Soft Autumn vs Deep Autumn: how dark is your autumn?

What’s the difference?

Every brick above is one color from the palette, placed by its lightness. Soft Autumn gathers in the middle and stops well short of the darkest browns. Deep Autumn has a much longer tail and runs down almost to black. On average Soft Autumn is clearly lighter, and lightness is the widest of the three gaps in this pair.

Color strength comes next: Soft Autumn is muted, Deep Autumn noticeably richer. Warmth runs the same way, with Deep Autumn the warmer of the two, though that’s partly strength again, since a greyed color can’t show as much warmth. So one is light to medium and blended, the other dark and rich. They’re further apart than Soft Autumn and True Autumn in lightness, so on a board this is rarely a close call. The confusion tends to come from photos and dye, as we’ll come to. All of this describes our palettes, not you.

How dark is too dark for a Soft Autumn?

On our board, the darkest colors a Soft Autumn gets are Soft Mahogany and Cocoa Brown. Below that, you’re in Deep Autumn’s range: Walnut, then the much darker Espresso, then Black Brown, which is close to black. That line is ours, and it isn’t a law. It marks where we stopped when we built the palette, not where a person breaks.

Here’s how to find your own line. In daylight, no makeup, hair back, hold these up in order:

Stop at the first row where your face changes. Look for shadows deepening under your eyes, or the skin around your mouth going grey or sallow. If you get to Espresso and still look awake, you’re probably not a Soft Autumn. If Cocoa Brown already looks heavy, you’re unlikely to be a Deep one.

What overpowers me?

The two seasons fail in opposite directions, and that’s the most useful thing to know about them. Soul of Color says anything too bright, such as magenta, cobalt or emerald green, washes out a Soft Autumn. For a Deep Autumn, the problem is the other end: “anything too light like baby blue, light pink, or silver, washes them out.”

• If you’re a Soft Autumn, strong and dark overpowers you. Burnt Orange or Oxblood near your face tends to arrive first, and the skin behind it looks tired.
• If you’re a Deep Autumn, pale and dusty leaves you unanchored. Oat Milk or Dusty Peach can look faded on you, and your own coloring ends up looking heavier by contrast.

So try Dusty Peach and Oxblood, one after the other. Most people react strongly to one and less to the other, and which is which tells you more than a number can.

Often a dye confusion

Soul of Color gives natural hair levels of 3 to 7 for Soft Autumn and 1 to 4 for Deep Autumn. Those ranges meet at levels 3 and 4, so two people with near-identical brown hair could land in either. It gets worse when the hair isn’t natural. A Soft Autumn with dark brown dye can read as Deep Autumn, in photos and in person, since very dark hair adds contrast that wasn’t there. The reverse also happens, with a Deep Autumn in warm highlights reading softer.

Contrast is what the dye changes. The Concept Wardrobe calls Soft Autumn’s contrast low to medium, and it calls Dark Autumn a season of high contrast. FRANKIE4 says the same. The classic system is firm that you shouldn’t rely on hair color, and this pair shows why. To check for yourself, look at your regrowth, or cover your hair with a neutral towel and repeat the test above. A photo of your face in grayscale can show your contrast too, with hair hidden for the same reason.

Outfit contrast is the practical payoff

Knowing which you are changes how you put clothes together as much as which colors you buy. FRANKIE4 tells Soft Autumns to avoid “bright whites, very dark and intense shades, and neon colors”, since they make too much contrast against muted coloring. The Concept Wardrobe says the reverse for Dark Autumn: the less flattering combinations are those “that have very little contrast”. So the same pale top with dark trousers can look sharp on one and split the other in half.

On a Soft Autumn, try keeping pieces within a step or two of each other: Warm Taupe with Soft Brown, or Peach Beige with Soft Camel. On a Deep Autumn, try a real jump: Antique Cream with Walnut, or Mustard Gold with Espresso. Makeup follows the same rule. Our notes give Soft Autumn “Warm taupe, olive and soft bronze. Brown liner, smudged.” and Deep Autumn “Espresso, bronze and deep olive. Dark brown or soft black liner.”

Where sources differ

Most agree on the outline. Where they vary is how far each one reaches. Kettlewell Colours says Dark Autumns “often look like Winters” and Soft Autumns “very often look like they might be Summers”, which would put them at opposite edges of the family. The Concept Wardrobe places Dark Autumn at “the darkest and least warm end” of Autumn. Our palettes differ here, with Deep Autumn’s mean warmth above Soft Autumn’s. Where we stand: that’s because warmth is measured from each color, and Deep Autumn holds stronger color. In feel, Deep Autumn can take some cool-leaning darks like Midnight Teal, which fits what they’re describing. Neither way of describing it changes the test.

If you’re neither

These are the two ends of the autumn family, so if neither feels right, try the one in the middle: Soft Autumn vs True Autumn covers that. If the warm side itself is in doubt, Soft Summer vs Soft Autumn and Deep Autumn vs Deep Winter check each end’s nearest cool neighbor. Hex codes are on the Soft Autumn palette and the Deep Autumn palette. What season am I takes you through it on your own face.

Related guides and tools

• PaletteSoft AutumnMuted and warm: dusty, gentle colors with hex codes and a free scan to check them on you.
• PaletteDeep AutumnDark and warm: rich colors with hex codes and a free scan to check them on you.