Life in Colour - 24: The Many Shades of Christmas: Red, Green & Metallics Explained

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

Christmas colours aren’t just red and green — and they definitely don’t look the same on everyone. In this episode of Life in Colour, I’m breaking down the different variations of Christmas colours, from reds and greens to metallics, and explaining why some versions feel festive and flattering… while others just don’t feel right at all. We chat about: The different types of reds (and why one person glows in crimson while another looks better in a softer or deeper shade) How greens can swing warm, cool, light or deep — and why that matters Why metallics aren’t one-size-fits-all (gold, silver, champagne, pewter and more) How to choose festive colours that work with your seasonal palette, not against it If you’ve ever put on a “Christmas outfit” and felt like something was off — even though the colour should work — this episode will help you understand why. It’s about keeping the festive feel, without forcing colours that don’t suit you. Want to go deeper with colour? If you’re just starting out, I have a free “Find Your Colours” guide that will help you begin understanding what colours work best for you and why. It’s a great place to start if you’ve ever felt unsure about choosing colours when shopping or getting dressed. 👉 You’ll find the link to download it here. If you’d like personalised support, you can also book a Virtual Colour Analysis with me. We’ll work out your seasonal palette and I’ll show you how to use it in real life — from clothes to accessories and beyond. 👉 All the details and booking links are linked here or www.lovingcolour.au/colouranalysis 🎧 Listen now on Life in Colour — available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Welcome to Life in Color, the podcast where we dive into the real, raw and wonderfully colorful aspects of life. I'm your host, Ashley, and I'm here to explore the ins and outs of seasonal color analysis, navigating motherhood, thriving in your 40s and beyond, and embracing health and wellness with a healthy dose of humor. Join me as we uncover the secrets behind finding your perfect palate, share stories of the joys and challenges of being a mom, and from practical tips to heartfelt conversations, life in color is your space to laugh, learn, and live life unapologetically in all of its colourful hues. So grab your favourite drink, settle in and let's add some colour to this adventure that we call

life. Welcome to Life in Color. Hi everyone and welcome to this week's episode of Life in Color. Now I'm recording this in real time. This episode is actually going to be going out this week. It's currently the 16th of December in 2025 and this will be going out on Thursday, the 18th. I just want to make a note first before we get into the show that what happened in Sydney was truly horrific. I feel so heavy from it, as does so many of Australians right now, whether you're listening to this in Australia or whether you're listening overseas, it has affected all of us.

And whilst some may feel that doing a podcast episode, especially talking about colours and clothes, may be frivolous, at the moment for me, whilst I feel deeply about what has taken place, I am also still searching for love, joy, kindness and happiness in other areas of my life. And so I thought just for half an hour, you also may too be wanting to listen to something that gives you a little bit of joy, a little bit of happiness and takes you away from watching the news or scrolling social media because we all know that that can affect all of us deeply.

And it's not to say that we aren't feeling things because we all are. But sometimes when the world feels so heavy, you have to look for those areas of joy. So I just wanted to acknowledge it and say something about it. But I also want to try and bring a little bit of joy into your world this week. And this is the way that I know how to do that. So today we're going to be talking about colour because that is something that as my time has gone on with this business, like I know that I knew that I loved colour. I knew that I've always loved colour.

I don't think it was till we went on holiday to Singapore back in September that I really how entwined colour and I are and how much joy it brings me. Like, I went into our hotel. We stayed at a few hotels. In the last hotel that we stayed at, they had the most beautiful murial behind the check-in. It's recently been renovated. And it was just so beautiful.

And it brought the biggest smile to my face. And it just made me happy. And then when I see a picture of books all lined up in like a rainbow, that makes me happy when I go into a store and like that color coordinated it. Like that is my Virgo's idea of happiness going into somewhere like that. And so colour and I, this is how I know I was always meant to do this job because it essentially is me. It's deeply embedded within me and I think I've always been that way.

