Cool Summer color palette (True Summer): blue-based, gentle colors

Cool Summer or True Summer: are they the same?

Usually, yes. Most 12-season systems use one or the other for the same place on the map, cool first and softened second, so if you came looking for a True Summer color palette, this is it. We use Cool Summer because more people search for it. But naming varies between systems, and one important exception will confuse you if nobody warns you.

So if an analyst trained in a 16-season method told you that you’re a Cool Summer, compare your fan with this board before buying anything: you may belong a shade closer to Winter than we do. Agile Styling calls its version “True Summer on steroids”. Nothing here says one system is right. The boxes are conventions, and the names are labels on a continuous spread of color.

What the numbers say

Temperature leads here. 52.5% of the palette measures cool, the highest share of the twelve, and its average warmth is the coolest we have. The gap to the next palette isn’t large, as the plot shows, so treat the ranking as a direction and not a verdict. What makes this palette feel so consistently blue-based is how few warm notes it holds, at 20%, and most of those are pinks and berries rather than anything yellow.

Value sits in the middle, with a range running from a near-white rose down to a deep navy. Strength is moderate: nearly twice Soft Summer’s and well below Cool Winter’s. All of this was computed from the hex codes on our board, so it tells you about the palette and leaves your own face for you to judge.

Pinks first, then blues

Pink is the fastest way to see what blue-based means. The ladder at the top of this page holds lightness and strength still and only turns the hue. Move toward peach and you leave the palette entirely. Stay on the rose and orchid rungs and you’re home. So the pinks to buy are Rose, Light Rose, Cool Blush and Muted Raspberry, and the ones to leave are anything called salmon, coral or peach.

Blues come next, and this palette is generous with them. Cornflower and Cadet Blue are the daily ones. Ice Blue and Mist Blue are good for shirts. Marine Navy and Dusk Navy replace almost every dark neutral. After that, come to the less obvious colors: Cool Teal and Spruce Green are your greens, since a yellow-based green is out, and Orchid and Plum Wine add depth near the face. Amethyst and Fuchsia Rose are the strongest things on the board, and they’re a fine choice for one piece at a time.

Which of three neighbors could you be?

Cool Winter, the stronger twin

The surprising thing about this pair is how close they are in lightness: on average almost level. What differs is strength and reach. Cool Winter is clearly more vivid, and it runs all the way from pure white to true black where yours stops short at both ends.

Hold one color from each half of a pair under your chin. On a Cool Summer the right half tends to arrive before the face does. On a Cool Winter, the left half looks a little grey and unfinished. Our page on Cool Winter has the other side of this comparison.

Soft Summer, the quieter one

Soft Summer gives up the clear blue in exchange for grey. If Clear Blue feels loud on you and only its dustier relatives work, look there first, and read True Summer vs Soft Summer to compare the deciding colors.

Light Summer, the paler one

Light Summer shares the temperature and is clearly lighter on average. If Marine Navy wears you more than you wear it, that’s the likelier home.

What this looks like in a person

Soul of Color’s description of True Summer is medium to dark brown hair with an ashy cast, eyes often blue or blue-grey, and skin with a visible cool undertone. It also notes a nice detail: blonde tends to wash these people out even when their features look light enough for it. A description like this comes from one analyst and leans toward fair examples. Cool undertones and rosy or ashy qualities also occur on medium and deep skin, so go by how the colors behave on you. The undertone test and the season test are good starting points, and you can see who gets typed here if examples help.

Can a Cool Summer wear black?

Sources disagree, so here’s exactly where we stand. Black isn’t on our five-color avoid list, and it isn’t on the board either. Our darkest color is Marine Navy, a deep navy that stays well short of black. Soul of Color lists black among the things that simply don’t suit True Summers. The Concept Wardrobe, meanwhile, places a true black at the other end of the cool family, in True Winter. Our practical advice comes from the numbers: since mean lightness is close to Cool Winter’s, you can often get away with a black garment far more easily than a Soft Summer can. It still won’t beat navy. Hold Marine Navy and Graphite Blue against black under your chin in daylight, and if you see no difference, wear whichever you like.

Silver or gold?

Silver, in our palette, or platinum. The reasoning starts with the metals themselves. Silver reflects visible light fairly evenly, which is why it reads as white. Gold absorbs some of the blue end of the spectrum, which leaves it reddish-yellow, and that yellow is exactly what Cool Summer’s palette has so little of. If your favorite pieces are gold, nobody will stop you. White gold is an easy halfway point, though its color varies with the alloy, and a pale, low-copper rose gold can look gentler than bright yellow.

Reds and greens, the two hard ones

Red is where this season most often goes wrong, because the reds in shops lean orange. You can skip the true fire-engine red and still have plenty: Cool Watermelon for a clear, bright red-pink, Berry and Muted Raspberry for something richer, Cool Burgundy when you want it dark. The way to spot the right one in a store is to look at it beside Rose. A blue-based red and a rose look related. An orange-based one fights.

Green is the opposite problem: people assume they can’t wear it at all. You can, once it has blue in it. Spruce Green, Cool Jade and Cool Evergreen are all on the board, and Cool Mint and Cool Seafoam handle the pale end. What you’re avoiding is moss, lime and anything that looks like it grew in a field. Hold a green against a sheet of white paper: if it looks slightly grey-blue in the shadows, it’s probably yours.

Denim, an everyday question

Indigo denim is close to home here, and it’s one of the easiest things in the wardrobe for this season. Aim for a mid or dark wash with no yellow in the fade. Cadet Blue is about right for a lighter wash and Marine Navy for a dark one. Whiskering and vintage bleaching often add a warm, brassy tint, which is worth avoiding near a rosy skin tone, though on your legs it hardly matters.

The five to leave on the rack

Everything on our avoid list shares one trait: yellow in the base. Orange, Golden Yellow and Rust are strong and warm. Camel is mild, but it’s the one people keep buying, since it’s sold as a classic. Swap it for Blue Grey. Olive is the green to skip, and it tends to make a rosy complexion look ruddy. It’s the same pattern each time: a warm neighbor, a pink response in your skin.

Hair and makeup, short version

Hair has a dedicated page, which covers ash blondes and cool browns and what brass does to this coloring. For makeup, the brief version is cool rose, raspberry and berry lips, a soft rose blush with a blue lean, and slate, plum and cool taupe eyes. The True Summer makeup page has each shade with its code, and shows where a rose turns warm.

Building the wardrobe

Store racks often lean warm in autumn, so buy navy and blue-grey when you see them and keep them for years. In a shop, look for blue in the shadows of a garment’s folds, because a grey that shows brown there will disappoint you at home. When something is close, hold it beside Cool Silver: a yellow lean shows up at once.

Six pieces to begin with: a dusk navy coat, pewter blue trousers, a rose white shirt, a rose knit, a cornflower top and a plum wine dress. Test them on your own face with the button at the top, and if you want the palette cut down to what suits you personally, there’s the Full Color Report. The wider family lives on the summer palette page, and the palettes hub links all twelve.

Related guides and tools

• PaletteSummer paletteThe three Summer seasons compared, with hex codes for clothes or design.
• GuideCool Summer celebritiesWho is commonly typed Cool Summer or True Summer, sourced, with the caveats on dye.
• GuideTrue Summer hair colorAsh and cool hair shades for True or Cool Summer, with a live try-on.
• GuideTrue Summer makeupCool rose and berry lips, soft blush and slate eyes, for True or Cool Summer.
• GuideTrue summer vs soft summerCooler and clearer against muted: the colors that decide it, tested live.
• PaletteSoft SummerMuted and cool: dusty colors with hex codes and a free scan to check them on you.