Which season are you? Seasonal Color Analysis and why it matters

Have you ever opened your closet to a rainbow array of colors and thought, well, it’s going to be black pants today, I guess?  We have all fallen victim to closet color overload, where our clothing feels incapable of being mixed and matched, and just doesn’t even seem to look good on us. Well, here’s where seasonal color analysis can help you out. 

Seasonal color analysis is a system that takes our skin tone, natural eye tone, and hair color and formulates the best color palette for us based on those factors.  It takes into account our undertones (hue) and the value (light versus dark) of our skin, hair, and eyes and uses that to find the types of colors we look best in. 

 We may earn a commission from you clicking a link below. And as an amazon associate, we earn on qualifying purchases. Full affiliate policy, here.

How do you determine your season?

Seasonal color analysis is broken up into three main factors:

Hue: Your hue can either be cool or warm  (there are also neutral leaning seasons but they will still often lean one way slightly)

Value:  Your value is either light or dark 

Chroma: Muted/soft to bright/clear

And are evaluated from your:

• Eye color
• Hair color
• Skintone 
• And most importantly how your skin’s undertone reacts to certain colors

Your skin tone, hair color, and eye color will fall into one of four main seasonal categories: winter, spring, summer, and autumn. 

The base families are named after seasons because each season has an established color association with it.  For instance, we think of oranges and red for autumn, icy white and pale blue for winter, lush green for spring, and light, airy colors for summer.  

This is not a new concept and goes back to impressionist painters who had to accurately represent a seasonal landscape by the tones, hues, and shades they used.  But the concept of seasonal color in regards to your own hair, skin, and eyes was popularized by Carole Jackson’s book “Color Me Beautiful” in the 1980s.

Does anyone else have flashbacks of their mom trying to properly categorize them when they were a teen? No, just me.  Well, I plan to give you some easier-to-digest resources on how to determine your seasonal color. 

This should not be a limiting experience, but rather setting up a strong foundation to build upon. 

As you can see in the below image, we have the same girl with a color that brings out her best features, a color that is neutral (doesn’t highlight but doesn’t take away from either), and a color that is wrong for her.  (if you don’t see it, try imagining her in a full dress in that color).

The more you train your eye to see the depth of color, and the hue of the color, the more you will be able to accurately picks colors for your season.  However, we will be getting into foundational color palettes for all 12 seasonal color analyses shortly. 

So while your hue will relate to whether you have warm or cool undertones.  Your value (light or dark) will include your overall coloring, but will more specifically focus on your hair color. 

Hue: Warm versus Cool

To give you a better understanding of the two hue options here are some examples.

Warm-Hued Faces

Warm hued faces will have less contrast between their skin, eyes, and hair color. They often have golden or rich undertones.

Cool-Hued Faces

Cool faces will have moderate to high contrast in their features.  They often have darker hair and more pale skin.  But all races can have cool undertones, and it breaks down to having a contrast between your skin tone and your hair.  

Now, that is just the first two base categories, there are actually 4 main hue options. 

• Cool
• Neutral
• Warm
• Olive – Note olive skin tone is a hotly debated topic in the color analysis world. While it if often marked as a “cool” undertone, color draping is the most reliable way to find your season and can mean you are a warm/neutral toned olive.

related: the kibbe body system explained

How to Determine Skin Undertone: Seasonal Color Analysis Step 1

In order to determine your exact undertone, you can try one of the following tests.  These tests work well for most people, but they can create confusion.  If you aren’t getting a clear undertone after a specific test, try another one.  And, don’t get too hung up if one test feels like an outlier. 

However, the MOST reliable way to find your seasonal color palette is to do color draping. This is examining how your skin reacts to color. I have an ULTIMATE guide on how to DIY your season, here.

The jewelry (metal) test

  In natural sunlight put both silver and gold jewelry on your skin.  Which one looks best? Which one gives you more even-toned, healthy-looking skin? If you look best in gold jewelry then you have warm undertones, and if you look best in silver jewelry you have cool undertones.  Be careful about bias with this test. Your natural instinct may be to pick the jewelry color you wear most.  

