DIY Season Color Analysis: Are You a Spring, Summer, Winter, or Fall?

Which colors look best on you? Which colors accentuate your natural, gorgeous beauty? Figuring out your color “season” will help you find colors that make you look and feel your best. Wearing the right color can have a drastic impact on your confidence and style – so let’s take some time today to do a seasonal color analysis to determine which “season” you are. 

Why your season matters

Wearing colors that work for your natural coloring will instantly lift your mood, your confidence, and your fashion sense. Your “season” is a tool to help figure out which clothes, makeup, and hair colors will most flatter you.

What I particularly love about the seasonal color analysis is that it utilizes your natural beauty, highlighting what makes you uniquely “you” as opposed to trying to fit women into boxes or unattainable standards. Dressing for your color season will help you curate a wardrobe or personal uniform that enhances that natural beauty. If you’re looking for a gorgeous glow-up, a DIY seasonal color analysis is an easy way to start feeling brighter, more youthful, and more confident in your wardrobe.

Note: Think of your seasonal color palette as a tool, not a rule. This will help you understand which colors, shades, and patterns look most flattering on you, but you still have the freedom to wear whatever you want! This color analysis is just another way to figure out what makes you feel most confident and beautiful on the inside and out.

How to determine which color season you are

Color analysis is broken into “seasons” because the seasons already have certain color associations. We think of deep, warm reds, oranges, and browns when we think of the gorgeous leaves and outfits of fall. Winter is reminiscent of winter white, icy blue, and royal purples. Spring is filled with lush greens and floral pastels. And summer is light, airy, and beachy with bright, bold colors.

Your hair color, eye color, and skin tone are the primary factors in understanding which color season you are. We’ll look at three aspects of your coloring to determine if you’re a fall, spring, summer, or winter:

• Hue: color or warm undertones
• Value: light or dark
• Chroma: soft and muted or bright and clear

Finding your color analysis hue

The first part of figuring out your color analysis is determining your hue aka your skin’s undertone. This will determine if you have a warm or cool skin tone, so you can, in turn, determine if you look better in warm or cool colors. 

Are you cool or warm?

We are going to take five tests. Write down how many As you get and how many Bs you get based on the following phrases.

Vein test

Turn your hand over and look at the veins on your inner wrist. Which applies to you?

1. My veins appear mostly green.
2. My veins are mostly blue or purple.

Jewelry and metal test:

In natural sunlight, put both silver and gold against your skin. Thicker bracelets or necklaces work better for this test to see a comparison more easily. Be mindful in this test to look at this objectively and not just opt for the metal you wear most often. Which phrase applies to you?

1. The gold makes my skin look more even-toned, healthy, and beautiful.
2. The silver makes my skin look more even-toned, healthy, and beautiful

White paper test:

Hold a piece of clear, white paper or fabric to your skin. It should be bright white, not ivory or off-white. Printer paper works well. Stand in natural light with no makeup. Which applies?

1. My skin appears yellow, golden, or peachy next to the white paper.
2. My skin appears bluish, red, or pink next to the white paper.

Sun test:

Which phrase sounds most like you? Skip this test if you have any medications or medical conditions that impact how your skin reacts to the sun.

1. I tan more easily than I burn.
2. I burn more easily than I tan.

Pink or orange test:

Stand in natural light with no makeup. Hold up fabric that is bright orange. Take a picture. In the same lighting, hold up bright magenta fabric and take a picture.

1. I look better next to the bright orange fabric.
2. I look better next to the magenta fabric.

Test results!

If you have all or mostly As, you likely have a warm skin tone.

If you have all or mostly Bs, you likely have a cool skin tone. 

If you have a near-even split between As and Bs or you couldn’t easily figure out the answers to some of the above questions, you may have a neutral skin tone.

Note: There is a fourth option called “olive.” This is a cool color where the undertone is blue and the overtone is green. For right now, consider yourself a “cool” undertone and we’ll narrow your coloring down later.

If you have a warm hue…

• You have more golden, rich undertones.

• You likely have less contrast between your skin, eyes, and hair.

• Your eyes are probably hazel, brown, or amber.

• Your hair might be chestnut, caramel, rich brown, red, auburn, yellow, or strawberry blonde.

If you have a cool hue…

• You likely have lighter skin with darker hair (greater contrast) compared to others in your ethnicity.
• You have moderate to high contrast between your features.
• Your eyes are likely grey, green, blue, violet, or light brown or hazel.
• Your hair is likely black or dark brown, grey, ashy brown, or white or ashy blonde.

