And the 12 seasons became 16

Where were we? Right, no more compromises. No more women on the verge, hanging between two seasons. How come? Well, after so much work and study, it became clear that the system needed to be refined. It was all about
finding a "portion of chorma" for the "difficult" seasons in Munsell's chromatic circle.
For which seasons? Which were the difficult ones? Soft Summer for starters. The most misdiagnosed season. A season with a very mediumness, a chameleontic coloring. There was the regular, classic Soft Summer, blonde or light brown haired, which in the right colors (smooth and dusty) looked stunning, who had that smoky soft look to her:

And then there were those who seemed Dark Winterish, yet they were Soft Summer, the velvety ones. Winter's colors were too much on them:

winterish colors too harsh on Katie

soft, rich colors-just perfect on her

The Soft Summers in the above pics are very velvety. What does velvety mean? It means that they have more depth in their coloring than a regular Soft Summer. So in order to make the Soft Summer's palette work for their depth range, the colors needed some more grey. So grey was added to the palette. The chroma is still low but these women are

deeper, and also more intense. And so, there it is: the first one among the new seasons. DEEP SOFT SUMMER. With a color palette of its own.

The DEEP SOFT SUMMER, though, is not the stereotype of the medium dark haired girl, with a winterish looks. No sir.

The Soft Summer Deep is the summer that can handle more color and a little more intense than the regular Soft Summer.

An example?

There:

There you go. Kristen Bell. At a first glance she is very similar to a regular Soft Summer. Soft coloring, low natural contrasts.

Still, Kristen can handle colors in her make up that can be very unflattering for Ellen Pompeo, a regular Soft Summer:

 

While Kristen doesn't look bad at all with eyeliner and the red lip, and her facial features are still very in focus, Ellen is so off with that make up. The only thing visible on her face are the two black circles, the black eyeliner. Harsh lines interrupting a soft flowing natural coloring.  That's because Ellen's contrast is very very low. She doesn't have sudden contrasts in her coloring, no sudden passages between hair, skin and eyes. Therefore the black eyeliner disrupts her natural smoothness and instead of enhancing her eyes, it disturbs, it dominates her face.
Kristen instead, is doing fine with that eyeliner, her face is still the main attraction. How come? It happens because Kristen has a more intense coloring, she has more depth even though you wouldn't notice this at a first glance.
How can it be possible then to tell apart a Soft Summer Classic from a Deep Soft Summer if both of them are blonde?
Simply. With a color analysis. Color analysis is about seeing the person in different colors and seeing how she reacts to these colors. No matter the hair color.
Another Deep Soft Summer, bellow:

There used to be the Soft Autumn women. The classic ones:

Low natural contrast, misty soft neutral warm coloring and those amazing soft warm hazy eyes. Women who would be highly penalized by harsh colors, black lines, heavy smoky make up or loud lips:

Or...maybe not....

WOW! How come Hayden Panettiere is looking so amazing with that make up, in spite of her being a Soft Autumn like Mischa or Mary Kate? The answer is simple: she is more intense and she is obviously deeper than the other Soft
Autumns, even if she may seem to have identical coloring to Mischa or Mary Kate. She only seems to be identical to them, as far as coloring is concerned.

REGULAR SOFT AUTUMN

SOFT AUTUMN DEEP

Well, I 'd say the difference is quite obvious. And so, the second new season came to life: DEEP SOFT AUTUMN.
Oh, I almost forgot. There was another type of Soft Autumn. Those who seemed so deep and intense that they were confused with a Deep Autumn. Except that ..those colors were too harsh and heavy on them:

In the DA colors, Hilary looks older and harsh.

In HER colors, she looks amazing- SOFT AUTUMN DEEP 

DA MAKE UP AND COLORS - DEFINITELY TOO MUCH

PURE PERFECTION - DEEP SOFT AUTUMN

And so, these women too found their HOME SEASON in the newborn DEEP SOFT AUTUMN. Because, no matter if blonde or brunettes, we must remember that the chroma and the intensity of a person can be determined only after an
accurate color analysis, after we observe the skin reacting to color.

