Colour Theory

Colour theory helps when showing colour combinations and the effects of these combinations visually, which is very important in makeup and designing face charts. This will then be hugely important when I come to design my Urban Decay looks and Illamasqua timed assessment.

The colour wheel is the easiest way to determine the ways that colours gel together. Basic colour theory tells us that there are:

Primary colours: Red, Blue and Yellow. Any colour can be created from these three colours.

Secondary Colours: Any colours that can be made from mixing two or more of the primary colours together. Eg, purple (blue and red) orange (red and yellow) and green (yellow and blue)

Tertiary Colours: Any colours that can be made from mixing secondary or primary together. Eg, lime green (green, which is a secondary and yellow, which is a primary) terracotta (yellow, which is a primary with orange, which is a secondary) or violet (purple, which is a secondary colour and blue, which is a primary.

SILVER

I was given Silver as my colour to research, which is very handy as my brand is Urban Decay and silver is one of their main colours - the brand and packaging is all silver, gunmetal and purple. So by researching this colour it will help me understand the brand more.

Silver inst typically shown on the colour chart because it is a metallic colour. However, the non-metallic version of silver would be grey, so you would create the colour silver by mixing a metallic or iridescent white with a small amount of black. 

Black and white aren't included in the colour wheel because they are the only colours that show complete, or lack of, pigment so you can not use the usual colour when to apply colour theory. Instead you would have to use a colour wheel that only shows the relationships between black and white themselves like the one below.

Ass a metallic element and the chart shows silver, rather than shades of grey.

Compatibility

As silver is fairly neutral is goes with most other colours, and illuminates and reflects the energy of those colours which surround it (empoweryourselfwithcolourpsychology.com)

In Makeup

In makeup, the reflective properties of silver pigments enables it to be used as a highlighter. The light hits the silver makeup and gives the illusion that the area is brought forward or lifted. Silver is commonly used in the inner corner or the eyes to give the illusion of a more open, wider eye due again to its reflective properties. It is also used commonly with black in a smokey eye because of the huge contrast between the two colours. 

Silver is also commonly used in futuristic or mystical makeup as the colour has connotations with fantasy and magic. It is popular to be used in pigment, liquid/gel or glitter form.

In Hair and Character Development

In hair, silver is seen as a colour of old age, which is elegant and graceful, rather than white or grey which are seen typical.

In media, silver is again used a lot in fantasy and magical genres and is almost always used when any magical characters such as Elves or Wizards are involved. Elves typically have "flowing silver hair and old wizards own "long silver beards"

Urban Decay

Above is an example of the silver packaging that Urban Decay use for their shadows and other products. Urban Decay is all about edgy beauty and perhaps this is why silver is one of their main colour palettes - it reflects the energy of colours around it which means it will enhance the vibrancy of its shadows seen through the packaging. Its also modern but elegant and darker shades (such as gunmetal, which is also used a lot) can be viewed as an edgy version of beautiful which is what Urban Decay is ALL about.