The colors you wear can make or break your look. Color can enhance your facial features, eye color, and shape of your body. It can also work against you by camouflaging your body, accentuating the negative and even changing the perception of your natural coloring. Many people are not aware of which colors do and do not compliment their look. Moreover, a person's favorite color to wear is often the worst possible color for their natural color schema. To figure out which color palette is right for you, just look in the mirror at yourself and take a good inventory by asking a few questions.

When you look in the mirror, the first thing you should do is to gain an understanding of your natural coloring. This means to observe the color of your eyes, the color of your skin, and the color of your hair. Notice how the color of your eyes compliments your hair. Observe how your skin tone reflects highlights in your hair. Get a good feel of how your hair coloring and skin tone work together. Once you have done this, decide what you want color to do for you.

Do you want to bring out or downplay highlights in your hair? Do you want to downplay or enhance the intensity of your eye color? Is your skin tone more sallow than you'd like? Are you having trouble figuring out how to utilize the coloring of your new deep tan? Whatever you want to do, color can do it for you. For example, if you wanted to play up the redness in your hair, you would wear clothing that compliments the red tones. This does not mean wearing lots of red clothing. In fact, that would negatively effect your coloring. As a redhead, you would pick green hues, peach hues, and deep beige hues that complimented your hair with making your skin tone seem pale or sallow.

Another example is if you wanted to downplay that intensity of your eye color. Some people have extremely intense blue eyes. Bold blue eyes are beautiful, but may seem too intense when coupled with deep blue or other colors that intensify the blue effect. Deep blue clothing would be used to intensify and bring out light or pale blue eyes. To downplay and compliment bold blue eyes, wear pastels and deep neutral colors that are not picked up by the eyes.

Color can even hide, reshape, or accentuate the appearance of the body's shape. To change the appearance of your shape, think in terms of light and dark combinations. Many women want to increase the appearance of the size of their breasts. A way this can be done with color is to choose a dark solid color for a skirt or pant along with a printed or boldly colored top. Another area some women want to reshape is the hip area. A popular practice is to wear all black or dark colors in an effort to downplay curves and bulges. This can be counterproductive and actually draw attention to the area. A better camouflage is to use prints and patterns. While this may seem like it would make the hip area more pronounced, it does not. The eye is distracted by the multicolored print than the shape of the body.

Always remember that color choice is not a science. There is no one way that works for every person. Illusion is the focus. Use color as your tool, to create the illusion you desire. Take time with yourself to play with colors and patterns. This is the only way you will gain an understanding of who you are in terms of color. You will no longer be relegated to picking outfits exactly as they are in catalogs. Nor will you be stuck with a boring wardrobe out of fear of experimentation. Make up your mind as to what you want your look to be and then work some color magic on yourself. Abracadabra!