Life in Colour - 28: The 5 Biggest Mistakes Women Make When Trying to Figure Out Their Colours at Home

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

🌟 THE TRUTH? It's not you. These mistakes are normal and totally fixable.Trying to figure out your colours at home can feel tricky and honestly, most women make the same mistakes.Here are the top 5:1️⃣ You can’t see a difference between warm and cool… and you feel like you should.2️⃣ You test colours that are all from the same palette, no wonder it all looks the same.3️⃣ You’re scared you’ll get a palette you don’t want, so you avoid testing some colours…3️⃣ (again!) You take photos at night with no natural light totally hides the truth.4️⃣ You wear your usual tan or makeup because that’s “just what you do” but it really changes how the colours look.5️⃣ You think you should DIY it perfectly seeing undertones clearly isn’t easy without the right tools.The truth? It’s not you. These mistakes are normal and totally fixable.💡 When you know your exact palette, everything clicks: shopping is easier, your wardrobe feels like you, and your face truly lights up. But most importantly you are able to see with my help which colours actually suit you and which ones don’t and WHY!Want to take the guesswork out of colour? My virtual colour analysis shows you exactly which shades suit you with no stress, no second guessing.

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 palette, 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 colorful hues. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and let's add some color to this adventure that we call Life in Color.

Hey everyone, I hope you are doing good. I hope you're having a great week so far. If you're anything like me, you've been watching the Winter Olympics. I've been mesmerized by the figure skating. I absolutely always love the figure skating. And of course, I already had my alarm set so that I can get up and watch Scotty James compete as well. Like, I don't know if any of you watched the documentary on Netflix with him.

If you haven't, I highly recommend it. It's also a great one to watch with kids. There is some language in it, just letting you know. But it's a really inspiring story and, yeah, highly, highly recommend it. That has got nothing to do with what we're talking about today. But I just thought I give you a quick life update of what I have been up to. So, yeah, that's what I've been up to. And enjoying the summer weather, like, you know me, I absolutely love a warm summer's day.

And today it's going up to 30. and I just love this weather. I come alive in it. Anyway, I digress. Today's episode is all about the five biggest mistakes that you are making when you're trying to figure out your colours at home. And I did this as an Instagram post and I had a lot of messages from people actually saying or from women saying, oh yeah, I've tried that but it didn't quite work, but I didn't know why. So I actually thought that's why I would go through and do a podcast episode on this to go a little bit more in-depth because it can be really hard trying to figure out your colours at home. And I'm not just just saying that obviously because I do this, you know, for a job and I can help you with that.

It's more to the fact of how confusing it can get. And I totally understand that because there's a lot of information out there. Obviously, you can even get like AI to do it for you. But it doesn't necessarily take into account all of the nuances of how you react to colour. It might be like you're blonde and blue eyed, therefore you're a summer. Your blonde and green eyes, therefore you're like an autumn. Winters can't have blonde hair. If you're a redhead, you must be warm toned. There's all of these things that kind of can get really confusing when you read about it online and when you're trying to figure out your colours at home as well. And obviously, I know that in other episodes I've given you some tips. I'll give some more tips at the end of this one.

But the main thing I wanted to go through is the things of not to do. Because I think that those, when you know what not to do, they're where you can then start to see, this is how I respond to this color, or this is what I do. Or I'm not really sure or the lighting's not correct. So let's get into it. and yes, these really do happen. You know, you might be like, no, people don't do that. Yeah, they do. And I know that because they've told me. So the first thing is so common.

And a lot of women, a lot of my clients have had this issue. And even once they know their colours, sometimes it can still be a bit of a struggle to determine whether a colour is warm or cool. And I have talked about that on previous episodes too. So the number one thing is that you can't see a difference between. warm and cool and you feel like you should. But honestly, when you're doing it alone, everything can just look the same and that's totally normal. I don't want you beating yourself up about that because so many people have trouble with warm and cool. It's, you know, I do this for a living. I look at color every

single day. And for those of you that do follow me on Instagram, you know that I do because I did some random stories last week, literally with like kitchen things of the egg carton, the cupcake case, all of these kinds of things of what the colours are. And that actually, I'll say that the end, that is something that to understand colour palettes and even your colours and determining your colours, understanding colour as a whole is really, really important. But with warm and cool, it can be really, really tricky.