But I always also look to use colour to show how I'm feeling, thinking or how I want to think or feel. So for example, today you would have seen, for those of you who follow me on Instagram the other day, because obviously this is a couple of days ago, I was wearing a yellow cardigan. And this yellow cardigan, I chose it specifically today because I feel like it radiates joy, happiness and love. It's a color that I always associate with my mum. And my mom radiates all of those things at all times. And I felt that by wearing it, my parents don't live in Sydney. there are a couple of hours outside of Sydney. And I felt closer to my mum by wearing that today.

And also, like, my daughter had something, my daughter had a driving test today. And so I just wanted to wear something that was bright and happy and brought a little bit of joy. And I don't want you to feel or think that what you wear in regards to this, this isn't what this podcast is about today, but just to touch on it briefly. When the world feels so heavy,

what you wear is something that you can control and how it makes you feel. And so for me, putting on these colors that make me smile, that make me feel a little bit happier, make me feel a little bit lighter, it does not take away from how I'm feeling about other events that have taken place, that I have no control over that that took place. But this is something where I can, it makes me happy, it makes me smile. And then maybe someone else might see that color and be like, gosh, I really like that color and might remind them of something or someone. So don't underestimate the power of color and what it can.

can do for you and how it can help sometimes in these circumstances, which I know for some of you you may think that that sounds a bit ridiculous and I understand that. For me, colour is a vital part of my world and my life and I have learnt that more and more that colour helps my heart beat along and that's not an understatement because it brings me so much joy and happiness. There's no other way to describe it. It really, really does. Anyway, that went a little bit deeper than I thought. But I just thought that it was important to say. But what we're actually going to talk about today, there's a very big event, obviously, coming up in nine days' time. And that is, for those of us that celebrate it, that is Christmas. And traditionally, a lot of people,

obviously, the colours that are associated with Christmas are red and green. And then I'd say more new years necessarily you have the metallic seems to come in with all of the sequins and I thought it would be really interesting for us to have a little chat about this now I had planned on doing an Instagram live with events that have taken place I'm not sure whether I will still do that or not which is why I thought I would put a podcast episode out instead so when we talk about the traditional colours I want you to think of like a forest green a really warm toned forest green like the trees if you imagine watching like a hallmark movie I don't know if any of you like to watch those kinds of Christmas movies, especially the cheesy ones, they're best.

We, my daughter and I in particular, love watching Christmas movies because they're predictable, they generally have a happy ending, there's no violence or anything in it, and I just love them. And I love, love, love looking at the clothes that everybody is wearing in the colours. Side note, I don't know if anyone saw on Instagram when I put it up the other day. It's so hard for me not to like characterise the characters into what seasons they are. But sometimes I can see it's glaringly obvious that a character is absolutely wearing the wrong colour. And then sometimes I might spend a bit of the time of the film actually figuring out, is that what they wanted for that character? Because they're going to have some kind of transformation

later. So if you ever see movies where there's some kind of makeover or transformation, they are always, 100% always going to have put the character in their worst colours before they do the transformation. 100%. It's not just about the makeup in that. one, color plays a vital role. So when we're looking at the traditional colors of Christmas, you're thinking a bright red, like, you've got the Santa Claus red, you have, which is sort of essentially almost very, very similar to like a fire engine kind of red. They're very similar now. Fire engine red, I classify into bright spring. I then put the tomato red into warm spring because a tomato red has a lot of orange in it so it makes it really, really warm

like tomato. And then the cooler toned reds, they have more blue in them. So that's more like raspberry kind of red. And when you put them side by side, you really can see the difference of like, oh, that I can definitely see there's a lot more orange in that or that looks a bit more pink. It's a red, but it's got more of a pink base to it. If you can see a pink base to a red, it's cool-toned. If you can see an orange base to a red, then that's going to be warm toned. If one looks a bit more neutral or down the middle, you're sort of more looking at Santa Claus Fire Engine Red. So when it comes to greens, like that forest green that I was talking about earlier, the majority of greens, I would say, that are associated with Christmas.

