- March 3 2025
Date
March 3 2025
Color psychology is kind of fascinating. For example, did you know that the color of a food can affect how you perceive the taste? Or that certain colors can actually trigger real physiological reactions in people? The ancient Egyptians even prescribed color therapy as a remedy for certain ailments: painting rooms and using crystals to manipulate light to help people heal more quickly.
These days, color psychology is used widely in branding and marketing by companies who want you to feel a certain way about their product, or have a gut reaction to their ads or logo. Our guess is you don't think much about color psychology in your daily life...but we bet you have that one favorite color that when you put it on, you feel like a million bucks.
You're not alone - we are all hardwired to respond to colors in certain ways. In fact, tons of research has been done into color psychology to figure out just what types of color associations we make every day.
Of course, color psychology is affected by personal preferences, and somewhat by cultural context and social cues, but, in general, the psychology of color outlined below is consistent across people of different races and genders in Western culture.
Red
Power, excitement, love, lust, anger, passion, danger, winter
Orange
Ruggedness, purposefulness, excitement, warning, autumn
Yellow
Cheer, buoyancy, competence, happiness, spring, summer
Green
Peace, nature, calm, health, money, spring, relaxation
Blue
Peace, calm, water, life, royalty, sophistication, reliability
Purple
Power, royalty, luxury, richness
Pink
Ease, vivaciousness, spring, summer, fun, care, love
Brown
Nature, grief, ruggedness, reliability, autumn
Black
Formality, sophistication, grief, luxury, fear
White
Honesty, simplicity, luxury, purity
Identifying Your Skin Tone: The Foundation of Color Choice
When it comes to clothing, color psychology is less about "what colors look good" on you, and more about "what colors feel good" on you. However, once you've identified what primary colors feel good, refining those color choices to fit your personal style can be easier if you know your underlying skin tone.
While black and white look great on basically everyone, certain shades work better on certain undertones. For example, those with warm undertones should steer toward warm colors, while those with cool undertones should stick to cooler colors. People with neutral undertones can usually get away with both, or with neutral colors.
How to Identify Your Skin Tone
The easiest way to figure out if you have warm, cool, or neutral undertones is to look at your veins. If your veins looks slightly greenish, you likely have warm undertones. If they look blue or purple, you're a cool tone. Can't tell? Can't even see your veins? You may have neutral undertones.
Another easy way to identify your skin tone is to try on some gold and silver jewelry (warm undertones feel better in gold, cool undertones feel better in silver) or clothes (warm undertones will prefer themselves in rose, mustard, forest green, or royal blue, while cool undertones feel they look better in pastel pink, pale yellow, lime green, or lavender.)
Once you've determined your skin tone, you can start using clothing color psychology to adjust your color preferences.
Bold and Bright: Energizing Colors to Boost Confidence
Go for bold, bright colors to boost your confidence when you head to the pool or beach this summer. For warm undertones, the color orange, red, or a bold yellow will pop. Cooler undertones might want to go for a bright color blue or purple.
Vibrant color is used throughout the natural world to signal strength and power to potential mates. Bottle a little of that confidence for yourself by picking bright, energizing colors when you need to make an impression.
Soft and Subtle: Calming Hues for a Relaxed Beach Day
Not in the mood to turn heads? Going for a more chilled-out beach vibe? Calming hues like blue and purple, and natural shades like green, lavender, and pale pink will help slow your heart rate (actually!) and get you in the mood for a relaxing day.
Studies have shown that people sitting in a room painted green are more relaxed than those sitting in a room painted red. Physiological responses like heart rate, breathing, and lighting up certain areas of the brain have been measured to prove it!
Classic Neutrals: Timeless Choices for a Sophisticated Look
Going for sophistication and class? Black, white, and neutral earth tones are the way to go. The saying "black goes with everything" is true because the color black is so simple and clean. Worn alone, it signals quiet confidence and old-school class.
White communicates honesty, openness, and an uncomplicated spirit. When it comes to your style choices, this is a great way to give yourself classic "girl next door" energy.
Color Combinations: Mix n’ Match for a Personalized Style
Need help mixing and matching colors to amp up your style? Color psychology says that pairing primary colors with secondary colors is the way to go.
Secondary colors are the colors between the primary colors on the color wheel: red, yellow, and blue are your three primary colors. Orange, green, and purple are the secondary colors. If you look at the wheel, typically, a secondary color will be opposite a primary color. That pairing (those two opposite colors) is a great place to start when experimenting with color combinations.
Trends and Tips: Staying Stylish While Feeling Confident
Of course, at the end of the day, your personal style is all about what makes you feel good. Maybe your color associations are different from what we laid out in this article. That's fine! If red makes you feel relaxed, awesome. If yellow makes you sad, definitely don't wear it at the beach!
Quick sidenote: don't forget that the thing that will have the biggest impact on how you feel in your bathing suit is the fit. An ill-fitting suit, no matter what color, will never feel as good as one that fits like a glove!
Your color schemes and style choices are highly personal, and the application of color psychology to your own life is all about fun. Try experimenting with some new colors and see how it makes you feel!