May 14, 2016

Jacqueline H.

Hi Mar: In relation to your commentary on the 'How Can You Tell The
Undertone of a Blush" thread, I wanted to come to you directly, and
make my feelings/opinion (s) known to you.

It’s true that the red, yellow, and blue color wheel probably isn't a
scientifically accurate model of the perception of light. Many people
want to eliminate the red, yellow, and blue color wheel from art
study, and establish CMYK(cyan, magenta, yellow, and black).
Okay...The CMYK color wheel, secondary colors in the CMYK color
wheel being red, green, and blue, so in essence, we could use the CMYK
to illustrate additive (using light) and subtractive (on paper) color.
You mix magenta and yellow mix to produce orangey types of reds,
whereas if you mix cyan and yellow, you'll get minty types of greens.
CMYK printing works because the inks are translucent, and the overlap
between them (along with the use of black) will give us most of the
colors we can see on an additive, light-emitting monitor or
TV. Now if you mix cyan and magenta, you'll get violet or
purple, instead of the pure blue that the CMYK color wheel says you're gonna get.
Irregularities like this do pop up all the time like this when you mix very
opaque colors/pigments. In essence, if the the paint is so thick
wherein can't see the white paper or canvas on which you’re working,
the concepts behind the CMYK color wheel start to go downhill. In this
particular instance, the more traditional red, yellow, and blue color
wheel is a much better model and guide. Only my opinion.

Loads of digital artists still keep a red, yellow, and blue color
wheel handy. Why? because it is the color schemes and concepts of
traditional color theory. The relationships between colors are
pretty much determined by their relative positions on the color wheel;
however, those positions do differ depending on the wheel; On the
traditional color wheel, red and green are opposite, the CMYK
wheel...cyan is opposite red, and so forth and so on... In my
opinion, there are flaws to be found in both color wheel models, and
complementary colors are a good example. In reality though, and to the
best of my knowledge, there is no color wheel that can fully describe
the way in which we perceive color from light. So is there really a
right and a wrong here? I think this will be debated till the end of
time. :)

Like you, I come from an artistic family so I understood where you
were coming from on that thread. I just tried to keep it simple:
Simple in the sense that the member that asked the question would be
able to understand warm versus cool; nothing more, nothing less, and
that wheel I posted, in my opinion was a pretty decent model to be
able to help someone see warm versus cool. Where you chose to take
it, although very interesting, probably confused the author of the
thread even more.( Only my opinion) As you well know, an artist, and
let's say a scientist sees color very differently, and that is so so
important in relation to how RGB and CMYK color systems are viewed. An
artist will mix blue and yellow to get a shade of green; a scientist
will mix green and red light to create yellow. I know we disagree, but
I still hold fast to mixing equal amounts of pink and white will give
one pretty basic pink.

In relation to the swatches of the lipsticks I posted, it could have
been the lighting and/or your screen calibration; however, those 2
lipsticks were NOT both cool shades of red. The shades I used as
examples were MAC's Russian Red and MAC's Von Teese Red, and the
Russian Red is definitely a cool blue red whereas the Von Teese Red is
a warmer tomato red. To be completely honest with you, I was a bit
offended by your comment there. I've been a professional makeup
artist for almost 15 years, and to insinuate that I can't tell the
difference between a warm red and a cool red was very off putting to
me. You may not have meant it that way, but that is how your words
came across to me, and I'm just being honest with you. As
professionals, I hope you can see where I am coming from, as I see
where you were coming from, and respect one another on that level.. :)

Jun 20, 2017

Mar F.

OMG! I only just saw this! (I wasn't aware Beautylish had a DM system) I'm so sorry, I hope you didn't take my lack of response as an offense :(
By all our previous interactions I hope you already know I respect you and your opinion A LOT!

I didn't mean it as an offense at all, it's just sometimes hard to communicate the small subtleties of color on screens (something I'm always trying to remind all my customers when they come with a pic on their phone and ask me 'what color is it?') so it could very well be the lighting of the picture, the way each of our screens is calibrated and so on. Maybe I should've been clearer on that, it was all in the spirit of clearing the confusion, as in my screen they both showed a cool undertone and might have not been a clear example (again, on my screen) I never meant to imply that you don't know the difference!! NEVER!

On the color wheel topic, you are right, there are many ways to interpret it and all have their values and faults. In my opinion, I tend to like the CMYK system better when it comes to mixing colors (both in makeup and painting and even if the pigments are in a more opaque medium, adding of course the white). Tho more complex, you are right, I feel it's more complete (specially when you come to tertiary colors) This is actually a very interesting topic!! I actually view the wheel in my head more like a sphere, taking in other parameters such as saturation, brightness and so on, and on that map there's the formula for mixing practically any color. it might have been a lil bit off topic tho, you're right.

And as for the general tone of my comment it was never meant in a negative way. Sometimes the lil engineer in me comes out and might come off the wrong way when I actually just mean it in the simplest of ways with no further implications. sorry about that.

Again, I don't know if you'll read this because I realize it's been a year, but I really don't want you to think of me as disrespecting you, so for that I apologize. Hopefully we can have a spirited chat sometime! :D

Oct 23, 2015

Tia A.

Thank you so much for your advice about using an eyeshadow primer before using eyeshadow, I will definitely take that suggestion! ❤️😊