Bernice using a Magna Lite to see a client's eye pattern.
" I started by obtaining the proper colored cloth to make a set of drapes for each of the Seasons. The excess material I then cut into swatches and made Seasonal packets I could sell to my clients after the Color Analysis session. After my own and all of my daughters’ color analysis', my friend ordered cosmetics in our appropriate colors. I also accepted her invitation to get a $40.00 cosmetic kit. I started doing my own Seasonal Color Analysis sessions and selling cosmetics under her sponsorship. Believe me, that $40.00 was a huge investment back then! I expected to get all the Seasonal cosmetic colors in my kit. But, when my starter kit came I opened it. There were no Seasonal colored cosmetic in it, only creams! I had given my “start up fee” to my friend and I felt more than disappointed. I opted not to get involved at that time, and the kit was sent back. Not too long after sending my kit back my friend stopped selling for that particular company. For three years I did nothing, and sold nothing. I coded all my family members, and friends. This was a good learning time for me. I took my Seasonal Drape Set to confirm their Seasons and I took every opportunity to look at every one’s eye pattern that I possibly could! Once you have been bitten by the “Color Bug” it stays with you! A little later on, my husband and I had college age children, along with other expenses in our lives. We needed additional money for these extra costs. I still did not charge anyone for a Color Analysis at this time. This was a very valuable time for me. I found I could not resist my curiosity about this color process and my desire to share this knowledge with others! What made things difficult was that I felt honor bound to not teach what I had learned from my friend. There was so much more I was yet to experience all on my own. Three years later my husband was promoted by the Union Pacific Railroad. Consequently we moved to Omaha, Nebraska. Things cost even more there. We were still having trouble meeting expenses. I began inviting church friends and their friends to our home to have what I called, “Color Parties”. With the cosmetics, that I was then using, I found the creams were excellent, but the color line was lacking color variety. They seemed to be based mostly on browns. Even though the cosmetics were lacking I still had my cloth drapes and the little color swatch packets cut from the drape materials. My new friends were excited! I was excited! I coded everyone I knew, mostly church friends. Some would purchase the Cosmetics, but most paid me $2.00 for their Season’s eight color swatches in a little billfold packet. I was yet to experience the real importance and value of Seasonal Color Analysis. I found women were so hungry to learn about color, most of them didn’t have any idea of how to put a wardrobe together.
My husband was promoted once more and we were transferred to Oakland, California! I made new friends and I did their colors. I still charged only $2.00 for the Seasonal Swatch Packets, if they wanted one. A wonderful new friend said to me, “Bernice, you need to charge people more to do their colors and you need to find a cosmetic line and give classes in your home. You should charge at least $10.00 for the swatches!”
I started having color parties in my home, but had no cosmetics to work with. I was invited to work with a line of colored items through the Amway Corporation and their Cosmetics. A favorite sister in-law, Pat, and I started giving “Color Parties” for her friends. Those friends had other friends, and so it progressed. I got $10.00 for my Seasonal Swatch Packets and she got
money from the sale of cosmetics. It was suggested to me that if I would write a book on how to do the Seasonal Color Analysis it would sell very well and would be a great training and sponsoring tool for their distributors selling cosmetics. I wrote my first book, “Color Me A Season”. During this time I was conducting Color Parties in the San Francisco Bay Area and started to earn extra income for my family! It was the extra income we needed to pay some of our bills. Most of the parties were held in the evening. I invested time and sacrificed to build my business. Soon I was being asked to do Color Demonstrations for church and sales groups. I realized I had to have my own cosmetics in order to organize the product into accurate Seasonal color groupings. I also needed a better system of giving clients their Wardrobe Seasonal colors that was more inclusive of the variations found in the Seasonal groups. As I grew in knowledge by doing each Seasonal Color Analysis, I realized that some of the individuals I analyzed, were limited in colors for their own Season. These clients definitely fit into a specific Season but could wear more colors than those included in their swatch packets. Some individuals were more difficult to determine than others. They seemed to lean a little more into another Season
(or a secondary Seasonal influence) and yet definitely had a primary Season. In other words, I needed more color selections than the 8 swatches could provide. I also needed colors that did not constantly change colors with each dye lot. So, I developed “Seasonal Color Fans” for each Season rather than cutting cloth swatches. This allowed me to offer 15 basic colors for each Season we call their “Bouquet Colors” and an additional 215 colors for each Season instead of the 9 or so that most offered with their cloth swatches. The “Seasonal Color Fans” filled that need by covering those additional color influences coming from their genetic heritage from their parents’ Seasonal make up we call “Seasonal Blending”.
These pictures show how to find a person's body harmony colors with their Color Fan.
Eye Color, Skin Tone, Deep Skin Tone and Hair Color.
I wrote a second book, “Harmony of Seasons”, as my knowledge grew. I wanted to fill the needs of those clients who seemed to have a confusing appearance. By that I mean they are hard for many Color Analysts to place into a correct Season because, they were so closely blended with a “Secondary Season”. For example, not all red heads are Autumns, nor are all blondes Springs, nor all dark brown or black haired individuals Winters, and so on. You can read more about this subject in my various publications.
My daughter, Nora and I put together our own line of cosmetics, calling it “Color Me A Season
Cosmetics”. Interest in my book in the San Francisco Bay Area grew at a phenomenal rate! I learned that television and radio hosts often look for interesting program subjects, especially the so called, “self help” subjects. I was a welcome guest to all of them! “Color Me A Season” books were printed again and again. In addition to the “Seasonal Color Fans” I created the “Seasonal Color Selectors”, and added additional books on other aspects of color, line, and design, work- books, posters, books on color design in the human body, and color aids. Seasonal Color Drapes, Seasonal Chin Board Cards and a Foundation Tester Kit I also developed to open up a way to help many who love finding their own Season and want to help find the Seasons of others.
This was one of my main motivations. I wanted to find out all I could about different aspects of our being that make each of us unique. There are certain laws or rules that make us who we are, same yet different.
