Have you ever wondered “which colours suit me?” Or “which colours wash me out?”
Knowing your colour season is a shortcut to knowing which colour clothes will look amazing on you without even needing to try them on. While colour season analysis is trending at the moment, knowing your colours isn’t just a trend. It’s a guide that can help you with finding the right colours every time you shop, so you don’t waste your time and money on clothes that you’ll end up returning, or not wearing.
In this blog, we’ll explain what a colour season analysis is, what the different colour seasons are, including all the characteristics and celeb examples, and share a guide to help you find out what your colour season is.
Want to skip straight to the free colour season quiz? It will tell you which colours will look amazing on you in just a minute.
What is a colour season analysis?
A colour analysis reveals which colours suit you the best, based on your colour season.
It takes into account your skin undertones, eye colour, hair colour, and the contrast of your features, to determine the colour palette that works best for you. The colour palettes are based on the four main seasons: summer, autumn, winter, and spring.
Knowing your seasonal colour palette helps your skin to glow and your eyes to shine! Plus it steers you away from colours that could dull your skin and eyes when you wear them.
What are the different colour seasons?
There are four main colour seasons: 🌸 Summer, 🍁 Autumn, ❄️ Winter, and 🌿 Spring. Let’s break down the general characteristics of these colour seasons in simple terms.
🌸 Summer
Skin: Cooler skin undertones. Your cheeks go a pinky rosy colour when you blush.
Hair: Light blonde to medium brown. You have cooler, ashier tones in your natural hair colour.
Eyes: Blue, grey-blue, grey, grey-green, grey-brown.
Contrast: You have a low to medium contrast between your skin, hair and eyes.
Subseasons: light summer, cool (true) summer, soft summer.
🍁 Autumn
Skin: Warmer, golden skin undertones.
Hair: Medium brown to black, or a medium to deep red. Your hair has more golden or reddish undertones.
Eyes: Hazel, medium to dark brown, olive or warm green.
Contrast: You have a low to medium contrast between your skin, hair, and eyes.
Subseasons: Soft autumn, warm (true) autumn, deep (dark) autumn.
❄️ Winter
Skin: Cooler or olive skin undertones.
Hair: Ashy medium to dark brown or black. Your hair has overall cooler undertones.
Eyes: medium to dark brown, grey-blue, clear blue, or cool green eyes.
Contrast: You have a high contrast between your skin, hair, and eyes.
Subseasons: Deep (dark) winter, cool (true) winter, clear winter.
🌿 Spring
Skin: warmer undertones. When you blush your cheeks go a peachier colour.
Hair: Light blonde to medium brown, or strawberry blonde. Your hair has warmer, golden, or reddish undertones.
Eyes: Blue, blue-green, hazel, or light brown.
Contrast: You have a low to medium contrast between your skin, hair, and eyes.
Subseasons: Clear (bright) spring, warm (true) spring, light spring.
Discover your colour season: how to find out your colour season
If you couldn’t quite work out which season you fall into, or you’d like to find out your specific subseason, you’re in the right place. Here’s a step by step guide to finding your colour season, with celebrity examples to help you compare.
We’ve kept it super simple, because we’ve found a lot of other colour analysis guides can be overwhelmingly complex and scientific!
If you’d rather just take a quick quiz to find out your colour season, you can here.
Step 1: Determine your skin undertones
You need to work out whether your skin undertones are cool, neutral, or warm. The best way to do this is by looking at the veins on your wrist. If they’re blue, you have a cool undertone. If they’re green, you have a warm undertone. If you have a mix of both, you have a neutral undertone!
You can also try to check your skin undertone by whether or not you suit silver or gold jewellery more. If you think silver looks better on you, you most likely have a cool undertone. If gold works better for you, you probably have a warm undertone. If you think both look good, or you just simply don’t know, you’re probably neutral.
Step 2: Determine your eye undertones
Again, we’re looking for cool or warm here. If you have greyish, blue, green or violet eyes, you’re probably more cool. If you have hazel, brown, or amber eyes, you’re probably more warm. You may have warmer blue or green undertones, so just go with your gut!
Step 3: Determine your natural hair undertones
It’s important to note that we’re thinking of your natural hair undertones here. Is your natural hair colour more of a cool, ashy tone, or is it a warmer, golden or reddish tone?
Cool hair undertones are usually: Black, grey, ash brown, ash blonde, or white blonde.
Warm hair undertones are usually: Caramel, rich brown, red or auburn, yellow blonde, or strawberry blonde.
Step 4: Determine whether you have a high or low contrast between your features
This basically means, are your natural hair and eye colours super dark for your ethnicity? This isn’t always so easy to tell. The best way to decide is by finding a photo of you and setting it to black and white. If it isn’t particularly strikingly different, you’re probably low to medium. If there is quite a contrast, you’re probably mid to high!