So I'm telling you all of this, obviously, in relation to clothing that you're going to be choosing to wear, or what could be decorations around your house, actually, I did help. Was it my optometrist? It was my optometrist. I was helping her choose a color to go behind her headboard, I think. Or maybe it was vice versa. I can't remember anyway. I was helping with that, even though obviously clothing is my jam rather than interiors. But they're the kinds of colours that you're traditionally thinking about. Cooler toned greens, unless it's a very dark like bottle, almost teal green, it's got a bit of black in there. You would see because it's got that tinge to it to make it a lot deeper and intense. The majority of greens

are going to be warm toned. And I can hear some people saying, and we talked about this in the colour collective on a call, was it last week, when I did my monthly masterclass in there. And I was showing them the differences between the greens and the reds. You don't necessarily see the cool toned greens because they're more jewel-like. They're almost a bit lighter in color, but they don't have that yellow running underneath them. And it's the yellow that runs underneath. the green to give it that warmth that gives it that Christmas colour. It's not saying that you can't wear a green dress at Christmas if you're cool-toned. You absolutely can. It's just when we talk about those traditional colours, like if you're thinking about that Hallmark movie, you're going to see

it would be a warm autumn green, 100%, and then you're going to have, it may be a warm or cool-toned red that goes with it. Now, there are some other greens as well, but they are still warm-toned. A brighter green that sits in spring. So it's not as deep. It's not forest-like. You're thinking more of like those bright apple kind of greens, those bright lime greens. They are still warm-toned because they have yellow running underneath them. If you think of a cool-toned green, you're thinking more along the lines of a green that you would find necessarily in the ocean or like a jade, like jewel kind of green. They're very, very different. And the difference between them, if you're wanting to pair them with the correct red and you know me it's not that I'm about rules and everything here but if you put the

right tones and I'm talking just about warm and cool here I'm not talking about summer or spring or winter or things like that if you can match the undertone that's when it will start to really cohesively work together because if you put a warm toned red with that cool toned green it's not that it will look bad it's more that they just might clash a little bit it might not go as well as what you would like it to go. Whereas if you put that lovely warm toned red, say you take a warm autumn red. A warm autumn red is nowhere near as bright as that fire engine red that we were talking about earlier. It's been toned down a bit. So it's not moody or intense, but it's just not as bright. Like it's not going to, you're not going to like see in the dark

kind of bright. That paired with the right green, they work so beautifully together and so cohesively together. Whereas when you're in, say, a brighter shade, a brighter shade in there would suit a much brighter shade of red. So a bright shade of like tomato red is going to look fabulous with more like a lime green kind of red or that apple kind of green because their intensity of the colour matches each other. That's where it all starts to go really cohesively. And that's where when you do know your colours, your whole wardrobe becomes like that. So nothing is clashing or fighting with each other. They all work harmoniously together and they don't fight you. So I'm going to go through a few instances of the different seasons now.

So if you know your seasons, to give you an idea of the kind of colours that you're after, now, not every colour is in a season. If you're in summers in particular, a cool summer, yes, you can where a red not as bright and bold as in winter. You could potentially borrow one from cool winter. But we're more your pinky kind of reds, your pinky corals. In particular, if you are a light summer, you're looking for a watermelon. And I would actually say for the majority of summers, you're looking for like that watermelon kind of color or a coral kind of color. A red is going to be too intense for us. And then that's when you start to see the color before you actually see the person. And you want to see the person first.

