Skip to content
Your Color Palette

Deep Autumn vs True Autumn

Our example face against the Deep Autumn palette

Deep Autumn

the deeper one

Our example face against the True Autumn palette

True Autumn

the lighter one

Example face, not yours

These two are close. Your own photo shows which one is you.

Get free analysisYour photo never leaves your device.

The deciding axis is depth: Deep Autumn is the deeper one and True 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

UndertoneWarm
CoolWarm
DepthVery deep
DeepLight
ClarityBalanced
SoftBright

True Autumn

strongly warm, medium in depth and moderately soft

UndertoneVery warm
CoolWarm
DepthSlightly deep
DeepLight
ClaritySlightly soft
SoftBright

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

True Autumn: Rust #C1440E

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 True Autumn palettes

Each row pairs a color with the nearest one left in the other palette.

Deep Autumn

True 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
  • Sienna#A0522D
  • Brick red#8B3A2E
  • Burnt orange#B7410E
  • Chestnut#7C4D3A
  • Mustard#B8860B
  • Olive#808000
  • Bronze olive#7B683F
  • Moss green#6B8E23
  • Fern green#4F7942
  • Forest teal#2E5E4E

Frequently asked

What is the difference between Deep Autumn and True Autumn?

The deciding axis is depth: Deep Autumn is the deeper one and True Autumn is the lighter one. Deep Autumn is warm, strongly deep and balanced in clarity; True Autumn is strongly warm, medium in depth and moderately 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.

True Autumn vs Deep Autumn: which one am I?

Test the deciding axis in isolation. Put mahogany (#7B241C) beside rust (#C1440E) 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 True Autumn?

Neither is rare. Judging by search interest, Deep Autumn is looked up more often, but that reflects how often people are told they might be one, not how many actually are.

Read more