Color is a funny thing. At best, everyone has a vague idea of what a color is, and intimates their own interpretation upon it. For example, what do you think of when you hear "berry"? I see a very red purple, or a red tinged with purple. For me, it's more red than plum, but more purple than burgundy. Likewise, the subjectivity exists for a good majority of shades.

First off, let's define the basic shades. Shades that are exceptional (unique... or universal), ideal for cosmetics and consequently very common, are in bold.

RED is a complex color. It's not necessarily that you see very many incarnations of the shade, but even the slightest nuance will change its effect on your lips (if indeed we are talking about lipsticks). Red can have many undertones. True red is bright, otherwise known as fire engine red, or poppy red. Neutral reds can be watery, like cherry, or deeper, with crimsons, or deepest, with burgundies (no brown) and blood-reds (with brown). Orange-reds, like tomato (lots of orange), or scarlet (just a hint), or brick (like scarlet but with lots of brown) or rust (very orangish, with lots of brown)... have orange in them, to varying degrees. Blue-reds vary, from the subtly blue ruby, to brownish garnet, to claret, which is almost purplish. Pink-reds, or rose-reds, are more subdued versions of red. Especially worth a look if you're leery of color. They range from the very pink watermelon to a richer, slightly rose, muted currant. Which red is best for you? It's a matter of preference. Blue-reds like Nars Scarlet Empress will brighten teeth, but they're best for those that carry color well, like someone with pale skin and dark hair. Orange-reds are best reserved for redheads. Neutral reds and pink/rose-reds are for everyone. To be sure of a good, non-fuchsia-ing (that phenomenom of red lipsticks turning a gaudy bright pink), choose one that's actually deeper and more brown in the tube than you actually want on your lips. Red lipsticks turn slightly on the lips; rarely do you encounter on that looks exactly like it's appearance in the tube. I refrained from mentioning brown-reds. It's not really an undertone with reds, it mutes the brightness of the red, and deepens the color. Brown can be added to red lipsticks of any undertone, from orange (brick) to neutral (blood-red) to blue (garnet) to pink (currant).

ORANGE is pretty straightforward, think of an orange or a carrot. There aren't many variants of orange itself... it's a bit too vibrant to tamper with. A yellowish orange is tangerine, a deeper, browned orange is pumpkin. Copper is a metallic orange, whether it's bright, or very dull and brown. It's peach, part of the orange family, that's the complex one. Peach ranges in depth from from pastel to tawny. Melon is a peach with a yellowish cast. Apricot is similar, but slightly pinkish, as opposed to yellowish. Coral is bright, with a good deal of warm pink. Tawny is by definition a very complex shade. It has brown, red, orange, yellow, pink... It's deeper than the other peaches, but difficult to place in any given category. Tawnies are generally safest in the orange category, but depending on the balance of the colors aforementioned, it could easily fit into those color families.

YELLOW, of course, if a sunny, bright shade. By itself, it needs no explanation. It can be pale, hard, like citrine (slightly brownish, greenish), pastel like lemon or butter (lemon is generally brighter than butter, while butter it almost like cream), warm and golden like buttercup, honey (transparent, slightly brown), marigold (deeper than either honey or buttercup, with a slight orange hue), or butterscotch (like marigold but without any orange). It can be rich and powerful, like saffron, or dirtied like mustard. Metallic yellow is gold, and like yellow, has a range of undertones, from almost white gold to bronze. Brass is a slightly dirty gold. Yellows/gold can have green undertones, orange undertones, pink undertones, white undertones (think of what white gold looks like).

GREEN is a quiet, studied, yet elegant color. True green is emerald, bottle green or jade, the color of a grassy lawn. The palest green is the pastel, mint. Pistachio is equally light, but it's got some taupe in it. Celadon is a deeper version of mint. Sage is very muted light green. Lime is a yellow-green, while chartreuse is an almost acidic lime. Leaf green, as the name implies, is the color of new leaves in spring. Apple green is similar, but brighter, not as translucent. Sea green is a medium green with a touch of blue. Pea green is of the same intensity, however, it's neutral. Kelly green is a very bright medium green. Avocado is a browned and muted version of pea green. Moss is a soft medium-deep green, olive is a browned version of moss, usually warm, while loden is even more brown than olive. Teal is a deep blue-green. Forest green is neutral, but deep. Evergreen is even deeper, and slightly cool.

