Journal

Practical essays on looking like yourself, on purpose. Each one ends at the analyzer.

• Photo

  How to take a better selfie

  Distance, lens height, window light, and the timer that keeps the camera off your chin.

• Photo

  A photograph that looks like you

  Light, lens height, collar color, and crop for a portrait that resembles the person in the room.

• Wardrobe

  A capsule wardrobe from your palette

  How to pick a small set of pieces in your season without pretending twelve items are a moral duty.

• Grooming

  Beard shapes for a diamond face

  How cheek line, chin length, and the neck change a diamond outline in photos.

• Grooming

  Beard shapes for a heart face

  How cheek line, chin length, and the neck change a heart outline in photos.

• Grooming

  Beard shapes for a oval face

  How cheek line, chin length, and the neck change a oval outline in photos.

• Grooming

  Beard shapes for a round face

  How cheek line, chin length, and the neck change a round outline in photos.

• Grooming

  Beard shapes for a oblong face

  How cheek line, chin length, and the neck change a oblong outline in photos.

• Photo

  Body language in a portrait

  Hands, shoulders, and where the eyes go, for a still photo that does not look like a mugshot or a performance.

• Grooming

  Beard shapes for a square face

  How cheek line, chin length, and the neck change a square outline in photos.

• Photo

  Dating profile photos

  What a dating photo can honestly promise: light, a real activity, and a face that matches the person who shows up.

• Grooming

  Eyebrows, hairline, and the frame of the face

  What to trim, what to leave, and why a drawn brow becomes the subject of the photo.

• Contrast

  Contrast at the collar

  Why the jump between hair, skin, and the collar decides whether black, navy, or stone looks calm.

• Face shapes

  Face shape is an outline, not a ranking

  How forehead, cheek, and jaw widths decide an outline, and why hair, glasses, and beards are drawings on top of it.

• Photo

  Camera angles that flatter without lying

  Eye level, a slight raise, and the wide-angle distance that widens a nose.

• Wardrobe

  Five outfit formulas that survive a week

  Five ways to combine a collar, a neutral, and one accent so you are not inventing an outfit every morning.

• Face shapes

  Glasses for a diamond face

  Frame shapes and sizes that sit well on a diamond face, with metal color left to the season.

• Fragrance

  Fragrance basics for ordinary days

  How concentration names work, where to apply, and how not to become the air in a room.

• Research

  What first-impression research actually measured

  Todorov, competence judgments, and the limit of reading character from a jaw.

• Face shapes

  Glasses for a heart face

  Frame shapes and sizes that sit well on a heart face, with metal color left to the season.

• Face shapes

  Glasses for a oblong face

  Frame shapes and sizes that sit well on a oblong face, with metal color left to the season.

• Face shapes

  Glasses for a square face

  Frame shapes and sizes that sit well on a square face, with metal color left to the season.

• Face shapes

  Glasses for a oval face

  Frame shapes and sizes that sit well on a oval face, with metal color left to the season.

• Face shapes

  Glasses for a round face

  Frame shapes and sizes that sit well on a round face, with metal color left to the season.

• Face shapes

  Haircuts for a heart face

  Where to put width, length, and a fringe on a heart face, and what to leave to your color season.

• Face shapes

  Haircuts for a diamond face

  Where to put width, length, and a fringe on a diamond face, and what to leave to your color season.

• Face shapes

  Haircuts for a oblong face

  Where to put width, length, and a fringe on a oblong face, and what to leave to your color season.

• Face shapes

  Haircuts for a oval face

  Where to put width, length, and a fringe on a oval face, and what to leave to your color season.

• Face shapes

  Haircuts for a round face

  Where to put width, length, and a fringe on a round face, and what to leave to your color season.

• Face shapes

  Haircuts for a square face

  Where to put width, length, and a fringe on a square face, and what to leave to your color season.

• Wardrobe

  How to look your best without a new personality

  A practical order of operations: light, color at the collar, hair and glasses, then the photograph. No archetype, no score of your worth.

• Photo

  LinkedIn headshots and other work portraits

  Even light, a season-right collar, and a background that does not outshout the face.

• Seasons

  Makeup colors for autumn coloring

  Lip, cheek, and eye colors that agree with Soft Autumn, True Autumn, and Dark Autumn, plus the shades that look pretty in the pan and dull on the face.

• Photo

  Lighting for a selfie or a headshot

  Window light, fill, and the overhead bulb that makes everyone look tired.

• Seasons

  Makeup colors for spring coloring

  Lip, cheek, and eye colors that agree with Light Spring, True Spring, and Bright Spring, plus the shades that look pretty in the pan and dull on the face.

• Seasons

  Makeup colors for summer coloring

  Lip, cheek, and eye colors that agree with Light Summer, True Summer, and Soft Summer, plus the shades that look pretty in the pan and dull on the face.

• Grooming

  Makeup and tinted products for men who want to look rested

  A short kit for men: sunscreen, a tint that matches the jaw, a lip balm in the right hue, and when concealer helps a photograph.

• Seasons

  Makeup colors for winter coloring

  Lip, cheek, and eye colors that agree with Dark Winter, True Winter, and Bright Winter, plus the shades that look pretty in the pan and dull on the face.

• Grooming

  Men’s grooming that shows in a photo

  Hairline, beard neck, brows, and the collar. The parts a headshot actually records.

• Seasons

  Metals next to the face

  Gold, silver, and tortoise as small mirrors, and a daylight test that does not require new jewelry.

• Face shapes

  Necklines that change the outline

  How a V, a crew, a boat neck, and a shirt collar add or repeat length and width.

• Photo

  Posture in photos

  How the camera records a collapsed chest and a jaw pushed forward, without the unreplicated power-pose claims.

• Contrast

  Prints when your contrast is low or high

  How the light-dark gap inside a print behaves like a collar.

• Skincare

  Skincare basics before a photograph

  Sunscreen, a gentle cleanse, and retinoids as a long game. No invented percentages.

• Research

  The red effect, and where it stops

  Elliot and Niesta’s romantic-red finding, what it tested, and why your season still picks the red.

• Undertones

  Undertones in real light

  How to see warm, cool, and neutral coloring in daylight, and why wrist veins are a weak test.

• Seasons

  The twelve color seasons, without the personality test

  How temperature, depth, and clarity split coloring into twelve palettes, and how to tell neighbor seasons apart in daylight.

• Seasons

  How to wear Bright Spring with the clothes you already own

  Bright Spring as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear Bright Winter with the clothes you already own

  Bright Winter as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear Dark Autumn with the clothes you already own

  Dark Autumn as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear Light Summer with the clothes you already own

  Light Summer as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear Dark Winter with the clothes you already own

  Dark Winter as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear Soft Autumn with the clothes you already own

  Soft Autumn as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear Soft Summer with the clothes you already own

  Soft Summer as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear Light Spring with the clothes you already own

  Light Spring as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear True Spring with the clothes you already own

  True Spring as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear True Autumn with the clothes you already own

  True Autumn as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear True Summer with the clothes you already own

  True Summer as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Seasons

  How to wear True Winter with the clothes you already own

  True Winter as a shopping and photo problem: which collar, which neutral, and which color to move away from your face.

• Wardrobe

  What to wear to a first meeting

  Clothes for a first meeting with a person, a client, or a camera: quiet contrast, a right collar, and shoes you can walk in.

Categories: Photo, Wardrobe, Grooming, Contrast, Face shapes, Fragrance, Research, Seasons, Skincare, Undertones.