Soft Summer vs Soft Autumn: how to tell them apart

How do I know which I am?

Ask one question: does your skin want a little warmth or a little coolness? Softness won’t help, because both seasons have it. Depth won’t help either, as the next section shows. Temperature is what’s left, and it decides this pair.

Find a window, take off your makeup, tie your hair back and hold each pair under your chin in turn. Fabric, a scarf, even a T-shirt will do. MySeasonColors has the right instruction for where to look: not at the fabric, but at shadows, evenness and how white your teeth read.

If the warmer column evens you out and the cooler one leaves you a little sallow, lean Soft Autumn. If the warmer column turns you muddy or ruddy and the cooler one settles things, lean Soft Summer. Warmth here is computed from the hex, and it describes the fabric, not you.

Which one is lighter?

This is where published guides part ways, so here’s who says what.

So the guides lean toward Soft Autumn being a touch deeper, one source notes the old rule often breaks, and our own palettes go very slightly the other way, by an amount you wouldn’t see. Where we stand: don’t try to settle this pair by lightness. A real person in either season can be fairly light or fairly deep. Our numbers describe the palettes we drew up by hand, and no one’s face.

Softness differs too, a little

Temperature is the big gap, and strength is the second clue. Soft Summer is the greyer of the two, with 75% of its colors in our muted band against 50%. Both palettes have zero vivid colors. So if a color like Terracotta looks right on you while its dustier relatives look washed out, that’s another small vote for the autumn side.

Fig. 1 also shows why the pair is so easy to confuse. Near the neutral line the two clouds overlap, and greyed colors have little temperature left to show. Our palettes share no exact hex, but Slate Teal and Muted Teal are close enough that nobody would pick them apart across a room.

What about hair and metal?

Hair. Soul of Color describes level 4 to 7 hair with a “muted ashy tone” for Soft Summer, and level 3 to 7 with a “soft golden glow” for Soft Autumn. The levels nearly match, so only the tone helps. And only if it’s your own, since a box of ash or a golden gloss can change it in an afternoon. Check the regrowth at your parting, in daylight, if you can.

Metal. On our boards, rose gold appears in both lists, so it won’t separate you. Try pewter and silver against bronze and yellow gold. Keep the finish alike, brushed against brushed, because a high polish reads as strong on either season and that confuses the test. Rings don’t count: hold it near your face.

Lipstick is a fast second opinion

Your lips sit closer to your skin than any scarf, and a lipstick costs less than a coat. On our boards, Soft Summer’s starting points are “Muted rose, mauve and soft berry.” and Soft Autumn’s are “Warm rose, soft terracotta and peach nude.” Put one of each on in daylight, with nothing else on your face. A mauve that looks ashen on you points away from Soft Summer. A terracotta that turns orange points away from Soft Autumn. It isn’t proof, since undertones in lipstick vary a lot by formula, but two or three shades in a row make a decent vote.

What changes in your wardrobe

The good news is that the shopping list isn’t very different in spirit. You’re buying the same jobs, one temperature apart:

So being unsure doesn’t mean being stuck. If you buy Sage Grey and later decide you’re a Soft Autumn, you won’t have made an expensive mistake. Both are quiet colors that behave well with what you own.

Why ash hair fools people

Kettlewell Colours says Soft Autumns “very often look like they might be Summers, with ashy toned hair and soft grey, blue or grey-hazel eyes.” So cool-looking hair and eyes don’t rule out the warm side. It’s one more reason this test needs fabric on skin and not a checklist of features.

What if both look fine?

Then you may be close to the border, and that’s allowed. Wikipedia’s article on color analysis calls the seasons “to some degree, arbitrary” and says someone can land “on the cusp of two seasons.” It’s a styling convention, with no blood test at the end of it. Three things you can do:

• Repeat the test on another day, at a different hour. Morning and late afternoon light aren’t the same color.
• Wear the overlap. The teals, greyed greens and soft rose-browns near neutral suit both palettes, and few people would call them wrong on you.
• Follow your preference. If you’d rather wear Dusty Lilac than Soft Mustard, that’s a fine reason to choose.

Screens, and what our scan does instead

MySeasonColors calls digital draping “unreliable”, since screens vary and “photos can’t replicate how fabric reflects actual light.” That’s fair, and it’s why our scan doesn’t drape. It reads your skin, eyes and hair from your camera, corrects the light with white paper, and shows your season, palette and colors beside your photo. Use it to narrow things down, then check the finalists with real fabric. You’ll find every hex code on Soft Summer and Soft Autumn, and the scan at what season am I.

Related guides and tools

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