In a corner of the living room of her Sacramento home, Hannah Yan puts on a white lab coat and pulls a few swatches of fabric from a rack. She drapes them over her client, Maria Pascoal, seated in front of an illuminated vanity mirror, comparing the different shades and tones.
Yan gazes intently at how the colors reflect against Pascoal’s skin, eyes and hair. She asks Pascoal for feedback, and after a few more swaps of fabric, settles on what looks best.
“I tell them very objectively what I’m noticing, and then I look at it as more of a collaborative experience. We take a look at it and then we both together decide what is really looking the best,” said Yan.
Determining which colors look best on a person, complimenting an individual’s complexion and skin color, is at the center of Yan’s new color analysis business. Launched in June, it’s the only service of its kind in Sacramento.
“I’ve always been interested in presentation, makeup, beauty, fashion, and how you present yourself to the world. Color just seemed to be another piece of that,” said Yan, a 29-year-old Sacramento native.
Color analysis is both a science and an art, building on color theory with the subjectivity of style and fashion. For example, a person with warm undertones to their skin —subtle golden, yellow, or peachy hues underneath the surface —wearing cool blue colors may make them look grayish and sickly. A person with cool undertones — hints of pink, red, or bluish hues on the face — might look muddy wearing yellow.
Color analyst Hannah Yan compares fabrics of various colors with client Maria Pascoal earlier this month. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
Pascoal, 46, was Yan’s client on a recent Friday afternoon. Her rainbow-dyed streak of hair and her clothing were draped in white — allowing Yan to start with a blank canvas.
“I like seeing how when you drape the different colors, it affects how you look, and it’s pretty amazing. It seems magical,” Pascoal said.
Yan starts by determining her client’s skin tones and matching them with one of four color palettes, each named for a different season. The winter palette is filled with saturated blues and jewel tones; the summer palette features powder blues and soft reds. She also determines each client’s sub-palette, which might sit between seasons or feature deeper or brighter shades.
“The right kind of colors will bring a lot of lift and harmony and structure and a healthy glowing complexion to your face. And the wrong colors will do the opposite. They can make you look ill or sallow or really grayed out or drained of color,” Yan said.
Pascoal, who works as an artist and arts educator, initially struggled to separate her attachment to certain colors from the way they looked on her skin. “I love all the colors and so it was hard for me to be objective about how things affect it – to just look like a robot at my face and the color and not be affected by what I feel.”
But after a few rounds with the color swatches — and with Yan pointing out how a lighter coral color cast Pascoal in gray light while a warmer red smoothed out her skin tones — Pascoal started seeing the effects. She wound up being a deep autumn, a color scheme with deep greens and maroon reds.
“When we got to deep (autumn) at the end, I did recognize some colors that I have been drawn toward in the past,” Pacoal said. “I’m definitely going to be using this palette as a direction in my thrifting, and it gives me some focus, which I appreciate.”
Maria Pascoal points out shades of color in her hair during her appointment with color analyst Hannah Yan earlier this month. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com 
Color analyst Hannah Yan compares fabrics of various colors with client Maria Pascoal earlier this month. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
Fashion color analysis has been around since at least the early 20th century, but the practice took off in the 1980s after the publication of several books on the subject bolstered by widespread, accurate color printers. It remains relatively less mainstream in the western hemisphere than in the east, especially compared to South Korea and Japan.
Renewed attention to color analysis sparked on social media and TikTok in the 2020s when the practice went viral. Those videos, Yan said, piqued her interest and she realized she had an eye for matching colors and people. She enrolled in an online course before attending a three-day class in Toronto in April to be certified as a color analyst. She also trained in helping people, largely women, find the right shades of makeup and jewelry tones.
“Throughout my life I’ve noticed that certain colors would make me look my best and others wouldn’t, so when I finally got my own color analysis done, it made so much sense,” Yan said. “It made such an impact in my life that I really wanted to help others gain that ease and confidence too.”
Hannah Yan looks through her selection of colored fabrics during a session with a client earlier this month. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
Yan said she spent around $2,700 on the classes and another $3,000 on materials and supplies. Her investment seems to be paying off. Since launching, Yan’s calendar has been booked, with sessions in August and September filling up as soon as they opened.
“I did not expect her to really try to educate me on how to evaluate colors and what to look for when you’re putting something on,” said Citlali Medina, 29, one of Yan’s first clients and an old friend from college.
A communications professional between jobs, Medina went to Yan for advice on updating her professional wardrobe but ended up with advice for her off-duty wardrobe too. She recently wore an electric pink dress that had previously been condemned to the back of her closet (Medina said she was “pinkphobic”) and received several compliments.
“It was very much a confirmation that I made the right choice in meeting up with Hannah. Not only did she provide me with clarity, she gave me more confidence,” Medina said.
Color analyst Hannah Yan compares fabrics of various colors with client Maria Pascoal earlier this month. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
Puja Malhotra, 33, was looking to overhaul her wardrobe after giving birth to her first child. “The baby weight comes off, but your body is very different. Clothes just don’t fit the way that they used to, and you’re just carrying weight very differently,” Malhotra said.
She tried online color analysis apps and an AI tool, but got inconsistent results. She decided to book a session with Yan and said she was impressed with her attention to detail. She’s since recommended the service to friends.
“I’m glad that I stopped trying to make these dumb AI tools work, because at the end of the day, I think it is one of those things that you have to do in person,” Malhotra said.
Yan only does a few sessions a month; she has a full-time job as a user experience design researcher. But she has a healthy waitlist and estimated she has enough interest to keep her in business for the next 2 to 3 years. She plans on increasing her fee — currently $175 for a two-hour session — in October.
Yan knows not everyone will end up following her analysis, but hoped it will help her clients make more informed decisions the next time they visit the mall or the makeup counter — or the next time they open their closet.
“I always tell people like this is just information at the end of the day, and how you choose to use the colors is totally up to you,” Yan said. “I’m just here to help you see it.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2026 at 11:00 AM.
The Sacramento Bee
Vince Basada is a 2026 summer reporting intern for The Sacramento Bee. He is a rising senior at UC Davis and works as a news editor at the school’s student paper, The California Aggie.