Vein Color Test

This is an outdated test and has largely been debunked.

The White Paper Test

For this test, you can use a piece of white paper or a clear white piece of fabric (avoid ivory or off-white).  Hold the fabric or paper near your face, sans any makeup, in natural light.  If your skin looks more yellow, peachy, or golden, then you have warm undertones, and if your skin looks more blue, red, or pink, then you have cool undertones. 

Tan or Burn test

  If you tan really easily you have warm undertones.  And if you burn or are unable to tan at all, then you most likely have cool undertones.  Although, there are always exceptions to this one.

 If none of the tests so far have given you clear answers there are two more options for you.  You could be neutral-toned. Every person is technically a mix of both warm and cool tones, however, there is usually one dominant family.  For neutral-toned people, there is no dominance and there is an even balance of both warm and cool. This could be the reason your test results show different answers when comparing different options.  For instance, you might have green veins, but look best in gold jewelry. OR you might even have both green and blue veins but tan easily.  

You can also do a comparison test against other faces with clear undertones.  When comparing your face to others within the obvious undertone seasons, it can become obvious what coloring you match best.  

related: how to determine your body shape

Magenta Vs. Orange Test

In natural light, with no makeup drape yourself with bright orange and then magenta fabric. Take photos of each.

Now, even if you haven’t trained your eye yet, this color test/draping will help. Both of these photos were taken with no makeup, natural light, and with the same camera settings. Please note you need to use a cool-toned pink like magenta, if you use a salmon pink you are essentially just comparing two warm colors.

You can see that the orange makes my skin look blotchy and highlights the red patchiness on my nose and cheeks. Whereas pink makes my skin look clear and bright. I am cool-toned. If you look best in orange, then you are most likely warm-toned.

Here are some other color tests to determine your undertone:

Determining your Season Step 2

Now that you know your undertone, you can determine your color season by evaluating your hair color and eyes to further categorize it as light or dark.  

There are two cool seasons 

• WINTER 
• SUMMER

There are two warm seasons

• SPRING
• AUTUMN

Here is how they break down in terms of hair and eye color.

Winter Hair and Eyes

Winter seasons have cool undertones, dark hair, vibrant eyes, and high contrast between their skin, eyes, and hair. 

Summer Hair and Eyes

Summer seasons have cool undertones, but have lighter hair and eye colors.  While they have some contrast between their skin tone and their hair/eyes it is much more moderate than in the winter seasons. 

Autumn Hair and Eyes

Autumn seasons have warm undertones, with dark hair and dark eyes.  They do not have high or even moderate contrast between their skin, eyes, and hair, but rather create a soft blend between all three features. 

Spring Hair and Eyes

Spring seasons have warm undertones but lighter hair and eyes. They can still have dark features (skin, hair, or eyes), but there isn’t a lot of contrast between the three features and it feels like a blend instead of stark contrast. 

Help, I don’t fit into any of these seasons! 

There are 4 main seasons, as we have discussed.  But that is not where the seasonal analysis ends.  In order to expand upon all the options, they went further and broke it down into 12 main seasonal analysis options. 

It starts with your undertone/hue (warm or cool), then goes onto value (light or deep), and then into chroma (clear or muted).  

Once we take into consideration all three categories, we have 12 main options.  This will help you choose the most flattering colors for your unique season, and guide you toward an easy palette to choose from.

It does not mean you “can’t” wear certain colors. But instead, it is about picking colors with your correct undertone to more easily flatter your complexion.  

related: seasonal capsule wardrobes

12 Seasonal Color Analysis 

The circle chart will give you a basic idea of what looks and colors we are associating with each of the 12 options.

Now, let’s go over each of the 12 seasonal color palettes and what characteristics they have. 

WINTER Season Color Palettes 

Cool (True) Winter 

Cool winters have the following characteristics. 

