How to distinguish between shades of the same colour 2

Practical tests

Shop test

I can suggest going to a department store and locating different red garments and start comparing, but that would be complicated because of tricky shop lighting.
It is a mystery to me, for instance, why Zara lighting makes some people yellow: if the idea is that they are making the clothes more attractive, they are most certainly NOT making them more attractive on the people who will be wearing them. And don't get me started on changing room lighting, we could be here all day.

I have selected for this Polyvore set shades of red with some yellow inside (but not yet orange) on the left, and blue shades of red (but not yet magenta), on the right. When they are next to each other, they do look different, don't they?

Home test

The optimum experiment would be the one you conduct with your own wardrobe in the comfort of your own home, which is easier if you are already a fan of red. It is best to conduct this experiment with a friend, anyway, whose red items of clothing you can conveniently borrow for the occasion, and whose sense of style you can consult.

Step 1. Sort your red items in the daylight into three piles: orange reds, blue reds, and "I don't really know", which you will sort out last, when the other two piles have helped you see the difference in amount of yellow or blue inside reds.
Step 2. Try to decide which pile is best for you in front of a mirror. You should have seen me in my day holding every red item my sister and I owned around my face, in my balcony, for all my neighbours to see.
Step 3. Go for the third pile, it will either be easy to sort into the other two piles or, if undecided still, a true red pile.
Step 4. Try to decide which pile is best for you in front of a mirror placed in the daylight, holding every item around your face.

What colour palette works best for you? If you look best in cool tones, you are a Summer or a Winter. If you look best in warm colours, you are a Spring or an Autumn. You can do some previous work reading the descriptions of the people that look best in each palette visiting the pages for each palette at the top of this blog.