Color Analysis – The Amazing Darin Wright of Elea Blake – Part I

I love makeup, earrings, my collection of dresses and high heels I shouldn’t wear… and over the years, I admit to making purchases that I thought were fabulous for me, but may have lacked that special something.  I trust that we all have a basic sense of what looks good on us, but an objective voice is something every gal could use.  Believe me, and I know you’ve seen it too, wanting to let that lovely lady know that baby blue eyeshadow and that shade of fire engine red lipstick doesn’t work for her.

My True Autumn Makeup Kit

I was fortunate enough to be the recipient of a wonderful gift from Darin Wright, owner and color maven of Elea Blake Cosmetic Studio, a full blown color analysis.  I’ve been told over the years by several cosmetic counter specialists which colors I could wear, but never have been through such a thorough evaluation, as I had at Elea Blake.  Which means, I have spent a lot of $$$ purchasing makeup and sometimes clothes that did not enhance my natural colorings.  Often times, that makeup took up valuable real estate in my bathroom, but I hated to throw it away, I mean, I paid for it.

In comes the fabulous “D. Wright-geous” (Darin, I just gave you a nickname) to save the day.  The color analysis begins by arriving at the Elea Blake Cosmetic Studio sans makeup (gasp).   You are draped in a color neutralizing cape and hair cover so that the only influence of colors, are those that Darin begins draping you with.

Darin’s trained eye sees for the most part, what I can’t.  She can see how a particular color brightens my face, makes my face look dull, or accentuates the dark circles underneath the eyes (we don’t need that).  I’ll be honest, I couldn’t see most of those things.  Sometimes, you just need an expert!

My handy dandy color palette - it's ALWAYS in my purse.

Once we determined my season, I am a TRUE AUTUMN, the real fun begins with a professional makeup application with my perfect colors.  Buying makeup is so easy at Elea Blake, because everything is coordinated by season and once you know what season you are, bam!, you can pretty much grab and go with a selection and it is guaranteed to look fabulous on you!

One question, that came up for me, was my hair color.  Darin’s expertise is COLOR – not just makeup color.  So naturally, for me, the question I needed to have answered was, “is my hair color the best for me?”  In my youth, I was a natural blonde, which sadly began to fade away and require outside assistance in my late teens.  It was only 5 years ago that I stopped the blonde infusion and went R-E-D.  But I needed to know, was it the best?  Darin pulled out the hair color samples and we found what she knew would be the best compliment to my true autumn nature, a warm rather than cool color.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I returned to the studio with the new hair color – not only did Darin love it, the hubby is very fond of it, too.  I will be honest here and say that I received so many compliments with my hair color change paired with my new make-up, I was shocked and quite grateful.

Here’s a quick recap of the process, mind you, I hesitate to post anything without make-up!