Pastels

Posted by Jalisa on Feb 26, 2014 under Dressed Up Casual

Hello Ladies,

Happy over the hump day! Can you believe it's already Wednesday? In a way I can't complain, because the faster time goes, the faster spring and summer will roll around! We've been having such an intense winter here in the Northeast and I think it would be safe to say that we are all ready for spring! Which leads me into the focus of this week's W3 look. Pastels are synonymous with spring, although it has been a trend to wear pastels this winter, too.

For this post, I want to explain which skin tones and colors work best with pastels, since not all skin tones work well with these lighter hues. I have a neutral skin tone, so I could wear most colors that work best for either cool or warm tones. However, I do notice that the colors that are ideal for the cooler tones, are not the absolute best for me, although I can wear them without appearing awful. Take this look for example. These colors would look fantastic on a cooler toned woman, without giving off that ashy appearance, which I honestly feel is shown a bit here on my skin. The reason I create various types of looks, is not to only represent my style, but to try out different pairings and combinations to learn what works best for me and to inspire you!

If you are cool toned, I would suggest pairing your pastel pieces with grey, as I did here, since grey has a blue undertone, which would help brighten your skin tone, bringing out your natural glow. For neutral tones, like myself, you may have to play around with different pairings and combinations to see what works best for you, because as I mentioned above with myself, you may notice that not all colors that work best for both the cool or warm tones, will look the same or have the same effect on you. When it comes to my warm toned girls, I suggest pairing pastels with a darker shade of the color. For example, you could wear a pastel yellow top with a canary yellow bottom. This will help prevent you from appearing washed out or faded. If you're not sure if you are cool or warm toned, watch my video on the skin tones HERE.

Another thing I want you to keep in mind when working with pastels is that they all have a white undertone, so you want to use the same approach I mentioned in my video for styling white and black, which you can watch HERE, in case you missed it. For example, if you're a pear shape, you wouldn't necessarily want to wear a pair of pastel blue pants, since it could make your thighs, hips, and butt appear larger.