 Then, there were the Light Springs, who were often mistaken for Soft Autumns, or maybe they were Soft Autumns mistaken for Light Springs?? Who knows? A tragedy. Big confusion. Light Spring's colors were almost good on them. If only they hadn't been so...bright. But then again Soft Autumn's colors were too heavy, TOO DUSTY.

Now these women were really floating among seasons. They had to borrow the light value colors from the Light Spring but they had to combine them with the low chroma from the Soft Autumn.

Solution? Take the light ethereal VALUE from Light Spring and mix it with a touch of Soft Autumn's dustiness. A new season sees the light. The women floating in limbo between Light Spring and Soft Autumn now have THEIR OWN

season: SOFT LIGHT SPRING.

An example? Rebecca Romjin:

Light value, neutral/warm coloring and from the pic above she seems to be soft so the verdict would be Soft Autumn.

That dusty blue dress isn't doing her any good; on the contrary, it is making her face dusty too. If she were a Soft Autumn, that dusty blue should emphasize her features and give that soft hazy light to her eyes, just like it does to Giselle, bellow:

So, after seeing what that dusty blue does to her, the logical conclusion would be Light Spring. After all Light + Neutral/Warm + High Chroma = Light Spring, isn't it?

Not bad, I must say. Better than Soft Autumn, but she isn't amazing. The coat is perfect, and is a Light Spring color.
The lip is a little bit off. A Light Spring, with a high chroma, would do much better with that clear light red lipstick. Like this:

Comparing:

 

Comparing:

 

It is obvious that Taylor is way more harmonious in those colors. The same light red lipstick is a bit too bright on Rebecca, it almost looks like lipstick is applied on a white and black photo. 
So, if Soft Autumn palette is too dusty on her and Light Spring colors are a tad too bright, Rebecca needs a mix: the light value of the Light spring and just a drop of the low chroma of Soft Autumn. But only a drop, just enough to make Light Spring's colors less bright, less sparkling. A new palette came to the light: Soft Light Spring.

Perfection.
Lastly, there were the women who thought that they already had their season, they were convinced to be Deep Soft Summers (ex Velvety Soft Summers)

If only those colors, weren't so veiled, so soft...too soft for them.

 

See? While Katie Holmes has a beautifull glow to her in that rich, full soft color, Ginnifer... well she just doesn't have the WOW FACTOR, she is kind of washed out.
The logical conclusion was that they might be Dark Winters, they must be Dark Winters, if the Deep Soft colors were not enough for them...it was clear they were DW:

Really? No. This type of women weren't Dark Winters, the colors were too harsh on them, black didn't penalize them, not too much anyway, but it didn't love them either, not the way black loves a REAL DARK WINTER.

And so these women realized that they had no real season... they weren't real Deep Soft Summers nor Dark Winters.
Solution? Take a large dose of Dark Winter's intensity and another one of its cold and heavy depth, then combine it with just a light touch of Soft Summer's grey, and there you go, a new color palette was ready: SOFT DEEP WINTER. 

So this is how the 12 seasons became 16. Four new seasons were born. But not for a whim or just for the love of change. Nope. They came to life as an answer to a real need. They were created in order to improve the circle of the
seasons, in order to give a color fan and a place in the chromatic circle to the persons with a "complex" coloring, those who weren't able to find their place in the 12 system.
Actually, the seasons are 4, just like the meteorological seasons. Only that instead of having 3 sub types, now every season has four sub types. A new sub type has been added to each one of the 4 main seasons. The color fans that were lacking are now available, the system is now complete. PERFECT I'd dare to say.
If you want to comment, please feel free to do so, and I hope you enjoyed the foretaste of the NEW 16 SEASONS SYSTEM.
Thank you!
Pia
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