BLUE is serene and wise. There is a surprising variety in blues, the palest being pale blue and the deepest being prussian blue (looks black). Baby blue is brighter than pale blue, sky blue is brighter than baby blue, robin's egg blue even deeper. Azure is that bright yet deep, happy, pure shade that the sky is on a beautifully sunny day; cornflower blue is a muted version of azure. Sapphire is actually true blue, royal blue is deeper and brighter, while blueberry is deeper and muted. Navy is a deep version of sapphire, and midnight blue is even deeper. Blues with purple undertones include: cobalt (a vibrant sapphire with the barest hint of purple), periwinkle (hovers somewhere between azure and lavender), cerulean (like cornwflower blue, but very subtly lavender, not as much as periwinkle), ultramarine (very bright, deep, rich blue, slightly purple-hued), indigo is dark, purplish and blue. Greenish blues are: aquamarine (watery, light), aqua (deeper, an azure with green), turquoise (even deeper than aqua, usually not as green, however), sea blue (think blueberry with green), teal (mentioned in the green family, but can be considered a blue).

PINK, surprisingly, is a very versatile and complex color. True pink, ie. barbie pink or baby pink, is not. But softer shades abound. Pale pink, is the palest, pastel that pink may appear as. Shell pink is light (as opposed to "pale"), and often not without a touch a of brown. Blush is similar to shell pink, but with a hint of peach as well. Mauve is a cool pink, and can be everything from very pale to medium-deep. Mauve varies in color from a muted, cool pink with gray, to one that's bolder, with a substantial amount of purple. Rose, like mauve, is very variable, and can be considered its foil. Instead of gray, it is usually muted with brown. And red is most common undertone, not purple. All those rosewoods and pink-browns are actually variations on how much brown is mixed with the rose. Of course, some pinks are bright. Salmon is more pink coral, strawberry is a bright reddish pink, fuschia is a deeper and even brighter pink, and magenta is a deeper fuschia.

PURPLE is a popular shade, and with good reason. It works on everyone. True purple is grape, but there are millions of incarnations. Don't let the brevity of this section fool you, notice how many bold-ed shades there are, it's a very popular color category. Lilac is the pastel version, lavender is deeper, usually with a cool cast, usually by gray (though it can be brown instead). Heather is soft light-medium shade, very muted, usually with a touch of brown or pink. Violet is a medium purple, neutral, and amethyst is its shimmery incarnation. Orchid is very bright shade, equal parts purple, and equal parts pink. Iris is a medium-deep vibrant blue-purple. Reddish purples run the gamut from the bright, extremely red berry, to the shade in between, wine, to the shade only touched with red, plum. Maroon is difficult to place, it is usually very red, but sometimes barely shows a trace. Eggplant is a dark purple, usually tempered with a tiny bit of brown. Black cherry is an almost black purple. Blackberry looks black, but is more brown than black cherry. Sheer blackberries go on rosy and reddish.

Pure BROWN, to me, is chocolate. Browns are the workhorse of the cosmetics world. Beige is the universal base. The true beige is a pale, pale brown, or a very deep cream. Buff, the lightest variant, is a shade treads the line between the white and brown family. It's pale, just a step up from cream. Putty is a beige with green in it. Bisque is a very close relative to buff, is is usually less neutral, often with a touch of yellow or pink. Nude is quite similar to true beige, but it mimics the real warmth of skin much more closely. Champagne, take heed, is a very important shade. Nearly every brand has its own version. My understanding of champagne is that it is a shimmery version of beige. And like beige, it can take on the various undertones and complexities that is available to it. A champagne can be cool, it can be neutral, it can be warm. It may be peachy, golden, pinkish, whitish, silvery, lavendery (yup). It can be pale as buff, or nearing taupe in depth. It's the most versatile, and most necessary color on the planet, as innocuous as it looks. Sand is deeper than beige, and usually warmer. Taupe is the other universal shade you'll find in any "neutral" eyeshadow palette. Usually, taupe is an almost medium (slightly on the light side) cool brown. It's not always cool, of course. Fawn is the neutral version. Ginger is warm, usually yellowish, sometimes slightly orange. Khaki has an almost greenish tinge. The various medium browns, totally unlike each other yet very much similar, include tan (lighter than the rest, slightly warm), malt (almost milky), amber (golden), hazel (slightly green), camel (golden, but less than with amber), auburn (very red), almond (cool), mocha (usually with a touch of red), chestnut (the quintessential medium brown). Medium-deep shades include: toast (slightly reddish), caramel (deeper version of camel), topaz (deeper version of amber), rust (very very red, like auburn, but deeper). Deep browns are: earth (cooler version of chocolate, and lighter than the rest), bronze (can actually vary in depth, but is usually deep, metallic version of pure brown), coffee is a deeper version of chocolate (which is a medium-deep shade), expresso even darker (almost black), mahogany is somewhere in between, teak (cool version of coffee) sepia, (cool version of expresso), sable, a very deep shade, is a shimmery version of expresso.

