What Season Am I? Find Your Color Season in 3 Questions
What color season are you? Answer three questions (warm or cool, light or deep, bright or soft) to find your season out of 12, plus the mix-ups that send people to the wrong one.
In this guide10 sectionsClose
- Question 1: are you warm or cool?
- Question 2: are you light, medium or deep?
- Question 3: are you bright or soft?
- From your answers to your season
- What each season typically looks like
- The four families at a glance
- The mix-ups that send people to the wrong season
- Why quizzes often get it wrong
- What a professional analysis does differently
- FAQ
Seasonal color analysis sorts people into four families (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) and then into 12 seasons, three per family. Your season isn't decided by your skin tone alone, or by your favorite colors. It's decided by three qualities of your natural coloring and which one is strongest:
- Temperature: warm or cool
- Value: light or deep
- Chroma: bright and clear, or soft and muted
Springs are warm and clear, Summers cool and soft, Autumns warm and rich or muted, Winters cool and clear. Each family then splits by its strongest quality: Light Spring is light first, Deep Winter is deep first, Soft Summer is soft first, and so on.
Here's how to answer the three questions honestly, then where your answers lead.
Question 1: are you warm or cool?
This picks your side of the wheel: warm (Spring, Autumn) or cool (Summer, Winter).
In daylight, bare face, hold these under your chin and compare:
- Cream vs pure white: cream better means warm, white better means cool.
- Gold vs silver: same idea with jewelry. Try the gold or silver test.
- Coral vs fuchsia: coral makes warm skin glow and cool skin look orange; fuchsia does the reverse.
If nothing wins clearly, don't force it. Being neutral is common, and it means temperature isn't your strongest quality. Your season is probably one of the in-between ones (Light, Soft, Bright or Deep). The undertone test measures it from a selfie.
Question 2: are you light, medium or deep?
Look at your skin, hair and eyes together, not just your skin.
- Light: light blonde to light brown hair, light eyes, fair to light skin. Dark colors look heavy on you.
- Deep: dark brown to black hair, dark eyes, any skin depth. Light colors and pastels look washed out on you.
- Medium: everything in between. Most people are here, which is why value is usually not the deciding quality for them.
Dark hair with pale skin is a contrast question as much as a depth one. Our contrast test helps you tell them apart.
Question 3: are you bright or soft?
This is the question most quizzes skip and the one behind most wrong results.
- Bright (clear): sparkling eyes with a strong white around the iris, glossy hair, skin that looks clear. Saturated colors like kelly green, hot pink and electric blue make you look awake. Muted colors make you look dull.
- Soft (muted): eyes with mixed or greyed color (grey-green, soft hazel), hair without strong shine, a gentle overall impression. Bright colors look loud on you; dusty rose, sage and denim look calm and expensive.
Compare a bright and a soft version of the same color, like kelly green vs sage. Whichever makes you look more like yourself is your answer.
From your answers to your season
Find your strongest answer first, then your second.
- Is one answer much stronger than the others?
- Very light coloring, then warm: Light Spring. Very light, then cool: Light Summer.
- Very deep coloring, then warm: Deep Autumn. Very deep, then cool: Deep Winter.
- Very bright and clear, then warm: Bright Spring. Very bright, then cool: Bright Winter.
- Very soft and muted, then cool: Soft Summer. Very soft, then warm: Soft Autumn.
- Is temperature your strongest answer?
- Clearly warm and fresh, clear colors win: True Spring.
- Clearly warm and earthy, rich colors win: True Autumn.
- Clearly cool and gentle, soft colors win: True Summer.
- Clearly cool and striking, high contrast wins: True Winter.
Use the map to check: select what you're sure of, leave the rest empty.
Which seasons match your answers?
Pick what you already know about yourself. Leave a row empty if you are unsure.
