7 Must-Know Tips on How to Choose Your Best Color ...

The first step in learning how to choose best color options involves studying your skin. Your skin tone plays a huge role in determining what shades look best on you. Your skin has certain characteristics that help you choose makeup, clothing, and hair color, by pinpointing the most ideal shades for your individual skin tone. If your skin is warm, the undertones are gold or yellow, your veins look more green than blue, you have green eyes or a color with golden high lights, and your skin favors gold over silver. Cool skin is characterized by blue or pink tones, you have blue or dark eyes, your veins have a more greenish cast, and you prefer silver to gold. Lastly, neutral skin doesn't have any set tones and looks fantastic in just about any color.

From there, choosing the best color involves thinking about your coloring – that's the winter, spring, summer, or autumn bit. If you have cool coloring with a contrast between your skin and your hair and eye colors, then you're a winter. Summers have cool skin without a lot of contrast between their hair and eye colors and their complexions. You're a spring if you have very warm skin and darker hair, while autumn is warm, with a contrast like summer.

As you can see, it's just as important to think about your hair color when you're thinking about new palettes. Make sure it meshes well with your skin tone and with the makeup and clothes you wear. If your skin tone changes a little as the seasons pass, you can warm or cool your hair with the simple addition of highlights or lowlights.

For all those skin tone and hair color combinations, there are suggested color palettes that are almost guaranteed to look fantastic. Being aware of them is essential for learning how to choose the best colors. So, if you're a winter, you can be really bold, with bright hues or metallic, icy shades. Hot pink, burgundy, or red are ideal, as are white, blue, green, and various shades of grey or black. Again, go with silver over gold. With a summer complexion, softer, cooler shades work best, so experiment with shades of blue and neutral hues, such as lilac or lavender, soft pink, beige, or brown. You can wear silver or gold, and pearls look spectacular too. For a spring skin tone, delicate colors are perfect – pastels, bright pink, beige, blue, gold, brown, or violet, along with pearls or any shade of gold jewelry. An autumn look calls for very dark, dramatic colors, like deep red, camel brown, dark green, orange, or various shades of brown and, once more, gold jewelry looks best.

There are all different shades and hues for all those skin types, so play around and try different things. See what colors go with what, and find out if they work for you. There are always variations – you might be a very clear winter or a very warm spring. Be aware of what's available to you, because although your skin tone might look great with really vivid hues, like orange or hot pink, you might not feel comfortable with it. Don't worry, there's a tip for that too!

All you have to do is look for alternatives when it comes to learning complementary colors. Instead of hot pink, you might prefer pastel pink. You may not like shades of brown, so darker burgundy or green might suit you better. It really does pay to experiment, that way you can also decide between daytime and nighttime looks. Remember, this applies to makeup and to clothing, so don't be afraid to do a little window shopping or to try on a variety of materials, styles, and colors.

The most important thing to remember is to choose what you like. If you think you look incredible in shades of blue but it's not one of your listed colors, so what? As long as you feel confident and beautiful, then you'll look fantastic. Consider the color possibilities a guide, not a hard written law. You have to wear what you like, and if it doesn't look great then, again, check out different alternatives. You may love lime green but look better in a warmer or cooler shade of green.

Figuring out how to choose best color palettes takes some time, but it's well worth the effort. You can really blossom by wearing shades and hues that complement your coloring, and as you can see, whether you're picking out clothing, makeup, or hair colors, the rules are pretty much the same. But don't forget that it's also important that you pick your own favorite shades and learn how to make them work for you. How do you go about choosing the best color – do you go with trends, your own instincts, or a combination of the two?