If you’re still on the fence about having your colours done, you might be reassured by those words from one of my lovely Colour Analysis clients.

Maybe you’re worried that you’ll be told to wear a limited selection of colours and have to give up your favourite shades when you have a colour analysis? Maybe you’re concerned that I’ll tell you to throw out most of your wardrobe?

I won’t, and most people are surprised at how many colours are in their swatch wallets. Having your colours done doesn’t mean a wardrobe full of new clothes. It’s about working with what you already have so I’ll give you tips on how to rescue clothes that aren’t in your best colours.

If you’ve taken the plunge and had your Colour Analysis, you’ll have your special wallet of coloured fabric swatches. What you do now is entirely up to you. You could put the wallet in a drawer and forget about it or you could gaze lovingly at it for several hours as I did, but your wallet is a treasure trove of information, so here are my tips on how to use it.

  • Check out the useful info on how to wear your colours on the printed card in your wallet.
  • The swatches in your wallet are a selection of the colours that will complement your colouring. At first you might want to match garments exactly to your swatches, but you can also choose shades that are in-between the swatch colours. A garment that ‘sinks into’ the swatches is within your palette, but if the swatches ‘stand off’ the garment you might want to give it a miss!
  • Look for a small (n) against some of the swatches. These colours are the useful shades that can be real workhorses in your wardrobe as they’ll mix easily with many of your other colours and most of them will also work well with each other for maximum wardrobe versatility. Think coats, jackets and trousers!
  • Your wallet will help you choose your nail polish and makeup shades too.

Last but not least, your wallet is a tool to help you, not a set of rules that can never be broken. So if you love a colour and it’s not in your wallet, just make sure to team it with one of your best colours and keep it away from your face.