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“Birthday Colors” Trend Floods Japanese Instagram

A calendar that matches every birthday with a color and personality trait is going viral in Japan. Find out your unique birthday color!

February 15, 2022

Key Points

  • The “Birthday Colors” taking over Instagram stories this week are based on the book “Colorstrology” by Michele Bernhardt.
  • The trend has people looking for their favorite items, particularly phone cases and accessories, in their specific birthday color.
  • Use the link in the article to find your matching “Birthday Color!”

What are “Birthday Colors”?

A Unique Color for Everyone!

Birthday Color swatch
A Birthday Color swatch for someone born on March 1st. Image sourced from Instagram.

Love it or hate it, astrology is the latest trend on Japanese Instagram stories. Everyone is uploading their own swatch of color with their birthday on top and prominent personality traits written on the bottom. These “Birthday Colors” are a fun way for people to share their specific swatch of color and personality traits, but where did it all come from?

Well, it seems to be from an American astrologist named Michele Bernhardt. She came up with birthday colors by using a combination of astrology, numerology, and color theory and published it in her book, “Colorstrology”, in the early 2000s.

Colorstology Book Cover
Cover of the Colorstrology book by Michele Bernhardt. Image sourced from Amazon.

She collaborated with the company Pantone and used their color database to make these birthday colors. Pantone is the world’s leading business expert on color and has been choosing “Color of the Year” for businesses for the last 22 years. This year’s color is “Very Perri” by the way.

Why are we here talking about a book for the early 2000s? Well, it might have taken a while but birthday colors have been going viral in Japan this week.

Everyone Gets a Color and a Personality

Birthday Colors
Birthday Colors. Image sourced from http://birthday-color.cafein.jp/

Many people are curious to know what their special color and associated personality traits are and who can blame them? Having your own unique color can have its advantages (especially when buying gifts for somebody) plus many people in Japan are viewing these as their “lucky color.” And let’s be honest, humanity needs all the luck it can get right now.

So, how do you find your birthday color?

Well, head on over to http://birthday-color.cafein.jp/ and simply find your birthday. Once you find your color, click on it, screenshot it, and done! Then you are free to share it to whatever social media platform you like (or keep to yourself). Then, you can compare with your friends like everyone else in Japan. However, some people are going a step further and are even buying up items in their birthday color since it’s thought to be lucky.

Although, according to Bernhardt, wearing the color or keeping it near is supposed to help balance you and doesn’t have anything to do with luck. Still, knowing your family and friends’ birthday color does make life easier when shopping.

The Birthday Cash

A 366-day birthday color smartphone case pop-up shop announcement.

Businesses are aware of the rising popularity of birthday colors and are rising to meet the demand. For those who want their birthday color nearby at all times, smartphone cases are here.

Twitter and Instagram are littered with advertisements like the one above trying to sell people their very own birthday color case, and they are not the only ones.

Accessory-makers are also starting to hop on the trend but are a bit behind. Many are confusing birthday colors with birthstones since “Colorstology” has its own monthly colors in addition to its birthday colors which are completely different than birthstones. With so many birthday colors now entering the mix, it’s no surprise they are getting confused!

Share your birthday colors with us down below!

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Layla Knight

Layla Knight is an extroverted, inquisitive creature who enjoys researching, writing and teaching. She can be found frolicking the streets of Tokyo with her mates as they work together to avoid crowds and queues. Try to catch her if you can!

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