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Your Color Palette

Light Spring vs True Spring

Our example face against the Light Spring palette

Light Spring

the lighter one

Our example face against the True Spring palette

True Spring

the deeper 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: Light Spring is the lighter one and True Spring is the deeper one.

Side by side

The deciding axis is depth, everything else about these two is close.

Light Spring

warm, strongly light and moderately bright

UndertoneWarm
CoolWarm
DepthVery light
DeepLight
ClaritySlightly bright
SoftBright

True Spring

strongly warm, moderately light and bright

UndertoneVery warm
CoolWarm
DepthLight
DeepLight
ClarityBright
SoftBright

The test that settles it

Do this in daylight, with no makeup, looking at your skin rather than at the fabric.

Light Spring: Peach #FFB68F

True Spring: Coral orange #FF7043

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.

Light Spring and True Spring palettes

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

Light Spring

True Spring

  • Peach#FFB68F
  • Coral#FF8A6B
  • Apricot#F7A76C
  • Salmon#FF9E93
  • Warm rose#FFA6BE
  • Blossom pink#F7C6D9
  • Buttercup#FFE066
  • Golden cream#FFD98E
  • Light chartreuse#F2E08E
  • Bud green#B7D97F
  • Peach blossom#FFCCBC
  • Salmon coral#FF8A5C
  • Amber#F9A825
  • Coral orange#FF7043
  • Camellia#F06292
  • Warm mushroom#A1887F
  • Daffodil#FFD54F
  • Golden yellow#FFB300
  • Grass green#7CB342
  • Chartreuse#C0CA33

Frequently asked

What is the difference between Light Spring and True Spring?

The deciding axis is depth: Light Spring is the lighter one and True Spring is the deeper one. Light Spring is warm, strongly light and moderately bright; True Spring is strongly warm, moderately light and 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.

True Spring vs Light Spring: which one am I?

Test the deciding axis in isolation. Put peach (#FFB68F) beside coral orange (#FF7043) 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, Light Spring or True Spring?

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

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