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Reading Colour
Match it. Neutralise it. Control it.
Colour is where beginners go wrong most, the grey concealer, the orange jawline, the ashy foundation. One coherent story: what colour is, how to read real skin, how to match, how to correct.
What colour is made of
- Hue (which colour)
- Value / depth (light to dark)
- Chroma / saturation (intense to muted)
- Temperature (warm to cool)
Complementary colours sit opposite and neutralise, the basis of correction.
Reading real skin, observe separately
Depth, undertone, surface tone, chroma / mutedness, olive influence, and pigment variation across face, neck, chest and decolletage.
Surface redness does not automatically mean a cool undertone. Olive is not a depth, olive influence can occur at many depths.
Matching
Comparative swatching; swatch several possibilities along the jaw; allow the formula to settle; assess the connection between face, neck, chest and exposed skin; check in appropriate lighting.
The "tests" are clues, not method. Vein colour, jewellery and white-fabric tests are informal clues only, not the primary professional method. Match by comparative swatching in good light: the shade that disappears is the match.
Identify the unwanted hue, choose an appropriate opposing hue, use the least amount needed, reassess.
Correcting
Keep correction precise and local, never large blocks of colour everywhere. Match the corrector's depth to the skin's depth; correct only where the concern still shows, then conceal on top.
Common pairings: blue / purple circles, peach (light) or orange (deep); redness, green; sallowness, lavender; deep hyperpigmentation, yellow / orange.
Separate dry-down from oxidation.
- Dry-down is the formula settling as volatile components evaporate and the film forms.
- Colour shift / oxidation is a change in colour after application. Not every post-application change is oxidation.
The key behaviour is the same: allow the swatch to settle before the final decision.
Assess and check in the light she will be seen and photographed in, and match to what the dress exposes (neck, chest, decolletage), never the face in isolation.
Swatch comparison. Show real complexion swatches. "Which is closest?" then "why?" Demonstrate: correct depth / wrong undertone; slightly wrong depth / better pigment balance; the closest disappearing match. Give the vocabulary after they have compared.
- Hue / value / chroma
- Which colour it is, how light or dark it is, and how intense or muted it is. The three properties that describe any colour.
- Depth
- How light or dark the skin is, read separately from undertone.
- Undertone
- The underlying warm, cool or neutral cast of the skin, distinct from surface tone.
- Surface tone
- The visible colour on the surface (such as redness), which can differ from the true undertone.
- Dry-down vs colour shift
- Dry-down is the formula settling as it forms a film; colour shift (oxidation) is a change in colour after application. Let the swatch settle before deciding.
You swatch a foundation along the jaw and it looks slightly off a minute after application. What is the professional call?