CMB Draping Session

Hiya, I had a lovely time at my session. Here's the lowdown.

First of all she explained the 6 main types used now by CMB - Deep, light, Cool, Warm, Soft, Clear.

we both agreed that the two most likely were Soft and Clear. She draped me using the typing collars (these have several of the colours from that type) as a broad indicator. She had me down as a clear from this but agreed it wasn't completely obvious.

She tested me in whites and that showed that soft white was better than pure white, and also tested me in pink and peach, this was pretty obvious even to me that I have a warm skintone. She also did a test to decide if my third characteristic was light or deep, it wasn't that obvious to me but she declared light - I think due to my pale skintone.

She then showed me neutrals and a few colours - which were right and which were wrong (contrasting the clear with the soft). On this it wasn't always completely obvious to me at least, though some them were.

When she was showing the neutrals, we agreed that the black brown was particularly good, this is a colour I have been instinctively picking for 15 years or so, and is the dark base colour in my hair. She laughed, and showed me that this was considered a Clear colour. I've been calling it chocolate brown, but its the colour of dark chocolate (not milk chocolate)

Next she did the makeup - porcelain light foundation, teal eye pencil, champagne, cocoa, aqua and peppermint eyeshadow, natural lip pencil and soft warm pink lipstick (breeze). And blush in candy and salmon for contour. then a touch of bronzing powder. This does look different than I would normally do, and DH described it as light and fresh when I got home.

After this she draped me in all the colours from the colours which she had down as clear, then the clear and warm and then the light and warm, and noted down both good combinations and generally good colours.
She included some light colours I would not normally choose to wear but she explained I could wear these with my darker neutrals to create contrast, which was the main thing I need to do always. Some of the strong clear colours I can wear alone.

She marked the colours she thought particularly good and talked to me a little about her hazel eyed sister who is 'just a clear' and the sorts of combinations she chose to wear.

At my request she did drape me in some of the warm colours and the reds from the warm palette were very good - red orange and another I don't recall. I don't have swatches for these though as they are on the Warm cards which I don't have.

She did say that the Clear and Warm people don't tend to look as highly contrasting as the Cool and Clear people because the warmth has a slight softening affect. I do have black in my palette, but it isn't starred as good, and I wasn't to wear any of the dark colours right by my face, only as a jacket/necklace to contrast with the other colours.

Then I got to pick a lipstick to take home and marked on my swatches the great colours, and ticked on a chart the makeup shades she had used on me.

We went well over time as I asked a lot of questions, which I did feel bad about once I saw the time when I got in the car....

My verdict
It is different than I expected. There are some colours in there I know and love and have been wearing for a while, but there are also some which surprised me like Lapis, Cornflower and Taupe.

Is she right? I suppose only testing it will tell - we always knew I wasn't an Autumn in the classic sense and the main Clear palette has a lot of colours which are neither obviously warm nor cool.