So I don't want you to start, if you're doing a warm and cool test at home, I don't necessarily want you to start with two of the same colours. I want you to start with different colours. And I might be a bit controversial by saying that, But whereas I can see a different, say in blues, I can see whether one is warm or whether one is cool. You just might see blue and think, well, blue is blue, therefore it's cool toned. And as we've talked about before, colors have varying shades.

And within those shades, you might have some black in that blue. You might have some grey in that blue. You might have some yellow in that blue. You might even have a bit of like red coming through that blue. There's all of these different colours, like, you know, think of an artist's colour palette and when they're mixing colour. that can really change it. But for you when you're looking at it, you're like, blue is blue. So I always start and say go for the warm versus cool as in white versus cream. Because everybody can distinguish a crisp hospital white compared to a cream.

Now, a cream obviously is a lot more warm toned. It's got a lot more of that yellow base into it. White doesn't have that. And there are so many items I have no doubt around your house that you can test this with. It doesn't have to be clothing in your wardrobe. I'd say the majority of people would have a white t-shirt. If they don't, you've got a kid that's got like school uniform or a partner that's got like a shirt or there will be something.

Cream can sometimes be a little bit more tricky if you don't wear it. So again, look around your house, look at book covers, look at cushions, look at tea towels, look at towels in general, look at anything, look at furniture, which obviously I know it's hard to take a photo with furniture, but I'm just trying to get you to look at the colours. once you've got that, then you could maybe go to Spotlight and see if there's a random piece of like cream fabric or even just pick up some cream fabric. And you'll be able to see like when you go into Spotlight,

it's actually really helpful because you can see all the varying shades. And I know it can be a little bit overwhelming, but especially with white and cream, you'll be able to differentiate between the two because it really is that obvious. And when you hold up those colors, that's where I want you to look in good lighting. I want you to look at how the white is affecting you, head to how the cream is affecting you. So don't feel, don't, don't, you know, beat yourself up about the fact that you don't can't see the difference or that you don't know the difference between warm and cool. Obviously, cool toned colors are a lot more icy. They do have more of a blue base. They are not, your pastels, your dual colors. They do have, like I've mentioned,

that iciness to them. There is no hint. You would never call a cool color earthy. If you can see a bit of earthiness in a color, I would guarantee you that that is like a warm toned color. But like we've talked about before, obviously with chocolates and everything like that, that's, you've got warm and cool in a chocolate kind of color or a brown color, I should say. But I don't want you to start there. If you really have no idea with warm and cool, I want you to start by looking at a white versus a cream, or I want you to look at a navy versus a brown, or I want you to look at like a baby pink versus say like a really coral colour. That's what I want you to look at.

Okay, moving on to number two. Number two is that you grab all of the colours from your wardrobe and you test them. The thing is you might be testing colours that are all from the same colour palette without even realising it. And of course you won't see a shift because everything, for example, in your wardrobe might be a soft summer. And so therefore it's actually impossible to see a difference and to see what colour palette you might be if you are literally testing all of the same colours.

I can see this a lot when I do a virtual colour analysis in particular because clients send in their photos to me and I give examples and ideas of colours that I would like. But I just sort of give free rein and I get them to send in as many colours as possible to make it as easy as possible for them. But there are a number of occasions where when I do a second round request, I'm requesting very specific but very different colours. And the reason for that is, is because obviously, naturally, they have gravitated themselves to colours, whether that be, say, soft summer, because they've been told before that that suits them or they've tried to figure it out before. And so they've sort of bought a whole wardrobe in that colour palette.

Or it could be that when they were younger, they're a redhead and they were told that they should always wear those autumnal kind of colours and so that's what they go for. It can also be that they particularly love those kinds of colours. colors and so that's what they choose to wear. Whether they think, no, whatever suits them, that's what they actually go for and they gravitate towards. So there's a number of reasons why that can happen where you've naturally kind of gravitated towards a particular colour set yourself. So I highly recommend when you're doing that and you aren't then moving into the next phase of trying to test different colours, I need you to go around your house and get different colours and you can get different colours from your kids' wardrobes. You can get different colours from paper, from notebooks,