 Hair:  Ashybrown, black brown or black with blue undertones, silver, occassionally there are blondes

Eyes: Blue, gray, violet, light brown, icy hazel, clear brown

Skin:  very pale beige, pale beige, pale olive, rosy beige, black (no golden hues)

Best colors: Primary colors, pure pigments, fully saturated 

Worst colors: golden and brown hues, warm soft tones 

Hue: Cool/Neutral

Value: Medium

Chroma: Clear/ Bright

Cool winters have high contrast between their hair, skin tone, and eyes.  They look best in icy colors and cool colors.  Avoid warm-toned colors for the most flattering pairings.  Pastels all also generally avoided and in their place, you should go for icier colors instead (high saturation + white). Darker values can work well for the cool winters, so long as they have a cool undertone. 

Cool Winter Celebrities:  Liv Tyler, Marian Cotillard, Jennifer Connelly, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brook Shields 

Clear (Bright) Winter `

Clear winters have the following characteristics:

Skin: Cool undertones and light olive complexions

Hair: Medium brown to black with blue or ashy tints (no red or golden undertones)

Eyes: Striking eyes (almost jewel-like) are a signature of the clear winter.  Bright blue, green, clear gray hazel, and a rich brown

Best Colors: Vivid hues with cool undertones, intense pigments, icy colors

Worst colors: dusty and muted tones, warmer shades

Hue: Cool/Neutral

Value: Medium, learning towards light

Chroma: Clear and bright 

Clear winters have high contrast between their skin tone and hair and have striking clear eyes.  They are most commonly found with darker hair shades like medium to dark brown but can have lighter hair if it has a cool undertone.  They look best in vivid hues that have cool undertones, like icy colors or intense pigment colors.  They are a neutral season so they can pull off some highly saturated slightly warm colors as well. They should generally avoid dusty tones, or muted colors.  

Clear Winter Celebrities: Courtney Cox, Zooey Deschanel, Alexis Bledel, and Lupito Nyong’o 

Deep (Dark) Winter

Deep winters have the following characteristics: 

Skin: Olive undertones or deep cool undertones

Hair: Medium to dark brown, black, silver gray

Eyes: dark hazel, dark brown, black

Best Colors: High-saturation colors and rich primary colors, pure pigments

Worst Colors: earthy tones, warm nudes, and warm browns, oranges and yellows

Hue: Cool/Neutral

Value: Deep

Chroma: Leans towards bright and clear

Deep winters have a rich and high-contrast feel.  Their skin tones are not purely cool and could even be considered more neutral. Olive complexions are also included in this.  They have dark eyes and dark hair.  They look best in high saturation colors and rich primary colors or pure pigments. They should avoid earthy tones, warm nudes, or warm-toned browns, oranges, and yellows. 

Deep Winter Celebrities: Anne Hathaway, Viola Davis, Archie Panjabi, and Priyanka Chopra

SUMMER season color palettes

Light Summer 

Light summers have the following characteristics:

Skin: Neutral undertone with a possible rosy hint (most likely burns easily)

Hair: Light to medium ash blonde, light ash brown

Eyes: light gray, light blue, medium blue, light green (blue hue)

Best Colors: light colors that are dusty or powdery

Worst Colors: dark overpowering colors, and high-saturation warm-tones

Hue: Cool/Neutral

Value: Light

Chroma: Medium 

Light summers have neutral skin that burns easily and can have a rosy tint to it.  Their hair is icy and in the blond or very light brown family.  They have light-colored eyes like blue, green, or gray.  They look best in light colors that are dusty, or powdery. The light colors complement the light tones in their coloring and don’t overpower their delicate features. They should generally avoid dark colors or high-saturation warm tones. 

Light summer celebrities: Elle Fanning, Margot Robbie, Cate Blanchett, Amy Poehler, and Naomi Watts 

Soft Summer

Soft summers have the following characteristics: 

Skin: Light to medium beige, light brown withe neutral undertones

Hair: Light to medium brown (ash blond tint)

Eyes: Gray, Blue, Hazel, Brown

Best Colors: Soft, muted hues, in the cooler color family

Worst Colors: Neons, rich clear colors

Hue: Cool/Neutral

Value: Medium

Chroma: Soft 

Soft summers have neutral undertones or blue undertones with a pink tint.  They can also have brown skin tones that have a neutral undertone.  Their hair colors are in the light-to-medium brown color family with ash blond highlights or tints. Soft summers have low contrast between their eyes, hair, and skin.  They look best in soft and muted hues that are more subtle (usually in the cooler color family).  They should generally avoid clear colors that are neon or especially rich, which tends to overwhelm their complexions subtlety. 