In terms of a green, again, it's that kind of ocean kind of green or sometimes like that jade kind of green, but it's not bright and intense. It's not like an aqua that kind of that you would find in winters. It's dialed down. It's softer. It's muted. It's had more white mixed into it. So it's not dark. It's a lighter colored green. You could even have a bit like of a mint kind of green in there, like a seafone kind of color as well. So definitely not what you would classify as a traditional green. But that's the kind of green that I would wear. if I was wanting to wear green on Christmas Day because the traditional green, A, does nothing for me and it's just too warm. If I then borrowed the greens from winter, they're going to be

too bold and intense on me. So it is a bit of that balancing act. So moving into winters, you've got your really beautiful raspberry reds, especially like you've got a bright red in bright winter and then you've got the bright greens as well. But again, like think ocean kind of green. It's got a bit that blue mixed into that green so that it's not warm. warm toned. When you get into deep winter, it alters slightly, as you would imagine, because deep winter, they're deeper, they're richer, they're more intense. They've had black mixed into them. So your red becomes more like a burgundy, like a really deep, intense red. And there's obviously lots of burgundies that have been around all year round and still in stores at the moment. And then you're

green. It's a deep, deep, dark forest green that's had black mixed into it to make it cool toned. And then you can also think of like a teal. That's where sort of that green, teal starts to come into it if you're in the deeps on the flip side if you are a deep autumn for example your green is still a deep forest green but your red has a bit more rust in it so it's warmer it's got sort of that orangy base starting to come through so it's not going to wash you out if you potentially wore one of the ones from winter they're going to be too bright for you but also they're cool tones that they're going to wash you out if you have a red that's got a bit of warmth to it underneath, then that's what you're looking for. Now, I know that a lot of people like,

how on earth do I decide if something is warm or cool toned? If you're in a store and you can put two reds together, that's really helpful. You're looking at the intensity. You're looking at the brightness. And then you're looking, can I see tomato or rust? That's for warm. Can I see like a burgundy or a raspberry? They're the two kinds of sides that I would be looking at to make it as simple as possible for you. When you go into, obviously we've talked about warm autumn, soft autumn, you do still get a red in there. It's very soft and light and muted. It is not bright whatsoever, whatsoever. So it's really been darred down by having some grey mixed into it. I don't want to use the word dull, but for somebody who was a bright, they would find that

colour quite dull for them, whereas on a soft, that kind of colour is perfect. Now, in terms of your greens, You have the really lovely like sage greens in soft autumn and they are perfect for you to wear because they're not overpowering, they're not too warm for you either, but they're not going to dominate you because obviously for a soft in particular, you're after more delicate, softer colours that work with you and your features rather than really fighting them because they're such a bright colour. So look for those sage greens rather than anything else. you can also, in all of the autumn in particular seasons, you're going to be looking that there can be olives as well.

Now, olive isn't a traditional Christmas green, but for some of these seasons, you're like, in particular, like the summers, green's not a traditional one anyway. It's finding the one that's right for you. So there's such a spectrum of colour out there. And I think this is when, in particular, when I have in person clients and we're going through it, and I'm doing the drapes, that they're so surprised.

at how subtle the changes are between some colours that make all the difference. And it can be a minute change of colour, but it can make all of the difference to you. So if you're not sure, grab a few greens from around a store. The best place to kind of do that would almost be like Kmart, Myers, DJs, where you have like a big variety of colours that you can choose from. Take a few reds, take a few greens, and then go into the changing room and try them. Now, don't forget, with that cool-toned green, you're looking for a bit of the ocean. That's the only way I can describe it, ocean dual-toned, because they're not your grass green,

they're not your tree green. Like I'm literally, I've got beautiful trees sitting outside my window. Every single green out there is warm-toned. A lot of the greens that you'll find in nature are warm-toned. So if you are cool-toned, think I don't want to be wearing anything that looks like the trees or the grass, something like that. And if that's what helps you, think about the ocean and how it starts to have that tinge towards green and then have a think of the jewels like jewel-toned green. And if you need to search it up, search up a jewel-toned green and it will come up and it will show you what that

