One sunny winter's afternoon, my sister and I found ourselves standing outside a beautiful block of apartments in Battersea. We'd been bought here with the promise of a 'life changing experience,' yet Lu and I were feeling sceptical. The purpose of our visit? To get our colours done by the team at Red Leopard.
Understandably, you may be wondering what exactly I mean by this. Well, truth be told, by this point Lu and I had no real idea either. We knew that we'd be told what colours we looked best in, but why this would require a three hour appointment completely escaped us, especially when we didn't think we exactly dressed terribly to begin with. I mean, how much of a difference could this appointment make? Little did we know, we'd be complete converts by the end of the day.
Once entering the building, we were whisked up to the Red Leopard penthouse studio, where we were treated to a rather stunning view across the surrounding rooftops. We settled down in the studio and once mugs of tea were safely nestled in our hands, our colour consultant Rachel began to tell us about the history of the principle of colour she used, apparently established in the '20s in Germany. She then went on to explain how colour influenced our every day lives and how people's colourings could be categorised into warm, yellow based colours and cool, blue based colours and then further into Summer, Winter, Autumn and Spring, all arranged around the colour wheel. Apparently, by looking at our skin tone and comparing this with a number of different coloured drapes from the different categories, we could discover which colour groups suited us best, therefore naturally making our skin look as healthy, soft and radiant as it could. Allegedly, if we kept solely to the colours from our colour group, we would have a capsule wardrobe that naturally co-ordinated and would make us look our best every day. An attractive idea maybe, but a theory we were yet to be convinced by in practice.
Before we started, Lu and I spent some time looking at the colour wheel, trying to guess which section we'd fall under. I was hoping for Winter since I was attracted to the bright, solid colours in different jewel tones. However, as Rachel quickly pointed out, just because I liked the colours didn't mean they'd necessarily be best for me and so I shouldn't get too hung up on what the colours were, but on how they made me look as an overall package. Inwardly baulking at this idea, I shut up and let Rachel take over.
We got down to work. I went first and was sat down in a chair, where I put on the sort of back to front cape you would wear at the hairdressers. Then came the parade of coloured scarves. In turn, Rachel draped a few from each colour group around my neck and pointed out how each colour reflected on my skin. She demonstrated how the scarves from the Summer, Winter and Spring groups threw shadows across my face, making me look grey and blotchy. Initially I thought it was a subtle difference until she started flicking quickly between these scarves and those from 'my' colour group, Autumn. It was like a light being flicked on and off behind my face! Suddenly the difference became very apparent and before long my sister and I were wondering how we'd never noticed this before. In just a few short minutes, our scepticism had been blown away and we were practically on the edges of our seats, waiting to see more!
Once Rachel had settled on Autumnal colours being the ones for me, (a decision which had initially disappointed me, but surprisingly quickly won me over) she quickly set about working out which from the group were my 'best' colours, and drawing up a chart demonstrating where each of the colours should be worn, based on how much they lit up my skin. Then, she moved on to make up, incorporating my new colour pallet into my eyeshadows and lip colours. By the end of the process, I looked like a different person (or at least a much lighter, brighter and softer version of me). My sister was a touch flabbergasted and I was fascinated by my reflection, trying to discern my old face under this new one.
Then, it was my sister's go. She was a little tricker to work out- the differences some of the colours made were much more subtle on her skin. However, after a few give away colours, Rachel settled on her being a warm Spring colour pallet, meaning she got to wear the most beautiful poppy red which I was left wishing was in my colour group!
Lu's make up was equally transformative, making her eyes pop and her look generally softer and more natural.
Again, by the end of the process, the same transformation was evident and we were left amazed and totally convinced by how beneficial the colour consultation had been. We left the studio clutching our new colour swatch booklets in our retrospective pallets (each marked up with little gold stars against the colours which suit us best), vowing to never buy another single item of clothing outside our range ever again. And I tell you what, so far we've kept to it!
