My mom’s entire wardrobe would fill a single suitcase and the makeup that most women travel with to work is more than my mom actually owns.  So when my dad asked if he could treat her to my smaller size custom color palette (my FLIRT palette) so she that she could use the colors as a guide to buy some new lipstick for her 70th birthday party dinner, I thought, “Nooooooooo!” *insert giddy laughter* ,”We have to do the WHOLE palette!”  (You can read about my different custom color packages here.)

WHEN WE STARTED….

While my dad’s goal for my mom might have been new lipstick, my goal was a makeover.  Here’s why: my mom’s hair was dyed and the color needed work (see right).  I figured that if I had enough time to show her how the warmth of her hair was confusing her overall look and therefore her color palette, she’d get her hair color corrected.  Happily, my plan worked.

When hair is not harmoniously dyed, creating a temporary palette for a person is an option and that’s what I started to do for my mom but fixing the color is better as then you’re not compensating for color that is off.  (To see why hair color affects a custom palette, see this largely pictorial blog post which involves Elmo and imaginary friends.)

My mom is holding the part of her custom palette that was certain  – the part of her palette that is known as her “body colors.”  From left to right she’s holding her skin tone swatches; her natural blush tones;  her eye colors swatches, and then her hair color-to-be swatches that I’d chosen (to take to the salon).  As she  went off to call a new hair dresser, I decided to purchase some lipstick.

My mom won’t wear lipstick if it isn’t EXTREMELY moisturizing so I wanted to get her Silk Naturals brand.  (See their selection here.)  With just her skin and blush tone swatches in front of me, I opened my laptop.   Note: Silk Naturals has excellent swatch photos on their site or there’s absolutely no way I’d have done this.  (And, not that I’ve ever used it, but they also have an excellent return policy.)  

I wanted to get my mom a nude, a pink and a red  lipstick –  for my mother who has never owned three lipsticks at once!   It was imperative that I found colors that connected with both her skin tones AND her blush tones.  You can see  below that my choices (Birthday Suit, Eternal and Reddy)  mesh beautifully in this regard.  Actually put on my mom,  these lipsticks look more pink/red. The lipsticks arrived just in time and – success!  – each of them was fabulous.  My mom’s hair was dyed…and then we went back to creating her palette. Here, with her custom palette just completed, she is wearing her pink lipstick, Eternal, and holding the same “body colors” from earlier.  Isn’t she looking gorgeous? Ok, aside from the nail polish she had on not jiving.

I bought her a couple of new tops on ebay and here she is wearing one of them with Silk Natural’s lipstick Birthday Suit, the nude lippie that she’s taken to wearing most of the time. And here she is wearing Reddy and the other top I got her (with sequins that reflect the colors in her palette): In general, using your custom color palette to buy makeup is as simple as matching your fabric swatches directly to makeup and/or finding makeup in colors that fall between your skin tones and your swatches. For example, here are three of my blushes next to my palette.  You can see that Desert Plum (in the middle) and Pretty Plum (far right) are exact matches and that the blush on the far left, Lady, falls between the pink to its left and my lightest skin tone swatch to its right. Another example: my most used Silk Naturals lipsticks, Fashionista, Rapturous and Sultry, are swatched below on paper next to my blush colors and skin tones. You can see how they visually make sense with these strips of swatches. Then, my favorite eyeshadows, Mohave and Prowl,  lie happily between my skin tones and my dark brown swatches (which are actually my hair color swatches). Sooooooo, if YOU need a makeover, where better to start than with a Custom Color Palette from Beauty Valued?  (It can be done in person or online from LOTS of photographs.)  And if you buy from Silk Naturals, be sure to look at the photos of the swatched make up, not just their color indicator “dots”.

Notes come with a palette and include further details on makeup selection and how to assess current and potential clothing.  Plus, there is also customized info regarding personal style.  (For a fun example of accompanying notes -minus makeup info, as it’s for Elmo – read this post.)  

And if you want to know tips for buying clothes on ebay, keep reading. My previous blog post is about just that!