Color analysis is a system for determining your best colors
Color season analysis is color theory applied to your style for the purpose of looking and feeling your best when you shop and get dressed!
Everything from the color of your clothing, to the type of jewelry you wear, and the colors of makeup you choose must match your natural essence. When we color match you for your color season, we look at the color and the tone of your skin, eyes, and hair, including how they come together.
The first step is to find your color season!
When you know your color season, you can hone in on:
Best colors for bringing out your natural essence
Specific neutrals for your skin and hair
Shopping styles, fabrics, and luster
The best jewelry and metals to choose from
Colors that give your personal brand a pop
And even interior design ideas to match your vibe
From there, you can:
Make a great first impression
Smooth and clarify the look of your complexion
Create a more youthful, radiant appearance
Increase your professional power
Embody your essence
Feel attractive
Boost your confidence
Save money on a capsule wardrobe with your best colors
Find the right makeup and colors
Become a better shopper
Love everything in your wardrobe
How does color season analysis work?
If you’ve ever tried to figure out if you have warm or cool tones in your skin — this is just the beginning. We don’t stop there…
The hue, for example, that your skin gives off is a clue as to your specific color season. Seasonal color analysis does not match colors to personality or body shape. Instead, this process is about determining three aspects of your natural coloring and matching them to clothing colors with similar aspects.
To understand seasonal color analysis, there are several aspects of color theory we tap into. The areas we use to understand your color type, include the temperature, depth, and clarity of your features — also known as the hue, value, and chroma in color theory.
Hue and Temperature (Warm or Cool) cooler.
The temperature (sometimes referred to as hue) is the amount of gold or red that shines through
(or doesn’t). Cooler tones are more blue, and warmer tones have a more golden complexity.
Value / Depth (Light or Dark)
Value designates the depth of a color or how light or dark it is. Each of your features falls under category of dark or light.
Chroma / Clarity (Bright or Muted)
Chroma refers to the amount of saturation in your features, as in how bright (clear) or muted (or soft) they appear.
The 12 Color Seasons
Color Season Formula Examples
When you look at these examples, you'll find that Spring and Autumn are warm seasons, whereas Summer and Winter are cool seasons, meaning the temperature or the hue is cool. The next thing you'll notice is that Spring and Winter have bright aspects whereas Autumn and Summer have something called a soft aspect. A soft aspect means that the tone of the hair, skin, and eyes has a more muted less shiny quality. And when you look at the order of primary vs. secondary aspects, understand that primary means is more prominent and secondary means that it's less prominent than the primary aspect. For example, with a Warm Spring vs. a Light Spring, the major difference is that a Warm Spring is more warm than bright whereas a Bright Spring is more bright than warm.
Spring Color Season | ||
Primary Aspect | Secondary Aspect | Result |
Bright | Warm | Bright Spring |
Warm | Bright | Warm Spring |
Light | Warm | Light Spring |
Summer Color Season | ||
Primary Aspect | Secondary Aspect | Result |
Light | Cool | Light Summer |
Warm | Soft | Warm Summer |
Soft | Warm | Soft Summer |
Autumn Color Season | ||
Primary Aspect | Secondary Aspect | Result |
Dark | Warm | Deep Autumn |
Warm | Dark | Warm Autumn |
Soft | Warm | Soft Autumn |
Winter Color Season | ||
Primary Aspect | Secondary Aspect | Result |
Dark | Cool | Dark Winter |
Cool | Bright | Cool Winter |
Bright | Cool | Bright Winter |
Glossary of Terms
Color Season Analysis 101 has to start with describing the terminology as there are a lot of terms thrown around and many of them are interchangeable words with same meanings and some are fairly complex, but when laid out in simple terms, make a lot of sense!
Term | Meaning |
Color | Whereas a hue expresses the color family of RGB: red, green, or blue, a color is the exact value of a mixture of the hue (primary color), value (how light or dark a color is), and chroma (how much saturation of the actual color is present). |
Value | How light or how dark a color is. For example, when you think about the value of the hair, skin, and eyes, this is a measure of how dark or light each feature is. |
Temperature | Temperature is how warm or cool a color is. A warm color has red and yellow in it, whereas a cool color has blue and violet undertones. |
Chroma | In seasonal color analysis, your chroma is how bright or soft your features are. Soft means your features are more muted or dull (lacking light or brightness) where as bright features seems like they have light or shine eminating from them. |
Features | The features of the hair, skin, and eyes are assessed on the relative hue, value, and chroma to decide what color season you fall into. |
Hue | In its most simple form, a hue is a primary color light red, green or blue. A hue can be divided into 3 different sectors: tint, tone, and shade. A tint has white mixed, a tone is desaturated and has gray mixed in, and a shade has black mixed in, making it a darker color. To make things more confusing, in seasonal color analysis, often the hue is interchangeable with the temperature of a color, meaning how warm or how cool the color is on a spectrum. |
Soft | Soft features are the opposite of bright ones, they are more muted or gray, less full of warmth, shine, or the projection of light. They have more of a dull look to them. Examples might be gray blue eyes or plain brown hair without any luster. |
Muted | Muted has the same meaning as soft, just a different word. |
Bright | Bright features are shiny, full of light or reflection. When someone has bright eyes, you'll know it as the color will be in your face. Bright skin has a luster to it, and bright hair a distinct shine. |
Clear | Clear means the same thing as bright, just a different word. |
True | In color season analysis, Summers and Winters are cool whereas Springs and Autumns are warm. So in each of these seasons there is a sub-season that represents the warmth or the coolness of the season in its most distinct form, which is often called something like a True Summer or a True Winter. In our color wheel, we simply called these by their primary aspect instead of using the "True" naming structure. |
Dark | Dark hair, skin, or eyes have more saturation and tend toward browns and blacks. |
Deep | Deep is another word for dark, but also expresses the saturation of colors within the color season. For example, we call a Dark Autumn a Deep Autumn because this is a more specific naming for the sub-season as it more accurately expresses the saturation of the season. |
Warm | Warm colors are red, orange, and yellow whereas cool colors are blue green and purple. In color season analysis, a color is warm when there is more red, orange, and yellow expressed in it. |
Cool | Cool colors are blue, green and purple wheres warm colors are red, orange, and yellow. In color season analysis, a color is cool when there is more blue, green, or purple expressed in it. |
Undertone | An undertone is the color that is under the skin as opposed to an overtone, which is how a persons hair, skin, and eyes look. Do they look warm or cool? To determine your undertone, you can look at things like the color of your veins in your wrist, whether you look good in silver or gold, hair, and eye color. |
Complementary | Complementary colors are two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel. This makes them stand out more because there is the most amount of contrast possible. |
Monochrome | An outfit or a look that's all in one hue. Like matching the jacket, pants, and blouse -- this is monochrome look. |
Get Your Seasonal Color Guide!
Assuming you know your color season, pick up a detailed guide to make shopping for clothes and makeup infinitely easier.
What's in the guide? Well, I'm glad you asked!
There are 20 pages of goodness, which includes:
Your best colors
Your best neutrals
Your worst colors
Outfit options
Complimentary colors
Capsule wardrobe essentials
Patterns & textures you should wear
Exact makeup colors and tones from top brands
Buy the guide for your custom colors!
If you don't know your exact color season yet, take our free quiz to find out!
Wearing the right colors will change your aura, your confidence, and make you win friends and influence people. I kid you not, wearing the right colors will make you look rich! That's why the rich and famous hire professional stylists. This is part of the protocol they use.
And today you found the ultimate life hack, simply take the free quiz and grab your guide.
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