I could, theoretically, group white under the BLACK/GRAY category. However, I decided against it because white shades tend to have warmth, because warm whites are more wearable, ie. more likely to sell. If this wasn't about cosmetics, I would have not placed white in a separate category. The palest gray is dove gray. Ash is medium-light. So is stone, but it has a touch of brown. Fog is medium gray, and slate is a medium gray with blue undertones. Smoke is slightly deeper than fog, and soot is even darker; we're in medium/deep territory now. Lead is a deep gray, charcoal nears black, but isn't quite there. Ebony is a brownish charcoal. Pitch is another name for utter black. Silver is a metallic gray, and has many variants. Platinum is the equivalent of dove gray, gunmetal of lead, pewter of charcoal. Pure silver finds its equivalent in a medium gray.

WHITE is pure as snow, wot? Actually, snow is actually somewhat cool, there's a blue tinge to it. Alabaster has a gray hue, as does marble, but marble is deeper. Pearl can be neutral (white is so easy to sully that it's usually warm or cool), and it's basically a white shimmer. As for warm whites, they range in "purity" (meaning just how white they are, lacking an undertone) lily, to ivory, to cream, to ecru, to oatmeal.

Of course, the shades you'll encounter are more complicated than that. My own, personal, descriptions are by no means all-encompassing, and only describe what a "pure" cobalt would be, or a pure "tangerine". They certainly don't take into account what the shade would look like with other undertones and distractions (coverage, finish... they will change the look, believe me) layered into it. My description of lavender labels it as cool, however, lavender muted with brown instead of gray is neutral, sometimes almost warm. No shade is as simple as mere color. There are many ways that a shade can be adjusted, and not just by color.

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Woo! I think this color thing is more Dain's domain than mine. I think you need something of the poet to truly understand color. I see it from a more technical perspective...you can make colors from (depending on your view), red, green and blue, or red, yellow and blue, or, even, you can make colors from numbers. The colors you're seeing now on your computer monitor were generated from numbers.

So there is a technical side to color, and I tend to describe colors based on their technical attributes, rather than by metaphor or simile.

For example, I recently went looking for a blush. Actually, for a drugstore stand-in for a high end blush, Lancome "Rose Charmant." "Rose Charmant" is pink, basically, but if I describe it as pink and leave it at that, I'll never find anything that gives me the same look. There are, after all, hundreds of "pink" blushes.

Jane "Blushing Shell" is a pink blush I once owned. Nice, but too pink. It did not look natural on me, only plain flat pink. Sonia Kashuk "Pink" and L'Oreal "Pink Perle" are pink blushes I've tried...both too light. Prestige "Putty" qualifies as a pink blush, but it's too brown on me. Prestige "Silk" blush is pink, but too orange on me.

To quantify "Rose Charmant," I would say that it is a soft, muted medium pink with subtle notes of peach. It has some brown but not enough to look brown on, it has no plum or wine cast...it has the teeniest touch of true rose.

Based on this description, I rounded up some cheeeeep blushes to try: Jane "Blushing Petal" and "Blushing Babydoll" and Rimmel "Santa Rose."

Of these, "Blushing Babydoll" came closest. It had the soft, muted pink, the little notes of peach, the brown even...if it weren't for the complete lack of staying power, I would have called it a match. "Blushing Petal" came next--soft, muted pink, but not enough peach or brown. And that same lack of staying power. "Santa Rose" was horrible, it turned dead orange on me.

Ruling out cheeeeep then, and based on some past mediocre experience with mid-range drugstore blushes (Maybelline, Cover Girl, etc.) I decided to try high-range drugstore blush. Why not skip to low-range department store blush? The cost difference is not that much. For me, convenience is a large part of the cost factor. I'm a SAHM and hauling my kids out to the mall is a day trip unto itself. I would prefer to be able to test out, and procure, my cosmetics at my local drugstores.

I lucked out in the sense...I got Neutrogena "Sweet Raisin" blush. It looks nothing like "Rose Charmant" in the pan, but, on, it is very, very similar. "Sweet Raisin" is a tad deeper in color than "Rose Charmant," but it has the same muted medium pink, with little tints of peach, muted with brown that doesn't look brown on. It does lack that special touch of true rose, but you can't have everything. "Sweet Raisin" costs a third of the price of "Rose Charmant." For an everyday blush, it's the perfect match.

In summation then, I tend to break down colors into their components...a complex color like "Rose Charmant" is really only the sum of its parts. Admittedly, I tend to try to find the simplest color descriptions even of the components.

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