Hi guys, I know this is the second time I am approaching colorimetry, but trust me, this topic can never be overemphasized.
If you are a make-up artist or enthusiast alike, there is no way in the world you would escape being a pro at colorimetry, else I am sorry to tell you, but you have been playing all this while. Take it from someone who was previously clueless but now more knowledgeable and killing it.
What is colourimetry?
Colorimetry is the use of the color wheel knowledge to ace foundation matches (tone and undertones). It sort of takes us back to some of our earliest memories of colour mixing for fine art; lovely memories!
The Color wheel is a very essential tool and guide to understanding colourimetry. It is made up of the primary, secondary and tertiary colors.
Let me make it loud again, understanding colourimetry and the colour theory is essential for all makeup artists.
The Color theory helps to understand important techniques such as those required for color correcting on a muse’s skin.
For example, if a muse has a ruddy complexion or perhaps red patches that need to be toned down, it is best to color correct using the color green over the red areas. This is because green is directly opposite red on the color wheel, so we know that it would definitely tone down the red.
In essence, colors opposite each other on the color wheel are expected to cancel each other out, for a neutral and more balanced undertone. Knowing this, would definitely help to tweak foundations into giving the perfect undertones suitable for your muse/client.
Simply put,
Blue cancels orange and orange cancels blue
Green cancels red and red cancels green
Yellow cancels purple and purple cancels yellow
On the color wheel, the primary colors Include red, yellow and blue.
When two primary colors are mixed, it creates a secondary color. The secondary colors are orange, green and violet(purple). They are made by mixing equal amounts of two of the primary colors.
- When red and yellow are mixed together it makes orange
- Yellow and blue mixed together make green
- Likewise, blue and red combined, make purple.
Taking it a step further,
When all three primary colors are mixed together, they form the colour brown.
Therefore, different shades of brown can be made by mixing the primary colours in varying proportions. Guys, this is the actual key to making all foundation shades!
Complementary Colours
These are colors that are opposite each other on the colour wheel and as earlier mentioned they cancel one another in equal proportions.
For example, blue and orange are opposite each other and, therefore, are complementary. When placed next to each other, complementary colours create a strong and vibrant contrast. For example, blue and orange side by side creates a strong contrast.
When mixed in equal proportions, they cancel each other out producing grey. So, to cancel out a blue color and make it grey, you would need to mix an equal amount of orange into it.
Don’t forget that complementary colors are also used in makeup for color correction. For example, use a touch of green to neutralize red areas or patches. However, use too much and the result will be too dull and greying.
Tint; This is simply a color plus white. It makes whatever color you wish to tint lighter. White would lighten any foundation shade.
Shade; This is a colour plus black. It makes your intended color darker and intensified. Adding black to a foundation shade would darken it.
NB: However, please note that for light skinned foundations, it is better to darken with a brown colour and not black else you would have an ashy result.
Like wise for a medium/dark skin foundations, it is better to lighten/tint with yellow instead of white.
Undertones
I would only brush briefly on this as I have actually expantiated on this topic in a previous make up post whose link can be found below
PICKING THE RIGHT FOUNDATION 11
Basically we have three types of undertones namely:
NEUTRAL UNDERTONES– a mixture of green, red and yellow undertones
COOL UNDERTONES– pink and blue undertones
WARM UNDERTONES– yellow and golden undertones and sometimes green(olive)
I hope you have been able to grab this golden colorimetry knowledge. Trust me, it is a game changing step in your make up journey. The important thing is to understand and practice color mixing with foundations as much as possible.