All 12 seasons
What each season typically looks like
Use this as a sanity check on your answers. These are typical combinations, not rules: every season includes people of every skin depth, and your season is decided by how the colors behave on you, not by matching one row.
| Season | Skin | Hair (natural) | Eyes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light Spring | Fair to light ivory or peach, with a golden or peachy undertone and a warm glow; may freckle lightly | Golden, strawberry or honey blonde to light golden brown | Light blue, aqua, light green or light warm hazel, usually clear and bright |
| True Spring | Ivory, peach or golden beige with a clearly warm undertone; freckles are common | Golden blonde, strawberry blonde, copper red or golden brown | Warm blue, turquoise, green or golden hazel, often with golden flecks |
| Bright Spring | Clear ivory, golden beige or warm bronze, with a bright, luminous quality | Golden brown, chestnut or dark brown, sometimes black-brown; also bright golden blonde | Clear, bright eyes such as turquoise, bright green, topaz or sparkling warm brown, with strong contrast to the whites |
| Light Summer | Fair to light, porcelain or soft pink-beige with a cool to neutral undertone | Ash blonde, platinum, light beige blonde or light ash brown, often blonde since childhood | Soft blue, grey-blue, grey-green or light cool hazel |
| True Summer | Light to medium with a rosy or pink-beige undertone; can flush easily | Ash blonde, ash brown or medium cool brown, often greying early to silver | Grey-blue, soft blue, grey-green or cool soft brown |
| Soft Summer | Light to medium beige, neutral-cool, sometimes with a soft olive or greyish cast | Ash blonde or light to medium ash brown, often without strong highlights | Grey-green, grey-blue, soft hazel or muted cool brown |
| Soft Autumn | Light to medium golden beige, warm-neutral, often with a soft olive or peachy cast | Dark blonde or light to medium golden brown, often with natural honey highlights | Soft hazel, olive green, warm grey-green or soft brown |
| True Autumn | Ivory, golden beige, warm bronze or deep golden brown with a clearly golden undertone; freckles are common | Auburn, copper red, golden brown or warm chestnut | Warm brown, golden hazel, olive or topaz green |
| Deep Autumn | Medium to deep, golden beige, olive, bronze or deep warm brown | Dark brown, dark chestnut, black-brown or dark auburn | Dark brown, deep hazel, dark olive or black-brown |
| Deep Winter | Light with dark features, olive, neutral-cool beige or deep cool brown | Dark brown, black-brown or black, often with a cool cast | Dark brown, black-brown, deep hazel or deep cool green or blue |
| True Winter | Porcelain, cool beige, cool olive or deep cool brown with a blue or pink undertone | Dark brown to black, usually with a cool cast; also striking silver | Dark brown, black-brown, icy blue or cool grey, with very clear whites |
| Bright Winter | Clear porcelain, neutral beige, olive or deep brown with a luminous, clear quality | Dark brown to black, sometimes medium brown with a cool shine | Bright, sparkling eyes such as icy blue, clear green, bright hazel or dark brown with strong white contrast |
The four families at a glance
| Family | Temperature | Overall feel | Typical colors | Metals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring | Warm | Clear, fresh, light to bright | Peach, coral, turquoise, golden yellow, kelly green | Yellow gold, rose gold |
| Summer | Cool | Soft, gentle, light to medium | Powder blue, rose pink, lavender, dusty rose, soft teal | Silver, white gold, pewter |
| Autumn | Warm | Rich or muted, earthy | Camel, olive, rust, terracotta, warm teal, mustard | Antique gold, bronze, copper |
| Winter | Cool | Clear, high contrast | Black, pure white, true red, royal blue, emerald | Silver, platinum |
Each family has a sister on either side. Light Spring borders Light Summer, Soft Summer borders Soft Autumn, Deep Autumn borders Deep Winter and Bright Winter borders Bright Spring. Those borders are where most mistakes happen.
