[Interview] Casually Discovering Your 'Personal Color'

'Chae Min Your Own Image' CEO Nam Chae Min

'Chae Min Your On Image' CEO Nam Chae Min

[Culture & Life Reporter Eunji Kim] "I support living a confident life by utilizing your own unique color."

The personal color worldview is not simple. Spring Warm, Summer Cool, Autumn Warm, Winter Cool. At a glance, it seems simple, but when you look inside, you will feel your mind getting tangled. The swamp of tones is deep and rough, making it hard to escape easily. Eventually, you fall into the trap of "this tone, not that tone, but kind of this tone me," leading to the mistake of buying all seasonal beauty items. This is the so-called "tone confusion" situation, and if you no longer want to waste time and money, send an SOS signal to a personal color expert.

Nam Chaemin, CEO of 'Chaemin Your On Image,' who has been conducting image consulting using personal color for five years, finds the individual's tone and suggests the best styling. What makes his tone diagnosis special is the "selection and focus." CEO Nam Chaemin takes reservations for only 2-3 people a day and spends about three hours solely on personal color and image consulting, dedicating himself to helping customers make the best selection. He expressed gratitude to customers who trust him and hopes more people will knock on the door of the tone world and feel comfortable with personal color diagnosis. We listened to his story about colors.

Q. What is personal color? There are stories that it means colors that suit you, and also rumors about "atmosphere." There is so much information flooding the internet; I am curious about your definition of personal color.

A. Personal color refers to the optimal colors that harmonize with your natural skin, eye color, hair, and more deeply, eyelashes and lip color. Using colors that perfectly suit you brings gloss, shine, vitality, and a healthy complexion to your skin. Simply put, personal color is "the color that highlights your strengths." It is a color that blends harmoniously with your body colors. I believe this is exactly what personal color is.

Q. How do you diagnose personal color, and how is the tone structured? Most 'codeok' (makeup enthusiasts) know that personal color is broadly classified into four seasons, but it’s difficult to grasp the individual tones within.

We use drapes from a color research institute and place them on the skin to observe changes. Drapes are fabrics expressing the images of the four seasons?spring, summer, autumn, winter?in colors. More specifically, when we say "spring," we compare the customer to images like forsythia, azalea, fresh sprouts, and light green to find what suits them.

I do not consider skin color when diagnosing personal color. Even if the skin is dark, it could be a cool summer type or a warm spring type. Having fair skin does not automatically mean you are a cool tone. Also, there is the PCCS color system (Japanese color harmony system) that divides seasonal colors into pale, soft, dull tones, etc., and I use this to provide customers with more detailed personal color information. Nowadays, we use the KS tone chart (Korean Industrial Standard color system), which suits Koreans better.

Q. Pale, soft, dull... it’s getting more confusing. What is the basis for dividing these detailed tones? If I understand all this, can I self-diagnose my personal color?

Let’s assume a customer suits the color of autumn leaves. Then, you need to judge the saturation and brightness of that autumn leaf color. Also, you need to determine whether light grains or dark grains suit better. Since you need to find this out using drapes from a color research institute, self-diagnosis is quite difficult. Good environment and lighting are necessary. Personal color diagnosis is possible only when conditions are met. So, it’s better to have an expert look at it.

'Chae Min Your On Image' CEO Nam Chae Min

Q. I’d also like to hear about the reason you started personal color consulting and the story behind opening 'Chaemin Your On Image.'

A. I worked in the service industry for a long time, about eight years. During this time, I felt the need to study the concept of service. After realizing the interrelation between image and service, I was drawn like a magnet and started working as a service industry instructor and CS instructor. Working in the field, I learned the importance of "first impressions." This first impression is closely connected to image-making services.

While continuing to study this, I wanted to share "image-making with some basis," though subjective, with people. Then I encountered personal color and opened 'Chaemin Your On Image.' It started word of mouth, and now five years have passed since I started 'Chaemin Your On Image.'

Q. Then, how does one become a personal color consultant? What is the process? Any advice for those dreaming of working in personal color consulting?

A. Personal color image consultants began to gain attention only about 3-4 years ago in Korea. Perhaps because of this, many institutions have emerged to train personal color image consultants. You can choose an institution that suits you, complete the course, and obtain a certificate. There is no national certification specifically for personal color, but there are private certifications.

There are a few well-known academies and color research institutes, and studying at these places is good. It is important to keep studying and create your own manual. Personal color consulting requires various professional skills. Studying color theory, beauty, makeup, and other beauty-related fields will be very helpful.

Q. Looking at 'Chaemin Your On Image' SNS, there are many long messages from customers like "Thanks to you, I got the best photo of my life," "I was able to avoid the worst," "Thank you for finding my color I never thought of." When was a heartwarming moment during personal color consulting?

A. First, I want to thank all customers who trusted me and visited 'Chaemin Your On Image.' I prefer focusing on improving others' images rather than decorating myself. When customers use colors that suit them well based on personal color consulting and build self-esteem and self-love, I smile unconsciously.

Also, I feel proud when customers beautifully cultivate their inner and outer selves. I am happy when a customer who wandered using unsuitable makeup items discovers colors that naturally blend with them. At the same time, a sense of accomplishment follows, which has been the driving force and support that has allowed me to continue personal color image consulting until now. I support customers living confident lives by utilizing their own colors.

▶ Nam Chaemin, CEO of 'Chaemin Your On Image'

'Chaemin Your Own Image' CEO Nam Chaemin

Current CEO of 'Chaemin Your On Image,' Current Chief Instructor at All That Speech & Consulting, Former Receptionist at Mercedes-Benz Hansung Motors Headquarters Showroom / Lectures at Korea Export-Import Bank, Mirae Asset, Post Office Insurance, Korea University, Sookmyung Women's University, Korea University of Technology and Education, etc. / Personal color diagnosis events for Korean clothing brand stores throughout China, Personal color diagnosis for VIP customers of Chinese clothing brands

Photo='Chaemin Your On Image'

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.