Soft Summer makeup: lip, blush and eye colors that work

Darker before brighter

The complaint behind most Soft Summer makeup searches is looking washed out. The usual fix is a bold lip, and that’s where things go wrong, because bold usually means more vivid, and vivid color is the one thing this palette has very little of. There’s a second way to add definition, and it costs you no softness: change the lightness and leave the strength alone.

Follow that flat line. Dusty Rose and Wine Smoke have nearly the same softness, and Wine Smoke is much darker. On light skin that’s a real step, and from a distance your mouth has an edge again. Nobody would call it bold.

Research on facial contrast is why we’d start here. Russell (2009) measured controlled photographs and found that cosmetics consistently increase the luminance contrast between the eyes, the lips and the surrounding skin. Etcoff and colleagues (2011) built looks from natural to dramatic, each adding luminance contrast between features and skin. Stephen and McKeegan (2010) had people adjust lip color on calibrated photos to make faces more attractive, and greater lightness contrast helped for both sexes. These are small lab studies, the last one on Caucasian faces only, and none tested seasons. What they do show is that lightness is a lever of its own, separate from how saturated a color is.

A black and white check

L’Oréal Paris describes a test from TikTok’s contrast makeup trend: take a daylight selfie, turn it black and white, and compare the darkest and lightest parts of your face. Little difference means low contrast, and that can mean fair skin with blonde hair or deep skin with black hair, so it isn’t about being pale. It’s a popular theory and not research. It’s also useful, because it takes hue out of the picture and leaves only the thing you’re trying to judge.

Now you can run it on your makeup. Take the same selfie with a lip on, in mono. If your mouth vanishes, the lip is too close to your skin in lightness, however pretty the color is. Look at how the numbers flip across the figure. At Monk 3, the darker the lip, the bigger the step. At Monk 8, Wine Smoke sits close to the skin, so the lighter lips carry the bigger step. A pale lip on deep skin can look chalky, so go by the photo.

Our scan prints a contrast meter with its result, an estimate from hair, skin and eyes. If yours sits low, that’s the reading this page is written for. The low contrast guide goes into the face side of it.

Soft Summer lipstick

Muted rose, mauve and soft berry are the directions, and Soul of Color adds that anything close to your natural lip color will look right. From quiet to strong:

In the lipstick finder

The lipstick finder uses a face landmark model to find your lips and recolors them with your own light. Its nine chips weren’t picked for this season, and none is dusty. Measured against our board, Mauve is by far the closest. Nude rose reads too warm once it’s on, and Rose pink leans the right way with far too much color. Coral is the one to try for contrast, so you can see what the wrong end looks like.

Cheeks

Dusty rose, blended well. Soul of Color points out that blush works better than bronzer on summer seasons, and we agree: bronzers tend to pull warm, which is the wrong direction here. Use Dusty Pink or Powder Mauve on fair skin and Dusty Rose in the middle. On deep skin, Rosewood or Dark Mauve have enough depth to show without going purple. If you contour, Taupe Grey is closer to a real shadow than most brown powders.

Eyes and liner

Definition is easiest to add here without anyone noticing. Jones, Russell and Ward (2015) found women use cosmetics to increase contrast around the eyes and brows in particular. Skip black liner: Black is on the avoid list because the edge is too hard. A smudged Faded Cocoa or Soft Charcoal line gives the same step at a softer edge, and a brown-black mascara does the rest. That’s our judgment, and easy to test.

Brows and base

e.l.f.’s brow guide lists brown-gray among natural brow colors and advises matching a brow product to your skin’s undertone. For this season, that means ash and taupe over anything red or golden. Cool Greige on dark blonde hair, Taupe Grey on light brown, Faded Cocoa on darker brown. Going one step darker than feels safe gives a low-contrast face its frame.

Foundation is a separate question, because it has to match your skin and not a season. L’Oréal Paris says to find your undertone, test in the right light, and read the C, N or W on the bottle, while watching for shades that skew yellow, pink or ashy. Soul of Color describes Soft Summer skin as medium-cool with a smokiness, so N or C is a likely place to start. Check the shade finder and the undertone guide if you’re unsure.

Soft Summer nail colors

Most polish racks shout compared with this board, so look for the grey in a bottle before you look at its color. A dusty shade that seems dull under the store lights is usually the right one. Cool Greige and Shell Rose make the everyday neutrals, and Oyster gives a French tip with no hard white in it, since Optic White is on the avoid list.

For color, the blues and purples are the ones a Soft Summer rarely gets to wear on the face: Dusty Periwinkle, Smoky Lavender and Slate Teal all stay quiet on a hand. Dusty Rose and Greyed Raspberry match the lips above. When you’d normally reach for black, take Storm Navy or Aubergine Mist. Hands sit far from the face and their skin often differs from it, so treat all of this as the most forgiving part of the palette, and our judgment. A satin top coat keeps a color quieter than a high shine.

The warm counterexample

Look again at the two maps at the top. You’d never call either one loud. Antique Rose and Mauve are level on lightness, and their strength differs only a little. What really changes is the lean. That’s the difference between Soft Summer and Soft Autumn, and it’s why people get typed back and forth between them. If a warm rose makes your skin look clear and a mauve makes you look grey, you may be on the wrong page, and Soft Autumn makeup is the one you want.

A worked look, then a stronger one

Season rules are a convention, and an honest test beats any of this. The full season is on the Soft Summer palette page, with hair and outfits close by. The Full Color Report includes makeup shades for your own palette.

Copy the shades

These are palette colors from our board. They aren’t the shades of any brand, and we haven’t matched any product to them.

Related guides and tools

• PaletteSoft SummerMuted and cool: dusty colors with hex codes and a free scan to check them on you.
• GuideSoft Summer hair colorAsh and smoky hair shades, what to ask a colorist for and a live try-on.
• GuideSoft Summer outfitsGrey-based neutrals, low-contrast pairings and what replaces black.
• GuideTrue Summer makeupCool rose and berry lips, soft blush and slate eyes, for True or Cool Summer.