I have talked about the primary aspects of colour in detail. Now I will mention how to recognise them by looking at your appearance for seasonal colour analysis. I am going to use a few specific terms for this, and I have explained them in my skin-eyes-hair method post and in my undertone post. Note that in some people the required 3 aspects of colour aren’t dominant, but balanced, making them a True Season. People who do have a dominant primary aspect of colour will fall into a seasonal subgroup the colour palette of which will flatter the dominant aspect, without leaving out the others. Now, we’ll decode what the dominant aspects can be, and how to recognise the primary aspects of colour in your complexion.
Warm
Warm is your primary colour aspect if the first thing you notice about your appearance are the warm tones coming from your features.
Contrast: You most probably won’t have any prominently dark or any prominently light features, so your contrast is medium.
Skin: Your skin can be anywhere from light to dark, with very yellow, golden or caramel tones. If you naturally have red/ginger hair, your skin will appear very rosy and therefore cool, but actually you have warm undertones and most probably your main colour aspect is warm.
Eyes: Light to medium brown, olive green, dark hazel, light hazel or warm blue. They may have a halo, a starburst, and probably even freckles). They will have specks of gold or auburn in them.
Hair: Light to medium golden blond through to medium brown, strawberry blond, rich and warm red (copper).
Main aspect: Your appearance looks very warm-toned. It could be radiant and glowy or more subdued, (depending on your secondary aspect), but there is no coolness.
Deciding factor: Gold gives you a healthy appearance, while silver might make you look more aged (by this I mean that you will look unhealthily older than your real age) if not pale.
Secondary aspect: bright or muted. A warm primary aspect can be paired with bright (Warm Spring) or soft (Warm Autumn) as secondary aspect. Both look off if they wear silver and cool colours.The difference between them is the chroma: Warm Springs ought to wear saturated and lighter warmer colours to let their radiant complexion shine, while Warm Autumns ought to go for those deeper, richer, earthier colours that characterise Autumns.
Cool
Your primary colour aspect is cool if the first thing that strikes you about your colouring is the extreme coolness coming from your features.
Contrast: You have medium to high contrast. You may have very dark hair in contrast to a lighter skin tone.
Skin: all the way from light to dark, with extremely cool undertones. In fairer tones, the skin looks rosier, while in medium and darker tones the skin may look slightly grey or blueish. It’s generally lighter than the eyes and hair. For people of colour, see if your skin is (just) slightly lighter than your hair and eyes (as people of colour often naturally have dark features).
Eyes: Cool blue, grey blue, cool hazel, cool green, dark brown, charcoal grey, black. They may have a wheel, flower petals or a cloud pattern. Your eyes may have specks of grey or blue in them.
Hair: Ash blond through to black, brown shades without natural highlights, silver, grey/silver mix.
Main aspect: Your appearance has very cool tones, along with higher contrast between hair and skin. This coolness can either be a frosted, icy kind or a more gentle and subdued coolness type (depending on your secondary characteristic).
Deciding factor: Gold makes you look sickly, but silver makes you look healthy.
Secondary aspect: soft or bright. A cool primary aspect can be paired with soft (Cool Summer) or bright (Cool Winter) as secondary aspect. These two colour seasons look off in gold and warm colours. The differences between a Cool Summer and a Cool Winter are the contrast and the chroma: Cool Winters have slightly higher contrast and prefer brighter colours, as opposed to Cool Summer who have slightly lower contrast and prefer slightly softer colours. Cool Summers look off in black, which flatters Cool Winters (and all Winters generally).
Light
Your primary colour aspect is light if the first thing you notice is the absence of depth, or lightness in your features.
Contrast: You have low contrast – meaning that all your features are similarly light.
Skin:Your skin can go from light to medium. Consider whether your skin is light for your ethnicity if you are a person of colour.
Eyes: Light to medium blue/ green, light hazel, light brown.
Hair: Very light – light to medium ash or golden blonde, or light to medium brown.
Main aspect: The lightness of the features’ colouring and the lack of depth in them.
Deciding factor: Very dark colours look ageing on you, but tints make your appearance pop.
Secondary aspect: warm or cool. This primary aspect can be paired with warm (Light Spring) and cool (Light Summer). The two light seasons can be quite tricky to tell apart at first glance. Dark colours instantly age both of them. Once they are dressed in colour that match their undertone, they’re quite easy to guess though. Light Springs prefer warmer colours, and Light Summers prefer cooler colours.
