blue with a “sun burst” of yellow – who knew!?

Annalise then held two pieces of jewellery against the inside of my wrist to see which colour brought out the best elements in my skin tone.
We then started trying out swatches of fabric against my skin, holding the fabric under my chin so it almost looked like I was wearing a t-shirt in that colour, and looking in a mirror to see what colours brought out my eyes etc. 

There are four sets of colours, named after the seasons, and after testing these colours, and with the added information Annalise had taken from our chat, she established I am an “Autumn” with a strong “Spring” subliminary. We then went into detail, looking at the different shades of the Autumn palette to work out which colours worked better with my skin.

I had been so sceptical going into it all, but nothing about the session seemed woolly or floaty and everything seemed to make quite a bit of sense, which, honestly, I was quite surprised at. I really did see a change when the different colours were up against my skin. A slightly different shade of purple and it made my eyes pop and my skin seem clearer and brighter (which can only be a good thing, right!?)

At the end of the session we had a narrowed down selection of the Autumn Palette that are the colours we thought worked best with me, and Annalise then put them into a little booklet for me so I can actually buy things in that colour without thinking it’s the right shade, only to find it’s slightly too bright etc.

I think I get it now, I think Annalise may have won me over, at least in relation to the literal aspects of it all.
I don’t know how much I buy into the seasonal aspect – I think that can be a slightly misleading element of it, because some of the “typical” characteristics of each season can be seen as positive or negative, making you want to portray the characteristics of one specific season over another.
But, I guess that might just be my taste and my perspective and colour-wise it really does make sense – winter is quite monochrome, but with strong colour elements, spring is quite bright with several pastel shades etc, summer is more reds and darker pinks with a softer general tone, and Autumn is lots of warm colours, with greens, oranges, purples and reds being very key – makes sense really.

I found this experience absolutely fascinating, particularly as it is something I would never have even considered before – I could really see the effect the different shades had on me and I’m looking forward to seeing how it changes my approach to what I buy and what I wear now.

R xx
————-
Annalise can be found on her website (which also has LOADS more information about how it all works and then details of how you can use colour psychology in your life – not just for your wardrobe but for advertising and design too!) and on twitter. 

*I was gifted this experience, however all views are my own.