Highlight Your Natural Beauty With The Perfect Color

One of best things about vintage chenille is the fabulous, seemingly endless array of colors to choose from. We love color, color, color, and we’d love to help you pick just the right shade of chenille to highlight your beautiful features!

“The best color in the whole world is the one that looks good on you.”

– Coco Chanel

When it comes to color, truer words were never spoken. For many people, choosing colors can feel intimidating. So, just how do you choose the just the right shade of pink – or blue – or any color of the rainbow – that will make you look radiant? It isn’t nearly as daunting as it seems.

Do you have cool, warm, or neutral undertones?

If you don’t know it already, determine your undertone. Even beauty products sold right at your local department store are often labeled “neutral” or for “warm” or “cool” tones. It’s likely that when it comes to selecting makeup or hair color, you’ve heard those terms.

Don’t confuse surface skin tone with skin undertone, though. The former is just what it sounds like – the color of the surface of your skin, which can range from pale ivories to rich dark colors. Undertone, however, is the color beneath that surface layer. You and your best friend might share the same skin color, for instance, but you each may have different undertones. Make sense?

Easy ways to determine your undertone

Though there is no definitive rulebook on the subject, here are some general guidelines to help you determine your undertones.

If you have warm tones, your veins look greenish. Gold jewelry is your go-to choice, and you come alive in reds and oranges, yellows and olive green colors. In neutrals, you look better in ivories, off-whites, and browns.

People with warm tones usually get a nice golden-brown tan easily. Your eyes may be shades of brown or hazel, and you might have hair with gold, red, orange or yellow undertones.

If you have cool tones, your veins have a bluish or purple appearance. Silver jewelry looks perfect on you, and the clothes that bring out your best features are often blues, purples, and shades of green, like emerald.

When you wear neutrals, you’re gorgeous in whites and blacks. In the sun, your skin burns and turns pink (or red) first. Those with cool tones typically have blue, gray, or green eyes, and their hair will tend to have blue, silver, violet and ash undertones.

If you have neutral tones, it might be hard to distinguish whether your veins lean towards bluish or greenish. You wear gold and silver jewelry equally well, and everyone seems to think you look good in an array of different colors. Interestingly, certain lighting may make it look like you’ve got warm undertones, while in other lighting, you might look cool. You’re a color chameleon, you lucky gal!

Still not sure? Here are a few more tips.

Some people automatically assume that a very fair-skinned person must be cool-toned, but this isn’t always the case. Pale ladies can have beautiful warm undertones and vice versa – darker skinned women can have lovely cool undertones.

And, according to celebrity stylist Tony Chaar, your skin tone can even change with the season. You might be more cooler or neutral in the winter months and warmer in the summer, when you’re getting more sun.

If you’re still in doubt, find a celebrity who has similar coloring to you – it’s easy to look up any celeb online to find out what his or her undertones are.

Some of your cool celeb sisters might be: Cameron Diaz, Liz Hurley, Reese Witherspoon, Courtney Cox, Heather Locklear, Sarah Jessica Parker, Anne Hathaway

Need a few examples of some warm celeb lovelies? Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, Amy Schumer, Eva Mendes, Beyonce, Jessica Alba, Nicole Kidman

My best color advice is…

The trouble is, even when you look up some of your favorite celebs, you might find their names on either list. Take Jennifer Aniston for example – some say she has cool undertones; others, that she’s warm-toned.

My best advice is to simply try on a few different colors. A few months ago, I bought two identical vintage tops – one apricot and one baby pink. Both were equally gorgeous.

But when I put the apricot one on, it was unflattering and gave my skin a pasty, washed-out cast. The baby pink was the clear winner because it made my ice blue eyes pop while highlighting my porcelain skin.

One of the most common questions is “What if a color I love isn’t all that flattering on me?”

No worries – just because a color doesn’t set your face aglow doesn’t mean it has to be banished forever. Try wearing the color as an accessory or an accent. If that royal blue sweater isn’t the best match, try the color in smaller doses such as in a belt, purse, etc.

Finding the right color in a chenille robe

As I mentioned, one of my favorite aspects of chenille is the truly dynamic range of colors and textures it’s available in. This is true both of vintage chenille bedspreads as well as robes. In fact, I personally think vintage colors are deeper, richer, and much more flattering than many seen in today’s modern textiles.

It’s not uncommon to see two identical old chenille bedspreads in the same color, but a slightly different shade or tone. Only many years can produce such wonderful color variations that come from different lighting, sun shadowing, washing, etc.

That’s what makes it so much fun to find the spread or robe that’s perfect for you. The best part is that a lot of chenille had some type of pattern, so if there’s a color that you love but that doesn’t particularly flatter you, you can still enjoy it in smaller doses via a subtle pattern.

When in doubt, here’s a quick summary of colors that may look best on you:

Cool tones:

DO: Sea shades, frosty purples, lavenders, and pinks, fresh greens, berry reds, cool grays. Go for clean, crisp whites.

DON’T: Overdo it on oranges, bright reds and yellows.

Warm tones:

DO: Earthy tones like red, orange, yellow, green, and brown, plus peaches and teals. Opt for off-whites.

DON’T: Go overboard on cool grays, frosty blues, pinks or purples.

Neutral tones:

DO: Turn up the volume in true red, or play it safe with in soft sherbet shades. Think raspberry, creamsicle, lemon and lavender.

DON’T: When you’ve got the whole rainbow on your side, what can’t you wear?! Some experts say to avoid super bright colors because they can overpower your beautifully balanced complexion.

Choose the color that speaks to your soul…

I’ll leave you with one final piece of advice: especially when it comes to choosing that special chenille robe, it’s not always about choosing the most “flattering” color. It’s about selecting the one that resonates most with you, that makes you feel good, that you can snuggle in and say, “Ahhh, this feels right.”

I like to have a few of my favorite colors on hand when it comes to my chenille robes. Some days, I want to feel grounded in a deeper wine with hints of plummy mauve; on others, I love the light, airy energy of a fresh lake blue. Our perceptions of color (and which ones we’re most called to) are ever-changing. As you become more aware of this, you may notice how your own needs for different garments change from day-to-day.

If you enjoyed reading this post, here’s another you may find interesting – the meaning and history of different colors. Discover the historical significance of colors and see if you resonate with their meanings – or simply explore your own consciousness to see what each color means for you.

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