Cool Winter color palette (True Winter): icy, blue-based colors

Three measures that define it

Plenty of seasons get described in moods. This one lends itself to measurement, so here it is in the three dimensions Munsell set out over a century ago. Hue is the basic color family, value is how light or dark, and strength is how far from grey.

Read together, those say something specific. The palette is cool in hue, enormous in value and strong in color, and it gets those at the same time. Half the colors read as measurably cool. Its span from light to dark is the second widest of the twelve, just behind Bright Winter’s. The Concept Wardrobe’s guide to True Winter describes the same three dimensions in words: very cool, ranging from true white to true black, fairly high in color.

A caveat, because this palette leans so heavily on blue. Color measurement is at its least reliable on blues, so a blue’s measured strength and lightness won’t match your eye as closely as a yellow’s. Also, 32.5% of these colors count as muted, though nothing here looks dusty. That share is the whites, greys, blacks and the palest ices, which are almost colorless. All of this describes our own board and can’t be read back onto a person’s skin.

True Winter and Cool Winter: same season?

Usually, yes. Most 12-season charts use one name or the other, so this doubles as a True Winter color palette, and we went with Cool Winter because it’s the more common search. There’s an exception worth knowing, though. Agile Styling’s 16-season method keeps True Winter and makes Cool Winter a separate flow toward True Summer, slightly lighter and softer. If that’s the system behind your result, your palette may be a notch gentler than this one. You can also think of the names as markers along a continuous spread, since no border line exists in nature.

Icy and saturated, with little between

The picture above sets ice beside strong color along a hard edge, and that’s the natural way to wear this palette. It has two characteristic groups. The lights are very pale and only faintly tinted, and they look like color seen through frost: Clear Icy Blue, Clear Ice Pink, Mint Ice. The accents are vivid: True Red, Electric Blue, Magenta. Many of the most flattering combinations pair the two, with an icy shirt under a saturated jacket, or a sharp Fuchsia top beside a pale grey skirt.

What’s largely missing is the soft middle: dusty pinks, faded denim, warm stone. The neutrals barely have any color, so they stay out of the way. Cool Charcoal, Navy and True Black give you depth, and Icy Grey and Pure White give you light. Dressing this way can look graphic, and that’s fine: strong edges suit a face that has them.

Which whites work?

This is one of the few places where the honest answer is “the whitest one you can find”. Most seasons need a softened white. A Cool Winter generally doesn’t, and our board includes Pure White, which is just about as cold and as bright as a surface can get on screen.

There’s some interesting chemistry behind buying this color for real. Plain cotton, even freshly washed, tends toward yellow, and consumers dislike that, so fabrics and detergents often contain optical brighteners. These compounds absorb ultraviolet light and re-emit it as blue, which cancels the yellow and can make a shirt look brighter than the light hitting it. So what shops call “optic white” is a blue-leaning white by design. That’s what makes it a problem on the soft and warm seasons, and exactly what you want here. To test it, hold the garment against a sheet of printer paper by a window. A warm white shows up as cream.

If you prefer something quieter, Icy Grey and Clear Icy Blue give a similar crisp effect. Off-whites called ivory, ecru, oat or vanilla are the ones to leave behind, since Warm Beige sits on your avoid list for good reason.

Why not orange or camel?

Three of the five colors we warn about are the same idea: strong warmth. Orange, Rust and Golden Brown all measure very warm, about as far from this palette’s cool average as colors get. Orange is the extreme case, nearly the opposite of blue on the color wheel. Analysts say it makes blue-based skin look yellow and tired. That’s a judgment by eye and not a lab result, so hold one up and decide for yourself.

Camel is a different kind of failure. It isn’t strong, but it’s the classic neutral that shops sell as going with everything. Against crisp coloring it takes the sharpness out. Choose Mid Cool Grey for a mid-tone neutral, or Navy when you’d have used a tan coat. If you already own a camel coat you love, wear it open over a white or navy top, so that it isn’t sitting at your collar.

