Color is Key: How to find the colors that you look best in

     As a teen girl, I love dressing up, doing my make up differently, and looking nice in general. But for everyday, it’s harder to look good without over-dressing. A great discovery I have found is that the color you’re wearing can really affect your overall appearance. Not only can it bring out the smoothness of your skin, the shine of your hair, and the brilliancy of your eyes. But color can also drown out you skin, dull your hair, and overpower or wash-out your eyes. So how can we avoid all the bad affects of color? By choosing the right colors.    
    If some one were to ask me what color looks the best on them, I would definitely reply “your eye color”. I have never ever seen a person who’s eye color does not look absolutely amazing on them. That, however does not mean that that should be the only color worn. For example, my eyes are green and brown (a ring of brown around the center then another ring of green, but mostly green.) So I (Malea) look great in both dark green and brown. But those are not the only colors that work well for me and sometimes I get bored with those colors. I have dark-ish hair but fairly light skin so I look good in coral, peach, and pinky colors as well.
    I (Sara) have found by trial and error (lots of error) that warm, deep colors look best on me; colors like deep purple, or gold.   I also have green eyes, so most greens look good on me, especially the darker greens.  I know these type of colors (coral pink and warm blue as well) work because they tend to bring out the natural red-gold highlights in my hair.
   
   There are only two steps to finding the colors that look best on you. The first step is to discover your “season”.  Just as there are four seasons in the year, there are four types of skin, hair, and eye tones.

1. Winter
Winter characteristics: Very dark or very light hair.  
Skin: if your skin is light, it’ll look pink. If medium toned, olive. If dark, bluish.  
Your eyes are bright blue or dark brown.  
What works: Bright, cool colors (blue-tone reds, royal blue, true purple, black or white)
Stay away from: Pastels or powdered colors.
Colors such as true orange can work, but hot pink looks better, as gold and beige can create a washed-out look.
Silver jewelry looks best on you.

2. Spring
Spring characteristics: Golden blonde, reddish brown, or auburn hair.  
Warm skin tone (veins look green rather than blue).
Blue, green, or hazel eyes.
What works: Clear warm colors (peach, gold, coral, warm purple or warm blue)
Stay away from: black and white, or muted colors
You can rock the gold jewelry better than silver.

3. Summer
Summer characteristics: Pale hair (blonde).  Cool skin tones.  Pale eyes.
What works: Cool toned but muted colors (powder blue, pale pink, dusty yellow)
Neutrals and pastels accentuate your eyes and hair.
Avoid bright colors, they’re too overpowering for summer tones
Gold or silver jewelry will work for you.

4. Autumn
Autumn characteristics: Golden brown, reddish, or dark brown hair.
Warm skin tones.  
Golden brown eyes.
What works: Spicy, gold-toned, earthy colors (olive, gold, dark brown, deep, warm purple)
Rich, warm grays work really well
Avoid black, white, and most cool colors, which can act as a wash out
Gold jewelry works best on you.

The second step is a bit tedious, sometimes discouraging, but a whole lot of fun! This is it: Try all the colors that you think would look good on you - your eyes color, the colors that work for your season, your favorite colors. Make a check-list of all the colors you want to try, put on a clothing item of that color and rate each color from 1-5. You will be surprised how well this test works. It’s also a whole lot of fun, especially if you do it with your friends. (Maybe Sara and I should do it together this weekend) It might help if you used a friend’s clothes or went shopping that way any attachment to a clothing item won’t get in the way of finding the right colors.

MAN UP

Ever hear this term?  It’s so often exchanged between boys, telling their friends, or themselves, or from father to son that the person being spoken to ought to ‘man up’.  I was browsing the newspaper today looking for something to do a current event report for school on and I came across a letter to the editor that was written as follows:

BOEHNER: Man up? Just shut up
Re:  “Boehner needs to man up” (letter, 1-10).
    My hackles raise whenever I hear the stupid phrase, “Man up.”  What does it mean, other than something disparaging to women?  Or is it possible for females to “man up”?  We never hear “woman up.” Is “man up” strictly a male, testosterone, warrior, hero thing, allowed only to the “superior” gender?  You know, the gender that has done such a fine job wrecking this planet.
    Yes, behind the phrase is not too subtle belittlement of the little lady -- the poor, weak, feminine, emotional, discombobulated, easily flustered, and wholly cowardly female 51 percent of the world.  It’s a spit in the face of the strength and bravery of females since time immemorial.      We need not even think of Boudicca, Joan of Arc, Catherine, Elizabeth, or Theresa, but rather consider our own mothers whose grit, determination, and pain tolerance in passing us through the birth canal shamed many a tottering husband swooning out at the sight, or thought, of it.  
    [Here, the author, present some political views which are not relevant to this topic]    To those who suggest that someone “man up”, I say shut up.  There is nothing inherently strong or tough about men.  Better to be specific in whom to emulate.  How about “Alexander Up” or “Joan Up”? Now, that, at least, makes sense.
Gig Harborhttp://blog.thenewstribune.com/letters/2011/01/10/man-up-just-shut-up/

A couple of weeks ago, Malea and I brought up the topic of embracing femininity. The lady who wrote this appears to be fairly touchy on the subject of women vs. men.  In the original letter “Congress:Boehner needs to ‘man up’”, the author was not poking fun at women, he or she (I am unsure, as the name is bisexual) was merely using a phrase that has become common in nowadays society as a way of saying that the person needs to be stronger.  

It’s so hard to remember, sometimes, that not everything is biased or sexist.  Likewise, it is easy to fly off the handle and get fired up about something that doesn’t really matter.  The author of the original article probably wasn’t even thinking about the use of the term ‘man up’!  We need to be fully aware of the tone of the voice, if we’re going to take offense, and even then, consider whether or not it’s something worth taking offense over.

The term ‘man up’ is defined by Wiktionary as:

Etymology

man + up, with influence from own up, buck up. Used frequently in military circles.

Verb

to man up (third-person singular simple present mans up, present participle manning up, simple past and past participle manned up)

1. (idiomatic) to "be a man about it"; to do the things a good man is traditionally expected to do, such as: taking responsibility for the consequences of one's actions; displaying bravery or toughness in the face of adversity; providing for one's family, etc.

This definition was probably instigated years ago, when men were stronger than women physically, and often emotionally, and  the term just caught on. It most likely was not even originally used to express ‘stop being such a woman’ but more like ‘stop being such a child’.  Or ‘take control of a situation rather than letting the situation take over you’.  To ‘stop whining’, or some such degrading expression of frustration.

In conclusion, we need to be careful of what we take offense to, and, if it is worth taking offense to, how we will react to that offense.  Blowing up and writing angry articles will not prove strength, especially when the original article was hardly referring to the topic of women vs. men.

Women are totally different creatures then men, and to re-emphasize the point we made last week, while we are equal, we are different, and that’s just how God wants it to be.  Thus, we should not fight this difference or get angered when we think someone is addressing women as unequals.

Embracing Femininity.

One thing that really bothers me is that women can be, and often are, confused about their place in the world. You don’t know what I mean? Well, let me explain; I’m going to give you a brief little history lesson here. This problem probably all started a long time ago, way back in the Bible times, in both the New and Old Testament, and even sometimes nowadays.  Anyway, for as long as the world can remember, men were often thought of as superior to women. For a long time, in many cultures and in some cultures today, a woman was expected to obey a man without question, without complaint - kind of like a child or a servant.

Most women did not like this, I think, they wanted to be treated like a man (For lack of a better way to describe it). In America, they wanted the right to vote; why should their sons and husbands be allowed to but not them? When all women in the United  States were finally given this right, they didn’t stop there. They wanted to be independent and free, like a man. I’m not saying this is a bad thing at all - I’m actually very glad these lovely ladies decided to take the steps they did. But I think during this time, the culture started changing in the U.S. It was and still is very easy to change from wanting to be treated equally by a man to wanting to be treated the same as men.

During the fight to be treated equally, a lot of women made the mistake of forgetting how valuable women are. By now, in your teenage years, I’m guessing it’s pretty obvious to you that there are physical differences between men and women, so I don’t have to tell you that.  I don’t know about you but I believe that God made women unique in our own way.  Somewhere along the line, this was forgotten. We need to remember that we were made different but equal. And thus, we shouldn’t desire to be treated like men. We’re still equal, but we should never forget who God made us to be.

But this by no means gives us a license to take it to the other extreme by flaunting our physical differences. I for one, would rather be feminine than sexy.  Beautiful, not hot. I hope you desire to make that choice, too.