Spring color palette: light, warm and bright spring compared
Most spring palettes online are pastels and trend reports. In color analysis, only one of the three springs is pale. Copy the codes, then see how the three split.
Hold one up to your face
Spring hex codes, for any job
Six signature colors from each of our three spring palettes: pale, golden and clear. They read as one fresh set in a layout or a slide.
A trend report would give you different colors every year. These stay put, because they come from color analysis and not from a fashion season.
Copy eighteen codes
If you came for a design palette
You’re welcome to the block above. We should be plain about the rest: this page isn’t a trend report, and we can’t tell you what next spring’s fashion colors will be. What we can give a designer is a set of eighteen codes that hold together, and a warning. Spring palettes are mostly pale or bright, so they tend to fail the one test that matters for words on a page.
Aa Spring
Text set in Dark Chocolate on Warm Ivory.
#FFF6E3 / #3A2116
13.9:1, body text
Aa Spring
Text set in Warm Marine on Butter.
#FBE99A / #1F5F86
5.7:1, body text
Aa Spring
Text set in Bright Navy on Light Aqua.
#B2E8DF / #1B2F7A
8.9:1, body text
Aa Spring
Text set in Warm Chestnut on Shell Pink.
#FBCFC3 / #7A3F1D
5.8:1, body text
Aa Spring
Text set in Warm Ivory on Warm Coral.
#F97B57 / #FFF6E3
2.4:1, decoration only
Aa Spring
Text set in Sunny Yellow on Warm Ivory.
#FFF6E3 / #FFD84D
1.3:1, decoration only
The trap is Warm Coral. Cream text on it can look readable at a glance, and it measures 2.4 to 1, under W3C’s minimum of 3 to 1 even for large text. If you need text, the safe move is one of the darks these palettes hide at the bottom: Dark Chocolate, Bright Navy, Warm Marine.
Now the difference, because it’s bigger than it looks. A design palette only has to work with itself. A personal palette, the kind color analysis means, has to work with one person’s skin, eyes and hair. From here on, this page is about people.
In color analysis, spring means warm and clear
Carole Jackson’s 1980 book grouped springs with autumns as yellow-undertoned, and advised coral, bright teal, gold, camel and lime green. No pastels on that list. The pale version is only one branch of the family, as our numbers show.
| Light | Warm | Bright | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depth | light | light to medium | light to medium |
| Strength | fairly clear | vivid | very vivid |
| Warmth | warm | very warm | warm |
| Measures warm | 75% | 82.5% | 55% |
| Darkest color | Soft Cocoa | Warm Chestnut | Dark Chocolate |
Two things stand out. Bright Spring goes down to Dark Chocolate, about as dark as Deep Autumn’s espresso, so anyone who thinks springs have no darks hasn’t met this one. And only 55% of Bright Spring measures warm, far below Warm Spring’s 82.5%. In the plot at the top of the page, its diamonds run all the way across to the cool side, because clarity comes first for that season and temperature second. These figures describe the boards we drew, and they don’t say anything direct about a face.
The three springs, one at a time
Light Spring
This is the one the word makes you picture: Butter, Light Aqua, Warm Ivory. Light first, warm second, with no color on the board in our dark band. Soul of Color describes hair from blonde to light brown and says the skin can be pale or tanner, as long as it’s light for the person. Run the scan or see every color.
Warm Spring
Also called True Spring, and the warmest of the three: Poppy, Marigold, Warm Turquoise. It’s the most golden palette in the family. Watch the name, though. In most 12-season charts, Warm and True Spring are one season, while in Agile Styling’s 16-season method Warm Spring is its own flow between True Spring and True Autumn, able to carry more natural depth. Run the scan and compare the full board.
Bright Spring
Also called Clear Spring, and the most vivid of the three: Hot Coral, Bright Turquoise, Lime. Soul of Color calls it perhaps the trickiest season to spot, since it can come with any hair, eye or skin color, and suggests judging by the effect of bright warm colors on the person and not by features. That matches what a color round in the scan does. All 40 colors are here.
What breaks each one
Favorite colors overlap, so a list of what a season loves won’t separate them well. What each one can’t take is clearer.
Light Spring: too dark
Black
deep, muted
Charcoal
deep, muted
Burgundy
deep, clear
Deep Plum
deep, soft
Dusty Mauve
medium, muted
Warm Spring: too cold
Black
deep, muted
Cool Grey
medium, muted
Magenta
deep, vivid
Dusty Rose
medium, muted
Icy Blue
light, muted
Bright Spring: too grey
Dusty Mauve
medium, muted
Olive Drab
deep, soft
Greige
medium, muted
Taupe
medium, muted
Burgundy
deep, clear
Read it as a diagnosis. If dark colors swallow you and you still look fine in a dusty tone, that points to Light Spring. If cold colors are the trouble, Warm Spring, whose list has Cool Grey and Icy Blue. If greyed colors flatten you, Bright Spring: Greige and Taupe are on its list. Black isn’t, and that’s telling: Light and Warm Spring both list it, while the Bright Spring board keeps Clear Charcoal and Dark Chocolate for the jobs black would do.
