Soft Summer
This is your palette
Cool, mid-toned and muted. Everything is slightly greyed, and the palette holds together because nothing in it is louder than anything else.
Also called Muted Summer.
If this is your palette
Your colouring is blue-based, mid 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
- Dusty Blue#4E7595
- Soft Periwinkle#96A0CE
- Muted Mauve#8A6893
- Rosewood Pink#C4939F
- Soft Olive Gold#8C8548A cool season can wear olive, as long as it stays greyed.
- Sage Teal#52867F
Your white and your dark
- Best whiteCool Soft WhiteBest white for you. Soft, slightly warmed grey-white.
- Best darkSoft CharcoalUse instead of black. Your best dark neutral.
Colours to keep away from your face
Harder next to your face – warm or over-clear against cool muted colouring. Lower down, or as a small accent, they can still work.
- True BlackHarder than anything in your own colouring. Wear Soft Charcoal.
- Optic WhiteToo bright a contrast. Wear Cool Soft White.
- Bright TangerineWarm and clear – it differs from your colouring on two counts.
- Copper PennyMetallic warm brown pulls orange into your skin.
- Vivid Chartreuse GreenClear acid green. Your green is Sage Teal.
- Electric FuchsiaOver-saturated; it wears you rather than the other way round.
Make-up and hair
Everything you put near your face follows the same three rules: keep it blue, keep it mid, 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.
- BrowsMatch your hair and define the shape without drawing a hard line.
- 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.
- Soft SummerCool Soft White
- Soft AutumnWarm Oyster White
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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