Light Summer
This is your palette
Cool, light and soft. Low contrast throughout – the palette works by staying close together, not by opposing itself.
If this is your palette
Your colouring is blue-based, light in value and softened in chroma. Those three properties are the whole of it – every rule below follows from them.
Shades that share all three sit quietly beside your face. Shades that miss one are usually still wearable at a distance from the face; shades that miss two are the ones that make people ask whether you are tired.
Colours that suit you
- Soft Powder Blue#8FBEDA
- Periwinkle#8E9CD6
- Cool Lilac#B79CD1
- Rose Petal#E39FB4
- Soft Lemon#DFCF74Summer does have a yellow. It is this one, and only this one.
- Sea Green Soft#86C7B0
Your white and your dark
- Best whiteSoft WhiteBest white for you. Soft white, not optic white.
- Best darkCharcoal SlateUse instead of black. Your best dark neutral.
Colours to keep away from your face
Harder next to your face – warm, golden or earthy against cool light colouring. Lower down, or as a small accent, they can still work.
- True BlackToo heavy for a light season. Wear Charcoal Slate.
- Optic WhiteHarder than your skin. Wear Soft White.
- Orange RustWarm earth pulls yellow into your face.
- Tomato RedOrange-red. Your red is Rose Petal deepened, not this.
- Warm CamelGolden beige is the single worst neutral for you.
- Vivid ChartreuseAcid yellow-green. Your yellow is Soft Lemon.
Make-up and hair
Everything you put near your face follows the same three rules: keep it blue, keep it light, keep it softened.
- BaseCool or neutral bases. Warm, yellow-based foundation turns sallow within an hour on blue-based skin.
- EyesGrey-brown, slate and soft mauve. Definition without a hard edge.
- BrowsKeep them a shade lighter than your hair and softly filled.
- LashesBrown or soft charcoal. Black lashes cut a hard line across soft colouring.
- LipsRose, plum and muted raspberry.
- NailsSheer neutrals, or one muted shade. High-gloss brights sit oddly against soft colouring.
- HairStay cool or neutral. Warm gold highlights pull against blue-based skin.
- EveningDeepen, do not brighten. The same shades one or two steps darker, never a new vivid one.
Metals and stones
Metals
Yellow gold reads brassy next to blue-based skin. Rose gold is the one warm metal that still works.
Stones
Vivid, glassy stones overpower soft colouring. Choose the milkier version of the same stone.
By eye, hair and skin colour
Colour combinations
Check it at the mirror
In daylight, by a window, hold these two colours under your chin in turn.
- Light SummerSoft White
- Light SpringWarm Ivory
Whichever makes your skin look clearer and the shadows under your eyes softer is your side. If it is the second, compare the two palettes:
Often confused with
How to find your palette
Colour analysis reads three things in your colouring: warm or cool, light or deep, clear or soft. The quiz asks about your eyes, hair and skin, looked at in a mirror by a window in daylight. It never photographs or scans your face, and the palette it finds is yours to keep.
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