looks like. As I've said before, do not go by names. I talk about this all the time in the colour collective and with my clients, do not go by names because if you go by names, you're going unfortunately to make mistakes and it won't be your fault. It's purely that like I remember once seeing a pistachio color and it was way off a pistachio. Like it was nothing like how I would describe a pistachio like flavored ice cream for example. But they called it that. And so if you go by the names like what one store calls pistachio and another store caused pistachio are totally different things. So like I know I've been using forest green and everything today, but you still need to have a think about that when you're actually in stores because what we have in our heads is that

particular colour may not have translated to what they think about that. So that's that's sort of a quick snapshot summary of what the reds and greens are like. But let's have a quick chat about metallics because I think they're super important too, especially because so many people like to wear them at Christmas, at holiday gatherings, at New Year's, things like that. Now, traditionally, and I'm talking more about clothing, I am not talking about accessories in terms of jewellery. It makes people quite nervous when they think I'm going to tell them they have to change all of their jewelry. No, you don't. But there are definitely some metallics that suit some people more than others.

So let's start with silver. Silver is a cool-toned metallic. Now, can all cool tones wear it? Not necessarily. And this is where I'm talking about in clothes. I am not talking about in jewelry. It is amazing in silver. Fantastic.

Silver can, though, from head to toe or in a top. Like say you're wearing a dress or a top and a skirt or pants and skirt. Sorry, pants and top. It can be a little harsh. Even on some cool tones, if you're in silver from head to toe, you may feel, especially if it's a bit more of like a bold kind of silver rather than a soft one. And yes, there are soft versus, you know, bold colors when it comes to metallics.

You can feel that it's a bit harsh on you, even if you are super, super cool toned. So just have a think about that. some alternatives that you can wear if you are cool-toned but silver is not your thing or you think it's a bit too harsh on you there are two colors that i recommend one is a rose gold a really really beautiful soft rose gold not a warm one you will be able if it starts to go really bronze then you're heading warm a rose gold is just a super soft subtle rose gold then you can also do what i like to call a champagne gold. A champagne gold is not like a yellow gold. A champagne gold, you can type it into Google and have a look. It's much softer. It literally is like a glass of champagne. And if you're

looking at a glass of champagne, it has a very subtle hint of color to it. It is not like one of those rich, like, chardonnay wines, which is really yellow based, like if you're thinking it in terms of like that. A champagne color, I find, is quite a universal metallic. for everyone to wear. I wear it quite a bit because I find that it's less harsh on me than silver when it comes to clothing. I do also wear it sometimes like in shoes, I'm sorry, or accessories. But it's really lovely. It's delicate. It's not overpowering. And it's because it's softer. That's the reason why. And even though it is a softer colour, does that mean that winters can't wear it? No, not at all. They absolutely can. Now, when you move from a champagne

gold into more of a pewter. We were talking again about this on the color collective call last week because someone showed me a pair, I wanted to say it was a pair of shoes that she bought from Frankie four. And we were online and I was going through things with them and they were asking me my advice. And there was a pair of pewter. It was so cool toned, like really cool toned. Wasn't a silver, wasn't far off, but it was very much a pewter kind of color. If you're cool toned, a pewter is going to look really lovely on you. It's not necessarily as harsh as a silver, but it's that one step up from it before you start going into like your champagne golds. Champagne gold, as I mentioned, I think is a very universal

metallic to wear. Then from there, we've talked about rose gold slightly. The warmer, the rose gold, you're going more into bronze. If it's bronze, then that's warm tones. So for warm tones, that's a really beautiful for them to wear in particular for autum's to wear because bronze is very much like an earthy-based colour anyway. So that's where you would preferably want to be. A bronze is a really, really lovely metallic to wear if you're warm-toned. And then you have like a yellow gold. Now there are definitely variations of yellow gold. But if you think of the yellowest of the yellow gold, that's for your warm autumn and that's for your warm spring. That's really, really like an intense, rich super warm. Like there's so,