Yes, there is a yellow

Winters get told yellow is off the table, and warm yellow mostly is. Our board does hold two, Cool Lemon and Lemon Cool, both leaning toward green. Compare them with the Camel and Golden Brown on your avoid list, which lean toward orange. It’s the same word for a very different color, and The Concept Wardrobe makes the same point: even the yellows on this palette are cool ones. Try it as an accent first. A pale lemon shirt under a navy coat is a look few other seasons can pull off.

Silver only?

Our recommendation leads with bright silver, platinum and white gold, and yellow gold often looks brassy here. But “only” is too strong. Some of those are hard to tell apart in the real world, so it helps to know what you’re buying. White gold is gold alloyed with a white metal, usually nickel, silver, platinum or palladium. Its color can lean pale yellow or slightly brown, so jewelers often electroplate it with rhodium for a bright white surface at the time of sale. That layer is thin and wears away, so if a white gold piece has gone slightly warm over the years, replating can bring it back.

If you have a gold heirloom you care about, wear it. A single warm piece beside a pure white shirt doesn’t undo anything, and season rules aren’t laws of nature. Carole Jackson’s own framing of seasons was as a poetic label.

Is it you, or one of the other winters?

Deep Winter has less light in it and a higher dark share, at 40% against your 25%. It’s also clearly darker on average. If jewel tones and near-blacks do more for you than icy colors do, look there. Bright Winter is the stronger, more electric one, and a touch closer to neutral. If Lemon Cool is a highlight on you and not a shock, try that.

Cool Summer is the softer relative on the other side. The two are close in average lightness and share a blue base, so people land between them often. The difference is strength: Cool Winter is clear, Cool Summer soft. Put Fuchsia under your chin. If it brightens your whole face you lean Winter. If it arrives before you do, you lean Summer.

Published descriptions of True Winter often mention dark ash or black hair, cool eyes and a strong contrast between features, including the contrast between the iris and the white of the eye. The Concept Wardrobe makes a helpful point about that last detail: even where skin is deep, contrast from the eyes and teeth remains. Cool undertones and strong contrast occur on every skin depth, so don’t read the common fair examples as a rule. The season test starts from your own face and shows your colors beside your photo.

Makeup and hair, in short

True blue-red, fuchsia and cool berry on the lips, clear cool pink on the cheeks, and black, charcoal and icy silver on the eyes. A crisp black liner suits this contrast. True Red is the one to try first if you want a signature lipstick. For hair, ash and blue-black tend to sit best. Warm highlights are a common mistake and can drag the whole palette off course. Typings of public figures are on the Cool Winter celebrities page.

Shopping and a starting wardrobe

You’ll have an easier time than most, because black, navy, white and grey are in every store all year. Your real challenge is color, since shops often stock warm and muted tones in larger quantities than clean, blue-based brights. Sportswear, evening wear and swimwear are good hunting grounds for saturated cool colors. Be strict about grey: pick up a charcoal and look for a brown cast in the folds. Hold navy next to true black, and pass on it if it turns green.

Seven pieces to begin with: a navy coat, true black trousers, a pure white shirt, a clear icy blue knit, a true red top, a royal blue dress and a cool charcoal blazer. Copy any hex from the board above to take shopping. There’s more on the other winters on the winter palette page, on all twelve at the palettes hub, and on the personal version at the Full Color Report.

Related guides and tools

• PaletteWinter paletteThe three Winter seasons compared, with hex codes for clothes or design.
• GuideCool Winter celebritiesWho is commonly typed Cool Winter or True Winter, sourced, across skin tones.
• PaletteDeep WinterDark and cool: high-contrast colors with hex codes and a free scan to check them on you.
• PaletteBright WinterVivid and cool: high-clarity colors with hex codes and a free scan to check them on you.
• PaletteCool SummerCool and gentle: blue-based colors with hex codes and a free scan to check them on you.
• ToolWhat season am I?Three axes narrow down your season, then color pairs beside your photo settle it.