Review of David Zyla’s Color Your Style: Is It Truly Universally Applicable?

I am writing this post as a review for David Zyla’s book Color your style and also to collect my thoughts on it.

I watched a video by a YouTuber Ellie Jean Royden where she used David Zyla’s technique to find some of her best colours. At first, I went all WOW. Then I ordered the book (1500 INR, took a month to be delivered).

Then I started reading.

Before reading this book, I also read Color me beautiful by Carole Jackson. I will talk about it in a separate post because otherwise this will become too much.

Anyway, back to David Zyla. Now I know he is a good designer and when he looks at people he can figure out their colours. That is talent.

However, when it comes to standardising them and putting it all in words, the magic doesn’t last.

Let us discuss the main David Zyla colours and why that theory might not hold true for everyone:

Essence colour:

The colour that harmonises with your skin tones and reveals your most genuine, open and essential self, your version of white.

So it could be this colour or a bit lighter version of this colour.

From the given list of colours my closest essence colour is Copper beige.

One of the things he mentions is you can paint your bedroom this colour, so far it sounds okay. Maybe, just maybe I cab paint my room this colour.

Romantic colour:

The colour reflected by your flushed skin which reveals your passion, sexual energy and your romantic self.

When your skin is not fair (or probably you are low on haemoglobin) this colour will not the accurate 😛

For me, I got coral as my answer.

I must tell you these are very mild colours for me.

I expected it to be a deep shade. I am dark autumn based on 12 seasons colour theory.

Dramatic colour:

The colour taken from the shade of your veins, which shows your power, your charisma, and your sense of authority; your version of blue; wear it on a job interview, for a formal presentation, or any time you want to make a strong impression.

Even my drama is a shade of teal or turquoise which doesn’t go with my romantic coral as such.

Energy Colour:

The colour seen in the darkest part of your iris (nor the ring outside the iris you’ll be using that for your First Base), which taps into the deepest sources of your energy: helps you restore and balance your energy; wear it when you want to be calm, self-possessed, and centered, such as at a family reunion, a meeting with your child’s teacher, or a corporate retreat.

Tranquil Colour:

The colour found in the lightest part of your iris, which taps into the deepest sources of your tran-quility; helps you relax and release stress; wear it when you want to recover from a challenging situation, such as after a long day at work.

So here we have a few shades of brown. For most of us, it will be some shades of black or brown.

Neutrals

Your version of black, brown and khaki.

First base (Black)

The ring around your iris. Mine looks like charcoal black/midnight blue. Both these colours aren’t in my colour season palette by the way.

Second base (Brown)

Deepest tone of your hair. For me it is black brown. I know so many people for whom it will be just black though.

Third base (Khaki)

Lightest tone of your hair. For me it is honey caramel. But again I know so many folks for whom it will just be black.

So my neutral palette looks something like this:

Now, let’s look at all the colours together :

I understand how it is mentioned that we don’t need to stick to the exact shade and we can go for darker or lighter version of these colours.

I also really like dark and light browns here but what I really mean to say is this is VERY limiting and if this is all my wardrobe had it will also be very boring.

So, I am off looking for a different system.

If there is something you’ve come across, let me know.