Determining your season

Value refers to the light/dark aspect of the color analysis as well as the contrast between your features. The hue came from your skin tone, but now we’ll look at hair and eyes to figure out your season.  

If you have a warm hue, you are either spring or autumn.

If you have a cool hue, you are either summer or winter.

Warm: autumn or spring? 

Autumn and spring both have warm undertones with little contrast between features. Spring and autumn feel more like a soft blend than a stark contrast.

Autumn is darker while spring is lighter. Autumns have dark hair and dark eyes, while spring seasons generally have lighter hair and eyes.

• Autumn: dark hair, dark eyes, low contrast, rich colors
• Spring: light hair, light eyes, low contrast, muted colors

Below are some examples of hair and eyes combinations for autumn and spring.

Autumn examples:

• Hair: mid-brown to black, medium to deep red, with gold or red undertones
• Eyes: hazel, medium to black, brown, olive, warm green

Spring examples:

• Hair: light blonde to medium brown, strawberry blonde
• Eyes: clear blue, green, turquoise, hazel, light brown

Cool: winter or summer?

Winter and summer both have cool undertones, but winter tends to have greater contrast than summer. Winter will likely have dark hair, bright eyes, and high contrasting features. Summer will have lighter hair and lighter eye colors. There is still some contrast in summer, but the contrast is more moderate than winter. 

• Winter: dark hair, bright eyes, high contrast, saturated colors
• Summer: light hair, light eyes, moderate contrast, muted colors

Winters look best in dark, pure, bright colors, while summers look best in lighter and softer colors. Think of winter as more saturated and darker while summer is more muted and lighter. Below are some examples of hair and eyes combinations for winter and summer.

Winter examples:

• Hair: ashy mid-brown to dark brown to black with cool undertones
• Eyes: mid-brown to black-brown, greyish blue, clear blue, cool green

Summer examples:

• Hair: light blonde to medium brown with ashy undertones
• Eyes: blue, greyish blue, cool green, greyish brown, slate

Diving deeper into your season: light, deep, warm, cool, clear, soft?

There are different categories within the four key seasons based on the chroma of your coloring. Chroma generally refers to the saturation of a color. With regards to your color analysis, it means whether your coloring contrast is bright and clear or more muted and blended. There are five palette categories: light, deep, warm, cool, and clear or soft.

There are three possibilities for each color season. First, look at your season, then figure out which subsection applies to you.   

• Winter: cool, deep, clear
• Summer: cool, light, soft
• Autumn: warm, deep, or soft
• Spring: warm, light, or clear

Warm: spring or autumn

Warm spring and warm autumn are also referred to as “true” spring or autumn because the primary features are the warm tones. You look best in warm accents that accentuate your naturally warm coloring. Your coloring may be:

• Golden blonde, brown, strawberry blonde, auburn hair
• Green, topaz, hazel, light to medium brown eyes
• Warm skin tone that’s ivory, golden beige, or bronze

Tips for warm spring and warm autumn: 

• Choose colors that have a warm undertone (yellow-red tones as opposed to blue-green)
• Some warm colors you might like: peach, apricot, coral, salmon, pumpkin, yellow-greens (lime, moss, olive), deep periwinkle, and warm purples
• Your ideal neutrals are camels, browns, warm navy, and warm grey
• Cream and ivory look best on you, as opposed to pure, bright white
• Avoid cool colors with more blue, green, and purple undertones

Celebrity examples of true autumn:

• Beyonce
• Jennifer Lopez
• Shailene Woodley
• Eva Marcille
• Isla Fisher
• Julianne Moore
• Bernadette Peters
• Aishwarya Rai
• Jennifer Stone
• Diane Lane
• Sheryl Crow
• Lindsay Lohan
• Jenna Fischer

Celebrity examples of true spring:

• Blake Lively
• Hayden Panettiere
• Cameron Diaz
• Meg Ryan
• Nicole Kidman
• Amy Adams
• Goldie Hawn
• Amy Schumer
• Kristen Bell
• Sadie Sink
• Jane Krakowski
• Leslie Mann

Cool: summer or winter

If you are a cool summer or cool winter, the primary feature of your coloring is its cool undertone. This is often referred to as true summer or true winter because you most closely fit into the winter and summer traditional coloring. You likely look best in blue or rose tones that accentuate your cool undertones. Your coloring may be:

• Light to medium brown hair with ashy tones; you may have a few red highlights but overall your hair is cool, rather than warm
• Blue, grey-blue, green, blue-green, or rosy-brown eyes
• Ivory, rose beige, or mid beige skin tone with pink undertones

Tips for cool winter and cool summer: 

