How to tell your palette in the CMB system

Miscomprehensions

Some palettes have been subject to change through time and others are no really understood. Cool Winters, for instance, were initially described by having either silver gray, salt'n'pepper, or graying black hair, and that they probably were Deep Winters when younger. Now they are described as people with cool eye colour, skin, and hair. The colour of their eyes stands very strongly against the white (which is very white) in their eyes.
The Cool Summer palette seems to be another basically misunderstood palette, and I haven't found two websites that mention the same people as belonging to them (well, except Ms. Middleton).
The more I study , the more bored I get and the endless discussions around it. I think the 12-palette system is quite useful up to a point, and that's why I started composing the palettes and explaining how the system works. When you look at the colours that belong to both Cool Winters and Clear Winters, you see that they share tons of colours, so knowing which exact palette you belong to is not a life and death issue, but just a question of subtle nuances.
Wearing the right colours is important for you and that's why I write about it and have also made it one of the points in the Own Your Style Decalogue (number 4, to be precise).
So, where does this leave you?

My advice

1. If you want to know what palette you belong to and you are not familiar with CMB's system, start with your hair and eye colour.
2. Try to pinpoint your complexion. 
3. With a little care, you should be able to reduce your options to one season or to a couple of palettes in different seasons. You are not trying hard enough if you are doubting between three or more, because then you are not reading the physical descriptions and looking at the pictures at all! Let me give you an example: X writes to me and thinks that she could be a Clear Spring, a Deep Autumn or a Deep Winter and tells me she has dark hair (dark brown) and brown eyes. Clear Springs don't have brown eyes!!
4. Try first the colours that are common between the palettes you doubt between. If you don't have a good eye for colour or you are just not used to thinking of colours in terms of  cool and warm, you will need to learn about it (it's really worth your while to invest that time, believe me).
5. When you get used to looking good in a colour for some time, it will immediately strike you when you try one that does not look good on you. It's very much like reading: at the beginning, you just read anything and enjoy it but, after reading good literature for a while, some books will start striking you as awful (you may still enjoy them, of course, but with discrimination ;)).

Towards independence

Finally, I'd like to say: Don't be lazy!! There's no substitute to YOUR knowing the basics about colours, how they work, and how they relate to you.
The point of my blog is very much that YOU learn about shape, silhouette, etc., to make you an independent stylish woman (because that is why you started reading my blog, right?).  I want you to know the basics and then think for yourself!
I do promise, however, that I will keep on publishing posts about colour theory and tips to distinguish among the palettes, but at a slower pace, I want  to focus on other things!

Where to start with the blog

• How to distinguish between shades of the same colour Part 1 and Part 2
• How to distinguish between shades of red, an example of thinking about a colour in terms of cool and warm.
• How the 4-season and the 12-season Colour Me Beautiful's systems work

How the 4-season and the 12-season CMB's systems work

4-season-system

The 4-season system is quite clear, so it is relatively easy to say that someone is a Spring, Autumn, Winter, or Summer. Generally, your eye and hair colour (the natural ones) are enough to place you in the right season.

12-season-system

Distinguishing two people from the next palette in the next season in the 12-season-system can get more tricky, because you share a complexion with it.

• Strong and rich: Deep Winter or Deep Autumn.
• Light and fair: Light Summer or Light Spring.
• Soft and muted: Soft Summer or Soft Autumn.
• Clear and bright: Clear Winter or Clear Spring.
• Cool and rosy: Cool Summer and Cool Winter.

This flow graph of the palette gives you the reason why: the palettes that are connected by an arrow are close to each other.

It will not be that important which specific palette you belong to, because lots of colours are common between two connecting palettes. However, it will become really important in the case of another bunch of colours, maybe because they are warm or cool, and they will make you look awful. I have tried to show it in the case of Deep Winter versus Deep Autumn.
The relationship between Deep Winters and Deep Autumns seems to be very similar to that between Clear Winters and Clear Springs: Clear Springs look good in lots of Clear Winter colours but, additionally, they also look good in others that Clear Winters don't, coral being one of the examples. It can become extremely difficult to distinguish between these two palettes because they look pretty much the same sometimes: both have eyes that contrast greatly with their skin and hair colour, something that can be enhanced by cosmetics and dyed hair.
Cosmetics (hair dye, make-up) can make you "transition" from one palette to another inside the same season. For instance, a lot of Light Springs are naturally some sort of blond, but they dye their hair red so, and make up their eyes with strong dark eyeliner, they will, to all intents and purposes, look like Clear or even Warm Springs. It is only in some shades that they will not look their absolutely best, but it's generally no big deal.

MORE?

• How to distinguish between shades of the same colour Part 1 and Part 2
• How to distinguish between shades of red
• How to tell your palette in the CMB system

How to distinguish between Deep Autumn and Deep Winter

The two deep palettes: similarities and differences

Both Deep Autumn and Deep Winter are characterized by being strong and richly coloured palettes. They are also the most extended in most parts of the world, where the population falls neatly into these two seasons.

Similarities:

• Both have dark hair.
• Both have a strong eye colour (brown, hazel, green).
• Both palettes look good in bold primary colours, and bad in pastels. 
• Both can wear black around their face and black and white (off-white, ivory) and other high-contrast prints around their faces without looking washed out. 

While it is natural that there should be some confusion between Deep Autumns and Deep Winters, it is important to know to which one you belong to. Deep Winters look truly awful in colours that are great on Deep Autumns, and viceversa.

Betty Suárez and Agent Diana Barrigan. These two Deep Winters don't look good in Deep Autumn shades. In the case of Betty Suárez, the wrong palette was used to make her appear less atractive than she actually is. Diana Barrigan, I'm afraid, just does not know which colours look good on her. Searching for photos to know which was her palette, I found she was often dressed in Autumn colours with neutral makeup and sometimes in Winter colours with warm makeup.