Power of color

<p>To Jennifer Robin, the secret of looking good is all in the color. Yes, the fit of your clothes matters. But it's choosing the right shades of color, whether it's your hair, makeup, eyeglass frames, fabrics you wear or accessories, that can give you that “glow,” whatever your age.</p><p>The Petaluma colorist, image consultant and artist believes the foundation for creating your own style and looking good is treating yourself like a creative canvas. That means looking at yourself in “a curious way” and selecting hues and shades that work for your particular coloring.</p><p>Robin, author of the book “Growing More Beautiful: An Artful Approach to Personal Style,” brings her training as a colorist and as a painter to the happy work of helping clients “illuminate” themselves.</p><p>“People have gotten a little afraid to wear color because they're not sure how to wear it,” she says. </p><p>“We've been inundated with the idea of the makeover police; they're waiting at your door to say you're doing it wrong. It makes us back away from color and color is what makes us more beautiful.”</p><p>On a warm September afternoon, the 55-year-old Robin is wearing a slim sleeveless sheath the color of amethyst that sets off her striking gray/white hair and greenish-blue eyes. She's had the dress for three years, but like many things in her wardrobe, it has legs, as they say. She loves the color and the simple lines keep it from looking dated. It keeps its place in her closet season after season with fresh accessories.</p><p>“I've worn it with a long black sweater. I've worn it with boots and tights and this year, I'm thinking a short sweater. I might like wearing it with something red or burgundy. So you can have something from several years ago and you can add something this year to it and it's new, it's modern.”</p><p>“When you're a teenager, bright color is fun. But when you take this purple and make it really bright,” she says, looking down at her own jewel-tone purple dress, “it's going to be shocking. Or if you make this purple muted and grayed, or like lavender, it's not going to work with my coloring.”</p><p>The profession of color analysis, developed in the 1940s with an actual training institute and passed down by masters at the craft, had become oversimplified 30 years ago after Carole Jackson's 1980 book “Color Me Beautiful” was published, Robin maintains. It spawned a bunch of overnight practitioners and quickie weekend trainings that over-simplified individual color palettes. Women were frequently sent off with a uniform season of limited swatches that didn't take into account the huge range of skin, eye and hair colors in the human race.</p><p>Robin works with hundreds of different color cards, holding them up to clients' faces and arms to select just the right shades for their unique coloring. Getting the right colors in makeup, which Robin also custom selects for many clients, is an important part of bringing out one's personal beauty.</p><p>Although she supports women's right to make their own beauty decisions — whether to color their hair or go for cosmetic surgery — Robin personally believes that women can be more beautiful without artificial treatments, simply by playing up their assets with the right colors and flattering clothing that fits.</p><p>“It works better than Botox, Juvederm or a face lift,” she said. “When you have it right with your hair color and your eyeglass frames and your makeup, you have a confidence from loving the colors you're wearing and color brings you out of yourself.”</p><p>When choosing colors, Robin looks for shades that heighten and bring out a woman's natural coloring — foundations that make the skin look clear and smooth, blushes that look natural and shadows that make the eyes sparkle and bring out their color.</p><p>Unflattering colors can emphasize imperfections, drawing attention to dark circles, blemishes, lines and ruddiness, and can make skin look pale, sallow or yellowish.</p><p>Robin counsels women to accept their bodies. And rather than hiding perceived flaws, they should look for well-fitting clothes that play up their assets, whether it's slim hips, long legs, great arms and shoulders or a small waist.</p><p>Women who feel overwhelmed and disconcerted by too many bad choices that seem not to fit should not be afraid to get help, she urges, whether it's a professional style consultant, a department store shopping assistant or even a smart and knowledgable sales clerk. Buy only what is practical for your lifestyle, feels comfortable and is something you love. Otherwise, you won't wear it or if you do, she says, you won't project that glow that comes from feeling confident about how you look.</p><p>“When you wear something that is very camouflaging in both shape and color,” she says, “you're not seen and that is not what we want. We want to make friends. We want to connect with people. People often come up to me and ask about my gray hair or comment on the color I'm wearing. It's because I'm not hiding anything.”</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.</p>