Finding your colour season

Three questions, and the order matters

A season is not a personality or a mood. It is a position on three axes, and the twelve names are a convention laid over that space afterwards. Undertone decides which half of the colour wheel is yours, depth decides how dark the palette runs, and clarity decides how much grey is mixed into it.

The order is not arbitrary. Undertone narrows twelve palettes to about half, depth picks the family within that half, and clarity picks between the three children of the family. Answering them out of order is how people end up arguing about whether they are a Soft Summer or a True Autumn, which are two answers to two different questions.

• Warm or cool: gold against silver at the jaw is the fastest version of this question, and there is a fuller page on it.
• Light or deep: your hair and eyes taken together, not your skin alone. Someone fair-skinned with near-black hair is deep.
• Muted or clear: whether your colouring reads dusty and blended, or vivid with a visible gap between hair, skin and eyes.
• Contrast, which only matters at the edges: how hard the jump is between your hair and your skin.

What each combination gives you

Every row below is the real resolver run on those three answers, with the reason it gave for the family and then for the season inside it. 9 of the twelve palettes come out of the 27 combinations below. True Winter, Soft Autumn and True Autumn are not among them: they need the two questions further down, and that is the argument for asking those rather than a gap in the palettes.

Read the reason rather than just the name. If the reason describes someone who is not you, the answer above it is the one to revisit.

• Warm, light, muted: Light Spring. Warm undertone: Spring or Autumn. Light-to-medium overall value: Spring. Light value: Light Spring.
• Warm, light, neither: Light Spring. Warm undertone: Spring or Autumn. Light-to-medium overall value: Spring. Light value: Light Spring.
• Warm, light, clear: Bright Spring. Warm undertone: Spring or Autumn. Light-to-medium overall value: Spring. Very clear colouring: Bright Spring.
• Warm, medium, muted: True Spring. Warm undertone: Spring or Autumn. Light-to-medium overall value: Spring. Warm and clear without extremes: True Spring.
• Warm, medium, neither: True Spring. Warm undertone: Spring or Autumn. Light-to-medium overall value: Spring. Warm and clear without extremes: True Spring.
• Warm, medium, clear: Bright Spring. Warm undertone: Spring or Autumn. Light-to-medium overall value: Spring. Very clear colouring: Bright Spring.
• Warm, deep, muted: Deep Autumn. Warm undertone: Spring or Autumn. Deeper overall value: Autumn. Deep value: Deep Autumn.
• Warm, deep, neither: Deep Autumn. Warm undertone: Spring or Autumn. Deeper overall value: Autumn. Deep value: Deep Autumn.
• Warm, deep, clear: Deep Autumn. Warm undertone: Spring or Autumn. Deeper overall value: Autumn. Deep value: Deep Autumn.
• Cool, light, muted: Light Summer. Cool undertone: Summer or Winter. Light-to-medium value, softer contrast: Summer. Light value: Light Summer.
• Cool, light, neither: Light Summer. Cool undertone: Summer or Winter. Light-to-medium value, softer contrast: Summer. Light value: Light Summer.
• Cool, light, clear: Light Summer. Cool undertone: Summer or Winter. Light-to-medium value, softer contrast: Summer. Light value: Light Summer.
• Cool, medium, muted: Soft Summer. Cool undertone: Summer or Winter. Light-to-medium value, softer contrast: Summer. Muted colouring with gentle contrast: Soft Summer.
• Cool, medium, neither: True Summer. Cool undertone: Summer or Winter. Light-to-medium value, softer contrast: Summer. Cool and soft without extremes: True Summer.
• Cool, medium, clear: True Summer. Cool undertone: Summer or Winter. Light-to-medium value, softer contrast: Summer. Cool and soft without extremes: True Summer.
• Cool, deep, muted: Deep Winter. Cool undertone: Summer or Winter. Deep overall value: Winter. Deep value: Deep Winter.
• Cool, deep, neither: Deep Winter. Cool undertone: Summer or Winter. Deep overall value: Winter. Deep value: Deep Winter.
• Cool, deep, clear: Bright Winter. Cool undertone: Summer or Winter. Deep overall value: Winter. Extremely clear colouring: Bright Winter.
• Neutral, light, muted: Light Summer. Neutral undertone with no clear lean: placed by value. Light value: Light Summer.
• Neutral, light, neither: Light Summer. Neutral undertone with no clear lean: placed by value. Light value: Light Summer.
• Neutral, light, clear: Light Summer. Neutral undertone with no clear lean: placed by value. Light value: Light Summer.
• Neutral, medium, muted: Soft Summer. Neutral undertone with no clear lean: placed by value. Muted colouring with gentle contrast: Soft Summer.
• Neutral, medium, neither: True Summer. Neutral undertone with no clear lean: placed by value. Cool and soft without extremes: True Summer.
• Neutral, medium, clear: True Summer. Neutral undertone with no clear lean: placed by value. Cool and soft without extremes: True Summer.
• Neutral, deep, muted: Deep Autumn. Neutral undertone with no clear lean: placed by value. Deep value: Deep Autumn.
• Neutral, deep, neither: Deep Autumn. Neutral undertone with no clear lean: placed by value. Deep value: Deep Autumn.
• Neutral, deep, clear: Deep Autumn. Neutral undertone with no clear lean: placed by value. Deep value: Deep Autumn.

