One of my readers just submitted a comment stating that his/her friends said that they should never wear bright colors because their skin is too dark. I feel that this statement is nonsense and this is my response:

I am sorry to hear that others say your skin is too black to wear bright colors. Too bad for them because they are incorrect and congratulations to you for trying to jazz up your appearance!

Having black skin does not make it inappropriate to wear bright colors. In fact I find bright colors often enhance darker skin tones IF they are right color spectrum for their skin tone, either cool or warm.

What you really need to consider when choosing colors to enhance your image is the warmth or coolness of your skin tone. Skin tones that are cool, will look best in cool tones, warm skin tones will be complimented with warmer tones.

If you look at a basic color wheel, you will see that colors range from warm to cool. So do skin tones.

There are many tricks for determining which side of the spectrum your skin falls under, warm or cool.

One easy method is to get two swatches of cloth about the size of your face, one gold and one silver. Pull your hair back from your face and hold each one up to your face. Notice which one minimizes the shadows and imperfections in your skin. Notice also which one makes you look more tired sallow toned.

If gold makes your skin look even toned, with less imperfections and even glowing or sunny, you have a warm skin tone. If blue enhances your face and makes the lines and imperfections disappear,  your skin tone is cool.

Whatever tone your skin is, you will be able to wear bright colors if they within the tonality of your skin. The perfect colors you choose will fall into bright warm colors or bright cool colors. The color graph below might help you understand which bright colors will be the correct choice for you to wear.

If you still have difficulty determining your skin tone, try this test. Look at the back of your hand. If you have an orange – yellow tint, you are of a warm skin tone. If you have a blue tint, your tone will be of the cooler family.

Another way to tell is look at your veins on the inside of your wrist. if they are green, you probably are a warm tone. If they appear more blue, you are a cool.

Want to learn more about what clothes work best for your body? Check out this special report The 18 Essential Wardrobe Elements For Women

I hope this helps. Have fun wearing bright colors. I think it brightens everyones day when you show up wearing the perfect bright pop of color coordinated into a nice outfit! I realize that there is not enough helpful information published for people of color and I will keep writing more articles on this subject, so please check back often!