Soft Summer celebrities: Sarah Jessica Parker, Cara Delevingne, Ellen Pompei, Jennifer Aniston, and Rihanna

Cool Summer

Cool summers have the following characteristics: 

Skin: Cool undertones that generally range from medium beige to dark cool brown

Hair: Medium to dark brown with ashy undertones 

Eyes: gray, blue, slate

Best Colors: Cool hues that are medium to dark in tone

Worst Colors: warm tones, earthy shades, especially warm yellows

Hue: Cool

Value: Medium

Chroma: slightly leans towards soft/muted

Cool summers have cool or blue undertones to all three characteristics (skin, hair, and eyes). They often have cool or neutral skin tones with grey, blue or slate eyes.  Their hair tones are ashy in nature and range from medium to dark brown (not black). They look best in cool hues that are medium and sometimes dark in the color palette. They should avoid warm tones, especially yellow-toned hues or earthy warm shades.  

Cool Summer Celebrities: Kate Middleton, Allison Williams, Emily Blunt, and Emily Deschanel 

SPRING season color palette

Light Spring 

Light springs have the following characteristics:

Skin: fair skin with pink or peachy undertones, may tan, freckles are common

Hair: Light to medium gold blonde and brown, sometimes strawberry blonde

Eyes: Blue, green, hazel, or light soft brown

Best Colors: Light, warm, clear colors

Worst Colors: Dark, overpowering colors

Hue: Warm/Neutral

Value: Light

Chroma: Medium

Light springs have peachy or rosy fair skin that may tan or freckle.  They have golden blonde or brown hair with blue, green, hazel, or even light brown eyes.  They look best in light, warm, clear colors. They should avoid wearing dark or overpowering colors that can wash them out. 

Light Spring Celebrities: Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Blake Lively, and Michelle Williams

Clear (Bright) Spring 

Clear springs have the following characteristics 

Skin: Porcelain, milky white to golden brown, tans easily 

Hair: Golden light to dark brown hair, can include copper or auburn tones

Eyes: Bright, clear eye colors.  Blue, green, and light brown 

Best Colors: Saturated, warm hues and bright colors

Worst Colors: Nudes, dusty-muted pastels

Hue: Warm/Neutral

Value: Medium

Chroma: Clear, bright

Clear Springs have porcelain, bronze, and warm brown skin that usually tans easily (can include a brown/black as well).  Their hair colors ran from medium to dark brown (with golden undertones) and can include some red or copper highlights. They have bright clear eyes like blue, green, and topaz.  They look best in saturated, warm hues. Generally, they should avoid nudes and muted/dusty pastels as it will wash them out. Clear Springs are high-contrast compared to the rest of the spring family, which lets them embrace bright colors easily. 

Clear Spring Celebrities:  Emma Watson, Mila Jovovich, Jessica Pare

Warm (True) Spring

Warm springs have the following characteristics:

Skin: Warm toned skin, porcelain shades to light bronze

Hair: Strawberry blonde, golden blonde, light golden brown, coppery red

Eyes: blue, light brown, dark green, and light hazel

Best Colors: Vibrant, warm-toned colors

Worst Colors: cool-toned pastels and darker shades

Hue: Warm

Value: Medium

Chroma: Leans towards Clear and Bright 

Warm springs have warm traits in their eyes, skin, and hair.  They have warm porcelain, to light bronze skin with golden blonde hair, strawberry blonde hair, or coppery red hair.  They have light eyes.  They look best in vibrant, warm-toned colors that compliment the glowiness in their complexions. They should avoid cool-toned pastels and darker shades. They look fantastic in oranges and yellows that bring out their warm intensity. 

