Bright Winter vs Deep Winter
Bright Winter
the lighter one
Deep Winter
the deeper one
These two are close. Your own photo shows which one is you.
The deciding axis is depth: Bright Winter is the lighter one and Deep Winter is the deeper one.
Side by side
The deciding axis is depth, everything else about these two is close.
Bright Winter
moderately cool, moderately deep and strongly bright
Deep Winter
moderately cool, strongly deep and moderately bright
The test that settles it
Do this in daylight, with no makeup, looking at your skin rather than at the fabric.
Bright Winter: Electric red #FF1744
Deep Winter: Ruby #8E0B3A
Hold each color under your chin in turn. The right one settles your skin, shadows under the eyes recede and the face looks rested. The wrong one pulls those shadows forward and adds a gray or sallow cast. If you cannot see a difference, you are probably between the two, which is common and covered below.
Bright Winter and Deep Winter palettes
Each row pairs a color with the nearest one left in the other palette.
Bright Winter
Deep Winter
- Electric red#FF1744
- Hot pink#F50057
- Bright rose#FF4081
- Vivid orchid#D500F9
- Electric purple#AA00FF
- Bright violet#651FFF
- Electric blue#3D5AFE
- Vivid azure#2979FF
- Bright sapphire#00B0FF
- Electric turquoise#00E5FF
- True red#B71C1C
- Cool fuchsia#C2185B
- Deep crimson#A4133C
- Magenta wine#880E4F
- Indigo#311B92
- Deep violet#4A148C
- Sapphire#0D47A1
- Deep cobalt#01579B
- Icy aqua#B2DFDB
- Icy blue#B3E5FC
Frequently asked
What is the difference between Bright Winter and Deep Winter?
The deciding axis is depth: Bright Winter is the lighter one and Deep Winter is the deeper one. Bright Winter is moderately cool, moderately deep and strongly bright; Deep Winter is moderately cool, strongly deep and moderately bright. Everything else about them is close enough that the wrong call still looks acceptable, which is precisely why so many people sit between the two.
Deep Winter vs Bright Winter: which one am I?
Test the deciding axis in isolation. Put electric red (#FF1744) beside ruby (#8E0B3A) against your bare face in daylight, and look at the skin under your eyes and around your mouth rather than at the fabric. One of them will settle your skin and the other will pull shadows forward.
What if both palettes look fine on me?
Then you are genuinely in between, and you should take the overlap. Wear the colors that appear in both palettes as your core wardrobe, and treat each season's extremes as occasional. Being between two neighboring seasons is common and is not a failure of the system, it is what the boundaries look like from close up.
Which is more common, Bright Winter or Deep Winter?
Neither is rare. Judging by search interest, Deep Winter is looked up more often, but that reflects how often people are told they might be one, not how many actually are.