How do I know if I’m a spring?
Beware the warm bulb first. Camera makers treat incandescent light as about 3,000 K and direct sun as about 5,200 K, and white balance exists because the difference is so large. The fashion school Academia SISA makes the same point for comparing colors: indirect daylight near a window is the most reliable, and many bulbs turn skin too yellow or too cold. Under a warm lamp, almost anyone looks a little golden and a warm palette looks like yours.
- Move to a window, without direct sun on your face.
- Hold up something truly warm and clear, such as Golden Yellow. Soul of Color says yellow is a good way to spot a True Spring, because many other seasons don’t carry it.
- Then something cold and grey, such as Cool Grey. If that one drains you and the yellow doesn’t, you’re on the warm side.
- Now choose between the three with the avoid lists above, or let the season test do it with color rounds beside your photo. Its white paper step corrects for your room’s light before it reads anything, and you can skip it.
If your undertone test comes back cool, spring is unlikely, though Bright Spring’s reach toward the cool side means it’s worth a look before you rule it out.
Where spring sits among the twelve
Each spring borders a different family. Light Spring and Light Summer are almost equally light and split on warmth. Warm Spring borders True Autumn, sharing nearly the same warmth, with spring noticeably lighter. Bright Spring and Bright Winter are equally vivid, and temperature is what keeps them apart. Turn the space below to see those borders.
The palettes hub holds all twelve, and the 12-season chart shows them flat. The Full Color Report narrows one palette down to the colors for your own face.
Related guides and tools
Sources
Full Color Report
The free result shows your season. The report shows you in your colors.
$19one time. No subscription.
An in-person color analysis costs about $200 to $600. See a cost guide
Full Color Report
Bright Winter
Personal palette
Metals
Silver, platinum and white gold
Makeup
Hot pink, cherry red and clear fuchsia.
What's included
- Fifteen AI pictures of you: 3 best colors beside 3 worst, your lead color, 3 hair colors, day and evening makeup, 2 outfits, and glasses with jewelry
- What we measured on your face: undertone, depth, clarity and contrast, and how close your second season was
- Your full palette of about 40 named colors, with hex codes and how to use each group
- Your colors to avoid, why, and how to wear them away from your face
- Makeup from foundation to nails: lips, blush, eyeshadow, liner and brows, with a day and an evening look
- Hair colors to choose and to skip, and what to say to your colorist
- Metals, jewelry, glasses frames and leathers in your colors
- Your contrast level, your white and your black, suit and coat colors, prints, fabrics and denim
- A capsule wardrobe as outfit formulas, every piece in your colors
- A shopping guide: the color names to search for and the label words to skip
- The "Does this suit me?" checker for anything you might buy
- Your second season, and when to borrow from it
- A PDF of the whole report, a swatch card, a phone wallpaper and a share card, saved to your account
Common questions
- What is a spring color palette?
- In design, a set of fresh pale or bright colors picked for a seasonal mood. In color analysis, one of three palettes for warm, clear coloring: Light Spring, Warm Spring and Bright Spring. They look quite different from each other, and only Light Spring is mostly pale.
- Is spring always pastel?
- No. Light Spring is light, but Warm and Bright Spring both sit in the light-to-medium range with strong color, and Bright Spring holds near-black browns and navy. The pastel idea comes from design and from one of the three seasons.
- Which hex codes work for a spring design?
- The block at the top of this page has eighteen. For text, use the dark ones on the pale ones: dark chocolate on warm ivory, or warm marine on butter. Corals and yellows look fine as blocks of color and rarely pass as text colors.
- Can a spring wear black?
- Black is on the avoid lists for Light and Warm Spring, mostly because it's far darker than anything in that coloring. Bright Spring doesn't list it and has its own near-blacks, so it's the most comfortable of the three. Away from the face, none of this matters much.
- Is True Spring the same as Warm Spring?
- In most 12-season charts, yes. In Agile Styling's 16-season system they're different seasons, with Warm Spring leaning toward autumn. If you were typed in a 16-season method, check your own fan.
- Why did I get spring from one test and autumn from another?
- Warm Spring and True Autumn are almost equal on warmth in our boards, so a warm reading alone can't separate them. Lightness and clarity do: spring is noticeably lighter, with stronger color. Lighting at the moment of the test can also move the result.
See which colors are yours.
See your colors on your own face, compare seasons side by side, and get your season, your undertone and a starter palette.