Soft Summer Color Palette

Soft Summer is one of the three Summer types in 12-season color analysis. Its leading trait is softness, meaning colors with plenty of grey mixed in, and its second trait is coolness. That combination gives a palette that looks like a misty seaside morning: nothing is loud, nothing is warm and golden, and everything sits close together in brightness.

Soft Summers usually have light-medium to medium coloring and low contrast. Typical signs:

• hair in ash brown, mousy or beige blonde, or soft cool brown, often described as dishwater blonde in childhood;
• eyes in grey-green, grey-blue, soft hazel or muted brown;
• skin with a neutral-cool base that can look ruddy in bright pink and yellow in orange;
• bright colors look like they are wearing you, and black makes your face look grey.

A quick test: compare a dusty rose top with a hot pink one in daylight. If the dusty version makes your skin look clear and the bright one makes it look blotchy, you are on the Soft Summer side.

Your neutrals are soft white, greige, mushroom, pewter, slate and soft navy. Combine them tonally, for example greige with dusty rose or slate grey with soft teal, and you will look put together without trying. The blues and greens in the third row are your everyday colors, and the rose, raspberry and plum shades add warmth to your face without going orange. Matte and satin finishes, heathered knits and soft, blurry prints suit you better than high shine, neon or graphic black-and-white patterns.

Keep black, pure white, bright orange, neon pink, bright gold, rust, electric blue and lime away from your face. They are either too bright, too warm or too stark for your low-contrast coloring. If you own them, wear them as trousers or shoes, and put one of your soft colors at the neckline.

Choose mauve-nude, dusty rose, rosewood and soft berry lips, and blush in dusty rose or soft mauve. Smoky taupe, slate and plum work better on the eyes than black. Hair looks most natural in ash brown, beige blonde or soft cool brown; brassy gold, copper and blue-black make your skin look uneven. Brushed silver, pewter, white gold and rose gold, especially in matte finishes, are your best metals.

Soft Summer sits between True Summer and Soft Autumn. Compared with True Summer, it is greyer and a little less blue: if clear periwinkle and raspberry feel slightly too bright, Soft Summer fits better. Compared with Soft Autumn, it is cooler: if sage and mauve flatter you more than camel and coral, you are the Summer type.

See the palettes side by side: Soft Autumn and True Summer.

If you are torn between Soft Summer and Soft Autumn or True Summer, compare two colors from each palette under your chin in daylight; the one that makes your skin look smoother and your eyes clearer wins. A photo is a second opinion: the free selfie analysis reads your skin, hair and eye colors, and the color analysis quiz works without a photo. If it says Summer, the paid report tells you whether you are this type or a neighbor, with a printable Soft Summer color card. See pricing.

Black is the hardest color for a Soft Summer. Charcoal, slate grey and soft navy give a dark neutral without the harsh contrast. Keep black away from the face if you wear it.

No. Pastels are light and fairly clear; Soft Summer colors are muted, with grey in them, and range from light greige to deep soft navy and plum.

Muted, cool pinks and roses: mauve-nude, dusty rose, rosewood and soft berry. Avoid orange-based corals and very bright fuchsia.