from tea towels, from kids' toys, books, you name it. But I really want you to have a variety of colour because it is so important. I want you to test that bright, bold red. I want you to be thinking about the cool-toned pink, like a really like movey kind of pink. I want you to test deep kind of colours. I want you to test bright colours. I want you to throw like a yellow or an orange in there. orange is fantastic because orange is a very, very warm, toned colour. So then instantly you can start to see a difference between warm and cool. I want you to do some softer colours. Like, I really want you to go outside the box and try and grab as many different colours as possible and test that when you're doing it. And don't just use your own wardrobe because without realizing

it subconsciously, you may have already been dressing yourself in a particular colour palette without even knowing it. Okay, number three, you're scared you'll get a palette you don't want, and so you avoid testing those colours altogether for yourself. And you think, no, I'm not going there. Say, for example, you like to wear the really earthy colours that we've just been talking about. The thought of being a light summer gives you the hebi-jeebies. And it gives you the hebi-jibis because you're like, I do not want to be that colour palette. Like no way, Jose. I am not doing that. I am never going to wear it even if I get it.

And so you avoid testing it. The problem with that is that A, you could actually be missing out on the colors that bring you to life. The thing is, once you know your colour palette, it doesn't mean that you have to wear it. It doesn't mean that you are bound by these strict rules and forever for the rest of your life, you have to wear those colors. No, you get to choose what you wear. But if you want to know your color palette, then you have to do this properly and you have to test everything. It's like saying to a child who, you know, when they're really little, you want them to try all different kinds of sports, for example, to see what they like because you never know, play the tennis. You might really enjoy it.

You won't know till you try. You won't know till you try that food. All those kinds of things. So that's why I highly recommend that you test the colours. Even if you detest them, hate them, don't like them, I want you to test them. because you never know, because you could be sticking, keeping yourself and sticking yourself to safe, which is actually what's keeping you stuck. It's not necessarily that you're going to suddenly start wearing those colours in that palette if that's what you turn out to be. It's more for

the fact that you can see how you respond to that colour, how your facial features respond to that colour, how your hair reacts to that colour. You want to have that. You want to have all of that data because doing colour analysis, it is all about that kind of data and it's having that knowledge. that knowledge then becomes power. So I want you to use that. So don't avoid them. Even if you're scared, you're going to get that colour palette. Because let's face it, even if you did end up being that colour palette, it's up to you to choose whether you want to wear it or not. But if you're going to do it, you should do it properly. Okay. Number four, you take photos at night with no natural light. That is the worst thing that you can possibly do when it comes to trying to figure out your colours

because lighting can do wild things to your skin. And there's no way to see. what is actually reflecting really beautifully onto your skin, what isn't working for you, all of those kinds of things. Taking your photos at night or in bad lighting is a no-no. So I'm going to take you through now what I would recommend for you to do instead. Okay, so when it comes to lighting, the things that I do want you to do, I want you to be in front of a window, and I mean facing to the window. I don't want you side on.

I don't want it where you've got your shoulders pointing at the window. I want you facing directly in front of the window. Now, if it's direct sunlight, you don't necessarily want that either. You need it to be at a time either when, if it's a really sunny day, that it's not pouring straight into that window, because then if you've got sun streaming on, then that can give like a fake kind of warps to your skin, but also it can create some shadows.

Likewise, if it's a really dark day, maybe do it on another day because I'm wanting you to take photos. So if you're testing this yourself, you have to take photos so that you can go back and have a look. That is one of the key things to doing this to finding your own colours at home. But the other thing that I would say is that in terms of lighting, you want it to be as natural as possible because you're not altering anything. So by having artificial light or by having, you know, shadows or by having light at night,

it completely changes your complexion. And if you think about when you're doing your makeup in a bathroom and a hotel, for example, and you go in and you think, oh my God, I can't see anything. And so you like, you put the overhead light on and you get a bit of shadows or the lighting's excessively bright or excessively like cool toned. Like, it's like that real white kind of light. You want to put your makeup on and you're standing there and you're like, well, actually, I'm not quite sure am I putting on too much? Am I putting on enough? And then you go outside and you go into natural light and you're like, oh,