much yellow in that gold. So they're sort of the varying shades of metallics that are out there. And the majority of them, there's so many that you can go for. When it comes to like sequin-based things as well, I generally find you'll find the green, you will find or like a teal. There can be like a sapphire blue, sapphire blue, 100% cool toned. Sometimes you can find like a fuchsia pink in there as well. I'm thinking of like, online when I see skirts and tops and then occasionally you can then find a red as well but you need to have a look at that red to see whether you think it's warm or cool I know I've given a lot of information today but my main thing when you're looking at this if you are not sure if you don't

know your colours do the white versus cream test I've talked about that so many times do the white versus cream test and see which one you think might work for you if you really can't determine it from the white versus cream test then do something like a navy versus orange that also is a really great benchmark to see cool tone versus warm and see how your skin reacts to those colours. Do you start to go more orange? Do you get washed out by the navy? Does one make you have a natural sort of pink flush or does one make you look more tanned? All those kinds of things. Now, if you're interested to know more about how to do that, I do have a free guide, which will be in the show notes. But if you want to go to it now, it's Lovingcolor.a.u forward slash find my colors. And that's a free

guide where I talk you step by step, how to determine if you're warm and cool and then even start to determine what your colour palette might be. But yeah, that's an overview of all of the different shades of reds and greens. And it really can, like so many years, I used to, before I knew my colours, I used to try and wear the traditional red because I thought that A, that's what I should be wearing because that's what everybody wears. Well, it doesn't work for me. I still haven't found a dress in my particular watermelon, like pinky red that I would. like to wear. I might have to actually just once I've learned how to so. I might have to actually make something for myself. But that's the kind of colour that I would be looking for if I was

wanting to wear a red. But I promise you it makes such a difference because generally when we buy these things, they only get worn once or twice a year like on Christmas if you're going for a specific colour. But if you choose a colour within your colour palette, you're going to wear it again and again and again throughout the year so that it's not just a one and done day dressed. And I think where we're going with fashion and style, everybody wants to get longevity out of our clothes. Nobody wants to buy something that you wear once and then never wear again. So that's what I would recommend. As always, if you have any questions, just send me an email to Ashley at Lovingcolor.org or hop on over to Lovingcolor double underscore color is spelled with you over on

Instagram. I am always up for a chat. And if you are looking for a gift for someone that has everything or they're a little bit difficult to buy for. I have launched in time for Christmas a brand new $150 colour analysis package. In that colour analysis, you get a virtual colour analysis. You get the full colour analysis done by me. Then you get 30 colours within your primary palette, 90 colours within your sister palettes and personalised shopping and makeup recommendations based on your palette too. It is a fabulous deal. And I think it literally is the perfect Christmas present either for yourself or for someone else in your life. life too. So if you're interested in that, go to Lovingcolor.aU forward slash color analysis and you can either

pop in the notes if it's a gift for someone and I can give you a gift certificate for them or if it's for you, why not gift yourself a gift certificate under the tree or even give it as a hint to someone like Nudge Nudge, this is what I want for Christmas. I would like to know my colors. And the best bit is, this is the kind of gift that it's not just the gift that keeps on giving all year round. It keeps on giving forever. Because once you know your colors, It just goes with you throughout the rest of your life, which is just phenomenal. And I love it, as always. You know what I am with colour.

It's everything to me, like I talked about at the beginning of this show, and I just think it truly does make the world a better place. Take care of yourselves. I hope you are all okay. And I will catch you next week, or the week after, actually, because the next week will be Christmas. I will catch you the week after for our final episode of 2026. And then I have, 2026.

Oh my gosh. I'm already in next year. And then what I was about to say is I have a fantastic plan for podcast episodes for next year. So I hope you can continue to join me then. Take care, everyone. Look after yourself, sending much love to you all. And I will catch you in next week's, or the week after I should say, episode. Bye.

You're going to be able to be. Thank you.