Brown

BROWN

Good for rustic homeliness

Warmth, earthiness, reliability, support.

Brown

What can I say about this?  As a summer it is no longer my favourite colour, much preferring the prettier shades of pink, however, I clearly remember a phase in my childhood when brown was the ‘in colour’ for me.  AND with a husband who is an autumn, surrounded by friends and family of all seasons, I can clearly see browns working well, weaving that luxurious, subtle harmonious flow of neutrals – just not on me!

As the colour of rustic homeliness, I read a recommendation somewhere to wear brown when ‘first meeting the mother-in-law’, on the basis that it’s a non-threatening colour and her son would be in safe hands!  I guess if you want to portray that image, then it’s good advice…! 

When we settle into our sofas and relax into our armchairs at the end of a long day, we need to feel safe, secure and restful.  The pace of life is such these days that ‘grounding’ is required for its restorative powers.  As I pass through friends’ homes, I recognise a proliferation of warm toned colour themes with accents being set off by the neutral of brown in its various forms: beige, tan, chocolate, mahogany, mole, oatmeal and stone.   Interestingly, regardless of what the inhabitant’s seasons are, there is still a propensity to furnishing in warm shades.  

I’ve noticed that when I’m in need of restorative time, I move towards my browns which start at Rose Brown and verge into plums/purples; when I’m in action, inspired and engaged with work, life and business, I tend to wear more blues, reds and greens.

On the basis that everyone has every colour available to them, we each need to identify which shade of the colour works best for us and, if looking for a specific colour such as brown, which shade is yours?  Is it dark brown, chocolate, moving into burnished burgundy/dark red or chestnut?  Winters particularly, need to make sure their ‘brown’ goes no warmer than the beautiful, luxurious mole, but be warned everyone else, mole won’t look luxurious on many others.  If Brown isn’t great at 75% or 50%, try accenting with piping or patterns to incorporate the colour and contrast without dominating the outfit….and you.  

I wonder whether Winston Churchill was a Winter, as a result of this statement:

“I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.” — Winston Churchill

Remembering of course that every 5 years, “Brown is the new Black” and referring to Almonds, Chocolate, Nutmeg, Beer and Coffee, whoever you are.

Phrases:

·         As brown as a berry - alluding to our never ending search to be tanned.  From  

       Elizabeth I when pale, sallow skin was a sign of being able to afford a life indoors

·         Browned Off – WWII phrase signifying ‘fed up’ or ‘bored stiff’

·         To be done brown – to be deceived, taken in

·         Brown Badger – swot type of undergraduate, derived from the brown attaché case

       which students used to carry their books!

·         Brownie points - a hypothetical social currency, which can be acquired by doing good 

       deeds or earning favour in the eyes of another

·         Brown Shirts – Hitler’s Nazi Party, so called from the colour of their shirts

Your Browns range from:
Spring (warm & clear)	Light beige, through tan to chocolate
Summer (cool & soft)	Pink Beige through mushroom to Rose Brown -  a pink tinge
Autumn (warm & soft)	Beige through coffee, camel to Bronze and Dark Brown
Winter (cool & clear)	Stone through Mole – a grey tinge

Great Lipsticks for the Browns of your Season, most will work from your season because Browns tend to be neutrals and benefit from choosing a colour for your lips if your outfit is all brown
	Soft	Clear
Warm	Autumn – L308, L410, L491, L5, L506, L621, L64, L648, L653	Spring – L308, L410, L64,
Cool	Summer  - L495, L50, L35, L718, L686	Winter - L512, L54, L673, L718, L50

Essential holiday make-up

As the holiday season approaches, so too comes the ‘holiday shopping’ and all too often unnecessary purchases, excess baggage allowance and frustration of ‘no liquids over 100ml’ through security for your hand luggage.

All is not lost!

Firstly, your make-up bag doesn’t have to be as large as you might think.  Unless you particularly think you need to carry your full selection to the other side of the world, a minimal kit will suffice and still have you enhancing every outfit you take with you, or indeed purchase while you’re away.

The 5 essentials:

1. Foundation -  on holiday, I find it helps me look more awake than I might feel after a night out, always a good step towards feeling better!  A heavily tanned person may require a stronger shade than normal, although in my experience, this is rare.  Finding the right colour foundation to match your skin tone is better when done in natural light.  The colour needs to sit on your face (not your neck) and the colour needs to blend naturally with your neck colour, if you see a line and feel the need to blend it, your foundation is probably not the right colour.   Foundatoin provides an element of protection to your skin and there are different types to suit all lifestyles:  

Liquid foundation – provides a full and professional looking finish, a great look when you are going out for an evening. 

Dual-Foundation – wet and dry mineral foundation also comes in a handy compact; easily applied with a Kabuki brush it can be used to touch up after a long day (on holiday, at a wedding, on business) and used in combination with a liquid foundation or BB cream depending on your requirement.

BB-creams – a versatile product combining serum, moisturiser, primer and foundation in one.  Perfect for a natural look, providing skin protection and can be combined with translucent powder or dual-foundation for additional coverage.  Take advantage of our special offer on BB creams (June 2014) and get yourself set up for the summer.

