Seasonal sub-types – Summer

The Summer palette is soft, cool, smokey and subtle, and extends from deepest charcoal grey and deep forest green all the way to softest pinks and powder blues. If you’ve been given a designation within the Summer palette, let’s explore what that means.

Do remember though, that your seasonal type is a guide. If you fall at one end of a palette, it doesn’t mean you can’t ever go near colours from other areas of that palette, just that this particular area is the strongest part for your own skin tone and contrast level. Remember that the rest of the colours within your wider palette will also work for you and will harmonise with your absolute best colours.

True/Sweetpea Summer

This is the classic Summer look and often a True Summer has the typical look of a Summer; ashy mid-brown hair, grey, blue or green eyes, and relatively light skin. Their best colours are mid pinks, lots of blues from denim to sky and the beautiful blue-greys of the Summer palette.

The colours are mid-range, neither too light nor too dark, and are at the cooler end of the summer palette – the rose browns and jade greens of Soft Summers are often a little too warm for True Summers, even though they are all cool toned.

True Summer’s best colours then are rose pinks, soft blues and mid greys.

This means that the dominant tonal direction for this seasonal sub-type is Cool (although Soft can also be useful to look at), so you can also search the Cool (and Soft) dominant tonal direction for more colours which you might love (if you want to read more about how tonal directions relate to seasons, this post is a great starting point).

Light/Pastel/Cotton Wool Ball Summer

Although Summer is, by its nature, a light palette relative to either Winter or Autumn, there are Summers who, even within their palette, suit the lightest colours. They often have the look of Springs, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

If the four seasons are viewed as a continuous spectrum rather than four distinct blocks of colour, the Light Summer colours sit somewhat nearer the Spring palette.

Your best colours are sky blues, primrose yellow and light pinks and greys, and where you need dark neutrals keep them soft, such as a French Navy.

This means that the dominant tonal direction for this seasonal sub-type is Cool (although Soft can also be useful to look at), so you can also search the Cool (and Soft) dominant tonal direction for more colours which you might love (if you want to read more about how tonal directions relate to seasons, this post is a great starting point).

Deep/Cool/Dark Summer

Deep Summer colours are, unsurprisingly, the darkest and most intense Summer colours, and often work best in outfits with a degree of contrast. Dark Summers can often be mistaken (or mistake themselves) for Winters, with a bright or dark look about them, and it is only with a professional analysis with precision dyed drapes that the difference can be seen.

Deep Summer sits at the very coolest, most wintery end of the Summer palette when all four seasons are viewed as one linked spectrum.

Your best colours are those deep dark Summer colours that land just on the cusp of the Winter palette, like deep grape and aubergine shades, bold pinky reds and the darkest and brighter Summer blues.

This means that the dominant tonal direction for this seasonal sub-type is Deep (although Cool can also be useful to look at), so you can also search the Deep (and Cool) dominant tonal direction for more colours which you might love (if you want to read more about how tonal directions relate to seasons, this post is a great starting point).

Soft/Brown Summers

Soft Summer contains the least cool toned colours of the Summer palette (although it’s colours are still cool, rather than warm). Soft Summers often look like they might be autumns, perhaps with olive coloured eyes or red glints in their hair.

The name Soft Summer can be a little misleading, as it seems that it ought to be similar to Light Summer, but actually it tends towards the Autumn ‘end’ of the Summer palette, which lends it some depth of colour. Although all Summer colours are still very definitely cool toned, soft Summer colours are less cool than others.

Your best colours are cool toned sea greens and teals, rose browns and soft navy, and you also do rose gold as well as silver when it comes to jewellery.

This means that the dominant tonal direction for this seasonal sub-type is Soft, so you can also search the Soft dominant tonal direction for more colours which you might love (if you want to read more about how tonal directions relate to seasons, this post is a great starting point).