Haley Armstrong. Photos: Kassie Leigh Photograph
ColorFixx helps women and men discover their seasonal palette.
When Edina resident Haley Armstrong had her colors analyzed by a hometown friend, she thought it would be an excellent addition to her styling business. She quickly realized that helping men and women find clothing and accessories in the right shades for their eye, hair and skin color was the right path for her.
“I found immediate confidence in the choices I was making for fashion or makeup, and I felt empowered, and I wanted to spread that to other women and share that knowledge with them,” Armstrong says.
ColorFixx offers a few different packages, with the most popular being Color Alliance Custom Color Analysis, using eye and hair color and skin tone to create a custom palette for jewelry, makeup and wardrobe selections. Each aligns with a different season. She offers the service from the comfort of a client’s own home if desired, since the process of draping colors over a client requires a plain white T-shirt and a makeup-free face.
A personalized color analysis helps identify the shades that best complement skin tone, hair and eye color.
Armstrong, who uses the Color Me Beautiful method that originated in the 1980s, stresses that her analysis isn’t a hard rule—if a client still wants to wear black even though it isn’t in many people’s palette, he or she should wear black. However, she encourages all clients to balance out-of-season choices with complementing clothing or accessories. Most of her clients are surprised by the results and the ways they can weave their season into their wardrobe. Some clients simply welcome a change in mascara shades. Others have their children sort their entire closet based on their new palette to start anew. “I think once people commit to it and invest in it, that they come away so satisfied, and it’s such a personal experience for them,” Armstrong says.
Knowing one’s color season helps avoid buying into trends that might sit at the back of the closet unworn, according to Armstrong. “You can take that pause and just give a reason to say, ‘That wouldn’t work for me, and here’s why.’ It makes purchasing power more intentional,” she says.
Custom analysis clients receive a palette swatch of their color season three weeks after their session. Armstrong has a follow-up appointment to explain how best to use it in their day-to-day styling, with labels indicating what colors might bring out specific aspects of their natural features.
One of Armstrong’s early clients, Melissa Holten, stuck to neutral shades with pops of color and classic outfits before her analysis. Since discovering her palette as a contrasting solar winter, she’s embraced bold blazers and cardigans, often by layering bright colors. One of Armstrong’s suggestions was replacing Holten’s typical cream pieces with bright white. Holten says the transition has been noticeable to others. “Sometimes I get asked, ‘Did you get your colors done? … That color really pops on you,’” she says.
To Armstrong, this confidence is everything. “By the time we get through that 90-minute session, [clients] … are looking in the mirror and just feeling so beautiful, so sure of what they’re wearing,” Armstrong says.
ColorFixx
Instagram: @colorfixxmn
