Colour Guides
These guides explain colour analysis in plain words: how to find your season at home, how to read your undertone, how the twelve seasons fit together, and what your season means for jewellery, hair colour, make-up and wardrobe neutrals. They all use the same three axes (warmth, depth and clarity), and they link to the page for each of the twelve subtypes.
The twelve seasons in brief
Colour analysis reads a colouring along three axes. Warmth is whether your undertone is warm or cool. Depth is how light or deep your hair, skin and eyes are. Clarity is how clear or soft they look, which is also how much contrast they have. Each of the four seasons is one combination of the three, and each is split into three subtypes, named after the axis that leads in them.
| Season | Subtypes |
|---|---|
| Spring: warm, light to medium, clear | Light Spring, Warm Spring (True Spring), Bright Spring (Clear Spring) |
| Summer: cool, light to medium, soft | Light Summer, Cool Summer (True Summer), Soft Summer |
| Autumn: warm, medium to deep, soft | Soft Autumn, Warm Autumn (True Autumn), Deep Autumn (Dark Autumn) |
| Winter: cool, medium to deep, clear | Deep Winter (Dark Winter), Cool Winter (True Winter), Bright Winter (Clear Winter) |
Neighbouring subtypes share an axis, and they are the ones people confuse: Bright Spring and Bright Winter are both clear, Soft Summer and Soft Autumn both muted. Every subtype page has a section on telling it apart from its neighbours.
Where to start
If you do not know your season yet, begin with How to Find Your Colour Season at Home, or take the free colour test, a short quiz that runs in your browser and estimates your season. If you know your season but not your subtype, The Twelve Seasons of Colour Analysis, Explained walks round the whole wheel. If you already know your subtype, go to its page for the palette, then use the practical guides on this page for jewellery, hair, make-up and the neutrals your wardrobe is built on.
A home test is a good first step, and it has limits: lighting, screens, tans and hair dye all mislead. The personal colour analysis works from a few questions about your hair, eyes and skin plus one to three photos taken in natural light, determines your season and your subtype, and sends a PDF report by e-mail.
- How to Find Your Colour Season at Home
Find your colour season at home, step by step: daylight and a bare face, then warmth, depth and clarity in turn, and finally your subtype.
- Warm or Cool Undertone: How to Tell
How to tell a warm undertone from a cool one: what undertone is, what the vein, jewellery and white-or-cream tests show, where they mislead, and what neutral means.
- The Twelve Seasons of Colour Analysis, Explained
The twelve-season system explained: four seasons, three qualities, how each subtype is named, which subtypes neighbour each other and what True, Clear and Dark mean.
- Gold or Silver: Which Metal Suits Your Season
Gold or silver by colour season: warmth picks the metal, depth and clarity pick the finish. Plus rose gold, mixed metals and the metals for all twelve subtypes.
- Hair Colour by Season
Which hair colours suit Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, subtype by subtype: golden or ash, copper or black, highlights or all-over colour, and going grey.
- Make-up by Season
How to match foundation to your undertone, then choose lip, blush and eye colours for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, subtype by subtype.
- Wardrobe Neutrals by Season
Black, white, navy, grey, brown, camel, cream or taupe: which neutrals each colour season and subtype wears best, and how to build a capsule wardrobe on them.
- Colour Analysis Myths
Can you never wear black? Does a tan change your season? Does the vein test settle it? Common colour analysis myths, answered with warmth, depth and clarity.
Questions and answers
What are the twelve colour seasons?
They are the four seasons, Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, each divided into three subtypes: Light, Warm and Bright Spring; Light, Cool and Soft Summer; Soft, Warm and Deep Autumn; Deep, Cool and Bright Winter. Each subtype is named after the axis that leads in it, whether warmth, depth or clarity.
Where should I start if I do not know my season?
Start with your undertone, then look at how light or deep and how clear or soft your colouring is. The guide to finding your season at home walks through this with simple tests and their limits, and the free colour test, a short quiz in your browser, gives you a first estimate of your season.
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Find your season
Start with the free colour test, or order your personal analysis.