The mix-ups that send people to the wrong season
| You think you are | You might be | The tell |
|---|---|---|
| Soft Autumn | Soft Summer | Sage and dusty rose look better than camel and olive; pewter beats gold |
| Soft Summer | Soft Autumn | Warm rose, moss and soft teal look better than mauve and lavender grey |
| Deep Autumn | Deep Winter | Black looks clean instead of harsh; ruby beats rust |
| Bright Spring | Bright Winter | Pure white and electric blue beat ivory and coral |
| Light Spring | Light Summer | Powder blue and rose pink beat peach and buttercream |
| True Autumn | Soft Autumn | Bright rust and mustard look loud; their softer versions look right |
| Winter (any) | True Summer | Black looks heavy, but navy and raspberry look great |
The most common one we see is Soft Summer vs Soft Autumn. Both are soft first, and their palettes overlap in the middle:
Soft Summer vs Soft Autumn
Both are soft first. The second quality, cool or warm, decides.
Cool, muted and smoky, like a misty morning by the sea.
- Skin:
- Light to medium beige, neutral-cool, sometimes with a soft olive or greyish cast.
- Hair:
- Ash blonde or light to medium ash brown, often without strong highlights.
- Eyes:
- Grey-green, grey-blue, soft hazel or muted cool brown.
Warm, muted and gentle, like autumn in the mist.
- Skin:
- Light to medium golden beige, warm-neutral, often with a soft olive or peachy cast.
- Hair:
- Dark blonde or light to medium golden brown, often with natural honey highlights.
- Eyes:
- Soft hazel, olive green, warm grey-green or soft brown.
Why quizzes often get it wrong
- You describe yourself, not your colors. "My eyes are hazel" covers a dozen different eye colors.
- Dyed hair. If you've colored your hair for years, answer for your natural color (look at your roots or eyebrows).
- Tans and redness. Summer tans push answers warm and deep; rosacea and flushing push them cool.
- Your bathroom light. Warm bulbs make everyone look like an Autumn.
A quiz is a good first estimate, and our color analysis quiz takes about a minute with no photo. Answer for your natural coloring, then check the result by seeing the colors on your face.
Compare 4 seasons on your own photo
Soft Summer · Soft Autumn · Deep Autumn · Deep Winter
Take a selfie or upload one. We put a draping cape on your photo and recolor it with this palette, best colors and the ones to avoid, so you can see the difference on your own face. Your photo stays in your browser.
What a professional analysis does differently
An in-person analyst sits you in daylight or full-spectrum light, covers your hair and clothes with a neutral cape, and drapes fabric colors under your face in pairs: warm against cool, light against deep, bright against soft. They watch the same things you should watch at home: whether the skin evens out, whether shadows deepen, whether the eyes clear up. The season is the one whose colors win the most comparisons.
Our analysis follows the same logic on your photo: measure your coloring, shortlist the closest seasons, then compare their colors on your face.
FAQ
What season am I if I have brown hair and brown eyes?
It depends on your skin and how much contrast you have. Warm skin with golden brown hair often lands in True Autumn or Soft Autumn; dark brown hair with cool or olive skin often lands in Deep Winter; light brown hair with soft, muted coloring often lands in Soft Summer. Brown hair and brown eyes exist in nearly every season.
What season am I with blonde hair and blue eyes?
Ash or beige blonde with soft blue or grey-blue eyes usually means Light Summer or True Summer. Golden or strawberry blonde with clear blue or aqua eyes usually means Light Spring or True Spring.
Can you be two seasons?
You have one best season, but your neighbors share some colors with you. If you're a Soft Summer, the softer True Summer colors and the coolest Soft Autumn colors will work too. That overlap is why people feel like they're "between" seasons.
Can your season change?
Your undertone doesn't change. Greying hair, sun and age can soften your coloring, so some people move to a softer neighbor over time, for example from True Winter toward True Summer.
Is the 12-season system better than 4 seasons?
It's more precise. The 4-season system assumes everyone is clearly warm or cool, which leaves neutral people stuck. The 12 seasons add depth and chroma, so a soft, neutral person gets a soft palette instead of a forced warm or cool one. There are also 16-season systems.
Graduated from the ESSEC Business School, Natalie is a marketing expert specializing in beauty tech.