Where contrast changes the answer

Contrast is the fourth question and it only bites in a few places. Rerunning every row above as a high-contrast person moves 15 of the 27 answers, and leaves the rest exactly where they were.

There is a reason it exists at all: measured clarity runs low for anyone with very dark hair, because near-black sits close to the neutral axis whatever the person's colouring actually does. Without a contrast check, every deep high-contrast brunette resolves to a muted season, which is precisely the season they are not.

• Cool, light, muted: Light Summer normally, True Winter at high contrast.
• Cool, light, neither: Light Summer normally, True Winter at high contrast.
• Cool, light, clear: Light Summer normally, Bright Winter at high contrast.
• Cool, medium, muted: Soft Summer normally, True Winter at high contrast.
• Cool, medium, neither: True Summer normally, True Winter at high contrast.
• Cool, medium, clear: True Summer normally, Bright Winter at high contrast.
• Neutral, light, muted: Light Summer normally, True Winter at high contrast.
• Neutral, light, neither: Light Summer normally, True Winter at high contrast.
• Neutral, light, clear: Light Summer normally, Bright Winter at high contrast.
• Neutral, medium, muted: Soft Summer normally, True Winter at high contrast.
• Neutral, medium, neither: True Summer normally, True Winter at high contrast.
• Neutral, medium, clear: True Summer normally, Bright Winter at high contrast.
• Neutral, deep, muted: Deep Autumn normally, Deep Winter at high contrast.
• Neutral, deep, neither: Deep Autumn normally, Deep Winter at high contrast.
• Neutral, deep, clear: Deep Autumn normally, Bright Winter at high contrast.

If you came out neutral

A neutral undertone is not a missing answer, but it does need a fourth signal before the resolver can place you: whether your hair leans warm or cool. Without it the walk falls back to placing you by depth alone, which is what every neutral row above did.

The rows below are the same neutral answers rerun with a warm-leaning head of hair and then a cool-leaning one. 9 of the 9 neutral combinations move, which makes the hair the deciding question for anyone who could not settle the first one.

• Light, muted: Light Spring with warm-leaning hair, Light Summer with cool-leaning hair.
• Light, neither: Light Spring with warm-leaning hair, Light Summer with cool-leaning hair.
• Light, clear: Bright Spring with warm-leaning hair, Light Summer with cool-leaning hair.
• Medium, muted: Soft Autumn with warm-leaning hair, Soft Summer with cool-leaning hair.
• Medium, neither: True Autumn with warm-leaning hair, True Summer with cool-leaning hair.
• Medium, clear: True Autumn with warm-leaning hair, True Summer with cool-leaning hair.
• Deep, muted: Deep Autumn with warm-leaning hair, Soft Summer with cool-leaning hair.
• Deep, neither: Deep Autumn with warm-leaning hair, True Summer with cool-leaning hair.
• Deep, clear: Deep Autumn with warm-leaning hair, True Summer with cool-leaning hair.

What this cannot do

Three coarse answers cannot separate twelve palettes, and the honest reading of a borderline result is a smaller claim rather than a different label. No personal-colour system has published an inter-rater reliability study, so the label itself carries less weight than the three axes underneath it, which is why every season page prints the axes alongside the name.

The product does this from a photograph instead: it samples skin, hair and eye colour, computes the same three axes as numbers, and runs the same resolver you just ran by hand. Same function, better inputs.