Hey guys,

So I'm pretty OCD about getting the right color to match my skin tone when ordering packers/prosthetics.  With cyberskin, which is usually less-expensive and recolorable, it's not such a problem.  But with higher-end silicone products, I always worry that I will pick a bad match, and then be stuck with something that makes me feel super dysphoric.  I know a lot of people feel similarly, and was wondering if as a community project, we could try and put together some sort of color chart.

A few thoughts:

The color chart should have concrete comparisons and relative comparisons. I take this to mean that for each product, there should be information matching it to distinct color, but also comparing it to other, similarly-toned products and to everyday items.

The color chart should be both online and receivable by mail.  Perhaps the mailed version can have a cost of $5 or so to cover printing costs.  A paper chart ensures the best match possible.  I know that companies like RM have a paper chart that seems to be much darker than their products; we would have to work especially hard to avoid this.



Unfortunately, I'm not an artist.  I don't know anything about color theory, or how to get a good color match aside from trial and error.  Also, I only have a few medium-toned products to work with.  I'd still love to at least try to create something like this over the summer when I'm free from academic obligations and such...I'd just need a lot of help

Packers are colored in a single color. I believe the material itself is colored, so the packer is not dyed or painted.

Prosthetics are colored a different way. I am talking about something like Reel Magik. I have a LJ (can't recommend unless you can get really cheap), it looks like it is done the same way only not as well.

You have a base color which is pretty light and then the color using layers. It's how they get the realistic effects.

There is someone locally who is making prosthetics and explained this to me. He "matched me" which was interesting as he explained it to me using his paint set. There was one base color and then all sorts of build ups of various other colors. He'd say "well your skin is a bit olive so we add this", etc. I say this to point out that color matching at this level is a bit more art than science and that the flat colors you say on the RM page are not particularly a good idea how it will actually look next to you.

I am guessing that those of you using make up are using some of these kinds of ideas, even if you don't quite understand what you are doing.

--Jay

If I'm understanding right, you're wanting to put together a chart which has all of the colours of the packers which are available right now (or at least most of them?)  The problem with doing something like this, unless you own all of the packers yourself in all of their colours variants, is that you'll need people to send you the photographs of their own packers.  People sending the photographs will have to make sure that the white balance on their camera is set up correctly, and that their packer hasn't been discoloured from being worn.  Then when viewing the colour charts on screen, if your computer monitors colours aren't calibrated properly (and lets be honest, how many people actually bother to calibrate their screens) then there could be problems, although in the majority of cases not major ones.  Bigger problems happen with laptop screens as the colour changes from the angle you're viewing them at.  As for printing the pictures they would then need to be checked against some items to make sure that the printer is printing them at the same colours they should be.

It's possible, and would be a really useful bit of information, but a bit of a challenge to do, and would rely on the photographs you're being sent having good quality lighting, colour and the correct white balance.  If you're that fussy about it then you'd have to limit the camera being used to those you can preset the WB, so that's camera phones and some compact digital cameras out of the question.

Probably the best way to do it would be to ask for photographs of new, or at least ones that haven't been discoloured, packers on the smoothest part of them so shadows don't affect it (for example on the flat back of the Mr Limpy) and give a list of things that need to be done when taking the photograph like flat lighting and good WB.  Instead of comparing the colours to common or similar objects I think I'd find it more helpful if there were as just strips of blocks of colour (like the colour strips you get when you go to buy paint for your house).  So you could have a set of all the Mr Limpy colour variations, the GVs ones, and then maybe arrange them in skin tone ranges so people can see which of the "vanilla" or "caramel" coded products would suit them the best.