Guide · Colour analysis
What is colour analysis? The 12 seasons explained
Colour analysis (or seasonal colour analysis) is a way to find which colours suit you based on your natural colouring: your skin undertone, hair colour and eye colour. Your colouring falls into one of 12 seasons, grouped into spring, summer, autumn and winter, and each season has its own palette. Wearing colours from your palette near your face makes it look brighter; colours outside it can make you look tired or washed out.
Take the free colour test (One photo · no account needed · under a minute)
The three keys: temperature, depth and intensity
Whichever trait dominates decides your season. A warm person in whom depth dominates is a Deep (Dark) Autumn; a cool person in whom softness dominates is a Soft Summer.
- Temperature: whether your colouring is warm (golden) or cool (blue-based). This is your undertone.
- Depth: whether it's light or deep, looking at skin, hair and eyes together.
- Intensity: whether it's bright with contrast, or soft and muted.
The 12 seasons
Each season has its own page with the full palette, the colours to avoid and the seasons it's often confused with.
- Spring (warm and light): Light Spring, Warm (True) Spring and Bright Spring.
- Summer (cool and soft): Light Summer, Cool (True) Summer and Soft Summer.
- Autumn (warm and earthy): Soft Autumn, Warm (True) Autumn and Deep (Dark) Autumn.
- Winter (cool and high-contrast): Deep (Dark) Winter, Cool (True) Winter and Bright Winter.
How to find your season
There are three ways. The most accurate is a colour consultant, who drapes coloured fabrics around your face in controlled light. The quickest is a photo-based test, which looks at skin, hair and eyes and gives you a season and a palette to start with. And the DIY way is to try clothes you already own in front of a mirror in daylight and notice which ones light up your face.
How it helps every day
- Clothes: wear your palette on top, near your face. There's more freedom below the waist.
- Wardrobe: if most of your clothes are in the same palette, almost everything goes together, and fewer pieces give you more outfits.
- Shopping: you know which colours to skip without trying them on.
- Makeup and jewellery: your palette tells you which lip colours, blushers and metals suit you best.
FAQ
Is colour analysis accurate? It's a guide, not a law. It works well to rule out the colours that clearly don't suit you and to build a wardrobe that goes together. If you love a colour outside your palette, wear it away from your face or with a colour from your palette.
Why 12 seasons and not 4? The original system had four, but many people didn't quite fit any of them. Splitting each season in three, depending on which trait dominates, gives more accurate palettes.
Can my season change? Your season depends on traits that don't change, but over the years hair gets lighter or greyer and contrast drops. That's why some people move to a softer neighbouring season.
Guides
- What is colour analysis? The 12 seasons explained
- How to find your skin undertone
- How to build a capsule wardrobe from scratch