ValentinaChirico.com is all about beauty and – of course – beauty is made of an incredible array of colours and scents. But to crack on these subjects, we need some guidance…
We’re surrounded by colours and scents every day; they seem endless, so here are my beauty guides to explore them all.
Do We Need Beauty Guides?
One of the hardest parts of being a beauty editor is describing a particular nuance or what makes a scent unique. As a sales advisor, depicting the alchemy of olfactory notes or suggesting the right perfume were my most challenging tasks. Daily life doesn’t spare us some troubles too! That’s true when it comes to choosing a perfectly matched combination for an outfit…
For this reason, you’ll find here:
- a colour guide so you can explore the chromatic spectrum. As well as find spot-on names for shades and the best colour combinations;
- a perfume guide so you can have a better grasp of olfactive families and perfume descriptions provided by brands. With it, you can also find what makes your signature fragrance so unique.
Colour Wheel & Guide
Are ‘Cardinal’ and ‘Carmine’ the same shade of red? Is that eyeshadow midnight blue or navy blue? The truth is, no one will see the same colour the same way you do. Moreover, colours look different under different lighting conditions.
Sometimes simplifications – like ‘light’, ‘medium’ and ‘dark’ (shade of X) – or visual links to familiar objects offer understandable descriptions. Some associations are so iconic, nowadays they’re part of our dictionary: Tiffany blue looks like and is a Tiffany blue! Our devices don’t make colour identification straightforward: mobile and laptop displays, with their settings, alter our perception of colours considerably. One day, a wise businessman pointed out how taking so many pictures of the same nail polishes was rather pointless for that reason. He opened my eyes.
Archaeologists use Munsell to describe shades of soil and sediments, the same way fashion designers and artists employ Pantone. My early blog, ‘Valens… per voi’, used the Zanichelli dictionary colour atlas for reviewing purposes. For ease of use, ValentinaChirico.com refers to Wikipedia lists, its easy-to-browse chromatic grids and coding. A helpful tool for any web designer.
The most used colour grids on this website are those for the shades of RED, PINK & MAGENTA, VIOLET, and BLUE.
Colours come from our perceptions and reflections of light rays; this chromatic spectrum can be rationalised into a chart. The colour wheel shows primary and secondary colours, complementary colours and their relations. In its simplicity, the colour wheel suggests you…
- the best combination of hues for design projects, outfits and makeup looks. This is achievable by choosing colours placed respectively at 120° on this wheel;
- the best concealer to neutralise any skin imperfection. Just pick the opposite shade of your hated blemish (for example, a green concealer camouflages redness and red spots).
This chart also illustrates the nature of colours: warm or cold. Consider this distinction: colours have psychological effects on us, our feelings and sensations. Warm colours tend to stimulate our senses. They remind us of happy things and convey a pleasant, healthy sensation linked to the sun and its warm rays. On the other hand, cool shades may either relax or cool us too much. This is because they remind us of the sea and everything cold like the snow.
Fragrance Wheel & Guide
Back to the world of scent, the topic of my MA (so I love it to bits)…
A significant issue when selling products was describing fragrances – mainly Eau de Parfum (EdP) and Eau de Toilet (EdT). Explaining a perfume is difficult due to the complexity of the product itself (i.e. its chemistry and combination of notes). To this, I add its volatile and evolving nature and its individual perception.
Olfactory notes can be placed into a wheel similarly to colours. Of the many versions, I was used to Michael Edward’s fragrance wheel during my career in the industry. As the market mints new perfumes with fanciful sensory combinations and descriptions, and as the study on smell perception evolves, Edwards constantly develops his chart. Michael Edward’s wheel sees 5 olfactory groups, and its latest version (2010) experienced some changes in the relations between these grouping. To accompany the wheel, here is a short explanation:
Michael Edwards’ wheel consists of 5 wedges; each one representing one of the olfactory families. On its turn, each wedge splits into sub-categories. These ramifications allow us to narrow the fragrance personality, as well as find its peculiar ‘nuance’. The 5 families and their sub-groups are:
- Floral –> Floral – Soft Floral – Floral Oriental
- Oriental –> Soft Oriental – Oriental – Woody Oriental
- Woody –> Woods – Mossy Woods – Dry Woods
- Fresh –> Citrus – Fruity – Green – Water (Aquatic, Oceanic or Ozonic)
- Fougère – also known as Aromatics – experienced a particular treatment over the years.
Fougère, at the centre of the wheel in 1983, now stays between the sub-categories Dry Woods (Woody) and Citrus (Fresh). Since we need sub-categories to define scents better, these groups are not that strict. For example, there’s a well-established category called ‘Chypre‘ and some new entries. Some of the newly launched perfumes needed new labels: this is the case of ‘Gourmand’ or edible-like scents.
Edward’s fragrance system is the most known, but it is not unique. For example, the OSMOZ project divides scents into 8 main families and per gender (feminine, masculine, and unisex):
- feminine: Chypre, Citrus, Floral and Oriental
- masculine: Aromatic/Fougère, Citrus, Oriental and Woody
- unisex: Citrus, Amber, Oriental and Fougère
One of my favourite fragrances is Mon Guerlain Eau de Toilette, which is described as a Citrus Oriental. As work experience taught me, each personality may find a suitable emanation into a sub-slice of this chart… Others may like or hate my perfume; that’s just a matter of personal taste so I don’t mind.
Explore a world of colours, scents and feelings on ValentinaChirico.com
Image credits:
ph. Joshua Fuller
ph. Alex Rosario
ph. @JakobPuff
ph. Sharon McCutcheon
ph. Mattew Henry
ph. Hans Vivek
ph. Trung Do Bao
ph. Cici Hung