• Choose colors that have a cool undertone (blue-green as opposed to yellow or golden)
• Some cool colors you might like: jewel tones, raspberry, magenta, clear blues, maroon, lavender, cool purple, blue-greens (jade green, violets, purple)
• Your ideal neutrals are silver greys, charcoal, navy, and black
• Cool, pure whites look better on you than soft off-whites
• Avoid warm colors with more yellow or orange undertones, like salmon, orange, brown, moss green, and ginger

Celebrity examples of true summer:

• Olivia Wilde
• Emily Blunt
• Allison Williams
• Megan Boone
• Anne Kendrick
• Joey King
• Alison Brie
• Jennifer Garner

Celebrity examples of true winter:

• Selena Gomez
• Janelle Monáe
• Brook Shields
• Kendall Jenner
• Christina Ricci
• Jenna Dewan
• Katy Perry
• Victoria Justice
• Liv Tyler
• Anne Hathaway
• Jameela Jamil
• Zooey Deschanel
• Amal Clooney
• Lauren Graham
• Jada Pinkett Smith

Light: summer or spring

So, you’ve determined you’re either a spring or summer, but the darker or more saturated colors in your season don’t seem to work on you. If that’s the case, you might be a light summer or light spring. You might have a “light” color analysis if you have:

• Blonde or light brown hair
• Light blue, blue-grey, aqua, or pale green/hazel eyes
• A light skin tone for your ethnicity (often ivory or fair) 

If you wear heavy colors, your face might look pale, dull, or shadowed. But in lighter pigments and shades, you will look fresh, soft, elegant, and youthful. What’s unique about the “light” color analysis is that you don’t necessarily fall into “warm” or “cool” colors. Instead, the primary feature of your coloring is the amount of pigment in the colors you wear. That’s why a lot of neutrals will fall into this category. Light spring falls into the warm category and light summer is cool, but the focus here is more on the lightness of the shade.

Tips for light summer and light spring:

• Choose light, soft pigments (not necessarily pastel, just not highly saturated or pigmented)
• Try sweet pea lavender, pastel pink, rose, peach, and lemon tones
• Add more blues and blue-greens like aqua and turquoise to your closet
• Opt for soft white or ivory instead of pure white
• Your ideal neutrals are beige, stone, taupe, pewter, light navy, light grey
• Avoid deep, harsh, vivid colors with high contrast
• If you wear a saturated color, like black, keep it away from your face and incorporate bright scarves or jewelry to bring more lightness

Celebrity examples of light summer:

• Michelle Pfeiffer
• Gwyneth Paltrow
• Jodie Foster
• Reese Witherspoon
• Amy Poehler
• Kirsten Dunst
• Naomi Watts
• Margot Robbie
• Princess Diana
• Cate Blanchett
• Blythe Danner

Celebrity examples of light spring:

• Amanda Seyfried
• Renée Zellweger
• Scarlett Johansson
• Gillian Jacobs
• Anna Sophia Robb
• Elizabeth Banks
• Jessica Chastain
• Gigi Hadid
• Taylor Swift
• Kate Hudson
• Jennifer Lawrence
• Dakota Fanning

Deep: autumn or winter

While the warm months might have light tones, the “cold” months often require deeper, more saturated tones. Lighter pigments will make you look washed out or pallid. The primary aspect of your coloring is “dark” (which is why deep coloring is also referred to as dark winter or dark autumn). 

Your natural is likely dark:

• Medium brunette to black hair, may also be a dark auburn (graying hair looks more steel grey than white or silver)
• Dark brown, black, deep hazel eyes
• Beige to deep brown skin coloring, generally neutral or neutral-cool

You are likely dark if you have either 1) all dark features or 2) dark hair and dark eyes paired with light skin. Even if you have all dark features, though, you probably have high contrast between your features.

Dark winter is cool, while dark autumn is warm. Dark winter’s colors are more black, blue, and dark grey, while dark autumn is more red, burgundy, and brown. 

Tips for deep autumn and deep winter:

• Choose colors that are intense, saturated, and bright
• “Deep” does not necessarily mean dark colors; rather, it means a deep pigmentation of the color
• Your ideal neutrals are black, charcoal grey, chocolate brown, and deep navy (strong, deeply colored neutrals)
• Opt for bright white instead of off-white
• Avoid light, pastel colors as well as warm, earthy colors like gold-orange and brown
• If you wear a pastel color, try to incorporate brighter and more vivid accessories near your face and neck

Celebrity examples of deep autumn:

• Rashida Jones
• Oprah Winfrey
• Sofia Vergara
• Jessica Alba
• Eva Mendes
• Julia Roberts
• Sigourney Weaver
• Meghan Markle
• Freida Pinto
• Natalie Portman
• Zendaya
• Lady Gaga
• Lucy Hale
• Minka Kelly
• Halle Berry
• Angela Bassett
• Hilary Swank
• Gabrielle Union
• Aubrey Plaza

Celebrity examples of deep winter:

• Sandra Bullock
• Kim Kardashian
• Demi Moore
• Penelope Cruz
• Catherine Zeta-Jones
• Mila Kunis
• Viola Davis
• Lana Parilla
• Nina Dobrev
• Gong Li
• Salma Hayek
• Gal Gadot
• Uzo Aduba
• Linda Cardellini
• Shay Mitchell
• Mindy Kaling
• Elliot Page
• Kiera Knightley
• Priyanka Chopra Jonas
• Octavia Spencer

Clear: winter or spring

Does your face look highly contrasting in the mirror? Do you have bright, saturated features that give a crisp, clear appearance? Are your eyes your most striking feature? If so, you might fall into the clear category. If you have clear cool features, you would be a clear winter, while warm features are a clear spring. 

Snow white would fall into this category because of the high contrast in skin tone, hair, and eyes. Your coloring may be:

• Mid to dark brown, black, steel grey hair (you may have red or blonde hair but the color is highly saturated)
• Very pale, delicate ivory, olive, or dark brown (often your skin is very light or very dark for your ethnicity)
• Jewel-like eyes: bright blue, steel gray, green, bright hazel

Tips for clear winter or clear spring:

• Wear “true” colors that have little to no warm or cool undertones; the goal here is clarity of color
• Your ideal neutrals are black, white, and true grey
• Opt for pure white instead of off-white or ivory
• Avoid muted colors that are too warm or too cool
• Wear a mix of light and dark colors or one bold color; contrasting pieces beautifully accent your contrasting features

Celebrity examples of clear winter:

• Megan Fox
• Tina Fey
• Alexis Bledel
• Olivia Munn
• Danai Gurira
• Courteney Cox
• Camila Mendes
• Krysten Ritter
• Maria Borges 

Celebrity examples of clear spring:

• Zoe Saldana
• Brittany Snow
• Milla Jovovich
• Emma Stone
• Kim Cattral
• Vanessa Hudgens
• Tessa Thompson
• Michelle Dockery
• Rebel Wilson
• Demi Lovato
• Miranda Cosgrove
• Julianne Hough
• Gina Rodriguez
• Kerry Washington

Soft: summer or autumn 

In opposition to the clear palette is the soft palette. Your coloring has little contrast, creating a soft and blended look between hair, skin, and eyes. I love the soft palette because it’s so demure and elegant. But it can sometimes be an arduous process to tell which shades will work best with your coloring. You might think of your coloring as “medium,” not very light and not very dark, such as:

• Not too blonde or too dark hair
• Brown, hazel, green, grey-blue eyes
• Medium intensity skin tone

When searching for colors that suit you, you want a palette that’s not too cool, not too warm, not too light, and not too deep or dark. More muted colors will reflect your beautiful natural coloring.

Tips for soft summer or soft autumn:

• Wear soft colors, like rose pink or periwinkle
• You look particularly stunning in monochrome outfits as well as washed or faded fabrics, like denim, moss, or jade
• Your ideal neutrals are charcoal grey, beige, soft cocoa, and olive (black and white are too harsh)
• Go for a soft off-white instead of pure white
• Avoid bright, saturated colors

Celebrity examples of soft summer:

• Sarah Jessica Parker
• Miley Cyrus
• Lorde
• Bella Hadid
• Jennifer Anison
• Kate Middleton
• Dakota Johnson
• Katie Holmes
• Rachel McAdams
• Maisie Williams
• Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Emilia Clarke
• Cobie Smulders
• Kristen Stewart

Celebrity examples of soft autumn:

• Meryl Streep
• Drew Barrymore
• Tyra Banks
• Kate Winslet
• Angelina Jolie
• Adele
• Nicole Richie
• Elizabeth Olsen
• Kate Moss
• Jessica Biel
• Mariah Carey
• Priscilla Presley
• Victoria Pedretti

Which seasonal color palette are you?

If you’re still having trouble figuring out your palette, ask a friend for help to give another perspective on your coloring. Or you can even consider working with a professional color analyst.

Understanding your seasonal color palette is an incredible tool to understand which colors will make you look and feel your absolute best. The next time you go shopping, try on your color palette to see if you feel better in the dressing room than you usually do! Use Current Boutique’s search feature to find your favorite stunning, high-quality designer pieces in your ideal seasonal colors!