Step 5: Take all your answers and look through the 12 seasonal colour palettes:
Light summer
Skin: Neutral undertone, possibly a rosy hint (probably burns easily)
Hair: Light to medium ash blonde, light ash brown
Eyes: light grey, light blue, medium blue, light green (blue hue)
Best Colours: dusty or powdery lighter colours
Worst Colours: dark overpowering colours, high-saturation warm-tones
Celebs: Margot Robbie, Cate Blanchett
Cool (true) summer
Skin: Cool undertones from medium beige to dark cool brown
Hair: Medium to dark ashy brown
Eyes: Grey or blue
Best Colours: Cool hues with medium to dark tones
Worst Colours: earthy, warm tones. Particularly warm yellows
Celebs: Kate Middleton, Allison Williams, Emily Blunt, and Emily Deschanel
Soft summer
Skin: Light to medium beige, or light brown with neutral undertones
Hair: Light to medium brown, or ashy blonde
Eyes: Grey, Blue, Hazel, Brown
Best Colours: Soft, muted, cooler colours
Worst Colours: Neons and bright colours
Celebs: Sarah Jessica Parker, Cara Delevingne, Jennifer Aniston, and Rihanna
Soft autumn
Skin: Ivory, tanned to light brown. Either warm or neutral undertones
Hair: Warm, golden blonde to dark brown
Eyes: Hazel, Blue, green or light brown
Best Colours: Muted warm-tones
Worst Colours: Stark colours (e.g. black), and bright, high pigmented colours
Celebs: Gigi Hadid, Gisele Bundchen, Drew Barrymore, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Warm (true) autumn
Skin: Ivory, golden, or medium brown. All warm undertones
Hair: Medium to Dark Brown with golden tones. Warm auburn or darker red
Eyes: light brown, hazel, green, sometimes dark brown
Best Colours: Rich and muted warm tones
Worst Colours: Pastels
Celebs: Jessica Alba, Jennifer Lopez, Julianne Moore, and Julia Roberts
Deep (dark) autumn
Skin: Ivory, beige, medium to rich browns, warm undertones
Hair: medium to dark brown, warmer undertones
Eyes: Dark-blue, dark green, hazel, dark brown
Best Colours: Bold, warm colours
Worst Colours: Dusty colours and light pastels
Celebs: Kendall Jenner, Halle Berry, Natalie Portman, Sofia Vergara, Oprah, and Mindy Kaling
Deep (dark) winter
Skin: Olive or cool undertones
Hair: Medium to dark brown, black, grey
Eyes: dark hazel, dark brown, black
Best Colours: High-saturation colours
Worst Colours: earthy, warm tones
Celebs: Emily Cooper, Anne Hathaway, Viola Davis, Salma Hayek, and Priyanka Chopra
Cool (true) winter
Hair: Ashy brown, black brown or black, silver, sometimes blondes
Eyes: Blue, grey, violet, light brown, cool hazel
Skin: Pale beige, pale olive, rosy beige, black, cooler undertones
Best colours: Bold primary colours
Worst colours: warm, soft tones, especially golden or brown
Celebs: Katy Perry, Jennifer Connelly, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brook Shields
Clear winter
Skin: light olive, cooler undertones
Hair: Medium brown to black with cool undertones
Eyes: Striking eyes, bright blue, green, rich hazel or brown
Best Colours: Vivid, cool, icey colours
Worst colours: Dusty, muted, or warmer tones
Celebs: Courtney Cox, Zooey Deschanel, Lupito Nyong’o
Clear (bright) spring
Skin: Porcelain white, to golden brown, tans easily
Hair: Warmer, golden tones to dark brown hair
Eyes: Bright, clear colours.
Best Colours: Bright, saturated, warm colours
Worst Colours: Nudes and muted pastels
Celebs: Emma Watson, Miranda Cosgrove, Kourtney Kardashian, Beyoncé
Warm (true) spring
Skin: Warm undertones, from pale to bronzed
Hair: warm, golden blondes and browns, coppery red
Eyes: blue, light brown or light hazel, dark green
Best Colours: Vibrant, warm colours
Worst Colours: cool pastels or darker shades
Celebs: Blake Lively, Cameron Diaz, Amy Adams, and Gillian Anderson
Light spring
Skin: Fair skin, possibly freckles
Hair: Golden blonde or brown, sometimes strawberry blonde
Eyes: Blue, green, hazel, or light brown
Best Colours: Light, warm colours
Worst Colours: Dark, strong colours
Celebs: Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, and Michelle Williams
Take the colour season analysis quiz
Still unsure what your colour season is? Don’t worry, we’ve made a super simple and quick quiz to help you find out which colours look best on you. Take it below!
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