Three-step colour analysis, at home.

Some colours make you look like yourself, only sharper. Others make you look tired. Most people know this intuitively — they just don't know why. The Sci/ART method, formalised by Kathryn Kalisz in the 1980s, gives the why and the how. This is a stripped-down version you can run at home in twenty minutes.

Why colour analysis

The fashion industry sells colour by trend. Last year's mocha mousse, this year's butter yellow. Both will sit in your wardrobe, unworn, if they fight your skin. Colour analysis flips the question: instead of asking what colours are in, it asks what colours work on you — and then sticks with the answer for life. Your undertones don't change with the seasons.

The pay-off is practical. A wardrobe built around your palette photographs better, mixes better, and shrinks. You stop owning three jumpers in shades that almost work. You start owning one that genuinely does.

The three dimensions

Sci/ART measures three properties of your natural colouring — skin, hair, eyes considered together — on a sliding scale.

Undertone — Warm or Cool

Warm skin has a yellow, peach or golden cast. Cool skin has a pink, red or blue cast. This is the most-talked-about dimension and also the easiest to misread, because high-street lighting flatters everyone toward neutral.

Value — Light or Deep

How dark is your colouring overall? A blonde with grey eyes is light-value. A brunette with brown eyes is deep-value. Most people sit somewhere in the middle — that's fine; the value test sorts the edges.

Chroma — Soft or Bright

How saturated does your colouring read? Eyes with flecks, hair with dimensional highlights, freckled skin — that's soft chroma. Solid block colour with high contrast — that's bright chroma. Mixed is common; the dominant note wins.

The three tests

Run all three. They cross-check each other. If two agree and one doesn't, trust the two — the disagreeing test is usually fooled by environment.

Test 1 — The vein test (undertone)

1. Stand by a window with natural daylight. Not direct sun, not artificial light. A north-facing window is ideal.
2. Turn your wrist over. Look at the veins on the underside.
3. Blue or purple veins suggest a cool undertone.
4. Green or olive veins suggest a warm undertone.
5. A mix — bluish-green, hard to call — suggests a neutral undertone.

Test 2 — The jewellery test (undertone, confirmation)

1. Hold a piece of silver jewellery and a piece of gold jewellery against your bare wrist or neck, in the same daylight as before.
2. Silver flatters. The skin looks even, the hand looks well. You're cool.
3. Gold flatters. Skin warms up, looks healthier. You're warm.
4. Both work equally. You're neutral, and you can shop both.

Test 3 — The fabric test (value and chroma)

1. Drape your shoulders with a clean white sheet so the only colour against your face is the fabric you're testing. No make-up.
2. Hold up squares of fabric one at a time — pure white, ivory, soft grey, charcoal, deep navy, bright red, dusty rose, mustard, sage. Cheap fabric scraps will do; even coloured paper works in a pinch.
3. For each, ask one question: does my face come forward, or does the fabric? The fabric that works is the one your face wins against.
4. Pure white that flatters → cool, bright.
5. Ivory that flatters → warm.
6. Light, soft tones (dusty rose, sage, oat) that flatter → soft chroma.
7. Deep, saturated tones (true red, royal blue) that flatter → bright chroma.

The twelve seasons

Cross-reference your three results and you'll land in one of twelve seasons. The four classic seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) each have three sub-types — bright, true, and soft — that map to chroma. Here's the shorthand we use in the app.

Spring (warm + bright)

• Bright Spring. Warm undertone, light-to-medium value, high chroma. Think: clear coral, fresh yellow-green, bright turquoise.
• True Spring. Warm undertone, medium value, balanced chroma. Camel, peach, warm red, periwinkle.
• Light Spring. Warm undertone, light value, soft chroma. Buttery yellow, dusty peach, mint.

Summer (cool + soft)

• Light Summer. Cool undertone, light value, soft chroma. Powder pink, pale lavender, sky blue, soft grey.
• True Summer. Cool undertone, medium value, balanced chroma. Dusty rose, sage, navy, mauve.
• Soft Summer. Neutral-cool undertone, medium value, low chroma. Slate, taupe, plum, muted teal.

Autumn (warm + soft)

• Soft Autumn. Neutral-warm undertone, medium value, low chroma. Camel, terracotta, olive, dusty mustard.
• True Autumn. Warm undertone, medium-deep value, balanced chroma. Burnt orange, forest green, rust, deep teal.
• Deep Autumn. Warm undertone, deep value, balanced chroma. Espresso, oxblood, mossy black, ochre.

Winter (cool + bright)

• Deep Winter. Cool undertone, deep value, balanced chroma. True black, ice white, deep emerald, royal purple.
• True Winter. Cool undertone, medium-deep value, high chroma. Pure white, true red, sapphire, magenta.
• Bright Winter. Cool undertone, medium value, very high chroma. Hot pink, electric blue, lime, true black.

Building your palette

Once you know your season, the wardrobe rule is simple: choose seven to ten colours that sit clearly inside your season's range, and let those be the working palette of every garment you bring in for the next year.

A balanced personal palette has roughly:

• Three neutrals — usually a near-black, a near-white and a mid-tone.
• Three to four core colours — your most flattering hues, used on knits, dresses, statement pieces.
• One or two accents — high-saturation colours used in small doses (a scarf, a shoe, a lining).

In the app

The Colour Analysis tool is in onboarding. You'll either point your phone at a friend's face for two minutes of fabric draping, or upload three photos in different lights — front-lit, side-lit, and outdoors. The Sci/ART classification runs locally on your device. You'll get your season, your palette, and a "this colour fights your skin" check that flags awkward purchases before they happen.

You can re-run the analysis any time. If you go grey, the palette will shift; if you've been miscoloured for years, knowing you've been miscoloured tends to feel like permission.