 

2. Blusher – pick up and enhance the natural pink tones in your skin draws the attention out to your cheek bones and makes your face appear more defined and less pinched.  You’ll probably find you only need one colour to take you through the whole year because it’s your underlying natural pinks which are enhanced.

3. Lipstick – THE handbag essential!  Lipstick provides definition to the mouth and face and works it’s magic by making your eyes shine when you're wearing the right colour.  At HOC, we recommend 3 as a minimum, enabling you to have something to suit every possible outfit from your colour spectrum.  Of course, you are not limited to only three, but choosing 1 red, 1 pink, 1 plum, rust or coral, depending on your season, will provide maximum flexibility.

4. Eyeliner – using eyeliner (liquid or pencil) on the outside edge of your eyes makes them appear more defined and larger.  For holiday, you may choose a neutral eyeliner (black, grey, navy) or you may wish to include a bit more choice (green, plum, blue) – after all, eyeliners aren’t bulky!

5. Mascara – Mascara appears to lengthen the eyelashes, providing further definition for the eyes, a girl’s best friend!   While I have two colours (navy and brown) in my make-up kit, I find that most days I migrate to one colour – navy, as a summer, for my travel kit! 

And one for luck:

6. Eye-shadow - while not essential, limiting yourself to 1 or 2 highlighting shades for the eyelid and 2-3 accent colours (navy/grey/purple for cool or olive/brown for warm) can provide more elegance to your look when you go out to dinner in the evening and for the space of about 5 small eye shadows, you may prefer to invest in an eye shadow palette to provide everything you need for an easy time away.



For the activity holidaymakers, or the really light traveller, where there is less time or space for make-up, these 5(6) things can be limited to 3; Foundation, Blusher and Lipstick.  

....after all, you may well be wearing sunglasses most of the time!

Cool

Warm



Lipstick – Love it or Loathe it?

Two perspectives and both from men aged over 60!

'Get that muck off your face!'

'I love lipstick; I love the way it makes women look’
 

Both men have obviously been heavily influenced by their upbringing; the former from a hard working, frugal background with little time or money for ‘frivolous’ luxuries, the other brought up by his mother and aunts in a post-war environment where a little bit of lipstick was seen as important, an almost critical boost to self-confidence!   My own Grandmother told me how she was ‘told’ to take off her lipstick if she wanted to be taken out again. 

Our upbringing has a lot to answer for.  There’s nothing we can do to change it, however, we can reinterpret it and choose whether to listen to the ‘lessons’ or not. 

Economists have widely recognised the ‘lipstick effect’ as an early warning to a recession arriving.   When circumstances are tight, women spurn expensive new dresses and shoes in favour of more modest retail therapy, such as cosmetics.

In fact, the following article goes deeper and looks at the connection between the psychology of mating and consumer behaviour.  When times get tough, recessionary cues consistently increase women’s desire for products which increase their attractiveness…. albeit in this context, to mates, however attractiveness is equally important when making friends, securing jobs, making sales, giving and receiving customer service in its many forms.

At House of Colour, we know that the right colour lipstick makes your eyes appear brighter, distinguishes your facial features more clearly, and helps you to look fresh and vibrant.

The neighbour’s baby smiling at her before its own mother, gave me a clear example of how lipstick defines, making our facial features easier to see.  I wonder if the same is true for lip-readers or partially sighted people when trying to distinguish our facial movements. 

 

Our Colour Class  teaches you techniques to build on the empowering aspects of your upbringing, while gently dropping those less empowering ‘lessons’! 

 

 

Feeling comfortable with your lipstick can be one of the biggest challenges for our female customers and their partners!  It takes 21 times to create a habit, therefore wearing a new lipstick in your colour every day for 3 weeks will enable  you and everyone around you to get used to it;  It is only at this point that we can judge a look objectively.

It’s not whether you want to look good, but do you have the courage to?

Be brave, enjoy the result; it’s worth it!

The Red Lippy Project

Don a bright red lipstick during cervical screening awareness week 9-15 June 2013. The Red Lippy Project in association with The Eve Appeal is encouraging women to wear their favourite shade of red lipstick to create awareness for cervical screening.

At House of Colour we encourage our clients to wear lipstick as it makes our eyes sparkle and really enhances our natural colour as well as ensuring our communication is as good as it can be.  We love the transformation when clients, who have never tried lipstick before, wear an amazing shade once they know what colour is right for them, and we see the change in their confidence as the compliments flow in. Of course if you’ve had your colours analysed you will know the best shade for you, here are some of our best reds for each season:

L-R L 28 Cherry for Summers, L 499 Deep Red for Winters, L 12 Brick for Autumns and L 606 Geranium Red for Springs. All available to purchase from our webshop

Show off your House of Colour red lipstick this week and support The Red Lippy Project.

Red Lips Say:

“The initial idea was to create a platform that talked openly about the importance of cervical screenings and cervical cancer with a fun, bold, visual language that women and especially younger women can relate to.”

 

For more information visit their website 

www.theredlippyproject.com