At brunch a few weeks ago, one of my friends pulled up her phone, uploaded a selfie to ChatGPT, and asked what jewelry metals looked best on her.
Within twenty minutes all four of us were doing it.
Selfies, outfit photos, the works.
"What's my color season?" "What haircut would actually look good on me?" "Why do I look tired even when I'm not?"
I'd been to Korea recently and gotten familiar with color analysis there — how useful it is to actually understand your features instead of just copying what works on someone else. But I'd never thought to take that same logic and fully run with it.
Somehow that brunch it clicked.
TikTok is flooded with facial harmony breakdowns, AI-rated glow-up videos, color analysis prompts, and women discovering they've apparently been wearing the wrong metals for 12 years. Apps like QOVES are building entire businesses around facial analysis. People on Reddit are using ChatGPT like a deeply judgmental stylist they trust with their entire identity.
Which… fair.
Because this isn't really about becoming "hotter" in the old internet way. It's about something more specific.
For years beauty culture has basically been: consume more, buy more, copy this influencer, buy this blush, buy this $48 peptide lip treatment that allegedly changed someone's life.
And I think women are exhausted by it.
Not just by the spending. By the randomness. The sense that nothing quite coheres.
They want to know: Why does one woman look incredible in slicked back hair and another suddenly look like a founding father? Why does one makeup look make you glow while another ages you seven years? Why do some women always look expensive in a white t-shirt?
AI is surprisingly good at spotting those patterns. Not because it's magically correct, but because it gives structure to things we've always felt intuitively.
What used to be a mirror is now a prompt.
And that feels very 2026.
So What Even Is Color Analysis??
Going to Korea, I was fully open to all of it.
I did everything. Eyelash tinting and curling, color analysis, head spas, facials, 10+ lasers, Botox, filler, Sculptra. Truly an aggressive few days for the face.
I loved every second of it. But the thing that stuck with me most was the color analysis.
Color analysis is basically figuring out which colors and tones work with your skin, hair, and eyes so everything you put on works with you instead of against you.
It revealed something really core to how Koreans approach beauty: harmony. Everything is meant to work together. Your makeup, hair color, jewelry, clothing tones, even your glasses.
After getting your results, you can walk into stores like Olive Young (basically Korean Sephora) and shop specifically for your palette and undertones. The brands organize products around this system, so the whole experience feels weirdly intuitive.
For the first time in my life, beauty shopping didn't feel overwhelming.
It felt easy.
Which made me realize how chaotic it normally feels back home. Most of us are just buying things because someone on TikTok looked hot wearing it, Hailey Bieber touched it once, the packaging got us emotionally, or a Sephora employee said, “Everyone’s loving this right now.”
There’s very little guidance around what actually works for you specifically.
I started using ChatGPT this way while I was still in Korea because I couldn’t read half the labels. Then I kept going.
I started feeding it more context:
40, fair skin, pigmentation, fine lines, dark circles, sensitive skin, makeup that creases by noon.
And suddenly the recommendations felt actually useful instead of like a lucky guess.
I still use it when I shop now. Not because AI magically knows best, but because it helps narrow things down in a way that feels personal instead of random.
It’s also how I discovered I’m apparently a strong autumn, that black maybe doesn’t need to be my entire NYC personality, and that oil cleansers are not actually the enemy.
That last one was particularly humbling. I avoided them for years out of fear I’d immediately break out.
Turns out I just had no idea what I was doing.
Do Your Own AI Beauty Audit With This Prompt
If you want to do your own AI color analysis, here’s the exact prompt I’d use.
Upload 2-3 photos in natural light with minimal makeup if you have them. Bonus points for one photo wearing white or cream near your face.
Then paste this into ChatGPT or Claude.
Prompt below👇
I want you to act as a professional color analyst. I’m going to share photos of myself and I’d like you to analyze:
My likely color season: spring, summer, autumn, or winter
Whether I appear warm, cool, or neutral toned
My contrast level: low, medium, or high
Which jewelry metals look best on me: gold, silver, or rose gold
Which hair color ranges would enhance my natural coloring
Which makeup tones to lean into and which to avoid
Which clothing colors and tones would be most flattering
Please be specific and explain the reasoning behind each recommendation. If you’re unsure, say that and give your best estimate rather than pretending to be certain.
Focus on harmony and enhancing my natural features rather than trends. At the end, give me a simple shopping guide with colors, metals, makeup tones, and hair colors to look for.
A few notes:
ChatGPT is surprisingly good at styling logic
Claude tends to be softer and more nuanced
both can occasionally hallucinate complete nonsense
neither should be trusted on a day you’re feeling emotionally sensitive
Human taste still matters a lot.
The goal is not becoming some perfectly optimized algorithm-approved woman, but to understand yourself better.
And maybe finally accepting that the icy lavender lipstick era was never meant for you specifically.
Final Thoughts
The most surprising part of all of this wasn't what AI told me.
It was realizing how much of beauty has always just been guesswork.
Walking into a chaotic Sephora, getting swallowed by a wall of products, hoping that whatever a stranger recommends somehow applies to your skin, your coloring, your budget, your actual life. That's a lot to ask.
We're moving into an era of customization and I'm fully here for it.
Not toward perfection. Not toward changing everything about ourselves. Just toward understanding our own features a little better and learning how to work with what's already there.
What I actually love about AI isn't that it has all the answers. It's that for the first time the answers feel like they're actually about you.
Less "what's trending." More "what works for me."
And maybe that's the real shift.
Anyway.
I regret to inform you the algorithm was right about gold jewelry.
- Lindsey
CURRENT OBSESSIONS
Giant olives at happy hour for a satiating snack with healthy fats.
Yesteryear is a perfectly timed book for what’s going on in the world… plus Anne Hathaway bought the movie rights and I’m tempted to buy tickets now.
Walking without headphones to hear the sounds of Summer.
Tower 28 non-sticky lip gloss is my go-to and great for a windy day to avoid your hair sticking to your lips.