Warm Spring Celebrities: Blake Lively, Cameron Diaz, Goldie Hawn, Jayma Mays, and Gillian Anderson

AUTUMN season color palette

Warm (True) Autumn

Warm autumns have the following characteristics: 

Skin: Ivory, golden, medium brown (all warm undertones)

Hair:  Medium to Dark Brown with golden tones, Warm auburn, darker red

Eyes: light brown, green, hazel, sometimes dark brown (rich)

Best Colors: Rich and muted warm tones (think browns, rusts)

Worst Colors: pastels and pastel brights

Hue: Warm

Value: Medium

Chroma: Medium 

Warm Autumns have warm undertones to their skin and the tone can range from ivory to medium brown.  They typically have hair colors that range from medium to dark brown or red (including auburn) all with golden undertones.  Their eyes are light brown, green, or (green) hazel.  They look amazing in rich and muted warm tones, especially earthy colors like brown and rust.  They should generally avoid pastels or pastel brights that wash them out. 

Warm Autumn Celebrities:  Jessica Alba, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Mara, Julianne Moore, and Julia Roberts

Deep Autumn

Deep autumns have the following characteristics:

Skin: Ivory, golden beige, medium to rich browns with warm undertones

Hair: medium to dark brown, brown-black (can have honey or ginger highlights)

Eyes: Dark-blue, dark green, hazel, dark brown, brown black 

Best Colors: Bold, warm colors with rich pigments

Worst Colors: Dusty colors and pastels

Hue: Warm/Neutral

Value: Deep

Chroma: Muted

Deep autumns have warm tones in their hair, eyes, and skin.  They have medium to dark brown hair with golden undertones.  Their eyes are darker, and range from dark blue, dark green, to dark brown or brown/black.  Their skin tans easily and ranges from warm ivory to rich chocolate.  They look amazing in bold, warm colors that are rich in pigment.  They should generally avoid dusty colors or soft pastels as it will make them look washed out. 

Deep Autumn Celebrities: Kendall Jenner,  Halle Berry, Natalie Portman, Sofia Vergara, Oprah, and Mindy Kaling

Soft Autumn

Soft Autumns have the following characteristics:

Skin: Ivory, tan, to light brown (all with warm or neutral undertones)

Hair: Golden blonde to dark brown (can have ginger highlights) 

Eyes: Green, Hazel, Blue or light brown

Best Colors: Muted warm-toned colors, blended colors

Worst Colors: Stark colors (like black), and high-pigment bright colors

Hue: Warm/Neutral

Value: Leans Light

Chroma: Soft/Muted

A soft autumn does not have a lot of contrast between their hair and skin. Their skin tone often has neutral undertones, but can also have more prominent warm undertones.  They look best in muted colors with warm undertones, that pair nicely with their skin tones hue. They also look great in blended colors (not primary).  They should generally avoid stark colors (black), or bright colors (high pigment, like fuchsia, etc) because they tend to make them look sallow. 

Soft Autumn Celebrities: Gigi Hadid, Gisele Bundchen, Drew Barrymore, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley 

The pitfalls of seasonal color analysis 

It can be difficult to pinpoint your seasonal color at times.  So if you struggle with the methods listed above, or can’t quite seem to place yourself, ask a friend for help.  An outside perspective can help you narrow your season down without your innate bias.

The cool pink/orange draping test should help you narrow down your season options. If you look best in orange you are warm-toned and will be in the autumn or spring season. If you look best in magenta you will fall into the summer or winter season.

Next, you can also take a well-lit photo of yourself and turn it into a black and white photo by “de-saturating” it (do not use a filter!). This will help you see how much contrast you have in your face. Knowing your contrast will be able to hone which sub-season you belong to.

Whew! Have I inundated you with enough color theory and seasonal color analysis yet?  These charts are great to save for reference.  They can help you hone your wardrobe and makeup to perfectly fit your complexion.

And if you struggle with your wardrobe, and it’s constantly a hot mess that doesn’t work together (even a little), check out my Self-Guided Personal Style Workbook to sort through your style data and build an authentic personal style you love.

Now, go be that _insert color season here_  and flourish! 

This is a lot of information to digest, so be sure to save the pin below so you can reference your best colors and your season, as needed.