my God, like seriously, what did I just do in there? And it's because the lighting is not right for you. It's that thing, like on the block when I used to watch the block. It was Shane a Blaze was always so big and so on it to do with the lighting in the bathrooms because my dressing table in my bedroom, I don't use it because it's literally in the worst possible place in my room and it's the darkest and I can never actually see anything properly. It doesn't matter what time of day it is. It's in the corner. It's away from natural light. Whereas actually in my office where I'm sitting right now. I'm sitting in front of a window. This was where I actually have started doing my makeup in here because the lighting is so much better. So lighting is key. If you have

the wrong lighting that can severely affect your results when it comes to color analysis. And I really don't want that to happen for you because if you're putting in all of this effort to try and figure out your colours at home, you want to do the right best thing by yourself because you're not going to help at all by taking photos, taking all these photos, and then you go and look at them and you're like, I actually can't distinguish anything. You should be able to start to see a difference. Okay, moving on to number five, you wear your usual makeup or fake tan because that's just what you do. So you take your photos and you're analyzing them and you're looking at them, but you've got fake tan on or you've got a full face of makeup on. That is not going to work. And I understand that it can be a

confronting and I've heard this a lot from clients who they would never take a photo without makeup on and I so honestly I really really respect them for the fact that they trust me so much to send me photos without makeup but the reason that I ask for that and obviously I'm the only one who sees them the reason that I do that is because I cannot I cannot get a proper result if you've got makeup on other color analysis people may say that that is fine but at It's not. And it's not. And I know I might be being a bit controversial here, and especially with fake tan, too, you are altering what I can see, like, when I do your colours for you. So if you put on foundation, you can put on a different colour. You can completely change the colour of your skin by doing that.

Likewise, with a tan, obviously a tan is going to give you sort of a natural kind of warmth to it generally. So some people might be classified as warm toned when they're not. It has a massive, massive impact. you have to take the photos of yourself with no fake tan and no makeup. If you wear glasses, absolutely, you can still wear your glasses. I have glasses. I do recommend taking some photos with your hair pulled back. If you've got short hair, obviously I've realized that you can't do that or putting a headband in it maybe when it's a little bit shorter. But I highly recommend that purely because on the first round that I do, I'm not looking at your hair color.

Not at all. When I get my first round of photos, I am looking at how the colour, how it reflects on you and how you are reacting to the colour. The things that you're looking for when you're taking these photos of yourself are do your lips go a bit more blue? Do your under eyes become a bit darker? Does your skin like have that natural kind of flush to it that it would if you had a blush on? Does it look a little bit muddy, like a little bit sallowy, a little bit yellow, like a tinge of green? Like if you're feeling a bit sick, you know, when people can go a bit green. or do you even go like a little bit grey with a colour that you put on like,

do you literally go like white as a sheet and nothing has changed? These are all the things that you're looking for when you're trying to determine your colours at home. Because these are such common mistakes. Honestly, they're so easy to make. And if, you know, this is what I do for a living. It's not being judgy at all. I'm trying to just help you as best as possible. But I just want to make sure that you know these things because it can be really

confusing trying to find your colours at home. And if you've been struggling, I would say one, if not some or if not all of these are the reason that you've been struggling. So give this a go, the tips that I've mentioned to you. I was going to keep them to the end, but I've realized I've actually given you the tips as I've gone along. But definitely reach out. Send me a DM. If you're not sure, if you've got a quick question, I would absolutely love to help you. And if you've been trying for a while and you are just going round in circles and you're just not sure, but you would love to know your colours, especially, you know, start of the year, why not know your colours for the year? And then that sets you up forever, like literally forever. Why not book in and have a virtual

colour analysis of me on a colour analysis that includes all of your colour analysis. It's done for you. You get 30 colours in your primary palette. You get 90 colours in your sister palettes. And then you get personalised shopping and makeup recommendations to you. They're doing. They're different for everybody. I make sure that they are highly personalized so that you can hit the ground running when using your colours once you know them. So if you are after knowing your colours, a $150 colour analysis is on my website at lovingcollar.aU forward slash color analysis. But I hope this has been helpful. I hope you've really enjoyed it. And if you want to, I'll link the Instagram post actually to this because I will put that in so that you can reference

that if you want to make notes on what the five things are of what you need to do. and try and turn it into a blog post actually. So then there's a little bit more detail in there for you as well. If not, take care. Have a great day. Most of your day, whatever you are doing. And I will catch up with you next week. Thanks so much.

Bye.