Do you look like a summer or a winter? Are you cool-toned or warm-toned? These are just a few of the questions that have been circulating on social media for the past few months. Color analysis is a recent trend on TikTok where a professional color analyst helps you determine which colors and their corresponding seasons complement you the best based on the undertones of your skin, hair and eyes.

However, if you look deeper, you’ll find that the trend has actually been around for years. In the 1970s, color consultant Carole Jackson wrote a book called “Color Me Beautiful,” which popularized the system of assigning four seasons to people’s natural color palettes.

Since then, the trend has found a new home on social media platforms, as many influencers have promoted it by showing their allegedly mind-blowing consultations. Currently, #coloranalysis has over 277,000 posts on TikTok, and it feels like I’ve seen almost all of them on my For You Page.

I can’t be the only one who is tired of scrolling past people bragging about how their $300 color analysis consultation changed their lives. But if you’re lucky enough to not have been bombarded with all of these videos, I’m here to inform you that in reality, color analysis can be done anywhere. This new trend is not worth your money.

In a typical color-analysis consultation, the consultant holds up different colors of fabric to reveal which seasonal palette makes you look the best, but even a TikTok filter could tell you whether you’re a summer, fall, winter or spring. Everyone has asked themselves or a friend before, “does this color wash me out?”. Now imagine paying someone for the exact same answer a teenager with a good eye could tell you.

While I do think it is helpful to know what colors look best on your skin tone, color analysts have turned a simple question into an overpriced trend. Every color analysis video that I’ve seen shows a consultant waving some different colored fabrics in the air only to conclude that their customer is warm instead of cool-toned, something I could’ve figured out just by looking at them for a second.

I even asked ChatGPT to do a color analysis for me, and it only took a minute. Simply type in your eye, hair and skin color, and they can tell you which colors to avoid, which ones you look best in, and even what shade of lipstick complements your features. Plus, I was in the comfort of my own home, not a two-hour session in some studio far away.  What more could you want?

If anything, color analysis simply limits people from experimenting with different colors and finding what makes them look and feel their best. Don’t let trends like these stop you from wearing what you want. So what if red isn’t in your seasonal palette? No matter what the color analysis says, if you feel confident, then you can make it your color.

And if you still think this trend might be worth trying, look no further than your very own “Fourcast”. If you scan this QR Code, even we can do a color analysis for you. Think about that the next time you see a video of someone paying hundreds for a few colorful sheets of fabric.