Deep Autumn vs Soft Autumn
Deep Autumn
the deeper one
Soft Autumn
the lighter one
These two are close. Your own photo shows which one is you.
The deciding axis is depth: Deep Autumn is the deeper one and Soft Autumn is the lighter one.
Side by side
The deciding axis is depth, everything else about these two is close.
Deep Autumn
warm, strongly deep and balanced in clarity
Soft Autumn
moderately warm, medium in depth and strongly soft
The test that settles it
Do this in daylight, with no makeup, looking at your skin rather than at the fabric.
Deep Autumn: Mahogany #7B241C
Soft Autumn: Salmon #D98A76
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.
Deep Autumn and Soft Autumn palettes
Each row pairs a color with the nearest one left in the other palette.
Deep Autumn
Soft Autumn
- Mahogany#7B241C
- Deep brick#943126
- Tomato red#A93226
- Dark rust#6E2C00
- Deep amber#B9770E
- Dark mustard#9A7D0A
- Bronze gold#7D6608
- Dark olive#4D5320
- Forest green#1E5631
- Deep pine#0E4B3F
- Soft mulberry#A86F7E
- Soft terracotta#C4705C
- Muted rust#B5654A
- Warm mushroom#8E7C6E
- Pecan#96795F
- Moss gold#A89B5C
- Sage green#87905F
- Olive#6E7D5B
- Muted forest#5E7A6B
- Slate blue#5F7386
Frequently asked
What is the difference between Deep Autumn and Soft Autumn?
The deciding axis is depth: Deep Autumn is the deeper one and Soft Autumn is the lighter one. Deep Autumn is warm, strongly deep and balanced in clarity; Soft Autumn is moderately warm, medium in depth and strongly soft. 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.
Soft Autumn vs Deep Autumn: which one am I?
Test the deciding axis in isolation. Put mahogany (#7B241C) beside salmon (#D98A76) 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, Deep Autumn or Soft Autumn?
Neither is rare. Judging by search interest, Soft Autumn is looked up more often, but that reflects how often people are told they might be one, not how many actually are.