Deep
Your primary colour aspect is dark if the first thing you find striking about your appearance is the depth of your features. This aspect can mean that all of your features are dark or that your hair and eyes are dark compared to your light(er) skin.
Contrast: The contrast between your skin, hair, and eye colours is high. Your dark hair and eyes stand in contrast to a lighter skin tone, or the whites of the eyes and teeth stand in contrast to dark skin, hair and eyes. You may like to consider whether your skin and hair are dark for your ethnicity as well, as this can also be telling.
Skin: all the way from light to dark.
Eyes: Black, black-brown, red-brown, brown, dark hazel. If you have an eye colour other than the ones stated, you are not dark.
Hair: Very dark – Black, black-brown, chestnut brown, dark auburn.
Main aspect: Overall dark features or prominent dark features in combination with a high contrast level.
Deciding factor: Very dark colours make your eyes and hair stand out, and you can wear them comfortably. Light colours, on the other hand, pale and wash you out.
Secondary aspect: warm or cool. The primary aspect of deep can be paired with warm (Deep Autumn) or cool (Deep Winter). Deep Autumns and Deep Winters both look elegant in dark, mysterious colours. They are generally quite easy to tell apart, and the difference between them is the undertone. A telltale sign is that Deep Autumns have a very tough time wearing black (a cool colour), while Deep Winters can wear it very easily.
Bright
Your primary colour aspect is bright if the first thing that strikes you about your appearance is the clearness and saturation of your features. There is no greyness in your colouring and your features contrast. They clearly stand out against each other.
Contrast: The overall contrast level of your features is high to very high. Your eyes may stand out against your skin and hair.
Skin: all the way from light to dark. It won’t look obviously cool or obviously warm.
Eyes: May stand out against skin and hair – clear blue, turquoise blue or green, bright green, emerald, or sparkly amber/topaz, hazel, brown, dark brown, black. The whites are clearly defined.
Hair: Black, black-brown, medium to dark brown, bright golden blonde or red hair, very golden white-blond.
Main aspect: Your features are highly contrasted and saturated. They don’t blend and there is no greyness about them.
Deciding factor: You can comfortably wear highly saturated colours, but unsaturated colours make you look tired and pale.
Secondary aspect: warm or cool. The primary aspect of bright can be paired with warm (Bright Spring) or cool (Bright Winter). The difference between Bright Spring and Bright Winter is the more frosted appearance of the latter. Both need highly saturated colours, but Bright Winter needs the darker, more intense colours of Winter, which are slightly too overwhelming for Bright Spring. Bright Springs look amazing in warmer, fresher and slightly lighter colours. Hence, the only difference is the undertone.
Soft
Your primary colour aspect is muted if the first thing that strikes you about your appearance is how ‘greyed out’ it is. You can at first appear to be light, but you have a richer look.
Contrast: The overall contrast level of your features is low to medium. Skin, hair, and eyes have similarly low intensity. Features tend to blend rather than contrast.
Skin: generally from light to medium, but it can also be dark too. It has a lot of grey peeking though it.
Eyes: They are hazel, brown, grey-green, grey-blue, and they tend to blend in with the rest of your complexion.
Hair: Neither very light nor very dark, usually slightly ashy. Golden or ash blond through to medium brown, medium to dark ash brown, light grey.
Main aspect: The lack of contrast in your features resulting in a blended appearance and the amount of “grey content” in your colouring.
Deciding factor: Saturated colours instantly draw attention away from you and onto themselves, but muted colours give you a sophisticated look. If muted colours make you look bland and washed out, this is not your primary colour aspect.
Secondary aspect: cool or warm
The primary aspect of soft can be paired with cool (Soft Summer) or warm (Soft Autumn). Just like the two light seasons, the two muted seasons can be hard to tell apart because both are very unsaturated, which makes colours appear similar. The difference between them is the undertone and the value: Soft Summer is cool, while Soft Autumn is warm. Also, while Soft Summers can handle both gold and silver just as well as each other, Soft Autumn looks slightly pale when wearing silver alone. Finally, Soft Summers prefer lighter soft colours, while Soft Autumns prefer darker soft colours.