Colour Me Beautiful consultation

'Having your colours done' has traditionally been seen as the domain of older ladies – the type of thing your mother or grandmother might do before going on a cruise or buying an outfit for a son's wedding.

Although the likes of Trinny and Susannah and Gok Wan have got younger women tuned in to what shape of clothing to wear to flatter, many of us are confused when it comes to what shades to choose. It's why we often stick to the same 'safe' colours when we go shopping, ignoring any we haven't claimed as our own.

As someone whose favourite outfits are all going the way of my favourite chocolate brand, Green & Black's, I thought it was time to find out whether I was getting it right, and whether I could introduce a few more colours to my repertoire. I visited image consultant Tanya Arturi at her house in Prestbury to get an expert's opinion on what suits and what to avoid.

Tanya uses the Colour Me Beautiful system of colour analysis. This defines your dominant, secondary and tertiary colour characteristics based on your hair colour, skin tone and eye colour. She then shows you which colours suit you for clothing and make-up. It's a methodical approach that takes the principles used by interior designers, hairdressers, and fashion designers and applies them to your wardrobe.

It'd be great if we could all naturally tell what colour makes us look healthy, glowing and gorgeous and which one makes us look pale and drawn, but few of us have that much faith in our instincts. Says Tanya, “Colour analysis can give you a boost because when you know for sure what colours suit you, you wear them with a much more confident air.

“When you go into shops, there's artificial lighting, you've usually got make-up on, and you don't stand there in front of the mirror holding up different colours to see which shade works for you.”

It means that although we might have a general idea of what 'our' colour is, we aren't getting to grips with the subtleties of the spectrum.

“Some people say to me, green doesn't suit me,” explains Tanya. “What I would say is that green suits everyone. But it's the actual tone and shade of green that makes the difference.”

To demonstrate this, she holds up two different shades of green fabric against my face. Although my tastes veer towards the stronger, darker green rather than the pastel shade, Tanya points out that the darker colour has a greying effect on my skin tone, making me look a bit tired. Whereas the pastel shade brightens my face, making me seem healthier.

It's also about which shades will drown you out and which will compliment you without stealing the limelight. As Tanya points out, if we want people to notice our face rather than our clothes, we need to make sure we're not wearing an overpowering colour.

Tanya defines my dominant colour type as 'clear' because I've got dark hair, pale skin and bright eyes. This puts me in the same category as Kate Perry and Angelina Jolie (which is the kind of comparison I like to hear) and means that I particularly suit contrasting colours rather than a tone-on-tone or blended look.

We go through the colours that suit 'clears' with a secondary characteristic of 'warm' and tertiary characteristic of 'light' using a library of fabrics in every hue and tone you can imagine. And there are some real surprises. Lemon yellow? I've not worn that since Brownies. Salmon pink? In public?

Before going to the consultation a friend asked whether I'd start wearing lilac if I was told it was my colour – luckily, it's not. Though apparently, its close relation, purple, suits everyone. And contrary to popular wisdom, only three of the six colour types can wear black. 'Clears' are one of them, which saves me throwing away 75 per cent of my wardrobe.

On the whole though, the consultation is about opening up your colour options rather than closing them down. I'm given a colour wallet with 42 spectrum-spanning fabric swatches in the shades that suit me, with some that will work well as neutrals and some as accent colours. Then we work on fine-tuning it to pick out the ones that I particularly like.

The number of options in the colour wallet means that I won't have to suddenly start buying clothes in a colour I've always disliked. Nor will I have to start a wardrobe from scratch – it's more a case of weeding out the shades that don't suit me.

Finally Tanya focuses on my make-up, giving a lesson in application as well as in choosing the right shades of eye shadow, blusher and lipstick to suit my complexion. Much as I like green, I'd never considered it for eyeliner but it works really well.

With more people moving from throwaway fashion and cosmetics to buying fewer but better quality clothes and make-up, a consultation like this could stop you making a costly mistake. It costs £85, which isn't much when compared to how much you spend on clothes you wear once then relegate because they don't quite suit. I suspect that 'Having your colours done' won't be just for older ladies for much longer.

To make an appointment with Tanya Arturi, Colour Me Beautiful consultant, call 07811 430 730, email tanyaarturi@btinternet.com, or visit cheshireimageconsultants