To Create a Reference Beyond What the Eye Sees
In personal color analysis, we observe the relationship between a person and color.
Different colors are placed near the face, and we compare how the skin appears beside each one. With one color, the face may appear lighter. With another, redness may become more noticeable or facial shadows may appear stronger.
These observations are essential to personal color analysis.
But they lead to an important question.
Are we all seeing the same skin color?
Two people can look at the same skin and perceive it differently.
One person may notice redness first, while another may perceive more yellowness.
Lighting, surrounding colors, viewing distance, and even the colors seen immediately beforehand can influence how skin color is perceived.
Visual observation matters.
But observation alone does not always provide a reference that can be shared consistently.
This is where COCORY’s interest in measuring skin color began.
Seeing and Measuring Are Not the Same
The human eye is remarkably sensitive to relationships between colors.
We can quickly notice whether the face appears lighter beside one color, whether redness becomes stronger beside another, or whether the overall impression changes.
This ability is essential in personal color analysis.
However, the eye does not express color numerically.
When we describe skin as
“slightly lighter,”
“more red,”
or
“more yellow,”
those descriptions still include an element of human perception.
Measurement approaches skin color differently.
Alongside the question,
“How does this skin look?”
we can ask,
“What color values are being measured from this skin at this moment?”
Measurement does not replace observation.
It creates a comparable reference point before interpretation begins.
Skin Color Cannot Be Explained by a Single Impression
As explored in the previous journals, skin color cannot be sufficiently described by a single word.
What we perceive as skin color is created by several characteristics working together.
Through color data, we can examine values such as:
- L* — lightness
- a* — the degree of the red direction
- b* — the degree of the yellow direction
- b*−a* — the relationship between red and yellow
- Chroma — the intensity of the measured color
Two people may have similar lightness while showing very different relationships between a* and b*.
Conversely, two people may have similar b*−a* values even though their individual a* and b* values are very different.
This means skin color cannot be fully explained by one impression or a single number.
To understand its structure more precisely, multiple values need to be read together.
The Problem Was Not a Lack of Colors
There has never been a shortage of colors available for personal color analysis.
The challenge was not the number of colors.
The challenge was how to connect and compare a person’s skin color with a large range of colors using a consistent reference.
If an analysis begins only from the analyst’s visual impression, the starting point can vary from one observer to another.
And when the starting point changes, it becomes difficult to compare results or accumulate data within the same framework.
COCORY saw the need for a way to place individual observations on a more consistent reference.
We wanted a method that would allow the same skin to be measured again, compared with other people, and connected with the results of actual color analysis.
This process led to the development of CUBE.
CUBE Creates a Measurable Starting Point
CUBE is a color measurement tool developed by COCORY to measure skin color.
Its role, however, is not to determine someone’s personal color from a single number.
CUBE records the skin color measured at that moment as numerical data so that it can be examined together with visual comparison.
Instead of stopping with impressions such as
“the skin looks yellow”
or
“the skin seems red,”
we can examine the measured lightness,
the individual a* and b* values,
and the relationship between those values.
The important change is not simply that skin becomes a set of numbers.
It is that different people’s skin can now be examined through the same framework.
Data Is a Reference, Not the Result
Having measurement data does not automatically tell us which color will look best on a person.
Personal color is ultimately about observing the changes and relationships that appear between a person and color.
When a color is placed near the face, we still need to compare:
Does the skin appear lighter?
Does redness become more noticeable?
Do facial shadows become stronger?
How does the relationship between the face and the color change?
These responses cannot be determined from skin color data alone.
For this reason, COCORY does not treat CUBE measurements as the final result of an analysis.
They are a reference from which analysis begins.
Measurement creates the reference.
Comparison reveals the change.
Analysis connects the two.
CUBE was developed to make this process more consistent.
From Individual Observation to Comparable Data
There is another reason skin measurement matters.
When each analysis exists only as an analyst’s visual judgment, it is difficult to compare findings across different people.
When skin color is measured using the same method, however, each result can become part of a comparable body of data.
Repeated characteristics can be observed across many people.
Differences between skin colors that initially appeared similar can be examined more closely.
And phenomena that were once explained mainly through visual impressions can be reconsidered through measurable values.
COCORY does not measure skin color to reduce people to a few numbers.
The purpose is the opposite.
Measurement allows us to examine individual differences more precisely and gives us a common language through which those differences can be compared.
The Question After Measurement
With CUBE, COCORY established a consistent way to measure skin color.
But once skin color could be read as data, another question emerged.
If a person’s skin can be measured,
how should the enormous range of colors used in analysis be organized?
How can measured skin data be connected with physical color samples?
And how can repeatedly observed relationships between people and colors be accumulated into a consistent analytical framework?
Measurement alone cannot answer these questions.
COCORY’s research therefore did not stop with measuring skin color.
In the next journal, we will explore how COCORY organizes and analyzes a large range of colors through the COCORY Color Curating System — CCCS.
COCORY Color
Setting the Standard for Color, for People.
